Come When Called

"Ben?" The voice at the other end of the line -- except they're not lines these days, are they? -- is familiar, and it sounds scared. Doing the job I've been doing for the last ten years you get an ear for recognizing scared. Lying and threatening, too, but that's a whole other thing. My flight from my last job got in late so I am in a room at a Comfort Inn in Boston. In the morning, I plan to drive north to my house and relax. But now I'm needed.

"What's wrong, Robyn?"

My sister lets out a deep sigh. I picture it crossing the country through the airwaves, playing little vibrations in the air.

Then she gives a sob which she swallows down hard.

"Tell me," I say. "Is it Jenna?"

"No, Jen's here with me. It's Andy." There's silence for a while. Not even that ghost singing you used to get. "I've left him. I had enough, and then when he started--" Her voice beaks off into another long, quavering sigh.

"Did he hurt you?"

"Some. But it was when he raised his hand to Jen that I knew we couldn't stay."

"Where are you?"

"Some motel on the edge of town."

"Give me the name. I'll fly out, be there..." I glance at the face of the travel alarm I take everywhere with me, "...about oh-nine hundred tomorrow if I can grab an early flight."

"Hang on..."

I hear Robyn move about, hear her say "Pass me that card, hun," to her daughter. Then, "The Peacock, one-nineteen Fairview." She reads off a zip code. I write it down on a sheet of hotel notepaper. "Thanks, Ben. I didn't want to ask, but there's no one else I trust. I always know I can rely on my big brother."

I smile. "By all of two minutes, baby sis."

"I wasn't talking about two minutes," Robyn says, and I smile again. She's referring to our secret. Or maybe that should be 'our secret' in italics.

"How's Jen taking it?" I ask.

"Pretty much how you'd expect. I don't think it's sunk in yet. For me as well as her. I can't believe it took me so long."

"Are you safe where you are?"

"I think so. Andy was steaming drunk when we left, so he has no idea which direction we went in. He'll wake up with a bad hangover sometime tomorrow and realize what's happened. That's when he'll come looking for us, but with luck you'll be here by then."

"I'm going to ring off now and see if I can get a flight," I say. "I'll call you once I know more."

"Thanks, Ben." Robyn hesitates, then in a softer voice, "Love you."

"I know. Love you too."

I break the connection, switch to my phone's browser and hunt for flights from Boston to Kansas City. There aren't many options that fly nonstop, but I keep looking and find a Southwestern that leaves at 6:10 in the morning and gets me in at 11:25. Booking late makes it expensive, but I don't care. I type in my card details, wait for the confirmation email, then call Robyn back.

"The earliest I can reach you is around noon," I say. "Can you hold out until then?"

"I'll come out to the airport to meet you. I don't want to stay here in case Andy tracks my card or something."

A thought occurs to me. "Or your phone. Do you have that app set up so you can find it if you lose it?"

"Of course."

"On your laptop?"

"Yes."

"Which is where?"

"Oh shit. Back at the house."

"You said he was drunk?" I ask.

"As I've ever seen him."

"So he's not going to be thinking straight right now, and maybe not even tomorrow. You made a good call, Robyn. Come to the airport in the morning and wait for me there. Turn your phone off when you leave the motel just in case. In fact, turn it off and take the battery and SIM card out once we're done here."

"What if you want me?"

"I'll see you when I get off the plane."

I hear a smile in Robyn's voice. "Should I make a big sign to hold up saying Ben Anderson?"

"In case I don't recognise you? Yeah, great idea."

"It's been a while.

"Have you changed much?"

"Everyone changes, Ben. Everyone except for you."

"Like you say, it's been a while." I know I've changed, but most of the changes are inside. I'm stronger than I used to be and have learned skills that helped me stay alive when a lot of people were trying to kill me, but I hope I'm still the kid Robyn grew up with. Still the kid that ... no, push the thought away.

I think about my niece, Jenna. The last time I saw her she was fifteen at Mom's funeral, and before that ten at Pop's. At both, we stood in a row beside the grave. Robyn held my right hand and Jenna my left. Andy hadn't come to either. He claimed he had business. I'd flown in and out the same day and still felt bad for not being there more, but I considered it the safest option.

"You still there, Ben?" Robyn asks, drawing me back to the present.

"Still here, babes. I'm going to ring off now and get some sleep. Turn your phone off and try to stop thinking too much. I'll see you tomorrow."

