One sunny Saturday morning I was mowing the back lawn.
"Andrew! Leave that! Come inside!" My mother shouted above the racket. "Abigail was just on the phone! She wants you to go over to her place to help her with something. Probably computer stuff again!"
My family is kind of weird, in a nice way. Mother calls both Abbie and me by our full names. Always. Abbie is twenty-eight, ten years older than me. About four years earlier on she moved out of home to a little flat just a couple of blocks away. She might as well have stayed here with me and Mother, since she's forever on the phone wanting something. I never minded going around to do little things for her. That day the weather was too hot to be mowing anyway, and I liked my big sister a lot. She will always be my big sister, even though I'm way taller than she is. Abbie was always good to me, like a second mother almost. She walked me to school when I was little, helped me with studies. Actually, she was
still
helping me with studies. So I walked around to her place.
She opened the door to my knock and looked me up and down. "Go take a shower!" She screwed up her nose. "You're sweaty, and you stink! I need you to be clean for this little job. You know where the towels are."
Obviously Abbie herself had recently showered. She was bare-footed and wore a lightweight satiny wrap-around dressing-gown thing that showed her knees which were still red from the hot water. Her hair was twisted up in a towel-turban. I didn't argue. Taking orders from her was second-nature to me. I had undressed and was leaning into the shower recess adjusting the water temperature when the bathroom door opened.
"Woops!" Abbie giggled. "Sorry Andy, don't put those dirty clothes back on. Just wear the towel until I find you something suitable." Another giggle escaped her as she closed the door, "Sorry again. Didn't see anything. Much."
Embarrassed as Hell, I showered using her scented pink soap then dried off. I obediently wrapped the big white bath towel I'd used around my waist. It went round twice and I came down almost to my ankles.
"You finished?" Abbie called from the only bedroom in the tiny flat. "Come in here. I need to have a serious talk with you before you start on this."
I went into her room. She was sitting up on the bed, cross-legged. It reminded me of a yoga pose. Her red hair was nearly dry, and she kept running her fingers through it, scrunching it into loose curls. The way her breasts swayed it was obvious she wasn't wearing a bra. I wondered if she was wearing panties. If not, her cross-legged pose was...very...naughty, though I couldn't actually see anything.
"Now listen," Abbie began, "try not to interrupt too much, because this is gonna be a difficult conversation, for the both of us. Now you know I've been wanting to have a baby, and since I have no man in my life, I'm gonna go with artificial insemination?"
"Yeah.I know about it. Mother said you're crazy."
"Shush! Well," she continued, "to go through a proper A.I. Clinic costs a fortune, so I'm going the D.I.Y. route. But, frozen sperm is also expensive, and comes with a whole parcel of red-tape. Seems a waste of money when I could get some nice guy to donate fresh stuff for free."
"You mean get some random to fu...er, have sex with you?" I asked. "Why are you telling me this? It's none of my business."
"Shut up and listen!" Abbie said. "The
'random
' as you call him would be just donating his semen, into a little jar like this," she held up a small glass jar with a screw lid. And...it
is
your business because you are family. As it happens you are the
only
family member I can talk to since Mother is against my doing this."
"Sorry...go on."
She hesitated, then spoke in a rush. "The thing is Andrew, I don't want some '
father
' guy involved. Poking his nose in, suing for access later, or whatever. I need a donor who is one hundred percent safe...not a threat in any way. Someone like you."
"Like me?...You mean...you want me to...donate my...?"
"Ahem!" Abbie cleared her throat. "Correct!"
I was astounded, "
That
is off the weirdness scale!"
She started babbling. "No it's
not!
I've given this a
lot
of thought. Done
heaps
of research. I know what I'm talking about.Think! No one will ever know. Just
us
two, and we'll
never ever
tell anyone. You and I look alike, same red hair, similar features. We are healthy, no genetic flaws. The baby will be perfect. He or she'll look like me. And forget those old wives tales about the dangers of inbreeding and forget about it being taboo. That's crap! Come on! Do this for me. Please Andy. My biological clock is ticking loud. I desperately want a baby and my fertility is highest on
this
day of my cycle. I need your donation
now!
I'll leave you here in my bedroom with this jar. I'm
not
taking no for an answer. Just...you know...um...