A Brother's Duty

Larry and Diana had no contact for the next three weeks. Neither phoned or visited the other. Larry talked to his brother Tony. The short phone calls were mainly about how his treatments were doing. One night, Tony begged him to come over.

“Please, Larry. She won’t be here.”

Larry knew it was not Tony’s illness that kept him away. He did not think that he could face Tony and Diana at the same time.

Larry had every intention to keep his promise to give Diana the child that Tony could not. It was after the second night, the night after Tony’s surgery that things changed. Diana was turning to him for more than his sperm. It was like she wanted him, all of him. He had to talk it out with his brother before it went much further.

Larry arrived to find Diana was indeed gone but a private duty nurse was with his brother. It was evident that Tony was much worse than Larry believed. A tube ran down his nose. The bag attached to the tube indicated it was liquid nourishment. The pale and gaunt man did not have long to live.

Larry saw his brother hooked to IV’s and monitors. His memory went back to those nights that one week when he and Diana made savage love to each other. It was far beyond what his brother wanted.

“I’m sorry,” said Larry behind tears.

Larry fell to his knees beside the bed. He hid his shame in the sheets of the bed.

Tony reached to him. Red blotches from IV needles were the only color on his hand. The simple act of moving his hand and resting it on Larry’s head was too strenuous. Tony had to rest to talk to his brother.

“Larry, what… do you have… to be sorry for?”

“I…” Larry could not finish.

“You used her… in ways that would …not allow pregnancy. I know. I knew… she would.”

Tony stopped talking. He lay as still as a manikin.

The nurse came to Tony’s side. She put Tony’s hand back under the sheets. The monitors showed his vital signs weakening. The nurse made two phone calls.

In seconds Diana entered the house carrying a cell phone. She stood next to Larry.

Diana and Larry held hands next to the bed. Tony’s eyes focused on them. He smiled. His eyes focused beyond the room. Peace descended on the room. The monitors gave steady tones the nurse muted. She pushed some buttons and the screens went blank. The nurse handed Larry an envelope as she left the room.

Diana smoothed Tony’s hair and shut his eyes. She kissed his lips. She turned to her brother-in-law.

“I said my good-byes. I’ll leave you with him.”

Larry did not register the sound of the door closing behind him. He pulled the tube from his brother’s nose and the needles from his arms. He took a wet cloth and washed his brother’s face.

“Does that feel better? I always had to take care my younger brother. You were such a twerp. Now, you’re gone.”

Larry held the cloth to his own face.

“Oh God, Tony. You were the good boy. You were so generous with your life.”

Larry saw the envelope. He picked it up.

“For Larry. To be opened before leaving my side.”

Larry started laughing and crying at the same time.

“You always had to have the last word.”

The letter in the envelope shocked him. He did not breathe until he finished the letter.

Dear Big Brother,

I am gone now. I leave you and Diana behind. It’s been a great life for me. I could not have asked for a better big brother. You have been there even when I didn’t know I needed you. Thank you for that.

Diana, the beautiful Diana. She is alone now. She is a strong woman. But she has had a hard time with my illness. She will need a big brother.

Di mentioned that you talked of the ancient law of brothers. How a brother became responsible for a widow and giving her a child. How, sometimes, a brother would take her for his own wife.

I don’t expect you to go that far, but you did promise her a child. I ask that you fulfill that promise and be with her until the child is at least one year old.

Jesus, Bro, I just reread that. I guess that makes her the ultimate hand-me-down. Or hand-me-up in this case. I trust you will keep this last comment to yourself.

Anyway, I ask that you give Diana the child she deserves and that child the best father/uncle you can.

Love you forever

Tony

It took Larry five minutes to regain his composure. He found Diana in the living room with a bag packed.

“Please, let me stay with you.”

“Okay, Di.”

Diana reached for the doorknob.

“I don’t want to be here when they take him.”

The ride to Larry’s apartment was silent and awkward for him. He spent the last three weeks avoiding her. Now, Diana was in the car with him, going to his apartment.