I break the call, then stare at my phone for a time I can't count. My mind goes back nineteen years to Robyn's wedding day. Then back earlier to the first time we messed around with each other. It had been our eighteenth birthday, and it was like a dam had burst. There'd been tension between us for a while. A year, maybe longer. Sometimes, I was sure nothing would ever come of it. Other times, I knew we'd have to do something if only to save our sanity. Except what we finally did had little of sanity in it.

There was nothing much that first time, but it was the intent, both of us knowing we'd be going further soon. Further, yes, but not all the way -- not until the morning Robyn got married to Andy Peters.

I snap back to the present, as if trying to escape the memory. Not that I ever can. Not that I ever want to. I'm aware my cock has grown heavy inside my pants and curse my own weakness. I'll fly out, fix whatever's wrong, make sure Robyn and Jen have someplace safe to live, and then leave. It's the sensible option. The safe option.

I set my alarm for 4am and try to sleep, but I'm still wide awake when it goes off.

###

My flight touches down fifteen minutes early. I take my small day case from the overhead locker and am fourth man out. I see Robyn and Jenna standing at arrivals. Robyn looks the same as she had four years before at Mom's funeral. Not a day older. Jen has changed. Jen has changed a lot, and what she's changed into is a slimmer copy of her mom. Her hair is cut shorter than Robyn's, her breasts less pronounced and her hips narrower, but their faces make them look like sisters. Part of that is Robyn doesn't look thirty-seven years old. Part of it is Jenna has a maturity about her that masks her eighteen years. I sent a card a month before with $200 inside and she'd texted me a thank-you and a video of her grinning and blowing out the candles on her cake. All eighteen of them. Looking at the message made me uneasy, but I couldn't bring myself to delete it.

Robyn jumps up and down as I approach. Jen watches me with less welcoming body language, which I understand. She's been torn away from the family she's grown up in. Her future is unfocused. Not that I know what plans she has for her future. I haven't thought to ask in my rare conversations with either her or her mom.

Robyn comes forward and hugs me, kisses my cheek. I hug her back, aware of the curves and the weight of her breasts against my chest. She is five inches shorter than my five-eleven. When we draw apart, I glance at Jen, and she offers a nod. No hug from my niece.

"Is that it?" Robyn nods at my small case.

"What more does a man need?"

"We have to get our clothes, Mom," says Jen. "And I've got other stuff in my room I need if we're not going to live there anymore."

Robyn's expression changes, losing all its sparkle. "Is that what you want, hun? To go back to him?"

Jen shakes her head, and I watch tears brim in her eyes but they don't quite escape.

"Of course not. But that house is where I grew up. It has memories. And stuff. It has my stuff."

"We'll get it," I say. "I'll come with you, and we'll get whatever you need, I promise."

"Thanks, Uncle Ben." She reaches out and briefly touches my arm, the kiss of a butterfly's wing.

Robyn's beat-up Civic is in the seemingly endless airport parking lot but she remembers where it's parked, and Jen climbs in back. When I put my case in the trunk, I notice there's nothing else in there.

"Are we going back to your motel?" I ask as Robyn negotiates her way to the pay station.

"I thought it best not. I'll feel safer if we're somewhere different tonight."

"You left with nothing?"

"Not even a toothbrush. I had to buy some stuff last night." She pulls up at the pay station and leans out to tap her credit card, but the screen flashes a red warning that the payment is declined. She tries again, then starts to slide it into the card reader.

"Don't." I reach across, grasp her arm and pull it back.

"What?" Robyn half turns to glare at me.

"Here, use mine." I hand her my card. She stares at it, then takes it and taps the screen again. This time the payment is accepted.

I glance at the clock on the dash. A little after noon.

"Do you think Andy is up by now?"

"Why, Ben? I don't want any trouble. I know you've done things you can't talk about, but Andy can be a hard man."

"What I mean is might he be mad enough to cancel your cards?"

She glances at me as we pull out onto the road leading into the city. "Can he do that?"

"I don't know. Do you share an account?"

"I keep my own money," she says. "He shouldn't be able to touch it. We do have a joint account for the mortgage and utilities, but I only pay what's needed into that one."

I see a shopping mall coming up on our side of the road and point at it. "Pull in here and let's see if we can check. There'll be a cash machine. We can see what your balance is."

