My quandary was which category best represents this story -- Mature or Incest.
Alexis Tells Her Story
I grew up in an environment that the School Counsellor regularly told me was a dysfunctional family. I never knew my dad and ... well, my mom wasn't always around. I'd rather not go there, other than to say that drugs played a part in her haphazard lifestyle.
I was raised by my grandparents ... a nice enough couple but they're old. I am out of school at last ... 19 now ... my grandma is 66. She tried to raise me like a mom would, but she's two generations older than me and some of her ideas just don't cut it these days.
My grandpa still works, he's a truck driver ... long distance, hauls stuff from state to state, so for as long as I can remember, he's only ever been at home about every third night. You'd think that would upset my grandma, her husband being away as much as that. But strangely, she has managed to carve out two distinct lifestyles. At home, fussing over her husband whenever he came home every third night, ensuring dinner was on the table, sitting with him to watch TV even though he would be asleep in his recliner by 8pm, and going to bed when he did.
Then, on the two nights in between, she regularly dressed up in her finest and went out socialising. She'd tell me stories of how much she loved dancing from an early age and she would go to local clubs where there was dancing. Most nights she would leave and come home in a cab but sometimes she would be picked up at home by a man. I didn't think much of it when I was young, just assumed that must be the way things are for most couples.
But when I reached my teens and I listened to my friends talking in the schoolyard about their parents and the way things were for them at home ... well, that's when I realised that my wonderful old grandma had been, and probably still was, getting a bit on the side. I don't know if grandpa knew of grandma's lifestyle when he was away, but if he did, I never saw any sign that it bothered him.
Not having a clear father figure during my childhood, I never had a proper discussion about sex at around 11 or 12, not the way most of my girlfriends did. Oh, grandma did try once but she got all flustered. At least, she managed to explain about periods ... and just in time because I got my first one only three weeks after our discussion. I remember thinking at the time that it would have been scary if she hadn't told me what was happening to my body.
But I figure she was too embarrassed to extend her little girl talk beyond that because that would have meant explaining to me about sex and how it happened and I guess that was all a bit too much for her and her embarrassment at talking about such things. Despite her lifestyle implying that she engaged in such practices with men other than her husband.
So the task of educating me in such things fell on my girlfriends at school. They always had a story or two to relate although some seemed a bit far fetched ... maybe some may have embellished their stories to outdo one another.
I learned in Sex Ed classes how the primary purpose of sex was for procreation, as a means for married couples to have kids. Yet, all my girlfriends at school cringed at the thought that their parents, most in their forties, might still be doing it behind closed bedroom doors. Without a mother in my life, I couldn't join in on that debate. But, given grandma's lifestyle, my cringing was the thought of her still having sex at 66.
So with my grandfather seldom at home due to his crazy working week, the closest I ever came to having a father figure in my life was one of my uncles ... the closest one. That is, closest in distance, not in familiarity. Three of my uncles lived a long distance away from my grandparents house, but this one uncle - Uncle Jim - well, he lived just down the end of our street and around the corner. He wasn't a flesh and blood uncle, he was like an uncle-in-law, married to my aunt - the eldest of grandma's kids ... my mom was the youngest.
This uncle was much older than my aunt, she was 45 and he was 56. She divorced her first husband -- I was told he was a violent abusive man. They had three kids together and she married Uncle Jim 15 years ago. On those frequent nights when grandpa was away working and grandma went on her nights out, all dressed up in her finery, she'd have my aunt or uncle come around to babysit me. At first, it was always my aunt, but over the years, my uncle would turn up instead until he was coming over to look after me most of the nights that grandma was out. I'd always felt he was quite creepy although I could never quite put my finger on why he creeped me out.
Since they lived so close, we got to see a lot of them and their three sons ... stepsons to my uncle. Growing up, I got to play with the boys -- my cousins -- a lot ... they were close to my age. A couple were twins who were a few months older than me and the third was barely two years younger. I guess that hanging around with three boys made me a bit of a tomboy.
By the time I was 14, I began to rebel against having a babysitter come over to watch over me. But grandma still insisted my uncle be in the house when she wasn't.
