Author's Note: Two short parts to this story. If it's worth pursuing beyond that, maybe I will. Hope you like it.
*****
My flight arrived on a late afternoon in May. We had a rough descent; thunderstorms littered eastern Kansas. I drove home from KCI through fits of downpours, and even some light hail. Despite the shitty weather, being back home was a relief.
I anticipated a relaxing evening. It was Friday. The kids were at Grandma and Grandpa's, and I didn't have to pick them up until Saturday afternoon. I could sleep in. Our babysitter/house sitter will have picked up the place. I'd be coming home to a clean, empty house.
I pulled into my driveway, opened the garage and parked in the second stall. I let Dena, the sitter, use my wife's old stall for the four days I was gone. Dena had a Honda Accord, just like my wife, except Dena's was a few years older and black. My wife's was silver.
Just over a year ago, my wife was in an accident on the 435 loop on her way in to work. Her car was totaled. One day her garage stall was full; the next, empty. One day I had a wife; the next, widower. Once every week or two, Dena parked her Accord in my wife's stall. Coming home, whenever I first saw it-even when I was expecting to see it-my heart lurched in my chest.
Dena was my wife's younger sister.
I went in the house, and Dena was standing in the kitchen, messing around on her phone. She had on black yoga pants and a pink tee shirt. She looked great.
Huge locks of curly black hair framed her tan, flawless skin. Her big brown eyes were full of youthful zeal. She was voluptuously built. My wife said her sister was "built for gyrating in hip hop videos." Dena's breasts were huge; her ass was a booty. The rest of her body was crafted to accentuate those two features.
She was twenty—a sophomore at UM-KC. She didn't mind the 20 minute drive out west into Kansas because I usually paid $15 an hour, a figure my wife's parents-Dena's parents-heard and darn near shit themselves with outrage.
After my father-in-law got over that figure, he asked, "Usually?"
"I'll pay $18 if she cleans up the place—dishes, picking up, swapping out laundry. You know."
He looked at his wife. "Darlin', I don't even know this country no more."
But, I wasn't paying $15 or $18 an hour for house sitting. Her total for the week was $400, which came to about $4 an hour, given how long I was gone. She took the kids to school and pre-school, picked them up, and watched them and the house for four days; on the last day, her parents took the kids to give me a break after the work trip.
Dena welcomed me back with a wave and said, "We're under a tornado watch."
I nodded. "Suppose you'll want to get paid and get the hell out of here then, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Let me pour myself a drink. I've been dying for one. Then, I'll cut your check."
She nodded and went back to her phone.
I walked into the kitchen, pulled open the liquor cabinet above the fridge, and grabbed the vodka. I got a big 32 ounce plastic cup full of ice, and then I poured about four or five shots worth into it. I topped it off with water, and took a pull.
Damn. Exactly what I needed.
Dena watched me take the drink, and she grinned at my satisfied reaction.
I nabbed the checkbook out of a drawer and began writing one out. "Good week?" I asked.
"They were great."
"Good. Here." I handed her the check. I made it out for $500. The place looked good, and I had already talked to the in-laws: the kids were healthy and happy.
"Oh, wow. Thanks."
"You all packed up?"
"Yeah." Her bag was sitting under the coat rack, and she bent over to grab it. I enjoyed the view.
I escorted her to the door and, ever since my wife passed, Dena always gave me a hug before she walked into the garage. Maybe that hug is why I always paid her well.
She set down the bag, turned to me, and put her arms out. I pulled her tight so that I could feel those enormous breasts mash up against me, and I let my left hand wrap around her back and my right hand around her waist. The tips of my fingers just rested upon the top of her booty—right where it began to bubble out from her lower back.
"Bye," she said.
"Good-bye, Dena, and thanks, again." She smiled, took her bag, and then we both stopped.
Sirens. Not a tornado watch, anymore: a tornado warning.
"Shit," she muttered. Then, she looked up at me and asked, "Should I just risk it?"
"No. No way. Come on back inside. Let's head down to the basement."
I grabbed my drink and we went downstairs. On the way, my phone buzzed—Grandma.
"Hey, what's up?" I greeted her.
"Is Dena still there?"
"Yeah."
"Thank goodness. Keep her there. You on top of the weather situation?" she asked.
"We've got sirens here."
"Well, I'm watching the news. There's one on the ground, and it's moving your way, so get down in that basement."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And tell Dena to please respond to my messages sometimes."
I laughed. "I will."
I thanked her and hung up. Dena looked up at me.
"Your mom."
She nodded.
"She wants you to respond to your messages sometimes."
"I read them," she argued.
"She says there's a tornado on the ground not far from here and moving this way."
"Oh, shit."
"Let's head to the shelter."
"Okay."
Our basement is finished—it was when we bought it—and it had a tornado shelter, a nice little space. The previous owners had gotten hit back in '06. Part of the repair process included putting in the shelter.
It was basically a closet the size of a king bed with a mattress on the floor, some blankets and pillows, and padded rugs stapled to the walls. We put a little flat screen in there and a battery powered radio. Also, my wife placed a tackle box full of various emergency odds and ends: first aid stuff, batteries, a flashlight, hand warmers, some tools, some dehydrated food. She'd also put a some jugs of distilled water in there.
I flicked on the light, turned on the television, set my drink and my phone down, and sat on the mattress. Dena did, too. She kept messing around with her phone.
She said, "Shit! Look at this." She held up a radar image. Our town was surrounded by a jagged red and yellow splotch. Dena zoomed out—more behind it.
"Damn," I muttered.
An enormous crack of thunder shook the house. Dena hollered, "Oh, shit!" Her phone flew out of her hands and behind her as she covered her ears.
I flinched.
The lights flickered and went out. The tv image vanished to black, and Dena and I were surrounded by darkness and silence. I cracked the door open, but it didn't help. Not much exterior light made it to the shelter, and there wasn't much to be had, anyways.
"I can't find where I dropped my phone," she said.
"Where the hell did I put mine?" I wondered aloud. I felt around for it, and then I said, "Dena, feel around for that tackle box behind you. There's a flashlight in it."
I listened to her move around on the mattress. After a few seconds, she said, "I can't see anything."
"Wait. I got it," I told her, and I crawled on my knees across the mattress to the back of the shelter. "Fuck, it's dark. Hang on."
I reached out with my hand, feeling for the back wall, moving it in an arc. At the end of one sweep, my fingertips pushed against thin cotton covering heavy, soft, and warm flesh. I drew back.
"It's me."
"Sorry, Dena." It was her tit. I knew it. Fuck, it was big.
I moved on and found the wall and the tackle box, and in a moment, I had it open and the flashlight out. I turned it on, found Dena and handed it to her. She found her phone, and then she pointed to where I'd set mine down.
"Want the flashlight?" she asked.
"Nah. Just point me to my drink."