After they had cleaned up in the kitchen, they did, finding a program that they both agreed was interesting, sitting together on the towel on the sofa - comfortably close. When Martha got up to find and light the candles again, she got the blanket, and they joined each other again under it, snickering a little as they tucked it in around themselves. When the program ended, they watched the late news, but Becky was almost asleep with her head resting on Martha's shoulder. When the news had finished, Martha joggled her and suggested that they go to bed.
"Um-hmm," she agreed sleepily.
"Whose?"
"Oh? Yeah, his is wet."
Each our own? Hm-hmm! Another first time."
They chuckled, but Becky scowled, then smirked and remarked:
"I don't like 'first times' any more."
"Just so that we can tell him we tried not to do it every night."
"We didn't last night -- hm-hmm! - but then this morning. But, okay, we can try."
"Maybe dream about him."
Whom? Which 'him'? Boris, my brother? Oh, or you can dream about him, like you were on the deck."
"Hmm! Rather your brother."
"Hm-hmm! But if I do too? Can he be in both our dreams?"
"If he dreams about both of us?"
"Oh, that would be funny, good!"
They had gotten up and turned off the TV and taken the candles and their glasses to the kitchen They agreed that they had to go to the bathroom, and did, in the dark, and then found their way to their rooms, saying goodnight, chuckling as one and then the other added: "Sweet dreams."
Becky was lying on her stomach when she woke up in the early morning, recognizing that she was in her own room in the family's house on Fire Island, as so many times in the past. It was a few moments before she recalled that she wasn't there with her family, that she was there alone with Martha, then immediately recalling all they had done with each other, and then surprised that they weren't together in bed. It took another moment before she remembered why not.
She smiled wryly to herself, but then recognized why she had woken up; she had to go to the bathroom. She got up. Before she went there, she peeked in at Martha, seeing that she was still sleeping. She tried to make no noise in the bathroom, not flushing, but wondering if she wanted to do what she had often done in the past when she woke up early, then wondering if that would be inappropriate - just doing it by herself.
Still undecided, as she started to return to her room, she was surprised to see Martha coming from hers. She smiled and remarked:
"Have to go, too."
Becky nodded, returning her smile, and went back to her bed, deciding that it would be inappropriate, unfair, but then wondering if Martha also masturbated when she woke up, when she wasn't in bed with someone, but hadn't she said that she had only spent the whole night with her brother and her? She waited to hear Martha flush, her eyes closed. When she heard it, she nodded slightly.
A few moments later, she was surprised when the covers moved, but pleasantly surprised, pleased that she hadn't started arousing herself. She moved to make space for Martha, who slipped under the covers, facing her. Their arms went around each other as they let their thighs overlap from habit, both agreeing with an "um-hmm." Martha murmured:
"Funny, a little, waking up alone in bed."
"Um-hmm. Took me a moment to remember that the whole family wasn't here."
"Hmm! Good thing they aren't!"
"Very!"
"Um-hmm. Good morning."
"You too. Sleep well?"
"Um-hmm, thank you. You, too?"
"Um-hmm. Hm-hmm! Any dreams?"
"I don't think so. You?"
"Don't think so either," Becky agreed.
"Hmm? Why do you -- and others -- say "either," - with a long "i" - and some people say "eether?"
"Hmm? Oh, someone said that Queen Victoria said it with a long "i," since in German "e-i" would be pronounced that way. She was German."
"Makes sense, people copying the Queen's pronunciation. Oh, probably why the British say "shedule" instead of "schedule," with "sk." "S-c-h" in German are like "s-h" in English."
"Didn't know that, but it makes sense."
"Um-hmm, so people in America who say "either" and "neither" with a long "i" are royalists?"
"Not any more, but maybe they once were; that pronunciation is more common up here in the Northeast."
"New England, closer to the old country."
"Maybe, once, not my family."
Martha nodded and for a while they lay in silence in their loose embrace, their eyes closing. Then Becky's eyes fluttered and opened again, and she asked:
"What do we want to do?"
"I don't know ... When?"
"Today."
"Oh, ... I thought you meant right now. We can go swimming, - Hm-mmm! - and see what happens, ... or read. ... I don't know."
" 'And see what happens,' ... Hm-hmm! ... What do we want to happen?"
"Nothing we can't tell about, ... this evening."
"I guess not. ... Nothing?" Becky asked.
"Hm-hmm! Well, ... I guess something that we can."
"Can do, or can tell about?"
They were silent, looking at each other, looking in each other's eyes, for so long that they both blinked a couple of times. Then Becky asked softly:
"And what did you think, ... if you thought I meant 'right now'"?
"Hmm? About the only thing that I could think that you might mean."
"Yeah, I guess so, ... but I wasn't ... until I just asked you. ... We don't have to."
They looked in each other's eyes again for a moment, and then Martha agreed:
"No, we don't have to," but she rubbed her hand on Becky's back. The corners of Becky's mouth rose slightly, and her fingers moved on Martha's back.
"No, we don't have to," Martha repeated, this time emphasizing "have."
"Hm-umm," Becky agreed, but her hand slid down to Martha's waist.
"Hm-umm," Martha responded.
It could have sounded as though she was objecting to what the movement of Becky's hand suggested, but her fingers rubbing again indicated that she was just repeating what Becky had murmured, especially when her thighs twitched. Becky's thighs squeezed Martha's, but she repeated what Martha had said:
"No, we don't have to," Becky repeated Martha's last words, but her hand slid further, and her thumb found the soft place above the corner of Martha's hipbone, rubbing slightly.
When Martha's thighs twitched again, she snorted softly with a slight smile, and her fingers then also crept down towards Becky's waist. Becky also smiled, her thumb continuing to rub, and murmured: