Note:
This was the first story that I ever wrote and posted here. As such, it was filled with a fair number of errors. I'm sure that there are still some. Anyway, I went through this and cleaned up a few things. Everyone in the story is an adult and everything is fictional.
*
"Well Jake, take care of your sister. We'll see how this night shift goes. You're a big help, kid," Jake's father told him.
He worked in a sheet rock plant, trying to provide for his two children. His wife and mother to his kids was long gone, taken in a traffic accident. His daughter, Lauren, was also in the crash. She survived but was left crippled without the use of her legs. She wasn't completely paralyzed, but could do little but wiggle her toes. There was hope for some time that she may be able to walk again, but those hopes dwindled over the years. The hospital bills and therapy bills were enormous and a tremendous burden on his small family. The single father recently was able to transfer to the night shift for a slight bump in pay and more hours.
"We'll be all right Dad," Jake said as he handed his father a small, brown paper sack containing his lunch. His father patted him on the shoulder and left. Jake looked around for his sister and found her in her room reading. It was a thick Stephen King novel that she must gone through fifteen times.
"Haven't you already read that one?" he asked.
Lauren looked up at him over the top of her glasses. She was pretty, he supposed. Not Kate Upton pretty or Jessica Alba pretty, but pretty nonetheless. She had brown eyes and brown hair that was straight as straight can be. A little ragged around the edges, she was probably overdue for a trip to the hairdresser.
"Why are you looking at me like that? And yeah, I need some new material. This one is good though," she answered.
Jake blinked his eyes rapidly, realizing that he was sizing up his sister in ways that probably weren't proper. It had been getting harder not to now that she was getting older and well on her way to becoming a grown woman.
"I was just thinking that you could use a hair cut," he said.
"I could use a trim," Lauren said, grabbing and examining a handful of her hair.
"I have a couple of lawns to mow tomorrow, but I could take you afterward, if you want. We could stop by the library, too."
Jake was able to supply himself with some much needed spending money by mowing a handful of lawns during the summer. It wasn't a whole lot, but enough to keep his old S-10 on the road and once in a while have a good time with his buddies. Both he and his sister were heading toward their last year of high school, so there was really no time to get a real job for him yet.
"Yeah, Dad was going to take me last week, but I guess he forgot. He's been working an awful lot. I didn't want to ask him again."
"I think he's worried about us. There's no college money on top of all the other stuff. I hope he doesn't burn himself out, all he does is work," Jake said.
He sometimes wondered what life would have been like if his mother hadn't died and his sister was able to walk. Would there be vacations, and something other than second hand clothes? He tried to put it out of his mind for the time being.
The two spent the next few hours of the evening saying relatively little to each other. They made dinner and set aside a dish for their father when he got home. Jake washed the dishes while Lauren sat at the kitchen table and read her novel. When Jake finished up, they decided to call it a night. They both went off to their rooms to get ready for bed.
Jake lay in his boxers on his bed, watching TV. He kept the volume low so that he wouldn't disturb his sister; the walls were thin. She didn't have a TV in her room, usually preferring to read. She rarely, if ever came into his room, so Jake was surprised when there was a light knocking on his door.
"Jake, are you still awake?" he heard Lauren ask.
"Yeah, you can come in," he answered.
She opened the door and wheeled herself in. She was wearing only an oversized t-shirt and underwear. She hardly ever exposed her legs, even to her brother. She thought of them as skinny and unsightly, not something that she really wanted to show off. She had a pillow in her lap.
"I couldn't sleep, and was wondering if I could watch TV with you."
It was an unexpected request, but it didn't bother Jake at all. His bed was just a single, but Lauren was a skinny little thing, and it wasn't as though he was all that big himself.
"Sure," he said, sliding over. Lauren rolled over and lifted herself out of her chair and onto the bed easily; she had had years of practice at such things. She settled in and lay her head back on her pillow.
"What are you watching?" she asked.
"Just some porno," Jake replied, with a straight face.
"What?" Lauren asked, sitting up.
"Relax, I'm kidding. It's just the Discovery Channel," he laughed. His sister laughed too, and slapped him lightly on the chest. She let her hand linger there for a moment, and they both just smiled at each other for a while.
"Here," he said, pressing the remote into her hand. "You can watch whatever you want. I was about to go to sleep, anyways."
"Do you want me to go?"
"No."
Lauren flipped through the channels, eventually settling on some sappy movie that neither one of them paid much attention to. She squirmed around in the bed a bit, trying to stretch out her legs the best that she could.
"Are you OK?" Jake asked her, propping his head up on one elbow.
"My legs are just a little cranky tonight, I was just trying to stretch a little."
"Do you want me to help you do some of your exercises? To make you more comfortable?" he asked. She normally would do them by herself.
"If you want."
