Cassie watched Sam complete the last two laps between the anchored rowboats. He treaded water for a moment, located the girls, and then swam the few strokes to the beach.
She and Wendy relaxed under the big umbrella, keeping tabs on the two younger ones and licking their ice creams. Their eyes followed Sam as he made his way across the golden sand towards them.
"Sammy beat me for the first time today," Wendy said. "Did you see it?"
"Lately, you've been letting him win. I didn't notice any difference."
Wendy and Sam had been swimming together since they were both thirteen; in competition with each other and with the school's crack swimming teams.
They were both State champions during their junior year.
Wendy was the better swimmer and could thrash Sam over the 100 metres; up till now.
"No, he beat me fair and square today. I put everything into it."
Her long tongue came out, and caressed the head of her ice-cream. "It's about time too."
"Godd Cass, look at him, when did he start to get those muscles?"
Cassie tracked her brother's progress up the beach to where they sat.
"Yeah," she sniggered, "check out the Speedos. "It's amazing how much he's grown since last summer."
"Not as big as that new boyfriend of yours Cass." Wendy swirled her tongue around the ice cream cone to pick up the melted drops.
"Yeah, well, like I said to you before Wendy, poor old Daryl is so big he doesn't get really stiff. That is not a problem with Sammy as you know."
They sat quietly watching Sam move up the beach and collect the two younger boys, making sand castles.
"Hmmm," said Wendy, between slow licks, "Sammy's hips are getting slimmer and mine are expanding."
"Just as well, you looked like a beanpole up until this year."
This summer, Wendy had been forced to change her style of swimsuit from her sleek racing lycra of the past years for one with a crossover bodice to support her new, burgeoning breasts.
"OK boys," Sam said as they came and sat beside Cass and Wendy, "up you get and hop under the beach shower and wash the salt water and sand off you, then head home please."
Sam bent and picked up his beach towel and smiled at his two favourite girls. "We have to go home early Cassie. Mum's coming down with the new Housekeeper, she wants us there by 11:30."
Cassie gave a groan. Wendy licked the last of her ice cream as she quietly reassessed her swimming partner and sometime pinch hitter date (whenever they were both short on someone to go out with).
"I'll leave you to it," she said. "Tell me about it later. I'm going home and have a shower." She put out her hand and Sam gently pulled her to her feet. Although he was over six feet tall, Wendy could still look him in the eye. They'd both sprung up since last summer and they'd both developed.
While the extra muscle tone and broadening chest had helped Sam in the water, Wendy thought her newfound C cups were a definite disadvantage for swimming.
Cassie had developed her cleavage two years earlier even though she was younger than her best friend. This year, Wendy had caught up with her.
Cassie put out her hand and her brother pulled her to her feet also. "What's this, Land of the Giants?" Cassie looked from her friend to her brother. Despite being a respectable 5'8" she was a good four or five inches shorter than Sam or Wendy. Wendy gave Cass a quick peck on the cheek, "Good luck you guys," and sauntered off down the beach towards her home.
Sam collected his two little brothers and Cassie and he headed up the beach towards their place.
Of the four children, Sam was the eldest. A few years earlier when he became a teenager, Sam's parents, both professionals, would leave him in charge of the house, while they'd go up to the city and stay in their Townhouse (which was more like a six bedroom mansion) in the Eastern Suburbs.
They began to travel there more often, and stay longer, as time went by. And it soon became apparent that Sam just couldn't cope with minding the children and also take himself to High School each day.
It was Ok for a couple of nights away but when they began to stay up town for a week or two at a time, they saw how Sam's schoolwork suffered badly.
They decided for the duration of their heavy City schedules to hire a housekeeper who would move in with the children and organise the home in their absence.
They'd had quite a few nannies or housekeepers as Sam was growing up; some as young as sixteen, some as old as sixty, and everything in between.
Most didn't stay long, for a variety of reasons.
Laura was in her early 30's, a tall austere woman with nut-brown hair pulled back severely into a tight bun. Her steel grey eyes were large and intelligent and didn't miss a thing and scrutinised the children as they gathered round waiting for their mother's announcement.
"Ok kids, settle down please," said their Mum "I have something to tell you. She turned towards Laura and said, "This is Laura." She paused and looked at her assembled brood.
"Laura will be taking over the house and will be acting in our...your father's and my, place whenever we are away." She said.
