My younger sister had asked me to spend a week with her on Fire Island, my "Birthday Present for my Sister" (a story with three chapters). A couple of weeks later, she started a trip to Europe with a group of girls. Our married older sister's present for her eighteenth birthday had been agreeing to tell her about men, sex. That conversation had an obvious impact on what we two had ended up doing together. I was, therefore, interested but a little apprehensive when I met our sister later that summer.
One day when we were alone together, she smiled slightly and said:
"That was nice of you to spend the week with her on Fire Island. How was it"
"Fine, better than I thought it would be."
"Did she?"
"Did she what?"
"Go topless; she told me that she wanted to, while she was still hoping she could go out there with her girlfriend."
I must have blushed. She smirked and said:
"I guess she did, at least said that she wanted to."
"She did, told me she wanted to on the way there."
"And did she?"
"Could I stop her? Make her put it back on?"
"I guess not. Would have been an interesting scene."
"She told you that she wanted to?"
"Yeah, about wanting to on the Cote d'Azur."
"Told me that too. Why didn't you ask her yourself; you two were there the next week?"
"I thought it better to avoid any mention of it, especially since she didn't. So she did; must have been, well, interesting."
"Yes."
"Difficult?"
"She's my sister, but ..., well, yes."
"Bridget Bardot?"
"I was thinking Ursula Andress. BB is maybe better."
"She did, in France, a couple of the others didi too. Wrote me."
"Really? And wrote you?"
"Just: 'I did! A couple of us did,' with a grin. Oh, she asked me to tell you."
"Thanks. When did she tell you that she wanted to?"
I was pretty sure it had been during their conversation about men and sex, and wanted to hear what my older sister would say about it - at least, how she would answer my question. She hesitated a moment, letting me infer that I was right. Then she smiled wryly and said:
"She wanted to ask me some questions, said it would be my birthday present for her."
"What you thought about her wanting to go topless?"
"That too."
"And ...? Doesn't sound like you reacted like Mother would have, since she did."
"I was thinking she would be with a girlfriend, so if they wanted to, and no one saw them."
"She wasn't, and no one saw her."
"Except you, why I asked about the week, since she had made it so important that she didn't look like a girl going topless for the first time. So I assumed that she must have with you instead of her girlfriend."
"She did. Told her the guys would still probably look - BB."
"Yes, I can imagine so."
I was liking our conversation, hoping to hear more about theirs. With hindsight, I must have - obviously did - forget what it could lead to. Still fishing for more information, I said:
"She didn't just ask you whether you thought she could; you said: 'that too'."
She hesitated again, then nodding with another wry smile, and replied:
"She didn't want to go off to college and have her first time after a drunken party."
"And ...? No, that wouldn't be good. Of course, you told her that. And ...?"
She hesitated again, this time without the wry smile, and said:
"She had lots of questions about boys, about what could happen, about what to do?"
"And you told her?!"
"She asked. My birthday present; I answered. Better to hear from me than have it be like that - her first time, like mine was."
"Yeah, of course. What's a big sister for?"
"What I was thinking, just a little surprised that she had ventured to ask me."
"Great birthday present for her eighteenth birthday."
"Something like that. ... Hmm?! Oh! And then she was out there with you."
"Yeah!"
"Difficult?"
"Said so already."
"Oh? She didn't ask you too, also want a male's opinion?"
"Wanted to know if I had slept with girls."
"I suppose you have."
"Yes."
"And what did you tell her?"
"That I had."
"Hmm? Maybe I shouldn't have told her so much; she must have asked more."
"She sure did! And that she had asked you."
"She told you that?!"
I nodded, replying:
"Not just that she had asked."
"What I told her?"
"Um-hmm, not all at once, asking if I had - this or that. Sounded like you told her some things she didn't know to ask."
"Oooh! It must have been 'difficult.' Yeah, maybe I did, didn't want her to be surprised if a guy wanted to do something she hadn't heard about. And you told her? Well, if you had - 'this or that'?"
"Um-hmm, with her also telling me about not wanting her first time to be after a drunken party."
"Well, we both don't want that."
I just nodded, knowing that her first time had not been like that, nor her second or all the other times - how many? We had used a dozen rubbers, and then done it again! My older sister said again: