(For readers outside Australia, a few notes: University = College. Colleges are the residential halls attached to Universities. Mobile = Cell Phone. We drive on the left side of the road so we drive on the right side of the car. Summer begins on December 1.)
Setting the scene for this and other stores to come. This is the first of a series which will gradually unfold around a couple of key characters. The taboo/incest aspect will develop. Let me know what you think.
All persons in this story involved sexually are aged at least 18 years. Rachel is 16 when the story begins but 18 when something first 'happens'.
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When I met my wife she was 5 years older than me. That didn't really matter to either of us. I had not been married before but she had and from that relationship she had a beautiful daughter. When we met she was only 2 years old. Little Sarah did not remember her father, who had died of cancer before her first birthday.
So, when we married, Debbie was 24, I was 19 and Sarah had just turned 3. Sarah made a delightful flower girl, a beaming smile as she walked confidently down the aisle that day.
We settled into our new life together, though to be honest I wasn't really ready to be a father! Sarah adored me and, when she wasn't throwing the occasional tantrum, we got along extremely well.
Then there was the accident. Debbie and I had decided that we wanted Sarah to have a sibling, hopefully close to her in age, and so we tried as hard as we could to make that happen. Ok. We were madly in love and we both loved sex. The sex was extraordinary. I was not really very experienced, having been a bit shy as a teenager but Debbie did things and took me to places in bed (and in other places in the house once Sarah was asleep) that were beyond my wildest dreams.
No baby arrived though and we had begun to wonder if there was some problem. I was working as a home security consultant in a business I had set up with a friend from school. He handled the hardware and installations. I handled the IT and we were very successful. Debbie called me at work just before our second wedding anniversary to say that she was on her way home from the doctor and I should get home early and be prepared! I tried to get her to tell me what she meant but I could hear her smiling at the other end of the phone as she said "You will have to wait!"
I finished up and raced home. Sarah was being looked after by the next door neighbour, Tracy. She was a stay at home mum whose husband earned enough for her to look after their four children and the household. Their youngest, Rachel, had turned 16 a couple of months before and I think both Tracy and Robert were beginning to look forward to a different life once all their children were out of school. The older three had already moved away to University and Rachel helped Tracy looking after Sarah when her schoolwork didn't get in the way. I collected Sarah and went home to wait.
After an hour I began to get concerned. I tried calling Debbie's mobile but there was no answer. Then there was a knock at the door, which surprised me. Instead of Debbie's beaming smile there were two Police officers standing on the doorstep, looking grim.
When they asked if they could come in I began to feel seriously ill. They asked if anyone else was home and if I had any family members close by. I said that there were no family close but asked if it was ok to bring in a friend. When they agreed I called Tracy next door and asked her to come over, both to be there for what I feared I was going to hear and to help look after Sarah.
Tracy came straight over and as soon as we all sat down they told me. Debbie had been driving home and seemed to have been distracted. She had failed to stop at a Stop sign and had been hit by a truck coming from her right hand side. She died instantly. The truck driver was in hospital in shock but was not hurt. Debbie's purse had been thrown from the car and it was only after her body had been removed from the car that it was found and she was identified.
Through my tears I saw them handing me her purse and phone, the screen smashed, and a folded piece of paper, slightly smeared with a stain that looked like blood. I opened the paper and read without taking in what the words meant. The female officer, sounding like she was close to tears herself, explained. "It is a positive test. It means that your wife was pregnant. I am very sorry."
I can't really remember much of what happened after that. Tracy told me that I seemed to collapse into myself. I thanked everyone for being there. I asked Tracy to look after Sarah for a while for me. Then I opened a bottle of Scotch and lost myself.
Tracy told me that she came back a couple of hours later and found me sprawled on the lounge clutching the empty bottle. She got Robert to help and they put me into bed, with a large glass of water and some paracetamol on the bedside table and a note to say that Sarah was staying the night with them.
I woke in a blur and so much pain but it was only when I reached across to Debbie's side of the bed and found it cold and empty that reality struck and the tears flowed again. Telling Sarah that her mummy was not coming home again was awful. The funeral was heart-wrenching. The way that no-one knew quite what to say was almost unbearable. The only thing that held me together was the hugs. Guys and girls. Friends and neighbours. Those I knew and Debbie's colleagues whose names I vaguely remembered. That helped me get through the disaster.
It took time but we settled into a pattern of coping. I worked from home when I could then when I needed to go into work Tracy looked after Sarah. At least Sarah had the stability of school and she seemed to be coping as far as I could see. Better than me. We both had nightmares though. As time went on Rachel started taking over looking after Sarah more and more. The school they both attended was a huge campus not far from our house which went all the way from Kindergarten to year 12. As it was just down the street I was ok with Rachel collecting Sarah and walking her home. Rachel would get Sarah some afternoon biscuits and milk then sit at the dining room table and do her homework while Sarah played.
