Here's chapter 4...thanks for being so patient! A new school year started and the 'teacher' side of me had to do all that silly 'school' stuff! I hope you enjoy reading about the intensifying relationship between William and Erin. Enjoy.
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Chapter 4. Hot Showers, Tensions Rise, Inhibitions Fall
William woke the next morning with a knot in his neck. "Damn it." He'd slept deeply; yet, it was not a peaceful sleep. It was like he closed his eyes at one o'clock that morning and instantly woke up to find that it was seven forty three. He tried to stretch out the muscle only to be met with a sharp pain that traveled down his neck and into his shoulder. "Fucking great, absofuckinglutely great."
{Take a shower. It'll help.} As a physical therapist, he knew it was his best option, so he made his way to the bathroom with his eyes barely opened. He turned on the shower and waited for it to get hot before he even considered stepping in. {All I need now is a cramp.} When he was satisfied that it was just the right temperature, William carefully stepped in, making sure to look and see that both his feet, the real one and the odd, arch-shaped three-toed titanium one, were planted carefully on the slip-proof mat.
Ah, showers. If there was any one thing that William refused to give up because of his 'handicap', it was his showers. He didn't care if he had to crawl in on his hands and knees, by God; he was going to take a shower when he wanted one! Every damn morning and again at night if he felt like it!
It wasn't like he was a neat-freak or something. It was simply that showers were something William had loved since he was thirteen, no make that twelve. That's when Samantha Hamm moved down the street from him. Hammy Sammy was 'stacked, packed, and ready to roll' as he and his buddies would say. They called her 'hammy' not because she was fat...but rather because they all wanted to eat her like one would dine on a succulent rack of baby-back ribs.
William remembered what it was like back then and how he would just stand there with his eyes closed and hold himself as he thought about Samantha. Oh and he would never forget the myriad of times he spent thinking of Carrie Miller in the shower. And then the Dotson twins. He often laughed when he wondered how many possible babies he watched go down the drain before he even turned fifteen.
As steam started to rise up from the shower, William remembered how he would spend close to an hour in the shower each morning, except on Sundays. That was just too weird for him. No, he just couldn't walk downstairs and sit at the breakfast table with his mother across from him and try to act like he was being a good, pious Catholic boy. Who knows, maybe his mom was on to him. After all, she never disturbed his showers. Not once. Not even if he had that water running for forty-five minutes.
And dear God, when they sat in mass and Father Timothy or Father Michael would talk about sins of the flesh, William could practically feel his mother's eyes boring into him. Yes, the more he thought about it the more he knew that she had to be on to him.
William let the hot water cascade down over his body as he reminisced some more. He remembered how he would watch the fallout from his sins of carnal desire swirl down the drain when he was done. After which, he would walk away feeling satisfied that he'd gotten away with something that he'd been told over and over again was bad...unless, of course, you were married and did it with the sole intention of creating a life. Extending the family.
Family. Oh, how William cherished his. Especially after his parents were killed. Because aside from a few far off 'relations' and his Aunt Doriah, he really only had Claudia to help him cling to what remained of his parents.
Claudia. He honestly adored her because she always stuck up for him when no one else would. When he was nine, she even threatened to beat up Tucker Winslow for pushing him down one day. And she could throw a mean fastball, too. She was kind, friendly and caring. He looked up to his big sister. He admired her.
But William didn't really see her as a sexual object when he was younger. Especially since he was pretty sure Claudia never saw herself as 'attractive' or 'womanly' or 'desirable'. In fact, she was rather shy and nervous around any man she encountered, save their relatives. Even then, she was reserved. And then, something changed. Something made his 'admiration' for her turn to 'affection' and that 'affection' turned to a dark, secret desire to have her.
A desire that he knew was wrong. A desire that he knew would mortify Claudia almost as much as it frightened him to feel it. For the majority of their lives, whether it was at school or at home, the idea of 'sex' in any shape, form or fashion was viewed as something to stay away from because it could lead to sin and sin led to Hell. And God forbid any incestuous thoughts...they were a one way ticket to sit by Satan himself.
But be that as it may, William couldn't help how he felt. He often thought about exactly 'how' and 'when' everything changed. It all started the summer when he turned fifteen. He was at St. Joseph's and Claudia had been away at Holy Cross all year. Their parents went to see her quite often, but William didn't want to 'waste his weekends'. And then she went with her class to Italy in December for 'Christmas in Vatican City'. At Easter, she went to Guatemala with that same class on a mission. And the one week she was at home, he was with his friend's family in Colorado...skiing. William missed Claudia, his buddy...his protector...his friend, so much and regretted that trip as soon as it was over.
When she came home that June, he was floored at how stunning his almost seventeen year old sister had become over that long year. Oh, she'd always been attractive. His friends all thought she was good looking and wanted to date her. Or more honestly, do her. At first it used to piss him off. But after she came home that summer and his buddies would say 'Jesus Christ, Fitzpatrick, how can you stand it? Your sister is so fucking hot', he didn't really know what to say. He knew he should have felt angry or mad...anything other than aroused...about their comments, but he couldn't.
Yes, that summer there was something altogether different about Claudia. William remembered getting wound up when she'd come down for breakfast in her night shirt and slippers. He smiled to himself at the realization that it was that particular summer when the really intense showers began. The ones where he had to bite down on a washrag to keep from screaming out in ecstasy as he came to the thought of his sister.
And then he would just stand there in the shower and pray that the water would wash away the shame he felt. But it never did, no matter how much he prayed. And going to confession wasn't an option. All the priests knew his voice. He wouldn't be able to look them in the face. No. Going to confession was definitely not an option in William's eyes.
But that was all so long ago. He'd not felt that way in at least nine years...before the accident. He remembered feeling wholly different about Claudia when she tended to him as though he was someone in need. He felt weak and useless. And that 'weakness' left him with a sense of self-loathing and shame more fierce than any of the wild, taboo dreams he'd had about her or the multitude of times he'd jacked off just looking at her picture.
