Orgy – Anna, Susan, Sandra, Sis, and me

When I wrote “Anna, Susan, Sandra, Sis, and me”, it was a personal experiment writing a story as dialog only. I didn’t get much feedback but three out of the four letters asked for a sequel to the story. This was never my intention but when I read the story again, I realised that the story and characters held promises of more and I decided to give it a chance. Usually, I finish a story completely before I start posting, but since I already have posted the first part I might as well post as I go along. If there is a general interest in the story I will write more.

I have decided to write the rest of the story in the usual way as I felt that the dialog only would be too confusing, in case the story ended up as a very long one.

Anna, Susan, Sandra, Sis, and me. Part 2

Susan was punctual and arrived at the hospital at three o’clock to pick up Sis. They first went to pick up a few things for Sis in her flat, leaving it until later to do the real packing. It was all still new and uncertain.

“You live here?” Sis asked, when they parked in front of a house in the old part of town.

“Yes. This is it.”

Sis wondered how a secretary with solicitors Crone, Crone and Smith could afford a flat in this part of town. Inside, and Sis was even more impressed.

“Wow, this is really a nice place you got here. How on earth did you…? It must cost a fortune.”

“No, not really. When I needed a place my boss recommended me to the owner. He’s a client who visits the office regularly and I think he likes me. Don’t worry, he’s harmless,” Susan said when she saw the doubtful look on Sis’ face. “He’s not expecting anything in return. He’s around sixty and I’m sure he is much more interested in men.”

Sis looked around in awe. The third floor flat was huge, despite the sloping walls.

“This is what I’ve always wanted. How many rooms do you have? And look at the view. It must be fantastic at New Years Eve with the fireworks.”

“I think it will, but I’ve only lived here for a few months. We’ll have to wait and see.”

They sat down with a pot of tea. Sis felt relaxed. Even though the decision to move in with Susan had been somewhat hasty, and the reality of it had hardly been consciously acknowledged by neither of them, it felt sort of homely to Sis and a million times more comfortable than the clinical atmosphere in the hospital. Sis felt sleepy; a nice, warm drowsy sleepiness. Nights at the hospital were noisy with much disturbance and on top of that, her own anxiety. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for a long time. After a while, Susan giggled to herself.

“Do we really know what we’ve gotten ourselves into?”

“No. I’m horrible when I’m ill: hysterical and totally unreasonable. You’re going to wish you’d never met me.”

“Not that,” Susan replied. “I know we talked about it yesterday, and I know what I feel and all, but I’m still… what if I screw it all up because I’m so screwed up?”

“You’re not going to screw it up. Maybe it’s not meant to be us, but you’re not screwed up. You’ve had some bad experiences. I’ll do everything I can to help you get over it. There’s nothing wrong with you. I haven’t had your bad experiences with a man but I’ve been through some things, too, and I’ve survived. We can help each other.”

They sat for a while in silence. Sis felt sleepy again, and Susan noticed her head nodding.

“Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll make us some dinner?”

“That would be nice. I’m awfully tired.”

They went into Susan’s bedroom. Sis lay down on the bed and Susan put a cover over her, tucking her in. She hesitated for a moment before she leaned down and kissed Sis. Sis brushed her hair and smiled.

“Don’t let me sleep all afternoon. I won’t be able to sleep tonight, then, and I’m really longing for a good night’s sleep. Just an hour or so, okay?”

Susan nodded smiling and left the room quietly. She sat down with a book but she was feeling anxious and her head was buzzing with a million thoughts. Sis was in the room next door and still she felt scared because Sis was not there with her. The disease was threatening her happiness.

Susan didn’t want to think about it. The prospects were good and she was convinced that Sis was going to get over it. She knew — somehow she knew –it had to be so. It was the only way.

Susan put the book down. If she started preparing dinner now it would be ready a little earlier than planned, but she needed to keep herself occupied until Sis woke up.

Sis loved seafood and Susan had found an intriguing dish or rather inspiration to create one. She loved cooking and she particularly loved to make her own recipes. When she was sad, cooking could take her mind off almost any problem and right now it was the best way she could think of to cure her anxiety.

Susan took the ingredients out of the fridge and arranged them along with spices and herbs. Everything had to be within reach before she started. She seasoned a filet of sole lightly with pepper and freshly chopped dill, before placing a generous amount of shrimps in the middle. Finely chopped lemon zest was added and a pinch of hot chilli powder, but only enough to give a hint, not dominate. Then she folded the filet over the shrimps and sewed the ends of the filet with a dill stalk, each hole carefully made with a meat pin. The green seam looked beautiful against the white meat.

She made three more filets, then peeled and sliced the potatoes thinly and made a dish with sliced tomatoes, fresh, sliced mozzarella cheese and basil leaves. It looked so good and she loved the taste. A glance at the watch made her realise that the hour had more than passed. Dinner was almost ready. The potatoes only needed to cook six or seven minutes and the sole and shrimp parcels to be steamed in white wine. Content, she went to the bedroom to wake Sis.

