Gordon, who always slept naked, was just preparing to get into bed when his mother, Zena, entered the room without even knocking. He was startled because she had not done this since he was twelve years of age. Entering like that she had a full frontal view of him for a few seconds before he got hurriedly into bed and managed to pull the covers over his lower body.
He'd had a partial erection and it had been his intention to masturbate, but his mother must have got at least a glimpse of his impressive manhood.
She was wearing a white dressing gown and she came and sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him anxiously and unspeaking.
Gordon, puzzled why she had come to his room unannounced, and why having done so she simply sat saying nothing, finally broke the silence.
"Did...did you want something, mother?"
She smiled wanly, reached out to touch his cheek with her hand, and said, "I just wanted to be with you, to see you darling, just look to at you."
Gordon decided not to point out that she had seen him only half an hour before. He tried again.
"Is there something I can do for you mother?"
"I...I...there's something...something I want to tell you."
Gordon could almost feel her tension through her cheek stroking hand as he asked, "What is it?"
"I'm not sure I should tell you darling, but I've got to tell someone."
The bond between Gordon and his mother had always been very strong, and rather than growing weaker, during his teenage years the bond seemed to have got stronger. He was aware of her beauty, her dark curly hair, almost black eyes, the aquiline nose, full lipped mouth and her complexion that gave the impression of a permanent sun tan.
He thought of her as "Gypsy," and he loved her dearly.
He remembered how as a child he always went to her with his troubles rather than his father, and she had always listened and comforted.
"I've always told you everything," he said, "I'm nineteen now and Aso now it's your turn to tell me."
Zena leaned forward and kissing him softly on the lips and said, "Oh my sweet boy."
Her kiss sent a frisson of pleasure through him. Had it been anyone else calling him a "sweet boy" Gordon, at nineteen, might have objected, but coming from his mother it seemed different, even welcome.
Picking up her theme he said, "And is my sweet mother going to tell me?" She kissed him again and said agitatedly, "If I tell you, you must promise never to repeat it to anyone."
"But mother..." Gordon began to say, only to be interrupted by Zena.
"Promise...please promise...swear you'll never tell anyone."
"Okay," Gordon said, "if it's so important, I promise."
"You swear you'll never ever tell anyone?"
"Mother, I've just said so."
Zena looking into his eyes hesitated for a few moments, and then as if it was bursting out of her said, "Your father and Meg."
Meg was his older sister, and although he had never really cared for her, he couldn't imagine how Meg could be part of such an apparently big secret, or his father for that matter.
"Haven't you noticed anything?"
"Like what?"
"How they behave?"
"Not especially," Gordon replied, trying to think of anything out of the ordinary he'd seen. "What about father and Meg?" he asked, are they sick or something.
"You haven't seen...haven't noticed."
"Noticed what?" asked increasingly exasperated Gordon.
"Bedroom," Zena replied.
"Bedroom, what bedroom, whose bedroom?"
"Mine, they using my bedroom."
"You mean yours and father's bedroom?"
"What used to be mine and your father's room."
"Used to be?"
"Darling," Zena said, starting to cry, "Don't you understand, it's your father's and Meg's bedroom now."
Light began to dawn; "You mean Meg and dad are sleeping together?"
"Not just sleeping," Zena wept.
"Meg and dad are fucking each other?"
"I've been sleeping in the spare room," Zena said.
Stunned Gordon said, "But that's crazy mum, I'd have noticed."
"We've tried to hide it from you, but I knew we couldn't hide it forever, and I had to tell you, I couldn't keep it to myself any longer, I feel so miserable."
Gordon was staggered that he hadn't noticed what had been going on around him, especially as it related to his mother. Trying to gather his scattered wits he said, "But why, why are they doing this?"
"It's my fault...it's all my fault," Zena sobbed, "I caused it all."
"You? Oh come on mum, how could you have caused it?"
"I did...I did," Zena cried out with a touch of hysteria in her voice.
"How...how did you cause it?"
Zena moved from the edge of the bed and laid her head on Gordon's chest. "Oh God, I don't know how I can tell you this."
Gordon put his arms round her and holding her close said, "You might as well finish it mother."
"You remember the party your father and I went to at the Harpers'?"
"Yes, a couple of months ago, you dad and Meg."
"Ed Harper, he...he..."
"He what?"
"He's always hinted how he wanted to...you know...do it with me..."
"Sex?"
"Yes. Well things got a bit wild and the room was hot so Ed suggested we went out to the summer house for some air. I knew what was going to happen and...you won't hate me will you?"
"No mother, I won't hate you, I don't think I could hate you whatever you did," Gordon said, as he stroked her hair.
"You see, I wanted him to, he's very nice and...well...I needed it."
"You needed him to fu...have sex with you?"
"Yes; he was very sweet, very gentle and it was beautiful and we were nearly finished when your father and Meg came into the summer house.
"My God, what happened?" Gordon asked.
"That's just it, nothing happened. Ed took his penis out of me and tried to pull my dress down and Meg and Hector just stood there looking at us." "Not a word?"
"Nothing, and then they turned away and left me and Ed. We thought they'd gone to tell Ed's wife but I'm sure they didn't because she's never said anything and is as friendly as ever. The weird thing was that during the drive home, and when we got here, neither Meg nor Hector said anything, and they've not said anything since."
Gordon drew her even closer and kissing the top of her head said, "Why did you do it mum, did you need Ed so badly?"
"It wasn't a matter of Ed; I think any decent man would have done that night. I just needed it. I hadn't had anything for months and I'm...I'm just that sort of woman."
"What sort of woman?"
"Darling, there are some people...women...who don't seem to bother about sex, but I'm not like that, I need it, I need a lot of it."
Gordon was reluctant to talk about his parent's sex lives, but nevertheless I felt he had to know.
"And father doesn't give you what you need?"
"No, not for months."
Gordon was amazed. His mother such an attractive woman and clearly needing lots of sex, his father not being interested seemed incredible. He imagined if he had a woman like Zena, even Zena herself, he would not have trouble keeping her sexually satisfied.
"What happened, why did dad stop having sex with you?"
"Can't you guess, darling; Meg, he's in love with her, and catching me with Ed gave them the excuse to go ahead and openly become lovers."
"You mean they didn't start having sex until they caught you with Ed?"
"Oh no, I'd suspected for some time but they'd been very careful. After Ed they didn't care any more. Your father used to come to bed smelling of her, and I couldn't stand it and moved out, and she's moved in."
Gordon's world seemed to be collapsing around him. His mother an adulteress, his father an adulterer in an incestuous relationship with his daughter, it seemed impossible that he hadn't known.
Then he remembered that one of his close friends had confided in him that he had been having sex with his mother for a long time and his father was completely oblivious to what was going on. There was a slight difference in their situation however, because the mother had been able to keep both of her men satisfied.
Zena interrupted his thoughts, and reverting to her brief affair with Ed, she said, "It only happened once and it would probably never have happened again. I was vulnerable and it was a spur of the moment thing and would have been lovely if we hadn't been caught. And so you see, I gave Meg and Hector the excuse they needed not to hide what they were doing from me. It's all my fault and in a way I suppose I'm being punished."
"That's ridiculous mother," Gordon protested. "You've already said that dad and Meg were having sex, the only difference was they didn't mind confirming openly what you already suspected. Did you think that you might have liked a longer term relationship with Ed?"
She sighed and said, "It was lovely until we got caught, but we both knew that nothing would come of it. We weren't in love or anything like that; it was just seemed like the right moment."