My Sister, A Modern Rapunzel

When Mom entered the kitchen, Dad said, "Look at what Susanna made." He smiled at me. "I'm assuming you didn't make this."

"I didn't." I wasn't looking at him. I was watching for Susanna to enter the kitchen. When she did, her head was down and her shoulders were slumped. She looked a couple of inches shorter than normal.

Mom said, "Oh, isn't that wonderful," as she admired the fruit tart. "It looks delicious." She looked at Susanna. "You made something like this for a church potluck, but this one looks even better. You have learned so much about cooking this year."

Susanna didn't respond. Instead, she slumped against the wall. Mom and Dad ignored her. They happily served themselves dinner and made their way to the dining table. I got two plates, set one down on the island for Susanna, and loaded mine with the Chinese. Susanna shuffled over, picked up her plate, and served herself a small portion.

Over dinner, Dad told Mom about his day, and Mom told him about hers. Susanna and I were quiet. She had her head down the whole time and mainly pushed her food around her plate. At some point, Mom said, "I think we need to improve our home security. We should have something on all the windows so we'll know when they are opened."

Dad sighed. "I'll look into it."

Mom was going to cut off Susanna's ability to escape again.

When Mom and Dad finished the Chinese, they went over to the fruit tart. They cackled about how wonderful it looked. They cut themselves pieces and returned to the table. They thanked Susanna, and she said very quietly, "You're welcome."

Watching Mom and Dad's behavior about the fruit tart made me want to throw up. It was like Mom had stomped all over Susanna and then stole the fruit tart from her. Susanna got no pleasure from having made it.

Dad asked me, "Aren't you going to get yourself a piece of fruit tart?"

"No, I'm full. I'll have some tomorrow." I'd have some in the morning when just Susanna and I were home. I'd tell her then how good it was. Eating it now would waste the gift she had made for me.

Susanna stood up, put her dishes in the dishwasher, and then left the kitchen. I guessed she was heading towards her bedroom, and we wouldn't see her for the rest of the night.

Dad asked, "What's up with her?"

"She's feeling guilty about something she did," said Mom. "I had a talk with her about the importance of her witness, of constantly being a good example to others, not tempting others, and staying pure."

Dad nodded with little interest and turned to me. "So what did you do today?"

* * * *

Tuesday, May 24th
The next morning, Susanna was eating breakfast when I came into the kitchen. I went over to her and said, "Stand up." When she stood up, I wrapped her up in my arms and held her tight. "I'm so sorry, Susanna. You didn't deserve what happened last night."

"I deserved it. If I hadn't participated in the bikini contest, it wouldn't have happened."

"No one ever deserves to be treated that abusively." I hugged Susanna even tighter. "Mom and Dad are lucky to have such a wonderful daughter. I'm lucky to have such a great sister." I squeezed Susanna. "If there's anything I can do to make things better, let me know."

We stood there for a while like that. I felt a little like a hypocrite for saying no big hugs yesterday and hugging her tightly today, but this morning was an exceptional case. Finally, Susanna asked timidly, "After breakfast, would you watch The Movie with me?"

"The Movie" was the 1980 movie Xanadu starring Olivia-Newton John. When Susanna was three, she started watching it constantly. She must have watched it a million times. It has a great soundtrack but otherwise is a horrible movie. Whenever she had started it, I had always fled to my room.

"I'll watch it with you."

I got my breakfast and sat down next to Susanna. There was so much I wanted to say about last night; I had so much outrage to express. But I didn't want to rehash what happened. Best to forget it as quickly as possible. But it was all I could think of, so I ended up saying nothing at all.

After breakfast, we trooped into the living room. Susanna dug out the disc, popped it into the DVD player, sat down to my right on the couch, and started the movie. Once it was started, she raised my right arm and put it over her shoulder. She then reached out and held my left hand. We watched the movie like that, not saying a word.

I hadn't seen the movie in years. It was still a horrible movie. ONJ was beautiful and had a great screen presence, but the male lead was a nobody with zero charisma. The real male lead was Gene Kelly of Singin' In The Rain fame. Why anyone would have someone that old as the male lead in a movie aimed at teens was beyond me. But that was just one of the many, many things in the movie that made no sense to me. I constantly thought "Huh?" as I watched the movie. The plot, costumes, and sets seemed random. For someone as logical as me, watching the movie was an hour and a half of frustration.

