"I don't need her here, I don't want her here," complained Dennis, "I can look after myself."
"Well, we can hardly say no to her Dennis; she's asked if she can stay here until she gets settled, and besides, she'll be able to cook for you and look after the place while we're gone."
"I can cook and look after the place," muttered Dennis, knowing he was wasting his breath. Visions of wild parties, booze and girls began to evaporate like a morning mist.
His parents were off for six weeks to Malaysia. For his father it was part business and part holiday, and for his mother all holiday and a big shopping spree. On previous occasions when his father had gone off on these trips mother had stayed behind, and now, just when it had been decided that he no longer needed to be "looked after," he'd got an aunt coming to do just that.
He hadn't seen Aunt Renata for years and certainly had no desire to see her now. It had been his bad luck and his parents' good fortune that their departure coincided with the arrival back in the city of his aunt.
The family felt some guilt about Renata. She was the last of Dennis' paternal grandparent's brood of seven children, born late in their lives. His father, Jack, was the oldest of the family and when it came to education for Renata there had been no money left to give her the sort of education she both wanted and deserved. She had ended up serving an apprenticeship as a hairdresser; then later, and at her own expense, she had taken a beautician's course.
At age twenty two she had become engaged to a lieutenant in the army. Not long before they were due to get married he had been posted to a war zone overseas; the wedding was delayed, and then it didn't happen at all because her fiancé fell victim to a sniper's bullet and was killed.
Renata was always known in the family as, "The quiet one," but for a couple of weeks she poured out her grief vociferously, and then seemed to go into a protective shell, becoming quieter than ever; then with hardly a word she packed up one day and left the flat in which she had been living. At first nobody knew where she had gone until a letter to her mother let it be known she was living in a country town.
Contact with her was thereafter spasmodic but it emerged that she had opened her own hairdressing and beauty salon. It seemed that her business had thrived but after several years she decided to return to the city, so she sold the business.
Her agreement to spend the six weeks with Dennis while his parents were away was not entirely altruistic. It served her ends as she wanted time to look around and decide her next move. Being a shrewd business lady she also warmed to the idea of free board and lodgings for a few weeks, even if it meant baby sitting an eighteen year old.
The curse of it was that the six weeks coincided not only with the departure of Anne and Jack, but also the end of Dennis' high school career; this, she suspected, meant he would be around the place more than if he had still been at school.
In the way families do, during one evening meal there had been some debate concerning Renata's age. Jack, her brother, had no idea, and Anne who had made a point of sending Renata a birthday card each year speculated that she was about thirty four.
There was much debating back and forth along the lines of; "She was twenty when..." "No, she was older than that, don't you remember when," "No...no darling she was only..." They finally settled on her being thirty four, but with the proviso that she might be thirty six or thirty two.
Dennis had been twelve the last time he had seen Renata, and rather than an aunt she had alway seemed more like an older sister or cousin. He remembered her playing with him as a child, but her appearance had never had any impact on him. He couldn't remember whether she has been pretty or ugly, but given his present annoyance at her coming to spoil his fun, he opted for ugly.
Renata arrived the day before Jack and Anne were due to leave, and seeing her after many years, Dennis surveyed her anew, and, I must confess, he did so from the standpoint of a young male.
She was tall for a woman, perhaps five feet ten, but that was not unusual for females in Jack's family, and all the males, including Dennis, stood well over six feet.
But it was not her height that drew Dennis' attention but her complexion. He couldn't remember how it had been all those years before and didn't think he'd ever seen a complexion quite like it before. It was smooth and glowing like golden honey, and surprisingly for a beautician there was no sign of makeup. Her complexion might have been a sun tan except he didn't think it was.
Her long and beautifully tended ash blonde hair was in dramatic contrast to her skin, and was further enhanced by large dark eyes set in a narrow aquiline face. No one else in the family resembled Renata, and Dennis began to have suspicions concerning his grandmother's behaviour.
He thought she had a slightly hawkish look but this was softened by full wide lips; or at least it was until she smiled. The smile displayed gleaming white teeth with the disturbing feature of longer than usual canine teeth. It made him think of old Dracula vampire films he had seen on television.
She was wearing shorts and a tight tank top that displayed bare arms, shoulders and part of her chest, all of which were the same honey colour as her face. The top displayed a fair amount of generous bosom with its accompanying deep cleavage. Her narrow waist gave way to swelling hips that in another age would have been thought to indicate excellent child bearing potential.
Other possibilities, although not entirely unconnected as a preamble to child bearing, were displayed in her long slender legs that still maintained the honey colour.
Before this renewal of acquaintance Dennis, with his prejudiced view of her, had been happy to imagine her as unattractive, but now he had to redefine this view. He thought she wasn't exactly beautiful, but then, she wasn't exactly unattractive either. He decided she looked a formidable lady with whom one would have to tread carefully, but he was having a struggle to find a word beyond "formidable" to encapsulate her.
