No car in the driveway, noted Kelly Sanders. That's a good sign.
Kelly had not been back home, the scene of the crime as it were, since starting college several years ago. The memories were too painful, and she never did understand how her mother could remain in the house after all that had happened.
For the hundredth time, she read the e-mail from her twin sister. Cathy's instructions were simple and direct. Find the loose floorboard, pull it up, get the key and mail it to her. No chit-chat, no explanation … the mystery left Kelly with an odd, disquieting feeling. Something was not right. But in fifteen minutes it wouldn’t matter anyway, unless Ellen had changed the locks.
Heart pounding, throat dry, the young blonde tried her old key on the front door. It slid in smoothly, and in a moment Kelly was inside.
The house had been completely redecorated. Every trace of the twins and their father, Jake, had disappeared. Ellen had removed the carpeting in favor of the polished hardwood floor underneath, the furniture was new, modern and clean, the walls repainted a soothing robin's-egg blue.
But the fireplace caught Kelly's eye. Once a hodgepodge of family photographs, it seemed to be a shrine to Kelly's older brother, Roger. Roger's high school photo was displayed, of course. Roger and Ellen, mother and son together, grinning for the camera and holding each other close. But there was also Roger in competitive swimming, Roger running the relay, Roger tanned and shirtless by a pool.
Roger displaying an awful lot of skin, thought Kelly. He's got quite a body, my big brother. This looks like something a girl with a crush on somebody would put up. What's Mom thinking?
The sound of a toilet flushing almost stopped Kelly's heart. Her first instinct was to bolt for the door, but that would have made her look like a criminal. She had a key, and was certainly within her rights to visit her mother. It had been too long since they'd seen one another, anyway. Forcing herself to breathe normally, Kelly nervously braced herself to meet Ellen.
But it was Roger who emerged from the bathroom, dressed in a tank top and gym shorts. When he stepped into the living room, he almost jumped off the floor.
"Jesus, Cathy! You startled me!"
"It's Kelly. I'm sorry, Roger. I didn't know you were here."
"I never thought I'd see you here again," he replied, smiling. They embraced and exchanged a chaste kiss. Roger's hand slid lightly, briefly along Kelly's upper thigh, and she shivered; his touch was eerily like Jake's.
"Nothing exciting planned, I'm afraid," he said. "I was just about to get a beer and watch TV in the rec room until my softball game at four. Can you stay awhile?"
"Make it two," Kelly said.
Down the stairs she went, the first time she had been in the basement recreation room in year. It was here she had first made love, and it was her father who had taken her cherry. Even now, in bed with her fiance, Kelly used the pleasuring techniques she'd learned with her father in this very room, on the same sofa that still faced the TV.
Come to think of it, this part of the house hasn't changed at all, Kelly thought. Why would Mom totally alter the upstairs and leave this room alone?
Overwhelmed by the memories, Kelly felt her stomach tighten, and then a warm tingle in her pussy. She shrugged the notion away, thinking, I'll just take it out on Chip later. Where's that floorboard?
Too late, she heard Roger's footsteps on the stairs, and then she had a bottle of beer in her hand.
"Cheers," Roger said, clinking her glass.
The foamy liquid felt cool and malty on her throat, and helped to calm her. She realized now that she lost her chance to get the key. But the key to what?
"So what brings you by?" asked Roger, patting a spot on the couch.
"We've all been split apart for such a long time," Kelly said. "It's time to see if we can’t patch things up. What are you looking at?"
"It's been so long, I've forgotten how beautiful you are."
It was true; Kelly looked little different than she did at eighteen, when all this started. She wore her thick strawberry blonde differently, of course, in a round, professional style that framed her face and hovered just above her shoulders. Accountants were expected to look like professionals, and so Kelly now dressed like one, in a stylish gold satin blouse that matched her hair, but was loose enough to only hint at the firm cantaloupes that stood up underneath. Kelly's black skirt stopped just above the knee, and the black pantyhose and pumps she wore outlined her slender runner's legs, which she crossed to her brother's obvious approval when she reclined on the couch.
They didn't speak for a few minutes; Roger and Kelly had never discussed the scandal. Both knew the time had now come, but not how to broach the topic.
"Did you ever forgive Mom for making that tape?" Kelly said at last.
"Yeah, we've gotten past that part," he said.
"I've never seen it," Kelly said, sipping her beer.
"I …"
