I was on a plane back home. It had been a long time since I had been home, and I wondered what it would be like. I was especially curious to see if anything would change between me and my sister, Amelie.
My parents were sports freaks, and had named both of us after athletes: me for the great Terrapin, Tahj Holden, and Sis for the tennis player Amelie Mauresmo. It only took in her case, though. Growing up, even though I was 2 years older, she had always been bigger and stronger than me. She was also smart, skipping both 5th and 7th grade to catch up with me before we entered high school.
We had then both gone off to college. I joined the Navy reserves while I was there [funny what a strong incentive $10,000 per year towards your tuition is], and had done my 4 years in the reserves while studying computer science at the University of Miami-Florida. Despite being 3,000 miles away from home [Santa Barbara, CA] I managed to enjoy myself. Amelie had chosen to attend Northwestern. Her major was engineering. We wrote real letters and shared e-mail, but hadn’t seen each other since we both left for college. Neither one of us had time for romance: studying took priority. CS and engineering both take a lot of time and effort, as we had discovered!
When I graduated high school, I had been a 5’8", 120-pound bookworm. Amelie was 5’10" [and still growing – she was only 16] and 170 pounds of solid muscle. The Navy and the P.E, classes I took had added 40 pounds to my frame – plus I had learned the techniques of kick boxing and kara-te while in college. I figured if it came to a test of strength, Sis couldn’t boss me around anymore. Previously, it had been nonstop "fetch my drink, make my bed, answer my phone, cook me dinner, hand me my shoes…" to the point of driving me crazy!
I found myself wondering whether she had tried that same style in college. She hadn’t said she did in her letters, but that wasn’t the type of thing she would admit to me, I figured. Well, I would have a chance to ask her soon enough. My flight would arrive a day before hers, so we would see each other tomorrow if all went well. At that moment, the flight attendant’s voice broke into my thoughts. "We will be landing in 15 minutes. Please place your seat-backs in the upright position and fasten your seat belts as we prepare for descent."
The drive home was uneventful, and I slept in the next morning. My job was already lined up – a position at UCSB, in the engineering department, so I had no worries. In the meantime I would have 2 months of summer to relax. Sis was also going to put her skills to use at UCSB, as a researcher, and we had agreed to share an apartment in the area beginning in September to save on expenses. After a leisurely breakfast, I decided to hit the pool in the back of the house for some laps. I was just completing a warm-up set of 8 laps when Amelie arrived home. I was so wrapped up in my swimming that I didn’t hear Sis approach.
"Hey, bro!" she called out playfully. Startled, I jumped almost out of the pool before spotting her, standing on the left side and looking me over carefully. "Hiya, sis!" I said. "Jump right in, the water’s fine."
"College life agreed with you," she said, examining my physique with her eyes. My tight bathing suit didn’t conceal much of my body. "You’re a fine hunk of man, no longer a bookworm." "Uh, thanks," I said, not expecting her to comment so frankly on my body. "You look pretty good yourself."
Amelie had grown another 2 inches at least, as she was a good 6 feet tall. She looked like she’d added more muscle to her frame, too. She was wearing a pale blue bikini, medium-sized. Her calf muscles were rock-hard and diamond-shaped, while her thighs could have choked a tiger. Her arms were well-muscled as well, and her chest was very firm. Her stomach was flat as a washboard. "Thanks for noticing, bro," she said. "I worked out 4 days a week at school for an hour a day to stay in shape."
She jumped in the pool and swam over to where I was resting. "Want to race, bro?" she asked. "I know you’re a bit tired, so I’ll do 10 warm-up laps while you rest. Then we’ll be even." "What sort of a race?" I asked. "40 laps, freestyle," she said. "Loser has to do the breakfast dishes." Since only a few dishes were in the sink, losing didn’t really matter, and I was confident I could beat her in a distance swim anyway – I regularly had to swim 5 miles as part of my Reserve training. 40 laps would only be a mile and a quarter. "Sounds good to me," I said.
After she had done her 10 laps to warm up, we braced ourselves against the wall. "On three," she said. In unison, we counted off. "One to get ready… two to get set… [suiting the action to the word]… and THREE!" For the first 20 laps, we were evenly matched. Then Amelie started increasing the pace, slowly but steadily. I was getting more and more tired trying to keep up with her, and she didn’t even seem to be breathing hard. With about 5 laps left, she put on a burst of power that left me in her wake. In spite of my best efforts, she beat me by almost a full lap. I was astounded by her performance.
"Wow!," I said after catching my breath. "How’d you do that?"
"I told you I’d been working out," she said. "And by the way, I did the dishes when I came in, so you’re off the hook."
I looked into her brown eyes. Her lovely face was framed by wavy black hair that came down to her shoulders. "That was nice of you," I said.
She looked back at me, into my dark-brown, almost black eyes, studying my face, capped by Navy-style short black hair, and said, "You’re very welcome. It’s good to see you again."
"You really surprised me," I said. "I thought with swimming, I finally had something I was better than you at."
"You know you’ll never out-physical me at anything," Amelie replied teasingly. "I may be your younger sister, but you’re my little brother."
"Izzatso?" I said. "I didn’t read in any of your letters that you were studying martial arts. Technique counts for more than size, you know."
"You want to take me on in a wrestling match?" she said. "That ought to be interesting. Let’s dry off, go to the basement and test out your theory."
"What about Mom & Dad?" I asked. "What if they see us?"