As we often do when viewing and summing up another person, he resorted to comparing her with other women he had known. None of the females he knew, none of his girlfriends or even the older woman with whom he had enjoyed a brief sexual relationship seemed to quite equate.
He tried "sexy" as a possible description but finally decided that "voluptuous" might best describe her.
Another feature took him by surprise when she greeted him, "Hello Dennis." He knew the family spoke of her as the "Quiet one," but until that moment it had never registered with him why she was so called. Her voice was very soft and low, and seemed to be at one with her honey coloured skin.
Poor Dennis, he wanted to dislike her for ruining his anticipated pleasures, but he was finding it hard. He certainly felt wary of her, but good old plain dislike just couldn't be maintained.
He had already decided to keep out of Renata's way as much as possible, and his reappraisal of her did nothing to change that resolve. The difficulty was he had found out recently that most of his peers were off with their parents to far places, or had planned to go fruit picking and similar things in order to earn some much needed money.
Somewhat spoilt in that respect Dennis had no need to earn money, and this in a way had also ruined the vacation for him. He wasn't going to have his wild parties and even if he did few of his friends would have been around to enjoy them. It seemed he couldn't take a trick.
He thought of the older lady with whom he had experienced so much satisfaction, but she was an unlikely prospect since she had taken, not only to her generous bosom, but also into her house, another young man to instruct in the tender arts of sensual love.
There only remained a girlfriend with whom he had recently broken up. He wondered if he could patch things up sufficiently to re-engage her in sexual activity, but realised that the insult he had levelled at her was probably in her eyes unforgivable; he had told her that her breath stank. Remembering this, not only as an insult, but as based on the truth, he decided he had better let that one pass.
"It's going to be a bloody boring six weeks," he summed up miserably. He could not imagine that Renata would prove to be entertaining.
Now, you might have come to the conclusion that Dennis was a somewhat spoilt and for his age, a cynical young man, and in my view you would be right. As an only child his well-off parents had indulged him, but now, rather late in the day so to speak, he had been slammed up against a situation he could not command.
His parents, selfishly in his view, were determined to have six weeks together without him; he had been landed with what could be described as a "Maiden aunt;" and his friends had deserted him. He was on, what for him, was a steep learning curve; namely, the world wouldn't always run the way he wanted it to.
That said, I must add a few things in praise of Dennis. He was one of those annoying people who seem to be good at everything they attempt. He had done well at high school; he had done well at sports; he had the makings of a fine musician and he was not deliberately unkind to people and on the whole he had been popular; that popularity had been exercised to good effect with the girls and, of course, his older lady.
For all his well doing, however, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. Suggestions from his parents that he might consider law, physics, teaching and even music, struck no responding note in his heart. Thus at that moment, together with his other woes, he faced a professional void.
I shall pass over the rest of the day on which Renata arrived except to say she settled in and prepared herself to play the role of the surrogate mother. Jack and Anne were waved goodbye at the airport next day, and a still resentful Dennis and a doubtful Renata returned to the house in silence.
Essentially what they had to do was to establish, or rather re-establish, some sort of relationship. Given the residual Dennis resentment this was not going to be easy.
They no sooner got into the house than Dennis announced he was going out again. Having a car of his own he drove around for a couple of hours doing little more than burn up fuel since he really had nowhere he needed to go. Returning home he went to his bedroom and for want of anything better to do, and because he hadn't copulated for a couple of weeks, he lay on his bed and masturbated.
He didn't feel any more cheerful after this activity, and decided that as there was nothing better to do, he could at least see if Renata had anything to offer by way of diversion.
He found her in the kitchen stirring something vigorously in a bowl. He had seen his mother do this on many occasions, but he had never received the invitation Renata now extended.
"Here, you stir this; I've got some other things to prepare. And don't slop it out of the bowl.
Somewhat amazed Dennis accepted this invitation and began stirring the unidentifiable mixture in a rather lethargic manner. This was quickly amended by Renata who said, "Do put some energy into it."
Still somewhat taken aback Dennis put more energy into it.
After a few minutes of this activity Renata said, "That'll do, take this lot out to the garbage bin will you." It was not a request but an order that was all the more commanding for being delivered in a low voice that clearly anticipated no argument.
Dennis picked up the pail of kitchen waste and took it outside.
On his return Renata said, "Now tell me what's been happening in your life."
He sat down at the kitchen table, and deciding to leave aside the more lurid aspects of his activities he went into a recital of his school and sports activities. As he did this he took another survey of Renata.
She was in another pair of shorts but this time wore a halter top that displayed more of her than the tank top of the previous day.