She was still sleeping, lying on her side with her hair down over her face. Susan sat down next to her and brushed away her hair. Sis always looked so good, makeup always perfect, but she hadn’t removed it before she went to bed and the mascara had been redistributed while she slept. In a funny way it made Susan feel good. She was never sure than men understood that a woman could look a bit deranged in the morning if she hadn’t cleaned the makeup off, but a girl understood. Sis opened her eyes and stretched her body.

“Uhm, this is a much better way to wake up.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Wonderful. It’s so quiet. There are always so many sounds in the hospital, unexpected sounds, not like the sounds of the city. I honestly don’t think a hospital is the right place to put sick people.”

Susan laughed. “Don’t worry. Hopefully you’ll only need to go there for treatments. You can sleep at home.”

“I could get used to this being home,” Sis said and moved to give Susan room to lie down. “I was angry with Martin when he told me that you had broken up, but I didn’t know why, really. You know that we have agreed never to make a pass at each other’s girlfriends. I guess I was so used to think about you as his girl that it took me a while figure out that I loved you.”

“It must be strange,” Susan said, thoughtfully.

“What?”

“To be brother and sister and both like girls and to have someone so close to talk about… things.”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s a little unusual.”

“Have you always been so close?”

“Martin never told you? No, not always. Not until he saved my life. Up until then he was just an annoying, nosy brat of a little brother.”

“He saved your life?”

“When all the other girls began to talk about boys, I couldn’t really understand why they were so excited, but I assumed that I’d get there eventually. I had a friend, Janice, and we had been friends for a long time. She was a year older than me and had some experience with boys and sex. We often talked about it and one day she said that she would teach me how to kiss. She often stayed over and that night we ended up fooling around a little bit.”

Sis was facing Susan, both lying on their side, and Sis was gently caressing Susan’s arm and side while she was talking. Susan liked it, the same way she liked the kisses: no demands for more.

“What we did completely took my breath away. I was sixteen and in love for the first time. Naively, I thought that Janice felt the same way,” Sis took a deep breath. “So, the next day I told her how much I loved her. She freaked and wouldn’t talk about it at all. She wouldn’t talk to me at all. I was devastated, but that wasn’t the worst part. Janice told a friend in school and suddenly everybody was looking at me and whispering behind my back. At least it felt that way.”

“How cruel,” Susan said, and brought up her hand to caress Sis’ face.

“I’ll save the details of my teenage angst but I couldn’t face the cruelty of the world and decided to end it. My dad had some sleeping pills that he rarely used and one day when I was home early I sat down and wrote a letter. My parents would be home around five, it was two o’clock and by the time anyone found me it would all be over. I swallowed almost all the pills and lay down to die.”

“Did you really want to die?”

“I guess I did. I think that ten pills would have been enough and if Martin hadn’t come home unexpected, I would have.”

“Martin found you?”

“For some reason he came home instead of going directly to soccer training. I was still awake but very drowsy when he found me and the letter. Martin wanted to call an ambulance, but I just couldn’t take the embarrassment of being taken to the hospital. I mean, I would probably have been admitted to a psychiatric ward and I wasn’t a basket case. I was just… it was just too much, all of it. Martin he understood that. It was funny. I was so surprised that he understood. I mean, to me he was just an annoying little brother. Anyway, he dragged me out into the bathroom and made me throw up.”

“But how did he know that it was enough? How did he know that you’d be all right?”

“He called our GP. He was a friend of my father and Martin told him that he was writing an essay in school and needed to know how the pills I’d taken would work, if someone took an overdose. At the time Martin was very interested in medicine and our GP suspected nothing. That’s how he knew that I was going to be okay. When mum and dad came home he told them I was ill, the flu or something, and they bought it.”

“But what about the pills? You father must have seen that the pills were missing.”

“When I woke the next morning I suddenly had the same thought. Martin looked in on me before he left for school. He said he’d come home early and talk with me. I was so worried and asked him about the pills. He just smiled and said that I didn’t have to worry about it. He’d tell me after school.”

Without really noticing it, Susan had moved closer to Sis. It felt right to lie close.

“When he came home from school we had a long talk. He’d already read my letter and he was so… mature about it all. We had this really weird guy in my class. He was a doing this strong, silent rebel kind of thing. In the beginning everyone thought he was a nutcase, but slowly he was accepted, even looked up to. This guy, Pierre I think he name was, didn’t care one bit what other people thought about him and Martin convinced me that if he could do that, so could I.”

“But what about the pills?”

“Marin had thrown out the few pills I’d left in the glass. Mum had a big glass of vitamin pills and they looked pretty much like Dad’s pills. Martin had simply replaced the sleeping pills with vitamins. Dad never noticed and he did take them a few times after Martin had replaced them,” Sis giggled. “Several month later we had a really good laugh when dad mentioned how great the pills were when he couldn’t sleep and mum suggested that he took some vitamins instead.”

“It must be wonderful to always have someone to talk to,” Susan sighed.

It was wonderful. Susan felt warm inside just lying next to Sis on the bed. She felt anxious and excited at the same time. Perhaps they should postpone dinner a little longer. No sooner had she thought about it than the phone rang.

Susan reluctantly got up and went into the living room.