Chapter 8

Sherry and Bob were siblings in a large family of thirteen children. Their father left the home shortly after Sherry was born. Sherry was followed by seven other children, who were fathered by two different men.

Bob was the oldest boy and was greatly attached to Sherry for as long as Sherry could remember. When the last of the three fathers left the home, Bob became very protective of Sherry and tended and cared for her devotedly.

He carried her about with him whenever he went out to play. And otherwise cared for her. This devotion evoked no special interest since the family was so large.

The mother, a small, fairly normal woman in intelligence, led a very active social life in spite of her large brood. She was out frequently. Later on in life, she was to become very religious and rigid in her moral views, but the early child-rearing days found her sexually loose and fancy free.

The older children tended the younger ones. The family was very poor. There was never enough money. Sherry's mother learned to be an excellent cook and later the family, their spouses and children would congregate in her house.

Sherry and Bob strongly resembled each other as to facial features and coloring. Bob was tall and big, Sherry was well formed and tiny, although attractive. The attraction both held for each other continued through adulthood and throughout the two marriages of both.

As children, Bob had taken to dressing and undressing Sherry for school and for bed. It was to him she turned for advice and guidance whenever it was needed. The family lived in four delapidated rooms in a rundown section of a suburban city. The children sought every opportunity to remain out of the home.

Bob got into the habit of taking Sherry with him on his motorbike and they would roar off into the street, with Sherry clinging on to his back. Bob had been caring for Sheery's physical needs such as her bedtime bath from such an early age, that she grew into girlhood taking his care for granted.

Sometimes when Bob was bathing her, his hands would linger caressingly on Sherry's budding new breasts that were just beginning to thrust against her clothes. Bob was by that time, a tall and heavily built man.

Because the financial needs of the family were so urgent, Bob had not been able to graduate from high school. He had left school to get a job and was contributing from his salary to help out at home.

Every week he brought Sherry some little gift of wearing apparel. Sherry learned to expect these and eventually she took receiving gifts for granted. It led to selfishness later.

Sherry noticed and liked the gentle, tender way that Bob soaped her body when he was bathing her. He talked to her a great deal and told her things none of the other girls knew.

Sherry was getting old enough to bathe herself and one day as Bob was bathing her, one of the older sisters told him to stop. She noticed that Bob's face flushed and his lips quivered.

Bob did not stop. While drying her, his hands lingered over her tiny compact body that was not to grow any bigger, as she would remain short all her life. Then Bob did an odd thing. As he was drying between her legs, he let the towel linger and Sherry could feel his fingers, strong and hard, pressing down deep inside her. He did it again a few times before he stopped.

Sherry was ten years old at the time. She later would remember exactly the delicious thrill that coursed through her, at the touch of Bob's fingers pressing down into her.

Sherry looked at Bob and smiled her beautiful smile at him. His face was set in strange, new lines, and a vein throbbed wildly in his temples. Sherry squealed delightedly. This was a new adventure she was sharing with Bob, like the other new things they were always doing.

"I like that!" she gurgled.

Bob gave an anxious look back over his shoulder. Then his eyes found hers and he smiled. "Shhhhh. Not so loud. This is a secret between us, like all the other secrets we have, OK?"

Sherry nodded still smiling. "We have lot of secrets."

"Yes. Now, remember. You must never tell anyone about this one."

Sherry shook her head. "No. I won't tell."

And Bob knew she would not, so great was the bond between them. He continued drying her, and moved the towel to her back. "Now bend over on my arm so I can dry your hiney," he advised.

Sherry bent over and leaned on Bob's arm. With his other arm, he rubbed the towel all over her back and buttocks. Then it was happening again. Sherry felt his fingers pressing on her vagina. A lovely warm feeling spread over her again.

"You're doing it again," she laughed. "I like it."

She heard Bob let out a breath. "You are sure you like it?"

"Unh. I like it."

"If I do it again, you promise to keep it a secret just between us, like always?"

"Yes. Do it some more!"

Now Bob removed the towel and inserted his finger to the edge of Sherry's vagina. Gently and slowly he began massaging the tiny extrusions and the hard tip of the child's clitoris.

"Oooooooooh! That feels so funny!"

"All right. I'm going to stop."

"I don't want you to stop," Sherry protested. "Do it some more."

