(Part 3 of 3)
Amy came to visit me in the spring. She had started a tradition of visiting our parent's grave on their anniversary and this would be the first year I'd be home to join her. Though we were dressed in our mourning clothes it wasn't a somber occasion. I'm sure Helen and Charles wouldn't want us to mope around. The weather was perfect and the cemetery sprawled through beautiful wooded acres. After silently meditating by the gravesite, we walked for hours along the shady paths, sharing memories of when the family was together. My sister was so beautiful, our mother's diamond necklace sparkling at her throat.
We were sitting on some moss-covered boulders, talking about I don't remember what, and I must have said something funny when Amy laughed and loudly said, "Oh, Daddy!" They hadn't quite registered on me, her words, when she flushed red and went quiet. I couldn't get her to engage after that so I suggested we go back to my apartment and change for lunch.
When we were in our street clothes Amy went to my liquor cabinet and got out the vodka and soda.
"Day drinking today?" I asked.
"Yeah," she replied. "You might want one too. There's something I need to talk about."
I had no idea what she had in mind but so much weird stuff had come up for me lately I was expecting just about anything. She poured us both a tall one and we topped them off with ice. Amy sipped and looked around the room like she was searching for something.
"Jim, you know how they were on their way back from Aspen when they, you know."
"Sure, it was their favorite ski spot."
"Well, I shared their vacation pictures with you, the ones they had on their camera, right?"
"Riiight." I was starting to have a sneaking suspicion.
"About a year after the accident I found a second memory card. Mom had it hidden in her toiletry kit. It had pictures of them in Aspen, but not vacation pictures, little brother."
Ohhh my goodness. Carrying unencrypted files in public. Very careless. I was glad Amy found it and not someone else. "Dirty pictures, I presume?"
"The dirtiest. They were taking pictures of themselves doing it, doing everything, all over their cabin. There were videos too. You remember helping me set up a lockbox on my computer? That's what I needed to hide."
"Well, sister, I've been trying to find a way to tell you something as well, and you just made things a whole lot easier."
*****
I put my secure laptop in front of her and attached it to the television. I explained to her how I discovered an encrypted drive in Dad's mystery safe deposit box, showed her the drive in its brown paper envelope. She saw the words written on it in our father's script: "Destroy this disc. Do not read." I plugged in the drive and opened the first volume. The twenty-eight cover images came up on the screen.
"I've already seen these," she said. "You sent them to me last year."
"Click on an image," I said, pointing to the picture of Mom dressed like a sexy librarian.
She clicked, and the picture gallery appeared. Amy scrolled to reveal the graphic scenes of our parents making love.
"Oh, wow." She backed out of that gallery and selected another, this one featuring Dad on the cover photo. While she gaped at them I briefly described how I found these images and how I struggled with the questions of what to do with the files and how to tell her about them. I didn't tell her how I obsessed over them for months. I certainly didn't tell her how I developed a disgusting infatuation with our mother. As for the second volume, the one with the videos that bothered me so much, I figured I'd see how this went.
"I'll give you some privacy while you ponder this," I told her.
"No, stay. It's cool." She held her empty glass toward me and waggled it. "And would you mind?"
I refreshed our drinks and returned to the sofa while she clicked and scrolled. She was going through them pretty quickly. What took me months to get through she was on course to digest in a couple of hours. Of course, she wasn't pleasuring herself every time a new gallery opened up for her. I was thinking of what I would say if she asked me if I had masturbated to the pictures.
"So it looks like they would take a bunch of pictures and videos, then cherry-pick the best ones to keep." She was being surprisingly analytical.
"That explains it for me. Makes more sense than them trying to take the perfect shots using a timer."
"Jim, when you look at these, do you think Mom is attractive?"
"Yeah, of course."
"Do you think she's sexy?"
"Well, yeah."
"When I found those pictures from Aspen, I was pretty shocked... at first. I have to confess, though, that it turned me on. Mainly the idea of them doing that, as opposed to looking at them doing it, turned me on. And I had that secret knowledge. It was very... alluring. Can I save some of the safe-for-work images?"
"I don't see why not." I hadn't thought of doing that. Of course, my problem was looking at too many images of our mother, not too few.
She created a folder and started dragging pictures of Dad to it, pictures of him looking suave in a suit, of him removing his tie, of him with his shirt unbuttoned. As she did this she continued her thought. "As I looked at the pictures, over and over, I was struck with how really attractive Dad is. Really... masculine. And the way he makes love to our mother, powerful. Do you sometimes look at Mom that way? Do you ever wish you were in Dad's place, making love to our mother?"
"I... I'm sorry, I did look at Mom that way. Yes."
"I became kind of obsessed over Dad. Sounds weird, but I feel like I've fallen in love with him. I know I shouldn't feel that way. And even if it wasn't wrong, I can never have him."
"Listen, Amy, I know exactly how you feel. The lust, the guilt, the longing. I am glad we can talk about this."
She closed the laptop and turned to me, taking my hands in hers. "I'm glad too, Jim. This feeling has taken over my life, making me crazy. And It's ruining my relationship with David."