It was late afternoon when the bus brought me back to town, and I carried my small daysack out to the parking lot. A car horn sounded and I looked around to see my Mom and sister standing beside it waving. I waved back and trotted over to them.
We had come together for Mom's thirty-seventh birthday. Katie and I had not seen each other for more than half a year now, since we had both gone away to college. We were now almost exactly the same age as Mom had been when she had done the same thing, except when she got to college she became pregnant and had us.
Katie is my younger sister, by about three minutes. We are non-identical twins and growing up we had been about as close as any brother and sister could be, sharing almost all our secrets about boyfriends and girlfriends. It had often felt that we were just opposite sides of the same coin; what I wanted so did she.
I knew I had been attracted to Katie all through my teens, in a way a brother is not meant to feel about his sister. I also had the impression Katie might feel the same way about me. Neither of us had ever done anything that might have changed the situation. There had been occasional inappropriate moments, a flash of too much skin, a comment that crossed an unwritten line, but that was all.
Mom had been on her own for three years. She had married the boy who got her pregnant and they had seemed happy while we were growing up, but then in her mid thirties Mom seemed to rebel against what she felt she had missed out on in her youth, and to be honest it seemed that Dave was bored anyway and they parted.
As far as either of us knew Mom had been on her own ever since. I found that puzzling, because she is a very good looking woman and could easily pass for ten years younger than her real age. If anything, I believed she had grown more attractive as the years passed. She seemed to take more care of her body now Dave had gone, exercising regularly and eating more healthily.
She was fairly tall, an inch taller than my sister, who I knew was five-eight. Mom has larger breasts than Katie, about a 36C to Katie's 34B. Both of them were slim, without much in the way of excess anywhere apart from the places it looked good. They both had pretty faces and mouths with full lips that seemed to be smiling even when they weren't; both shared the same natural dirty blonde hair. Mom cut hers short to the neck while Katie's fell to her shoulders.
*
A couple of weeks earlier Mom had rung each of us and said she wanted us to come back for her birthday. She had booked a meal for the three of us in a good hotel in town and we would eat good food and have a drink and catch up on everything we had been up to at college.
Katie and I had gone to opposite ends of the state and had not seen each other since.
I reached the car and hugged Mom, kissed her cheek and then did the same to Katie. She hugged me back really hard and for a second too long and said, "Mike, wow, it's so good to see you."
Mom got us in the car, herding us like she always did, Katie and me being the puppies in the house who always needed showing how to do stuff, where to go, the right way to act. We set off and ten minutes later were being shown to our table in the smartest restaurant I had ever been in. Our table was set in one corner, right next to a large window and we looked out over a covered porch to neat paving, beach and ocean.
When Mom handed her coat to the waiter I was stunned by how nice she looked. She had obviously spent time on herself today. She smelled good with some subtle perfume I did not recognise, but liked, and had a new dress on: deep blue with small abstract flowers here and there, buttons all the way up the front, her shoulders bare and the front dipping in a V to reveal more cleavage than I had seen her show before. The hem fell to just above her knee, and sheer light blue stockings encased her long legs.
I felt underdressed in grey chinos and a blue button down shirt. Katie had tried harder and wore a silk blouse in a pale red and a short skirt made of some gauzy, floating material that followed slowly after her when she turned. Katie was beautiful, she always had been, but tonight she looked ordinary beside Mom.
We sat at our table and Katie rummaged in her bag and put a small wrapped box on the table. "Happy birthday, Mom"
"Oh Katie, you shouldn't have gotten me anything at all, I know how tight money is for you both."
"I couldn't come without anything," Katie said, and glanced at me.
I would probably have forgotten, but Katie had called me two days before and reminded me to buy Mom something, so I reached into my daysack and put my own small box on the table as well.
Mom looked like she was going to cry. She took a deep breath and poured wine for herself, then raised an eyebrow at us. We both nodded and she filled out glasses. The wine was good, and when the food came that was even better.
Mom opened our presents. Katie had bought her a necklace made up of small pearls and Mom took it from the box and clasped it around her neck where it shone and caught the light deep within the soft spheres. My present didn't look anywhere near as expensive, a pair of silver earrings with small blue stones embedded in them, but Mom still took her own out and replaced them with mine. Mom had never played favourites with us, and we both received great praise and more kisses.
We talked about college and what we might want to do when we left, and about things we had all done years ago and laughed a lot.
I really couldn't get over how good Mom was looking. I had never seen her more beautiful, her hands and face animated, her mouth smiling, her dark brown eyes sparkling.
And Katie was obviously her daughter, though not a clone of her. I had often seen Katie naked. When we were young it was not unusual for us to run around without clothes half the summer. As we grew and became more aware of our bodies we began to cover up, but neither of us had been precious about nudity and I had frequently chatted to Katie as she had a shower and she had done the same with me.
We had a second bottle of wine, and then a third, and about eleven Mom started to giggle and said, "There is no way I'm going to be able to drive us home tonight!" she got up, "I'll go and see if they've got any rooms."
"Mom," Katie said, "That's going to be way too expensive."
"Not for my babies," Mom said, grinning, and went off to the reception desk.
When she came back she had a small frown on her brow, "I hope it's okay kids, but they only had one room left. It's a big room though, so there's space for all of us if that's alright?"
"Uh, sure," I said
"Whatever you want, Mom," Katie said, "This is your night."
"Yes," Mom said, "Yes it is. Come on then"
The room was big with two queen sized beds and a large bathroom with an enormous shower with mirrored walls that sparkled and glittered in the light reflected from our room.
Tall windows faced out to the ocean and stood open to let a breeze through and we could hear the surf curling away along the beach.
Mom gave a little whoop and launched herself on to one of the beds laughing, bounced once and twisted over on to her back. "This is my bed," she said, "You two can bunk down together over there. It won't be the first time you've had to share."
She was right, of course. But I think the last time we had shared a bed had been about ten years before.
Mom's dress had risen up over her thighs and I couldn't stop myself looking to where the tops of her stockings were held by garters which disappeared on into the darkness above. I went to the window and looked out, turning away to hide a bulge in my trousers.
"Left or right", Katie said.
I turned, puzzled by her meaning, so she repeated, "Left or right side, dunce?"
"You choose," I said
"I'm on the right then," she said.
"Mom sat up and pulled her skirt back down, "I need a shower," she said, and then, "I don't suppose any of us have got anything to wear tonight, have we?" Then she shrugged. "Ah well, I don't suppose it matters that much. Katie, come and chat to me."
She got up and went through to the bathroom and Katie followed. "I'll leave the door open a bit, Mike, then you can join in as well."
I went over and lay on my side of the bed, hands behind my head, and thought, "Holy fuck!" It was almost as if Mom was eighteen again, and we were not her kids but pals on a wild night out.