Diana rested her left hand on the seat, palm up. Larry drove home holding that hand.

She tried to pull her baggage out of the car. It hung up on the spare tire and bumper jack. She pulled and tugged, getting frustrated. The bag popped open, spilling her things in the trunk. She started crying.

“Schuss, Di. You have things upstairs. I can come back and get it later or in the morning.”

Larry helped her upstairs. He got her a nightgown and robe she kept there.

“Take a shower. It’ll help you relax.”

“Don’t leave me.”

“I’ll be right here, Di.”

Larry helped her strip to her bra and panties. He watched her enter the bathroom. She left the door open. He went to shut the door to give her at least token privacy.

“No don’t. Would you come in here and sit with me?”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea, Di.”

“I really don’t feel to steady, Larry.”

Larry agreed against his judgment.

He entered the room as she was stepping out of her panties. She had one hand on the wall for balance as she had one foot up. She reached around to unhook her bra. Larry had the fastener in his hand and undone before he knew what he was doing. She looked over her shoulder to give him a tired smile.

“Thanks.”

Diana turned on the water, holding her hand under the stream, waiting for it to get to her desired temperature. Looking at her back, Larry felt both pity and lust for her. She stepped into the shower leaving the door open a moment. This gave Larry a perfect profile of his nude sister-in-law.

She stood under the water for four minutes by the bathroom clock. Diana then lathered her body. The act of rinsing off the soap seemed to wash away her strength. She started to fall.

“Larry!”

He flung the shower open and reached under her arms as she fell. Water splashed on the floor. Larry’s feet were slipping. He had to lay her down before he dropped her.

He used a folded towel for a pillow. Larry dried her body. The body he explored so intently the month before.

He tried to purge his mind of those memories. The more he tried, the more he looked at her and remembered.

Diana opened her eyes with a weak smile.

“Good catch.”

He helped her sit up to dry her back. He wiped up the floor so she could stand.

Larry took Diana to the bedroom. He helped her to the bed. He brought in her robe and nightgown from the bathroom.

“Call if you need me,” said Larry as he left the room.

Diana did need him. She just did not have the energy to tell him. She wanted him to touch her when she was on the floor. She wanted him to take her totally when he put her to bed. Tonight, she needed a man beside her, inside her more than any other time in her life. She was just too weak. She was asleep quickly.

Her desires brought her dreams of Tony. Her dream Tony came to her side. He took her tit into his mouth. Starting slowly, softly, he caressed it with his tongue and lips. He did this as his hand went to her bush and lightly brushed the hair. His actions were more of a tease than of seduction. The lightness of his touch made her crave more.

Gradually, he gave her more. The suckling became more forceful. His hand went deeper into the curly thatch that hid her gender.

It was a dream hand that touched the apex of her legs. But her mind, her memories of her Tony that gave her feeling.

She felt the hand touch her. She felt it fold back her flesh, exposing her to the man in her dream. She felt teeth pull and twist her nipple. But she was alone. It was only her mind.

She lost her breath when first one then another ethereal finger violated her. The speed of the in-out cycle of the fingers increased. Then it stopped.

Diana felt the non-existing fingers pull out. She looked. A phantom that resembled her Tony kneeled on the bed between her legs. She reached to him. Her dream Tony lay on her. She felt the pressure of his body on hers. She felt the pressure of his manhood enter her womanhood.

The eternal rhythm of life gave increased speed to the point where nature succumbs to pleasure.

Her memories of many sessions of lovemaking told her body that her Tony gave her sexual satisfaction. They told her he planted his seed to start the next generation.

Her body, though, searched for something, a penis, a finger, a hairbrush handle, to grab, to squeeze to feel in the grasp of her inner muscles. She was empty. Nothing was there.

Her vagina called her brain a liar. Her brain, her dreams, said her Tony was inside her. But nothing was there.

Diana woke, feeling the frustration and loneliness of being without her Tony ever more.

The sound of a TV set in the livingroom told that there was a man to help her. She just needed to sleep to regain her strength so she could go to Larry.