When I got home Rachel would go next door again. And so we went on. When I needed to go away for a conference Sarah went to stay next door and Rachel ended up looking after her most of the time. When I had evening meetings Rachel came and babysat. After the second time that I arrived home after 11 pm Tracy and Robert suggested that it might be easier if Rachel slept the night and came home the next morning. The house had plenty of space and spare rooms so this worked well.
Rachel began staying longer after I returned from work and a few times a week she stayed and ate with us before going home. As I look back I think in the next two years Rachel spent as much time in our house as she did at home, if not more! I watched Rachel develop from a shy girl into a confident young woman. A special bond developed between Rachel and Sarah which was clearly important to both of them.
As I said, Sarah seemed to be coping well but some nights she woke crying out. She would come into my bed and I would hold her until she went to sleep again. We kept photos of Debbie around the house and we talked about her often and gradually the pain seemed to ease.
One night I heard Sarah cry out and leapt out of bed, once I had become aware what had woken me. I ran to her room and at first I was confused when she was not in her bed. Then I remembered that it was one of the nights when Rachel was staying over.
In the house there were two bedrooms which shared a bathroom, both having an internal door which opened directly onto that space. Sarah had one as her bedroom and we had set up the other as Rachel's room for when she stayed over. I put a queen sized bed in there, set up a spare computer in case she needed it for her homework and Rachel had even begun to leave some of her clothes in the cupboard and a spare toothbrush with some other toiletries in the bathroom to save having to bring everything over every time. Rachel always stayed over when I was out late for meetings but she had also asked to stay on nights when her parents went out in the evening. Otherwise she would have been home alone and she preferred to be at our place with Sarah.
I went quietly through the bathroom to Rachel's room. Both doors were already open and there was a low light glimmering in the darkness of the room beyond.
Rachel and Sarah were lying together on the bed. It was a hot night and so Rachel had pulled back the top sheet and they were both in thin short nighties. If this was a couple I would have said they were 'spooning'. Rachel was cuddling Sarah into her and Sarah had her back to Rachel while in front she was tightly hugging her favourite soft toy, a large cuddly penguin. Rachel was stroking Sarah's hair softly and as I approached she looked up and put her finger to her lips, encouraging me to be quiet. Sarah was asleep again, or perhaps had not properly woken when she had the nightmare and cried out and ended up in Rachel's room.
I must have thought before I went to bed about the fact that Rachel was sleeping over because, although I usually slept naked, especially in summer and on warmer nights, I was at least wearing some cotton boxers. I smiled as I looked at Rachel cuddling Sarah, obviously with love, and I knew she was safe. Then my mind began to take in more of what I could see in front of me.
When they had settled into the bed Rachel clearly had to shuffle down to hold Sarah comfortably. That meant that the light cotton nighty she was wearing had risen on her body and behind Sarah's tiny body I could see clearly Rachel's legs all the way up to her naked hips and up to the side of her waist. Sarah's bum covered the centre of Rachel's body but quite clearly the light thin cotton nighty was all that Rachel was wearing.
Obviously I had 'noticed' Rachel before. This beautiful young woman had been staying at our house many nights. In the morning she usually appeared with a light robe wrapped around her, over her nighty. Especially in summer when she came to look after Sarah after school she usually changed into very short shorts and a t-shirt. She was comfortable in our home and relaxed here and even though I had noticed her developing body I had been very careful not to look too long or too obviously or to let my thoughts go there beyond fleeting recognition that she was becoming a very sexy young woman.
Now my body betrayed me. As I looked at her, half exposed to me I felt my erection start to stir and the movement caught Rachel's attention. I felt deeply embarrassed but the more I tried to settle my mind and my body the opposite seemed to happen. Very quickly the tent inside my boxers must have been very obvious. Her partly naked body was gorgeous. The light in the room was enough to reveal her to me and me to her.
I looked across to see how Rachel was reacting, expecting her to be embarrassed or upset or disturbed. Instead, while her eyes were wide open, she was not looking worried at all. She kept her eyes locked on my groin for what seemed like hours but must have been barely minutes. When she looked up again to my face I am sure I was blushing and I mouthed the words "Sorry. Thank you for looking after Sarah. I will leave her with you. She should be ok now. See you in the morning."
If I had been speaking aloud that would surely have been a garble of words tumbling out of me. Instead I made sure I mouthed the words slowly so that she would understand. Rachel nodded. Smiled. Then her eyes drifted down again to my groin and she smiled a deeper smile, looked up again quickly and blew me a kiss, then closed her eyes, lowered her head and snuggled into Sarah again.
I fled as quickly and quietly as I could. What was I doing! What was I going to do?! I relied on Rachel for the pattern of my life. Sarah needed her and loved her. Would she tell her parents? Would she just decide not to come back or never to stay the night again? What would happen???
I lay on my bed, thoughts swirling, worried yet also, if it was possible, even more aroused than I had been when standing in her room. My erection was so hard now that it was painful inside my boxers. So I slid them off and lay naked on the sheet. The swirl of thoughts were swept away by the mental image which filled my mind.