Bob bent his head so that he could hear the sounds and noises coming from the room outside the bathroom door, and once again inserted his finger into the child's vagina. This time he did not stop at the mouth of the vagina, but went further in. Bob whirled his fingertip round and round the inner flesh of the warm opening, without trying to penetrate deep into the orifice.

"If you really like it, we will do it some more, some other time," he promised.

"A wright!"

With that, he finished drying the child and helped her to dress in her nightgown. When he laid her in the bed where four of them were to sleep, Sherry clung to his neck. "I want to sleep with you tonight," she pleaded.

"Tomorrow night you can sleep with me," Bob promised, tucking her in.

The following night Sherry reminded him of his promise and Bob told her all right, but he did not take her to bed. Instead, Sherry crept into bed and was fast asleep by the time Bob got home.

Bob, as the oldest son, and the financial head of the family, had been given a small bed by himself. Through the early years of her childhood, Sherry had been allowed to sleep with him.

That particular night, however, Sherry awoke to feel Bob beside her.

"Wanna wee wee," she told her brother.

"All right. C'mon."

Bob took her to the bathroom and waited for her to finish. But instead of allowing her to dry herself as she had been taught to do, Bob took the toilet tissue and ministered to her.

Sherry could feel his firm fingers probing and pushing the paper into her tiny opening. She was half asleep, but knew from before what she was feeling.

"You're doing it again," she whispered sleepily. "Hush now!" Bob warned her. "I'll do it some more when you get to bed if you keep quiet."

"Awright," Sherry murmured.

Bob led her back to bed and she snuggled close to him. It was good to feel his warmth snuggled near. His big arms enfolded her. She would feel his fingers trailing like a feather along her thigh.

Her tiny body began to shiver. She had seen one of her sister's boy friends do that to her. She whispered to Bob. "I seen Rufe do that to Mattie," she said.

But Bob's hand covered her mouth and she knew she was to remain quiet. Again Bob's fingers trailed along her thighs. This time they went on down to where her little V formed and forced her legs apart.

Bob's hand found itself covering the soft V. The firm, young flesh was warm under his fingers. One of his fingers penetrated into the parted lips of the vagina and went deep and stopped.

The hand did no more than rest there. Sherry leaned against Bob and felt the hard penis pressing against her back. She was familiar with a penis. She had seen Bob's and that of some of her younger brothers many times.

"Your Peter Pee is jabbing me in the side," she whispered to Bob.

"So what am I supposed to do with it? If it's in your way, move it," he whispered back.

This seemed natural to Sherry and she took her tiny hand and grasped the penis. The rigid object was hard and fully extended and her hand couldn't meet around it.

"Too big!" the child whispered.

"No. It isn't," Bob whispered back. And again his hand reached over and covered her mouth.

Then he moved and Sherry felt the hard tip of the penis resting on the mouth of her vagina. She moved a little closer to him. She had once seen her mother doing this with Uncle Joe.

"Are you going to do it?" she inquired. It seemed a perfectly natural thing to do.

For a second Bob didn't answer. Then she heard a murmured, "Maybe."

Sherry felt the tip of the penis go further and remain. Then Bob was moving and wiggling, slowly and quietly, so that no one would hear him.

"That's not how Uncle Joe did it to Mommy," she whispered. "He was moving real quick!"

"It would hurt you if I did that," Bob whispered back.

So it was, Bob seduced his sister but did not penetrate her for more than a year. At eleven, Sherry had her first menses and it was Bob who explained it all to her. They still went out together a lot and were still quite close, but Bob was becoming increasingly cautious as the girl grew older.

Then one day, they were alone in the apartment. It was a rare opportunity and Bob who had been watching a baseball game on TV, suddenly found Sherry standing beside him. He felt her weight leaning on his shoulder.

"Let's play games," the girl teased.

Bob was engrossed in the game, so to tease him away from the set, Sherry rustled and rubbed herself on him. She rubbed her thigh slowly along his shoulder pressing against him. By this time she knew all about sex. She had seen the sex act performed many times by her older sister and by her mother and their boy friends.

She felt Bob stiffen suddenly. "Now stop that!" he ordered in a choked voice. "You want me to make you for sure, don't you?"

Sherry laughed, teasingly. "Bet you can't do it. That's why you never done it."