We park and walk into the mall, Jen trailing along a few steps behind. I almost reach out for Robyn's hand before stopping myself. There's an ATM as we enter, and Robyn walks over to it. I stand close, watching the screen as she inserts her card. She keys her passcode and then the screen changes.

Account frozen comes up on screen. Then it changes to: Card Retained. Please contact your provider for details.

Robyn presses buttons but her card is gone, stolen by faceless software.

"Bastard," she says through gritted teeth.

"We can use mine, but we need to visit your bank. Andy can't do this."

"Keith Curtis and Andy are pals. They play golf every Saturday. Go to baseball together. We've even had him and his wife over for dinner. Bastard." She spits the word out again then leans close so Jen can't hear. "He even said we could do a foursome next time. Andy was keen, and so was he. I don't think me, or Keith's wife, had any say in it."

"Is Keith Curtis the manager of your bank?" I ask, and Robyn nods. Whoever he is, he has no right to cancel your account. Only you can do that, not your husband."

"He won't be my husband much longer."

As we talk, Jen steps closer. She reaches for her mom's hand.

"I've got my card," she says. "Shall I try that?" She holds out an American Express card. "But we can't get another room if this doesn't work." Jen looks worried.

"We can use mine," I say again, knowing they don't like the idea but needs must. I'll keep saying it until they see sense.

"We can't live off you, Ben," says Robyn.

"You can until we get this sorted. You're going to need clothes, all kinds of things. Should we do some shopping while we're here?"

"No." Robyn looks at me. "How brave are you feeling?"

"Me?" I try to make light of the situation. I'm not scared of Andy, even if he is bigger than me. It's true what they say, size isn't everything. Andy was a bully in high school, and it seems he still is. He tried to pick on me one time, but only once after I broke his nose and split his lip. I was never much to look at, but I was fast and deadly. Not as deadly as I have become, but more than good enough even back then.

"I want to confront him," says Robyn.

"Mom?"

"He can't do this to us. We're going over there now to pack up our things and get this cluster-fuck sorted out."

I put my arm around Robyn's shoulder and lead her off to one side. She comes, but there's resistance.

"Don't try talking me out of this, Ben."

"I don't intend to. You and Jen have to get your things, but going in crazy isn't going to help anything."

"I'm not crazy."

"Yes, you are. You're mad as hell, and you want to hurt him. So do I, but we need calm heads when we do this. You and I need to talk."

"We do." Robyn says it with intensity, and I wonder if the talk we are going to have has been put off too long already.

"We can go back to your motel," I say.

"No, we can't. We only had it the one night, just in case Andy managed to track us down."

"Then we get a room in another motel. We do nothing hasty."

"Two rooms," says Robyn. "We probably ought to get two rooms." Her eyes brim with tears, as yet unshed. "But I don't got a working card and I daren't use Jen's."

"I told you we'll use mine."

"I'll pay you back." Robyn is leaning into me now, her head against my shoulder, her breasts soft against my chest, her belly against mine. All that contact is having an effect I try to ignore.

"You don't need to. I got money. More money than I can spend at the moment."

"Nice for some people," she says, and hitches a laugh.

I put a finger under her chin and raise her face, so I am looking directly at her.

"You don't have to worry about anything. I've got this."

She lifts up, and I know she wants me to kiss her. I want it too.

"Oh, get a room," says Liv with a laugh.

She has come close, and our kiss never happens. I don't know if it was meant to turn into something longer, something softer, or not. A memory of kissing Robyn on her wedding day comes to me. A memory of a kiss and what it led to. Everything. Several times, as I recall. The first and last time we fucked, but we'd been messing around before then. Slow. Gradual. Experimenting with each other.

I release Robyn and turn away. As I do, Jen slips her hand in mine.

"You make me feel safe, Uncle Ben."

"Ben," I say. "Just Ben."

Jen says nothing.

###

I drive north beyond the suburbs of the city, not sure I trust Robyn behind the wheel in her state. After a while I turn off the highway and head west. Robyn sits to my right the whole time, staring out the window, but I'm not sure she's seeing anything. Jen leans forward from behind, her arms along the back of our seats. She has one hand cupping her mom's shoulder. The other grips mine as if she needs to link all three of us together.