But I was happy to watch Xanadu this time. I felt Susanna slowly relax as we watched it. She sang along with the music, singing louder as the movie went along.

When the credits started, I took my arm off her shoulder. I then replaced my left hand with my right hand. About halfway through the credits, Susanna said, "All I want is a social life. I want to go on dates. I want a boyfriend. Just because I have big boobs, I'm not going to let guys have their way with me."

"That's a totally reasonable desire."

"I feel like Rapunzel, except instead of being locked up in a tower, I'm locked up in my second-floor bedroom."

"Like Rapunzel in "Tangled"?" Susanna had watched that movie a lot.

"No, not like her." Susanna held her hair out and added lightly. "I don't have magic hair. And I don't have a chameleon." She said more seriously, "But I do have an abusive mother who regularly tells me the outside world is too dangerous for me." She switched hands that were holding mine. "I think I like wearing my hair so long because I see it as a silent protest, signaling to people that Mom traps me at home like Rapunzel."

"But in a few months, you'll be at college. Mom won't be able to keep you from meeting guys there."

"My biggest fear is that Mom won't let me go to college, that she'll come up with some excuse to justify keeping me in my bedroom for another year. 'Susanna needs a gap year.' Or 'Susanna is going to study remotely this year.'"

I could see why that possibility would terrify Susanna. "You're an adult now. Mom can't keep you here against your will. You can always go to college without her and Dad's financial support. As long as they are supporting you financially, it's smart to stay on their good side. But you don't have to. And I'll support you if you decide to walk away." That made me think of something. "Speaking of that, we need to go looking for an apartment with Caroline. The sooner we lock down an apartment, the sooner Mom and Dad are financially committed to you living at college. If I can talk Mom and Dad into doing it this weekend, then I'll have a week off from hard work on house projects."

"Tomorrow is a meeting at church of VBS volunteers", said Susanna with her natural cheerfulness returning to her voice. "Caroline also got volunteered. I'll talk to her tomorrow and have her bring up the idea with her mom. It'll be harder for Mom to say no if Mrs. Parker wants to go."

"Perfect." There was something I was curious about. "Had you used the fire ladder before Saturday?"

"No. I had thought about using it several times, but I was always worried Mom would find out I had gotten out that way and would take it away. I had resolved that I'd save it for something big. I really don't want to wear my ugly glasses at college, so the opportunity to win five hundred dollars was something big enough to get me to use it."

"Did Taylor take you to Big Walters? Did she buy you your bikini?"

"Yes, and yes. I was really afraid that the bikini wouldn't fit as I didn't have a chance to try it on beforehand. The website had a detailed description of what size I should wear based on my measurements, and I measured myself five times, but you never know with clothes until you try them on."

"I thought it fit you perfectly."

"Thanks," Susanna said as she reddened a bit. "Can you take me to the VBS meeting tomorrow? It's at ten."

"Sure." I released Susanna's hand and stood up. I flexed my stiff right arm and said, "Let's go have some fruit tart. The word on the street is it's delicious."

* * * *

Saturday, May 28th
Much to my delight, the rebuilding of the flower bed got postponed so we could go apartment hunting. Mom picked up Caroline and Mrs. Parker in our mini-van. Mom and Mrs. Parker sat in the front, Caroline and Susanna sat in the middle, and I sat in the back. I played on my phone as we drove, listening to Caroline and Susanna talk. They seemed to get along well.

At one point as we were getting close to my school, we passed a semi that had "Buns on the Run" on its side with a picture of a hamburger and a hot dog running. I immediately thought of the time I had half-pushed Susanna up the stairs in her bikini, her buns right in my face. That image kept coming back to me the rest of the way to the first apartment complex. As we walked around the complex, we walked in basically the same order as we had been in the mini-van. My eyes kept drifting to my sister's behind. She was wearing loose jeans with a sweatshirt pulled halfway down her bottom, but I kept remembering how her butt had looked on the stairs.

We spent several hours looking at apartments. I got to know Caroline as we did so. She seemed nice; pretty but not very pretty. When we checked out apartments, I had a long checklist of things that I rated the apartment on. Susanna spent her time examining the kitchen. Caroline evaluated apartments on things like the view from her bedroom and the color of the carpet.

