1978 started out well for the Brenner family.
I'd lived almost my entire life on what had been my father's uncle's farm, which he'd left to my father and his cousin Anna when he died. We didn't live like royalty by any means, but it's hard to starve when you don't pay rent or a mortgage, the farm brings in a few bucks, and my father managed a small store in town.
Anna and her daughter -- my second-cousin, I guess -- lived with us. I'm not really clear whether they moved in just before or just after my mother left us. Either way, I was a toddler at the time. Yeah, my parents had had what used to be called a shotgun wedding.
A lot of this changed in April: after construction began on an Interstate very near the farm, some consortium bought up about three quarters of the farm (which included a large lake), planning to build a resort hotel.
All of a sudden we were, if not actually rich, pretty well-off: Jenny and I (who'd recently turned 18) were told our college tuitions were taken care of, and my father bought and expanded the store.
A few days later, during Easter break, lying by the lake with Jenny -- which we did sometimes even when it was too cold to actually swim -- I told her that she was an heiress now, and she'll have guys beating down her door.
"Do you think I need a family fortune to have guys beating down my door?"
"Well, duh," I said with a smirk.
Jenny was my best friend as well as my cousin, and kind of a sister as well. If anybody else had made this sort of comment, I'd have kicked his ass.
"You know," she said, suddenly very serious, "I had this weird thought when Mom told me about the sale. That now that we're rich, my father would suddenly show. How fucked-up is that?"
Jenny's birth certificate had UNKNOWN written in the space for "Father's Name." Presumably "Aunt Anna" knew who he was, but this was never discussed.
"No more fucked up than me thinking
my mother
will return," I said quietly.
And that was it for talking for the next fifteen minutes or so until she said "It wasn't supposed to get this warm. I could use a swim."
"The water is probably ice cold this early in the year."
"I'd probably still do it, if it weren't such a hike to go back to the house," she said.
"Then just take off your shirt and shorts. There's nobody else around." We didn't make a habit of walking around the house in our underwear, but we'd certainly seen one another like that often enough. before.
"Will you go in too?"
"
Hell
, no," I said. "I'm not going to freeze my ass off. Not to mention other parts."
"Well, I couldn't anyway: I'm not wearing a bra."
"That's okay," I said, "I won't peek."
"In your dreams," she said with a laugh. "And you're a terrible cousin to even suggest it."
"In my dreams" wasn't that far from true: a few summers ago, a softball game I was supposed to play got canceled because it was too hot. I came home and changed, planning on taking a swim, and came across Aunt Anna and Jenny skinny-dipping.
Well, not actually naked, but wearing just their panties. Good enough.
This was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, even if I never got as close as I'd have liked. And yeah, I'd dreamed about it often. Including
just before
going to sleep.
I saw them a few more times after that day, each time when they were certain my father and I would be gone for the day. I was always wearing my trunks, so if they spotted me I could innocently claim I'd just come for a quick swim.
By the time my brain had returned to the present, Jenny had taken off her sneakers, socks and shorts, and was waking into the water.
Cousin or not, I was looking forward to seeing what her wet t-shirt would look like plastered to her chest; but alas, she made it only about thigh-deep in the cold water before she chickened out and retreated back to shore.
We laid down for another half hour or so, letting her feet and legs dry, and then she put on her socks, sneakers and shorts and we went home.
#
"Can I ask you something?" Jenny asked that night in my room. I was working on a paper due after Easter break. "Serious question?"
"Should I be worried?" I asked.