We drive west on a road that looks like it might run straight all the way to the west coast. When the view gets boring, I turn north and ten minutes later we pull up outside a single-storey motel. Only three other cars sit in the parking lot, but it's early afternoon. Or maybe this is their busy time.

I go inside and get two adjoining rooms. All three of us go into one of them. Jen tries the door between, but it's locked. She takes the other key, goes outside, and a minute later the door opens.

"Just in case you get scared in the night, Uncle Ben," she says, offering a sweet smile enough to break my heart.

"What do we need?" I ask. "There must be a store nearby. Snacks? Underwear? Um, feminine stuff?"

It's Jen who replies. Robyn is staring off into space and I'm starting to worry about her.

Jen takes my hand and draws me through to the other room. She closes the door to shut us off before turning to me. She is as close as Robyn was when I wanted to kiss her, and I almost do the same thing again. Jen looks so much like her mom it's as if time has been unspooled nineteen years. She looks exactly like Robyn when we did those things we should never have done. Not that we could have stopped ourselves. We both wanted it. I regret none of it. Nothing at all. But having my niece standing looking up at me like she wants to do the same things me and her mom did is unsettling.

"I'm worried about Mom," Jen says.

"Me too." I hesitate, then decide the question has to be raised. "Did Andy ever hit her?"

Jen shakes her head. "A few times, but threated plenty more. More again just lately. He's got anger issues, Uncle Ben. Mom's got a couple bruises but they'll fade." She touches a finger to her temple. "Inside here, I'm not so sure." When she lowers her hand, she sets it on my shoulder.

I'm sure she means nothing by it.

"She's in shock," I say. "I've seen it enough times to recognise the symptoms. She needs distraction, is all. A long, hot bath. Why don't you go and persuade her to do just that?"

"I think I'd enjoy one of those myself, but I expect they got showers in all the rooms here."

"A long, hot shower, then."

Jen smiles. "Can I use your shower, Uncle Ben?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, do you?"

"I think it's a great idea. You can pass me the soap and scrub my back if you want."

I slap her on the ass, and she gives a mock squeal, but she goes back into her own room and I close the door. I see the lock to close the rooms off from each other but don't turn it. Later, maybe. As much to protect them from me as me from them. The shower sounds like a great idea, though. Flying always makes me sticky, and it's too early to eat.

The bathroom is small, but the shower is big enough, and the water is hot and strong. I stand under the spray and let it run across me for a good few minutes before using the soap. I'm aware my cock has come hard and deliberately avoid soaping myself there but know I will have to. I'll finish myself before turning the water off. And I know exactly who I'll be thinking about when I do.

###

Robyn and I had turned eighteen only a few days before when it first happened. Not everything, not then, and not for a while after, but we both knew things were getting more intense between us. To be honest, they'd been intense for a while. A couple of years at least. I'd lain in my teenage bedroom jacking off to images of my sister for years. I liked to think she might be doing the same, but it was only later when we told each other what we did that I discovered the truth of it.

I was in the shower at home, my cock hard, when Robyn came in and sat on the towel box.

"Do you mind?"

"What's to mind?" She wore a towelling robe which she briefly flashed open so I could see she was naked beneath. I saw her breasts and belly, but not her sex. Not then, anyway. "Your cock is bigger than I imagined it would be," she says, then smiles. "And I imagined it pretty big to start with. No, don't turn away from me, Ben. Finish yourself off. I want to watch you come. I know you want to."

"What do I get?" I ask. Her presence should feel wrong, but it doesn't. I think growing up together, feeling the attraction between us that we both had to fight, has prepared us for everything that follows.

Robyn stands and lets the robe fall away. Now I see her sex, nestled beneath a fluff of blonde hair.

"Do you like what you see?" She turns around, and when she faces me again, I nod.

"What's not to like?" I lower my hand and grip my cock. Robyn's eyes widen, as if she hasn't been sure I'll really jack myself off in front of her.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asks, an uncertainty in her voice that surprises me.

"You're not pretty. You're beautiful. Gorgeous."

She smiles. "Really?"

"Don't go fishing."

"Why not? There's water, and maybe I could catch something real big."

I start to move my hand.

Robyn settles on the towel box and cups her breasts. They aren't enormous, but big enough, with a nice shape and pale nipples that point toward the ceiling. She continues to stroke one as her other hand slides down her belly until it cups her sex.

"I want you to watch me do myself, too" she says. "Maybe we can come at the same time."