So, you know a little about me now. I need to move on, bring you up to the present day. As I said at the start, I'm 19 now and have left school. I've been working in a local fast food place, but my real desire is to become an actress. All through my teen years, I'd go to the movies at every opportunity. I'd watch the women in each scene and I'd picture myself as that person, that actress playing out a part. I found it so exciting.
A friend told me about an amateur theatre group in town and I enthusiastically joined to pursue my dreams. I'd been attending their acting class sessions twice weekly for a few months, making them fit around my fast food shifts, when it was announced they would be holding auditions for their next play. It would be one of Tennessee Williams' raunchy plays, based in the deep south. As soon as I read the story, I was hellbent on trying out for the part of the sexy young 25-year-old temptress, who pursues an older man, hoping they wouldn't class me as too young for the role. Throughout the story, she teases and taunts, and finally seduces this older man. I found that scenario quite appealing.
I thought my audition went really well and I had hung around that evening to watch the other hopefuls attempt to beat me for the steamy role as Mary-Ann. The cast was announced at next week's class, and to my delight and excitement, I got the part I wanted. I had read the script fully by now, noting that there were quite frequent scenes where I would be expected to hug and kiss, and even lay down on a bed in a close loving embrace with the older man. There was even one scene late in the play where we would be expected to simulate sex and I wondered how the producer aimed to stick to the script yet still present a tasteful production for the audiences.
I looked around the class at the few men we had there, curious as to who would be nominated to fill that role. The producer gave it to a guy called Jeremy ... he's in his late thirties, married with a couple of kids. Quite good looking as it turned out. It was all acting of course, but I immediately began to picture kissing Jeremy in the way that the script called for? Would his wife come to see the play ... what would she think?
We began rehearsals immediately since the opening night was only six weeks away, but for the first week, we simply sat around a long table and read the script ... actually getting on stage and acting out each movement wasn't intended to begin until midway through the second week.
The full cast was six, and on the fifth night of rehearsals, five of us arrived. I looked around anxiously, wondering where my pretend love-to-be Jeremy was. The producer arrived a few minutes late and announced to us all that Jeremy had found he wasn't coping with the heavy schedule of rehearsals and his work commitments, so he had called today to say he was pulling out.
There was a combined moan of disappointment among all the cast members, most of us almost falling over each other to ask, "What will we do now?"
"No problem," said our producer, using his hands to try to calm the collective hysteria gripping the room, "I've found someone, he's not in our group, but he did a quick audition for me a couple of hours ago, and I think he's gonna nail it. He'll be here in about a half-hour, so we'll begin for now, and then I'll introduce you all to him when he gets here."
A half-hour after starting, a buzz comes from those sitting opposite me, who are facing the stage door. Obviously, our producer's new mystery man to fill the role opposite me, has entered the theatre. I'm the last to see him, having my back to the stage door. "Good, here he is now," our producer says loudly, interrupting the read-through mid sentence. "Come on over here and meet everybody, Jim."
I stand and turn in one movement and I guess my jaw drops, my mouth agape. You can imagine my shock to see that Jeremy's replacement as my love interest in the play is going to be my 56-year-old Uncle Jim. Compared to the handsome Jeremy, Uncle Jim is no oil painting ... but worse, he's nearly 20 years older. He could best be described as having rugged features, his nose permanently bent -- he used to be a boxer once -- he has a couple of chipped teeth and he never looks like he's shaved that day ... he always has what looks like a 48 hour stubble on his face and chin. What's more, his hair is prematurely thinning on top.
He has begun shaking hands with the other cast members, but then catches sight of me, "I know this little girlie, she's my niece. Come here honey, give your old Uncle Jim a big kiss."
Now, kissing is something Uncle Jim seems to want to do with me lately. Whenever he comes to grandma's house, he gives her a kiss on her cheek. But with me, especially since I've left school and have been told how I am blossoming into quite an attractive young woman, my figure filling out in all the right places, he'll go for the lips. Most times, I try to turn my head at the last moment and his chapped lips land on my soft cheek, his stubble scratchy.
Obviously now aware of my kiss aversion technique, both his hands shot up to grasp my cheeks on either side and, holding my head steady, he plants a big sloppy kiss fair and square on my lips.
"Welcome to our show," shouts our producer, beaming at his new find.
I can't hold back, turning to the producer, "But he can't act, he's never acted in anything ... and he's too old for the part."