Spring weather in Melbourne Australia is notoriously unpredictable. Cold wind was humming through the taut string lines as a young couple stood side by side on the lawn and gazed at the building site.
The girl stepped forward and bent to playfully twang on one of the florescent-pink strings. The rugged-looking man covertly studied the way her jeans moulded her nicely rounded backside. He smiled to himself, tapped her with a folded plan then shoved it into one of the many pockets of his work pants.
He waved his hands about. "Okay Cathie, what do you think?"
The girl straightened up and pulled her knitted beanie cap closer about her pale face and over her ears.
She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Chris, you may think I'm clever because I managed to squeak into Uni, but the reality is I'm just a dumb eighteen-year-old kid. You're my big brother. You're the carpenter. Please explain."
She waited, staring at the place where her flat was going to be attached to the back of their parents' home. Try as she may, to her the strings remained a cat's-cradle-puzzle, but she knew Chris was already visualising the finished project.
"We are standing in your kitchen," he enthused. "Bedroom over there with the en-suite in between. I'll do every bit of the work myself to make certain it's perfect."
"I feel like a bit of a charity case." Cathie muttered. "You're donating your labour and Mum and Dad are donating the money for the materials plus half their back yard."
"No need to think like that." Chris went over the reasoning behind the project. "Your health scare has made us all realise how much we need to keep each other near. You'll have security and privacy here as long as you want and the flat will add a lot of value to the property. Everyone wins."
"I definitely like the idea." Cathie agreed. "I can't live with our parents forever and when I move in here I'll be more or less independent but still close."
Chris chuckled. "You or I would never be able to afford to rent a flat here in the inner suburbs, much less buy one. Mum and Dad will be millionaires one day when they sell up. As soon as I finish this, you do know I intend to build a big garage there in the driveway with a flat above it for myself...and my girlfriend?"
Cathie laughed at that. "What girlfriend?"
"She's out there somewhere." He grinned. "Like your boyfriend."
Suddenly serious he gestured at the string lines. "Now getting back to this stuff here, just imagine how nice it will look."
Cathie couldn't imagine it. She believed him, but simply couldn't picture it.
Chris held out his hand, "Come on over here into your bedroom."
She allowed herself to be lead over the strings into the 'bedroom'.
Chris put his arms around her and pulled her close. "We're all alone in your bedroom," he whispered and kissed her cheek.
Cathie pushed him away. "I know you just feel sorry for me and think you're helping by pretending I'm some hot chick you're hitting on, but you don't mean it. Nor should you. Have you forgotten I'm your sister?"
"No of course I haven't." Chris blustered, becoming somewhat annoyed. "I do feel sorry for you, but I...aah, forget it."
Cathie was becoming angry too, because she actually enjoyed her brother's flirting and knew she shouldn't. "You're acting all weird,"
"If you say so." He snapped as she scurried away into the main house.
Moments later he heard her bedroom door slam.
The weekend was filled with his furious hammering and sawing and the frame of the building project was completed by Sunday evening.
Mid-afternoon Monday, Chris arrived home from work and found Cathie studying with books and laptop occupying the entire kitchen table.
"Hello Sis, I'm gonna do some measuring on the framework out there," he greeted, hoping they were on good terms again, "but first I'll make us a cuppa if you move some of that crap out of the way," he added, intending it as a joke.
Cathie looked up, her lip trembling, eyes full of tears.
"Jesus Sis," he hurried across the room to hug her, "I'm sorry. I was just fooling about. Didn't mean to upset you."
"It wasn't you," she shook her head.
"What then?"
"I don't want to go into it with you Chris," Cathie sniffled, "and I haven't got anyone to talk to. Mum won't be home for ages and she's too busy anyway."
"So..." With his arms around his sister Chris patted her back, hoping the contact was comforting for her, because it was doing something else entirely for him.
"Look," he continued, "obviously I'm no expert, but they reckon talking about problems helps. I'll listen. You talk. Maybe that'll help."
A tiny smile lightened her sad face for a moment. "I don't know...'
Chris's erection began to make it's presence known to him as he enjoyed the off-limits intimacy of the hugging and back patting. "Try telling me. I won't judge you or anything."
Cathie drew a ragged breath and looked away again to hide the tears that threatened to overflow. "The hospital said I'm almost back to normal and the probability of a full recovery is around 90%. It's the 10% who don't make it that frightens me,"
"Well of course it does Sweetheart." Chris performed a little shoulder massage. "I know the odds are in your favour but I worry too. We all do, but I'm sure you'll be alright."
"And I'm tired of being thought of as sick," Chloe continued. "People don't see me any more, don't think of me as a real woman, I'm just a...an illness."
"You're not that to me," he reassured her. "I absolutely see you as a woman."
Chloe hid a tiny smile, thinking 'I guess he actually does, judging by that bulge in his pants,' but saying, "I'll make that tea for us. You go do whatever you were going to do. I'll bring yours out to you and you can tell me more about the flat. I've got to think positive haven't I? Be happy. Look to the future."
"That's my girl."
The next day was wet and windy so at mid-day the builder Chris worked for called it quits for the day and sent his crew home early. Entering the family home Chris was concerned to hear Cathie crying in her bedroom and knocked on her door. "Hey! What's up now? Are you alright?"