"I know you'll give Laura your utmost cooperation at all times. Especially you older ones." She looked directly at Cassie, who at eighteen was proving to be a handful and was forever pushing the boundaries.
Cassie had history with housekeepers, going back many years. Her dislike for any authority, even her own parents', was legend. And her attitude had not matured with age.
"Sam, I am counting on you," his mother added.
Sam nodded but silently surveyed the new housekeeper.
She was standing ramrod straight in her black power suit, which covered her from neck to mid-calf.
She wore flat heeled, no nonsense matron's shoes.
There was something strange about her. Was it the eyes with their permanent pissed-off look? He couldn't quite put his finger on it. But, he sighed to himself, time would tell.
His mother was still speaking.
"...so now, I'll ask Laura to say a few words, then you can all go."
Laura thanked Sam's mum and addressed the children.
"Hello Children, as your mother said, I'll be taking over the running of the household and making sure that you are properly cared for.
I shall be grateful for your assistance in ensuring that everything around here runs smoothly." She looked at Cassie and then at Sam.
"I expect you older children to set a good example. If you do what I ask, when I ask, which won't be that much, you can't help but get along with me. Thank you." She turned to Sam's mum, and stepped back.
"Thank you Laura," his mother said.
"Ok Kids, away you go. Get your homework done before you go out to play."
She and Laura went back upstairs to conclude their business. His mum was due to return uptown within an hour.
"WHAAAT the FUCK was THAT?" Cassie asked Sam as she watched Laura and her mother climb the stairs. "Did you see how she was dressed? And what about the faces she pulls. I bet she sucked lemons before she made her, 'can't HELP but get along with me' speech. Holy shit I get bad vibes from that one."
Sam laughed. "You get bad vibes from all the housekeepers Cass. I daresay we won't have much to do with her," he said. "We can virtually look after ourselves. She's mainly here for the little kids; and keep the house in order.
"AND," he added, giving his sister a stern eye, "I am grateful for not having to do it all myself anymore."
Years before when Sam had first discovered masturbation, it took him over with a vengeance.
One night, in the downstairs shower when he was engrossed in a particularly strong orgasm, he noticed a blinding flash and looked up, mid stroke, to be greeted by Cassie and the new girl from his class in school, standing there with his 35mm camera.
The girl was Wendy. She stood there in awe and shock, having been invited by her new friend, Cassie, to join in and play a joke on Cassie's big brother.
"You frightened six month's growth out of me," Wendy laughed, one Saturday night, years later when she and Sam had become more than just good friends.
"I thought you were having a Grand Mal seizure...until I saw what you had in your hand."
Cassie had promised to show the photos to everyone at school, but decided not to, when he promised faithfully to do her household chores for six months.
The six months stretched into a year; then two.
And although over the last couple of years, the photos really didn't have any power anymore...masturbation was no big deal with anyone in his class, Sam had continued doing most of Cassie's share of housework just out of years of habit.
Admittedly, Cassie returned favours in other ways and was fiercely loyal to her big brother. But the day Cassie helped with the housework, Sam would probably drop dead with shock.
This new housekeeper looked like she'd take no shit from anyone; poor Cassie.
"If she keeps out of my way, we'll get along fine" said Cassie "I'm going down to Wendy's house. Seeya."
Sam's parents had made a truly unique deal this time. They retained Laura as a live-in housekeeper and organised for her husband to come down every second or third week-end and do gardening.
They turned out to be a strange couple. Sam had seen other strange housekeepers over the years he was growing up. Some were overbearing from 'day 1,' like the woman who told young Fred that he had done something wrong and he had to be punished.
Fred, who was ten or eleven at the time, was not used to people coming into his home and, after being there only two days, thinking that they had the right to punish him with a strap, for 'being naughty.'
The housekeeper hit Fred once with the belt before he turned on her and wrenched it from her hand and whacked her with it, hard, across her behind.
She fled in terror, locked herself in her room and promptly resigned the next day.
Sam's parents must have taken that (and a few similar incidents), into account when they chose Laura.
Laura showed herself to be much tougher than her predecessor and a little overzealous with her religion, and punctuated every new pronouncement she'd make with the relevant passage from the Bible.
Her favourite saying was, "You'll go straight to hell for that..." and she would use it for the slightest infringement of her rules.
When her husband came down the next weekend, Sam could see from where she was getting it.