Bob stared at her and his face flushed. "I was thinking of you," he replied hotly. "I didn't want to hurt you."

"I didn't say I'd get hurt." Sherry was keeping a strange half smile on her face.

"What you trying to do? Get us both in trouble?" Bob demanded.

"You scared!" Sherry taunted.

"Sure I'm scared. And you should be too!"

Sherry laughed a low thrill and again rubbed herself against him. She sidled over until she was standing in front of him. Her vagina was in line with his face. Without a word, Bob grabbed and clasped her firmly.

Sherry raised her dress and pressed herself against Bob's flushed face. She opened her legs and Bob buried his face between her legs. Then Bob was oral-loving her vagina and pulling at her clitoris.

At first Sherry didn't feel the expected sensation. Then suddenly, Bob stuck his tongue deep inside the small opening, that still had the hymen intact and for a fleeting second Sherry felt a strange, delicious, thrill that came and went quickly.

"Ohhhhhhhhh! Do that again, Bob. Please do that, It felt good."

"I can't. I might spoil it," he said.

Sherry gave a chuckle. "It's gotta break sometime," she answered matter-of-factly.

Bob again went between her legs and this time. Sherry felt the pressure throbbing against the hard membrane that was her hymen. Then Bob was doing things to the tip of her clitoris.

By this time, Sherry had developed a very sensitive clitoris from the constant playing on the part of Bob. Slowly her hips began to move very awkwardly.

"You don't know how to grind," Bob told her. "Move round and round slow and even like," he advised.

"How come you know so much about it?" Sherry asked, but she began to do as she had been told.

"I been to a whore's, that's how."

"Let me do that to you now," Sherry told him. She was beginning to get sore. "It's your turn."

"I dunno if I ought to let you," Bob temporized. "I'm pretty big."

But he took out his distended penis and was fondling it tenderly. His eyes were almost shut and his breath came in pants. Sherry gazed at the nakedness of Bob. "It sure is big," she admitted, "But I want to try it just the same."

"All right. Get down-no-you're so little-you better let me get down on my knees and you can stand up to play with it."

So Bob got to his knees as if her were praying and Sherry stood up. His hips just reached her face. It was no effort at all for her to give him this abnormal thrill.

Sherry was surprised to see that his flesh was warm to her touch.

"Come on, move your mouth. Real hard. It won't hurt," Bob commanded.

Sherry started to pull but her teeth got in the way and clamped down hard on the gristle.

"You don't have to bite me," Bob exclaimed. "Move outta the way and let me do it my way."

Sherry held her tongue back and Bob began a slow even gyrating, which slid and moved his pelvis in a carnal gesture. Sherry began to feel the good sensation she had before.

Her body grew tense and she clung to Bob fervidly. "You like it, Hettie. I kin tell you like it."

Bob's voice was hoarse with excitement. Then he was moving frantically. "I'm gonna reach the top," he cried suddenly. "Get ready!" Then before Sherry could do anything, he was almost yelling, "I'm ... almost ... ohhhhhh...."

Sherry felt the climax. Quickly Bob withdrew his throbbing body. Sherry raced to the kitchen and washed herself.

"I don't like that part," she said.

Bob was using his handkerchief. "Next time I'll use my handkerchief," he said.

After that, they performed cunnilingus and fellatio frequently. Still, Bob had not penetrated the hymen. Sherry teased him, but Bob held back. One day Sherry taunted him and made him angry. "Iffen you don't want to do it, I'm gonna let Ralphie take it," Sherry promised.

Bob stared at her. Sherry was now going on thirteen and had been menstruating for almost two years. "All right. If that's the way you feel, I'll do it. But I don't want to hear nuthin' from you about it later on!"

"I ain't goin' to complain about nuthin," Sherry said.

"Awright, tell Maw I'm taking you to the movies and meet me down the street at the Greasy Spoon," Bob advised.

"Where we goin'?" Sherry asked, excitement making her eyes big. "You'll find out!!"

Bob took her to an apartment, she had never been before.

"Whose apartment is this?"

"Belongs to a friend of mine. His wife works nights and he is out for a while."

Sherry smiled. "To give us time to do it."

"You talk too much," Bob said.

"You don't have to sound so angry. I ain't done nuthin'."