With Mrs. Parker, I tried to project the image of someone uninterested in her daughter but would be willing to be protective of her. I showed Mrs. Parker my checklist and explained why each item was on it. She seemed to be reassured about me after seeing how practical-minded I was. We eventually put down a deposit on the apartment in what I considered the best location that had a kitchen that was acceptable to Susanna.

That night was Susanna's graduation, which I thought went well. Lots of pomp and ceremony. Given how much money my parents spent to send my sister to this high school, they deserved to see a lot of pomp and ceremony. Mom didn't want me playing on my phone, so I tried to spend the time waiting for the ceremony brainstorming ideas for a senior thesis, but when I couldn't come up with anything fresh, I replayed in my head the bikini contest. I'd loved to meet the girl who went by Cinnamon, but I'm sure almost every guy that was there wanted to meet her too. Or Susanna.

At our celebration dinner, I gave Susanna a teddy bear that had a cap and gown on and was holding a diploma. On the gown was "Susanna '22". Susanna smiled delightedly at it. I thought about joking that the bear couldn't be her as it was flat-chested but decided against it.

* * * *

Thursday, June 2nd
At breakfast, Susanna said somewhat timidly, "I want to show you my dry run after breakfast." Yesterday, Susanna had done a dry run of her first try-on video while I was at work.

"How do you think it went?"

"I don't want to bias you. You tell me after you see it."

Susanna hadn't sounded very positive about her video. I said, "I'm no expert on making videos, but I'll be happy to give you my opinion."

"I want a male perspective on the video. You are in my target audience, so I want to know what works for you and what doesn't. Also, you've watched quite a lot of try-on videos, so you know what they should look like."

After breakfast, we adjourned to my bedroom. Susanna unlocked my laptop and pulled up her video. It started with Susanna opening the door to her bedroom and walking in. She was wearing her everyday clothes - a baggy sweatshirt and jeans - and her ugly glasses. She talked about what the video was going to be about, but as she talked, she began looking around the room. Several times, she got distracted and stopped talking. When she ended her introduction, I saw her walk over to the laptop and stop the recording.

"What do you think?" asked Susanna.

"It's not very good," I said as gently as I could. "I can't hear your voice clearly. The audio should sound like you are having a conversation with me from a few feet away. It sounds like you are much further away than that."

"I've tried repositioning the laptop several times to see if I could get the sound better. I think the mic on the laptop is designed for you to be sitting at the laptop. I'm going to need a buy a mic for these videos."

"Okay. I'll buy you one on Amazon, have it sent to a locker near work, and then you can pay me back. Lighting is good but not great. But that probably adds to the video - you want to create that 'amateur girl making a video in her bedroom' ambiance." I sighed. The next part would be more painful. "You need to look at the camera while you're talking. As we've said in reviewing other try-on videos, maintaining eye contact is critical."

"I know. I try to, but I just can't talk to a little dot on a laptop. I feel like I need a person to talk to. Could we try something?"

"What?"

"Could we try recording the video with you standing next to the laptop? I'd like to see how differently I do."

I thought it over for a moment. "Sure." Why not?

Susanna took the laptop, and we made the climb up to her bedroom. On Susanna's desk were a stack of boxes and her desk lamp. The desk lamp was turned so that it would shine its light towards Susann's bed. She placed the laptop on top of the boxes and positioned it just so. "Stand there," Susanna said to me. The laptop was placed on the left edge of the desk. I stood with my back to the wall to the left of the desk and did my best to lean towards the laptop. My head was only a few inches away from the edge of the laptop.

"That looks good. Now, let me give it a try."

She turned on the desk lamp, started the recording software, and then walked out of the room. She then opened the door and walked back into the room, walking with a little bounce to her step. "Hey everyone! I'm Susanna, and this is my channel, 'Susanna Sews'. I'm a well-endowed girl, and this video is for my fellow well-endowed girls. I'm going to try on four tops for you today, at first with a bra on and then again with no bra. I'm then going to judge each top for comfort and how well they look. As I model the top, I'm going to explain how I made it. Hopefully, this will help you find tops that are comfortable and look nice on you. So let's get started, shall we?"

Susanna reached over, stopped the recording, and then turned off the desk lamp. She then sat down on the computer and pulled up the video. We watched the recording together. "What do you think?" she asked.

