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11_Carlton
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My God, I wasn't used to waking up like this... It was 6:30 on a Tuesday morning and the loud sound of someone coming down the stairs was quite enough to rouse me from my slumber. Having not slept very well last night, I grunted with discontent to myself, turning over on my other side in another attempt to find a comfortable position. But I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, not with all the noise going on just outside the door.
My name is Daniel. I am twenty-three years old and that Tuesday morning was the third day of my visit back home. I had arrived from a three-hour train ride on Sunday night but in spite of the days that had passed since then; I had not yet gotten into the 'rhythm' of being back home again. I had moved away from home three years ago to attend university in another town and since then I had been living on my own, in a one-room student's apartment. Needless to say, I was accustomed to doing things my way; whenever I wanted and however I wanted. Now I was home again and it was just like going back in time three years, having to share the house with my mom and younger sister Anne.
I was home that week to spend the upcoming Easter holiday with family. Since I didn't have any classes, I figured I might as well go a few days earlier to have more time with everyone. It seemed like a good idea at the time but the way I was feeling now; tired and annoyed, I wasn't that sure anymore.
Mom and Anne weren't really making any effort to be quiet in their doings; I guess they weren't used to having more people around either. Either mom or Anne were blow-drying their hair in the downstairs bedroom and judging from the intensity of the whooshing sound, I guess they hadn't even bothered to close their door.
I pushed my face into the pillow and murmured a few chosen words to myself, trying to release some of the building irritation.
I knew it wasn't really fair to be irritated at them; after all, this was their home and probably their usual morning routine. It was just that ever since moving to my own place, I was used to sleeping-in on my days off, not to be abruptly woken up this early in the morning! But by now I was already awake, so I sat up on the bedside.
My old room had been turned into a study room since I moved out and my own bed had come with me to my apartment, so whenever I was back home I had to sleep in the guest room. To be honest, the bed in there wasn't the most comfortable around. I think it was actually Anne's old bed which had been demoted to an extra bed when she got a new one. And before that it had been my older sister's bed, so it wasn't in its best state anymore...
Grabbing my t-shirt from the chair at the foot of the bed I pulled it over my head, scratched through my ruffled hair and left the guestroom. With a yawn, I stepped into the hallway and crossed into the kitchen. There, at the table was Anne, already dressed and having her breakfast. Looking over her shoulder she couldn't help but teasing me for my recently-out-of-bed look.
"I see that you've been up for a while already?" The tone of her voice was a blend of sarcasm and enjoyment.
"Good morning," I said while clearing my throat. "Where's mom?"
"She's in the bathroom, getting ready for work."
Before I moved away from home, I had lived in that house with mom and Anne for ten years. Anne was five years younger than me, and she had just turned 18 a few days ago. As usual, we were going to celebrate her birthday at the same time as Easter.
When I was ten my parents had divorced, splitting the family into two. My older sister Lisa had stayed with dad while Anne and I had gone to live with mom in a new town. We had always stayed in touch though and there were never any problems for mom and dad to see each other, at least not for shorter periods of time. Birthdays and similar occasions were always a time when the whole family got together again. I guess mom and dad decided to do so during the first years after the divorce since we kids were still fairly young at the time but with time it just became a habit to get together now and then. There was a little snag six years ago when dad met Sue, a woman that he eventually married but nowadays she was a natural addition to our family gatherings.
With the celebration of Anne's birthday in conjunction with Easter coming up, one of those gatherings was close at hand. Lisa, Sue and dad were coming to mom's house on Friday night and I knew mom was a bit nervous about it all. It was always like that; she was concerned about the house not being tidy enough or the food not being good enough, as if she had some urge to impress dad or perhaps more likely his new wife.
Since Anne had turned 18, I knew she had plans on moving away from home too, once she was finished with high school. She had talked to me about university studies and besides that she had told me she had had a few job offers. And although mom had always known both Anne and I would eventually move away from her, I think she was actually a bit afraid of becoming all alone in that house.
Suddenly, she stepped into the kitchen.
"Oh, so you're up and about Daniel?" There was a bit of harmless sarcasm in her voice too.
"Well, I was awake anyway" was my short response.
Mom gave me a smile and turned to the counter to pour herself a cup of coffee. I couldn't help but think about how good she looked. Mom was turning 47 in two months but you wouldn't guess it by the look of her. Sure, she wasn't the perfect fitness model but not at all in bad shape either. One of her most flattering features was her skin; it was as smooth as a 25-year-old's. She was a regular at the local spa, which kept the light-tanned tone of her complexion intact all year round. Her hair was a darker shade of blonde which only added to the warmth of her skin tone and her deep, blue eyes were framed by lines of raven-black eyelashes. This morning she was wearing a great-looking business suit; a black jacket with matching skirt, dark nylons and a white blouse. She had put her hair up with a clip on the back of her head and the glasses she was wearing somehow accentuated the look of a smart, sophisticated woman.
I'm not sure if it was just because of seeing my mother like that or if there was something else stirring in me at the time but something happened to me that hadn't happened in four or five years.
When I was in my late teens, I often had sexual fantasies about my mom. It had all started when I was 17 and was visiting my dad and I found an old photo album tucked away in his desk. Looking inside, I found pictures from his and mom's younger days when they had just started going out. In the midst of all the photos showing mom or dad at picnics, parties, vacation trips etc, there was a picture of mom, in her early twenties, lying on a bed wearing only a pair of white cotton panties.
To this day I can remember every detail of that picture. Mom was lying on her side, supporting her head on one arm with the elbow against the mattress. Her other arm was resting on her thigh and the look in her eyes was like an invitation to the photographer, dad, to come and join her. From the very first day I saw that photo I began seeing mom in a completely new light. She was no longer just my mom; she was an attractive, sexy, mature woman with an exciting past. I don't know how many times I jacked-off with that photograph in my head and from there I developed incestuous fantasies about having sex with my own mother. To begin with, I felt a lot of guilt for having such sinful thoughts about my mom but eventually she became a natural part of my sexual fantasy world. I guess that fantasy stayed with me but once I started having more serious relationships, the sexual thoughts about mom became less active.
But this morning they came creeping back again. Seeing mom in that beautiful outfit – the contrast of the black and the white, the glasses, the hairclip – made me think about that photograph again. Once more, I could see her as a sensual, beautiful woman. I must have lost myself to my fantasies for a while, because I jumped when my sister suddenly spoke.
"Good luck today, mom. I hope everything goes well."
Feeling a bit jolted from both my rude awakening earlier and the sexual thoughts that were running through my head, I didn't understand what Anne was talking about.
"Good luck with what?" I asked as I helped myself to a bowl of cereals.
"I told you yesterday," mom replied. "I'm doing a big presentation for a potential client today, remember?"
"Oh, that's right, I'm sorry."
I did remember. Mom worked for an advertising agency and she had told me the night before about the project she had been involved in. She was good at what she did but I got the feeling sometimes that she wasn't too happy with her job anymore. Sometimes she would mention that she'd like to get another job but then she would always fall into some sort of resignation, saying she was too old to get a new career. I can't be sure but there were times when I thought that this was just an excuse to hang on to some sort of stability in her life. Knowing that Anne was going to move away soon, her job could perhaps be the only thing keeping her from having to face a completely new life on her own.
"Well, I'm off," Anne said as she cleared the table from her breakfast.