Chapter 8
Christine's sister, Carol, arrived in the late afternoon. The sisters hadn't seen each other in over three years, and they enjoyed a warm reunion.
"You've lost weight, Carol," Christine remarked as she put two thick steaks on the charcoal grill that evening.
"After what I've been through," Carol sighed, "I'm surprised there's anything left of me!"
"You look better," Christine remarked, taking a long swallow of her ice cold beer. It was true. Carol had always been a little pudgy, and the last time Christine saw her she was downright plump. But now she was slender, and the curves of her figure were in all the right places. "How much did you LOSE?"
"Almost twenty-five pounds," Carol laughed. "You don't look like you've gained an ounce, Christy!"
"You know me," Christine replied.
"Yeah, my two-year-older sister who has always looked five years younger than me!"
"Not now," Christine said. "You look in your twenties!"
The two women relived old memories and immersed themselves in nostalgia as they sipped coffee after dinner. Then, pouring herself another beer, Carol began to tell her older sister her current problems. She recounted her marriage in its entirety.
"You mean you haven't had sex with Chuck in three years?" Christine exclaimed.
"He hasn't touched me in three years, Christy! It drove me out of my mind. Now, of course, I know why. He turned queer back then, I suppose. I didn't know what it was, and it tore me apart!"
"I can imagine!" Christine said.
"I felt rejected, through as a woman. Oh Christine, it was horrible! It was like I was living in a nightmare! I even bought myself a vibrator and used it to ease the tension and frustration. Can you imagine a thirty-four-year-old woman masturbating?"
That's not as abnormal as you think," Christine laughed. "I've done it myself, and I read where many women masturbate frequently - by hand or by mechanical means."
"Well, it's a sad world when a girl has to play with herself like that!" Carol said. As the evening progressed, the two sisters had to drive to the liquor store for a case of beer. Carol was drinking heavily, and Christine kept her company. Christine worried about her sister. She could imagine what Carol was going through!
"Will he contest the divorce?" Christine asked as they finished one beer and opened another.
"No!" Carol laughed. "He knows that if he does I'll drag him and his faggy "boy" or "girl" friend (I'm not sure who is who is who)
through the courts with no holds barred! If it gets out that Chuck's a queer, it'll ruin him in business. I told him I was going to take him to the cleaners, and he knows I mean it!"
"So what do you plan to do now?" Christine asked.
"I don't know," Carol shrugged. "That's why I wanted to come and stay with you for a while - to get my head together. I just want to relax and let my hair down, Christy. You and Larry have had a happy marriage, so maybe some of it will rub off on me."
"Don't count on that!" Christine snapped sardonically.
"What do you mean?"
"Let's say I learned to cope with my marriage. That doesn't necessarily mean I've been happy."
"At least you've been getting laid regularly!" Carol commented with an obscene laugh. "You haven't had to get your jollies with a damned machine!"
"Not recently," Christine remarked, deciding the one person in this world she could talk to honestly was her sister. "But that was none of Larry's doing!"
"You mean ... ?"
"I mean that sex with Larry has been both dull and infrequent," Christine laughed. "And I did the same thing you did. I bought a vibrator and every once in a while I would lock myself in the bathroom and masturbate!" "I had no idea!"
"There's more, Carol darling," Christine said. "As long as this is true confession night, you might as well hear the whole story!"
Christine slowly told Carol the story of her adventures with the young boys, relating in graphic detail exactly what her loneliness and frustration had brought her to do.
"Two handsome eighteen-year-olds!" Carol exclaimed. "My heavens - what a blast!"
"And best of all, they can stay hard for hours! I guess I should be ashamed of myself, but I'm not! I've been having a ball! It's like being eighteen and in school again!"
"Hell!" Carol laughed. "You're getting me hot just talking about it!"
It was well after midnight when the two women finally got to bed. And when they awoke in the morning, both girls were suffering from monumental hangovers.
Christine stumbled around the house, holding her head and moaning, as any movement made the throbbing pain in her temples worse. She took aspirin and put a pot of coffee on to boil.
"Shit!" Carol exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen. "I feel like I was kicked by something very large and damned mean!"
"You're not alone, sweetheart!" Christine moaned.
"Did we finish the whole case of beer?" Carol asked.
"Somehow we missed one can," Christine replied. "An accident, I'm sure!" "Where is it?"
"In the 'fridge. You can't be thinking of drinking beer right now - or are you?"
"It's the only way I know how to make it through the morning when I've got a head like this!"
"I don't see how you can do it!" Christine sighed, "if I touched it, I'd throw up!"
"As they say - the hair of the dog ..." Carol muttered, struggling to open the can.
"Have you been drinking like this often, Carol?"
"I suppose I've been hitting it pretty steady, Christy. No lectures, please! I've needed something - anything - to see me through the night."
Christine stood staring at the percolator while it went through its usual asthmatic attack and sputtered and hissed to brew the coffee. She turned and watched her younger sister drain the ice cold can of beer and a shudder passed through Christine's body.
"If it stays down," Carol remarked with a healthy belch, "I'll be all right! Where was that liquor store? I'd better run out for another case."
Christine sighed and told her, and Carol threw on a dress and left to buy the beer.
Christine was worried about her sister. Their mother had been an alcoholic for seven years, and Christine shuddered every time she remembered the nightmare of those years. If Carol isn't careful, Christine told herself, she will end up the same way. Somehow, I've got to get her to relax!
By the time she had consumed twelve aspirin tablets and four cups of coffee, Christine began to feel like a human being again. She put on shorts and a halter and cleaned up the patio. She was throwing the laundry into the machine in the garage when Carol finally returned.
"You won't believe how lost I got?" Carol laughed. "I ended up on the freeway before I realized I was on the wrong side of town!"
"This city has changed a lot in the past few years. I thought maybe you'd been picked up by some handsome stranger."
"Are you kidding? Listen, last night did I tell you about how I couldn't even get raped?"
"What?"
"It's the honest truth, Christy!" Carol assured her. "There's a park in a pretty rough section of town. Lots of girls have been raped there at night. One time, when I was so horny I couldn't stand it, I drove down there at night and parked and walked slowly through the park just hoping some guy would jump me and rape me! Honest to - " "What happened?"
"Not one goddamned thing! I knew there were guys in the park. I could hear them. But no one even approached me, and I walked through the entire park twice! Boy, when I got home I guess I was about as low as any woman can get. Think of it! I wasn't even attractive enough to be raped! Want a beer?"
"No thanks," Christine replied. "I imagine they were afraid you were a undercover cop or something."
"I guess. But I sure didn't think of that then - my self-esteem had it a new low!"
Christine followed her sister into the kitchen and began making herself a ham and cheese sandwich.
"Hey, that looks good!" Carol commented as she opened a can of beer.
"Want one?" Christine asked.
"Sure. Want a beer?"
"No thanks. It's too early for me, and I've got to teach four swimming classes here this afternoon. If I had a beer, I swear I think I'd sink to the bottom of that pool!"
Halfway through her sandwich, Carol went back to the kitchen to get another can of beer.
"Carol, honey," Christine said softly, "aren't you hitting that stuff a little too hard!"
"Don't ride my back, Christy, please! I need this warm glow to forget. Okay? I'll taper off soon, but let me do it my own way and in my own good time!