"It was much better. You maintained great eye contact throughout the video. You never got distracted and got through your initial spiel without a hitch." I then got into finer details about the way she moved and her intonation. "Overall, I thought you did a very good job. Sound is still a problem, but a new mic will hopefully solve that. Even with the sound problem, I'd want to watch more of this video."

"I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for the detailed feedback. Could I ask another favor?"

"What?"

"Could you stand there while I do the full dry run? It's so much easier for me to keep the conversation going and to maintain contact if I have a person here. Hopefully, after I have a good dry run, I'll be able to do the same thing all by myself."

"Sure. It'll be interesting to watch you do it."

"Thanks! Please go to your room and get me my contacts. I'll be busy setting things up here."

I went down to my bedroom, unlocked my lockbox, and got Susanna her disposable contacts. Monday, I had taken Susanna to Walmart to get her contacts, but as they were disposable contacts she didn't want to wear them during the summer. When I came back, she was putting clothes on her desk chair. She put her contacts on, and I assumed my position near the laptop. Susanna turned on the desk lamp, started recording, went out of her bedroom, opened the door, came in, and then went through her spiel again. She had a friendly, folksy way of talking that made me feel comfortable listening to her.

When Susanna ended her spiel, she started unbuttoning her pants. My eyes went wide. I hadn't been expecting that. "You're going to see me in my bra and panties," she said. "That's not going to be a big deal after you've seen me in my bikini."

I wasn't sure. Yes, I probably wouldn't see more skin than when she was wearing her bikini. But I'd be seeing her in her BRA and PANTIES.

Susanna ignored me as she sat down on the bed and pulled her jeans off. I could see her light purple cotton panties clearly as she stood up and bent over her desk chair. The panties were very functional and covered her whole ass, but seeing her in them made me think of seeing her on the stairs when she was wearing her bikini bottoms. Susanna picked up a pair of jean shorts off her desk chair and pulled them on. I was glad she had her panties covered again, and I hoped to not see them the rest of the dry run. Susanna then went over to the desk chair and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. I saw mainly her back while she was down to her bra. The straps were white and looked very plain. Her back looked nice with quite of bit of muscles. Her chest had to be broad to support her massive tits, but the width of her back was enough for her curvy figure and no more. Susanna picked up a black T-shirt, pulled it on, and pulled her hair up out of it. The gold-colored cross on a gold-colored chain that she always wore was now visible. She then moved into position and started speaking again.

"This is a medium fitted T-shirt I bought. If I were flat-chested, I'd wear a medium T-shirt. But I'm not. This shirt is fitted in that it's narrower below the chest area than it is at the chest area or the bottom. But I'm too big for the amount of fitting the shirt provides." And she clearly was. "The chest area is overstretched, which throws off the whole cut of the shirt." Susanna turned a little to the right while moving her hands up and down to the side of her chest as she pointed them at her body, and then she turned to the left and did the same thing. She then faced forward and said, "Now, let me show you what it looks like when I take a large shirt and do the fitting myself."

Susanna then turned to me. "What did you think?"

"Interesting. My one suggestion would be to start modeling sooner. You want to model your clothes as much as possible. As a guy, I'm watching the video to see you model clothes, not to have you face me and talk."

"Okay. Thanks. I'll redo that segment as you suggest."

Susanna repeated delivering the same spiel, but this time she started showing off the cut of the shirt as soon as she finished saying, "This is a medium fitted T-shirt I bought." When she was done, she asked me, "How was that?"

"Solid."

"Good."

Susanna pulled off that shirt in front of me and then turned to get the next shirt. She had given me a good look at her white bra, which was completely functional and had so much material and straps that it looked like battle armor. The cups were very large, and Susanna filled them completely. She picked up another black T-shirt and pulled it on. This one had a different logo than the last one and was slightly lighter. She moved into position and said, "This is a large T-shirt that I fitted myself." She brought her hands up to the level of her chest and used them to point to her general chest area. "You can see that the shirt is much less tight here." She dropped her hands partially and turned to give me and her viewers a side view of her chest. "It's still tight across the bust, but not overly so." Susanna talked about how exactly she modified the shirt to make it fit her better, the whole time using her hands to emphasize what part of the shirt she was discussing and turning to give a different view. She varied how much she turned, turning thirty degrees, forty-five degrees, almost ninety degrees, and turning all the way around. When Susanna turned all the way around, my eyes were drawn to her butt. Her jean shorts came down to just above her knees and hugged her butt nicely, showing off her roundness.