Sherry stood by the bed and stared at her toes. She didn't understand why Bob was angry or looked so strange. She looked up suddenly and caught his eyes. There was a strange light in them-and was it shame? She couldn't figure it out. But thinking was too much trouble for her.

Her face brightened. "Kin we go to the movies afterwards?" she asked.

Bob looked away. "I guess so."

He came over to her and began rubbing her face, the way he always did. Sherry leaned against him. His fingers began unbuttoning her blouse. He took everything off her until she was nude.

Then he made her lie on the bed and got in beside her. It was usual for them to lie naked whenever they got the chance, but today was different. There was something about Bob that was different.

Then she felt him doing the things they had been doing and Sherry began to relax. She had become quite sensual by this time and responded to Bob's caresses with fervor and equal ardor. Strangely enough, it was Bob who felt guilt and shame and not Sherry.

Sherry encouraged Bob on, when he stopped in dismay at what they were about to do. She gave him the final push into the incestuous act by performing fellatio on him. By now Bob was a seething cauldron.

He mounted Sherry and for the first time, she felt his full weight on her in the complete sex act. She felt his maleness hovering over her body. Then the male pressure was gently caressing her softness.

Suddenly, something was inside her. Bob was being gentle. Sherry could feel a thump, thump. It hurt but felt sort of good. She was sensing Bob's discomfort.

She gave a violent thrust against him, just as he came down towards her. With a desperate tearing and wrenching, the membrane gave way and he consummated the act.

Sherry cried out in pain and surprise. She had not expected the pain. But Bob was oblivious to her cries now that he had penetrated her. At last he shuddered, in what Sherry had come to recognize as his climax.

She herself had not enjoyed the act at all. It had been too new and too quick. She was left with a feeling of letdown. Perhaps the next time it would be better. Bob had told her that it usually grew on you.

There were many other times for Sherry and Bob, now that the ice was broken. To remove suspicion from the minds of the rest of the family, she dated other boys and Bob dated other girls, but they never enjoyed anyone as much as they did each other, being brother and sister.

They met frequently, several times a week and Sherry discovered that she perferred fellatio and cunnilingus to the natural sex act, although she acceded to Bob's demands to please him.

She had experimented with several other boys also and by the time she was sixteen was a seasoned sensualist. A quiet, demure experior and a soft manner and voice carred her through without much suspicion.

But late in her sixteenth year, a calamity happened that brought changes in Sherry's life. She and Bob were alone and he was fondling her nipples that were standing hard and rigid under his fingers.

Sherry could feel that Bob was ready to consummate their act. She turned over and gently touched his face.

"Bob!"

"MMMMMmmmmmmmm?"

"You do love me, don't you?"

Bob leaned on one elbow and stared at her. His finger traced an invisible line on her cheek. "You know I do."

"More than anyone?" Sherry persisted.

"Of course. You know that. More than anyone."

Sherry snuggled close to him. She was happy with the answer.

"I wish I could marry you," she said quietly.

"Bob was aghast. He stared at her. Terror was in his eyes. "You are one crazy-" he whispered. "You're my sister."

Sherry's laughter trilled through the room.

"Bob-"

"Yeah. What?"

"I'm goin' to have a baby."

For a long moment Bob was still, then he turned, sat on the side of the bed and stared at her. "How do you know?"

"Ain't had muh period. Three weeks late." Bob was silent. "Maw know yet?" Sherry shook her head. "No one but you." He asked the question then that he had to. "Know-Who it fer?"

"You ah guess. Ain't had nobody but you since my last period."

"Now, Sherry, you been playing around with that Tommy Hawkins-"

Sherry shook her head. "Ah ain't had nobody but you for almost two months. Honest, Bob. Honest!"

Bob got up and paced up and down the room in agitation. "Nobody must know about us. You hear? Nobody! No matter what we have to do. It would kill Maw now that she's got religion."

Sherry turned her head to the wall. She wasn't upset Bob was, though. "There's got to be something we kin do. You gotta git married before anybody finds out."

"I don't want to get married to nobody but you, Bob."

"You crazy. I gotta think for you all the time."

And that was exactly what Bob did. And two months later, Sherry and one of the boys she had been dating were married. Sherry's marriage did not stop the clandestine relationship with her brother. They became extremely cautious.

She remained married and subsequently, a boy and a girl were born to them, in addition to the first son, who had a strong and striking resemblance to his uncle. If her husband suspected, he gave no notice.

Their marriage was as unstable as their financial state. Ralph was a truck driver for a construction company and so worked only seasonally. Sherry got along well with her husband because of her quiet manner.

She and Bob continued to meet whenever possible. Bob, who had never married, went into a common-law relationship with an attractive, understanding woman and had two children by her.

Then one day after several years of marriage, her husband's oldest brother was released from prison and visited them. He was gay, physical and attractive with an appealing line and Sherry fell under Johnny's spell immediately. He was to remain with them for a few days. One night as she made up the studio couch in the living room for him to go to bed, they were alone in the house, he accidentally touched her leg. The sheer nightgown and robe presented no obstacle and the touch burned on her flesh.

Sherry finished making the bed and then got into it and under the covers. Johnny stared at her. "Ralph will be back soon," he said, staring at her.

"No," Sherry answered. "He's gambling tonight. He won't be back until late."

Without another word, Johnny undressed and got in the bed with her. He decided to let her make the first move. The idea that he was her husband's brother did not bother either of them.

Sherry, however, had a surprise for him. She would not allow him to cohabit with her. She insisted on cunnilingus and fellatio only. So the resilient Johnny complied. When Ralph returned later, each was asleep in the proper bed.

Johnny stayed with them for a few weeks, and he and Sherry shared themselves daily, but no matter how much Johnny would press her, Sherry would not allow him to cohabit with her.

Johnny accepted the partial relationship, for whenever he returned, Sherry was always willing and compliant to perform fellatio and allow him to do cunnilingus. The years passed, until one day Johnny took up with a woman who was completely out of his class or background in a common-law relationship.

Since the woman was quite wealthy, she immediately applied pressure to Johnny to disassociate himself from the close relationship he had with Sherry, whom he treated like a wife.

It was to Sherry that he had come to turn whenever he was in trouble or needed a shoulder to lean on. It was Sherry who advised him when he was perturbed. He referred to her as his wife and treated her like one.

Rita, the common-law wife, objected and with rare perception immediately saw through the arrangement and charged him with having an affair with his sister-in-law. Johnny denied vehemently, even though he readily admitted his other promiscuous affairs with other women.

That might have been the end of the affair, if Sherry had not herself broken off with her brother-in-law. She had become thoroughly promiscuous, even though married. It was only her discretion and her husband's attitude of deliberately not seeing what was going on, that held the marriage together.

There had been no change in her relationship with her own brother. Johnny accepted her breaking off with him as a temporary estrangement. He knew he would always go back to her if he found it hard to get another woman, should Rita leave him.

Johnny, himself had come from a disorganized home. He was the natural child of his father who had married someone other than his mother. His mother worked as a laundress for a wealthy family who allowed her to keep the boy with her.

He was happy with the other children in the family and from them obtained the only stability he would ever be able to acquire. But in his early teens, his mother married a man who would not allow her to keep the boy.

Johnny was placed in an institution where he was to stay for the rest of his youthful days. As soon as he was discharged from the institution, he took up with a wild group of young people and after becoming involved in one delinquent deed after another, found himself in prison where he was to remain for almost twelve years.

He was egocentric, selfish, self-centered and impulsive. He was easily frustrated and became abusive and violent upon the least pretext. He seemed to be constantly carrying a chip on his shoulder, which he was daring anyone to knock off.

His promiscuous relationships with women were always on a sexual plane. And he wanted to know, "if there was anything else?" when pressed about it.

His hostility to women was easy to discern, so that every woman he met recognized instantly that he disliked them. Yet he needed them for sex and for this he turned to prostitutes whom he seemed to favor. He preferred loose women to well-bred ones, but couldn't understand why.

He was insulting to any who befriended him, and ungrateful to all who helped him. His attitude to Rita was at the same time abusive, insulting and respectful. He said both nice and insulting things about her behind her back, but only insults to her face. He held her in awe and fear, but resented her to the point where he preferred at first to avoid sexual activity with her.

This was his punishment for her, to deprive her of himself. He used sex to barter, trade and convince. Was it good for anything else? Eventually, because he was incapable of building a lasting relationship on a mature basis, he and Rita separated.

He at once returned to Sherry, when several attempts to start affairs with some prostitutes he knew, failed. Sherry "would always be there," he told Rita one day. She was his ace in the hole.

Whenever his brother seemed to be becoming restive over his frequent visits, he would stay away for a while and when he returned, he would be bearing gifts for the entire family.

Meanwhile, from sheer self-defense, Sherry's husband, Ralph, became promiscuous in spite of the fact that it was he, who offered the stability in the family.

By this time, most of the children had left the mother's home and conditions in the family had consequently improved. The oldest girl had been the first to marry. She was living in a nearby town and had built a stable and successful marriage. She and her husband and daughters lived in a lovely home they had bought and she became the model for all the others to follow.

The effect of the incest on the other members of the family was almost nothing, since it had been kept a closely guarded secret and the feeling of esprit d' corps was so great in the family that it would have been guarded if they had learned of it, in any case.

The other unusual factor in this case is the mother's conversion to religion after a youth of looseness and philandering. She became a source of strength and morality in her later days, which she lacked when the children were young.

With better housing and increased income the conditions of the members of the family improved. Also, the example of the older sister was a balance wheel for the younger ones to follow. The next generation will see a complete change in the cultural pattern of the family, thus breaking the closed ingrown circuitry of the family, and thereby affording them opportunity for growth.

All the parties involved here were determined to keep up false appearances. After Rita finally left Johnny, he established several brief alliances with loose women with no satisfaction before returning once again to Harriet.

Johnny represented the past disorganized family life she had left behind, to Sherry. That it still lured her was obvious in that she did not discourage him. Quite the contrary. He would always be around.

Just as Bob would always be around. In any case her sex life was assured. And there would be others. Later, we shall see another case of incest in this same family from a different angle. All these cases arose from the basic disorganziation of the family.

Evaluation of Sherry and Bob:

We know that incest does not occur unless there are several predisposing factors present in the environment to start with. Among these are: a basic family disorganization, overcrowding and its consequent lack of privacy, the absence of a strong parent-image with built-in moral and disciplinary guides, and a weak or no father-image to represent authority.

Sherry's family possessed all these weaknesses. In addition to which there was much poverty. The saving factor in this family was the oldest daughter, whose early marriage and consequent escape from the trap which threatened the younger children, enabled her to rise above the environment and better herself and thus become a model for the younger siblings, and incidentally, the mother, herself.

Ralph, whom Sherry finally married, brought his own kind of strength to his marriage, which sustains Sherry and maintains the marriage. The marriage would surely collapse if it were not for Ralph's attitude of seeing and not seeing his wife's weaknesses.

It is inconceivable that he would not be aware of the relationship between his brother and his wife, especially since he retaliated by having one of his own, with one of his wife's sisters, more from pride than from desire.

Also, he maintains the marriage so that the children can have a stable home environment. It is painfully obvious that his wife is not as devoted to the children as he would wish to be and that she is capable of deserting them, which he is not.

Ralph's attitude is to painstakingly avoid a showdown with his wife over her escapades. That Sherry is drawn to her brother-in-law and felt no guilt, just fear of detection by her husband, is partly due to the fact that she has become inured to the demands of society upon her.

Her own sex habits leave much to be desired as she has developed a compulsive desire for fellation and cunnilingus as a replacment of cohabiting-except with her brother Bob. Several of her affairs, including that with her brother-in-law, Johnny, consisted of just that.

We have seen from studies made that this is due to her early conditioning by Bob. Also Sherry really does not like men, and equates sex, that is, cohabiting with the receipt of "things," i.e., gifts of any sort.

The interesting thing about this involved case is the duration of the relationship under discussion. It is this social worker's feeling that many cases of incest are not reported, simply because they are not unpleasant to the parties involved.

The danger of incest lies exactly in this area. That an incestuous relationship will become so absorbing and desirable, that it will replace a normal marriage relationship and thereby threaten the status of the family, and thus society, since the family is the basic social unit in society.

We see how this is true in both Sherry and Johnny and to some extent Bob who never experienced a legal marriage ceremony. In Johnny's case, he was incapable of doing this.

The saving factor to all concerned is that there is present at all times, the model of the oldest sister who has escaped these difficulties and has built a stable and admirable family relationship in spite of difficulties.

Sherry admires her sister and uses her for a model. She might strive towards that end and thus escape the dangers of disorganization that are inherent in her personality and her own family environment.