LONG ESTRANGED SISTER GETS DIVORCED. Seeks a return to simpler times and moves in with her single brother. The first chapter will set the stage so there won't be any sex. Even if there was sex everyone would be over 18. Enjoy.
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I waited impatiently as time passed so slowly. Why is it that when a person wanted time to hurry it seemed like the opposite happened. I walked again around my home checking for the hundredth time if everything was in place and clean and dust free.
God I was so nervous! I had only had minimal contact with my sister Kerry in the twenty years that I had been away from home. She was only five when I, her big brother, left her life. Now at just twenty five, she said she needed a place to stay after her divorce from 'the squirrel.'
I was career army and now retired. My life since I took the oath had taken me to several countries and through two short marriages. The type of marriages that were mistakes from the start. The 'I should have known better' types. The things I did in the army I won't talk about.
The marriages I will if asked.
After my retirement I moved to the upper part of lower Michigan. They call it 'The tip of the Mitt' around here. Very rural, neighbors can be close or miles apart. Mine were not close.
I joined the Army the week before I graduated from high school. I left home and wanted to walk away from everything in the small town I grew up in. Including my parents. They were very conservative christians, judgmental and controlling, and I couldn't wait to leave their influence. My parents were pushing me away as hard as I was pulling myself away.
My little sister on the other hand was just collateral damage. I never wanted to hurt her but in order to see her I had to interact with my parents. My father more specifically. With the various overseas postings through the years and my stubborn nature when it came to interaction with my parents, it was easy to lose contact with my little sister.
She was just five when I last saw her, runny nose full of freckles and fire red pigtails. I could feel her tears on my shoulder as I said my last goodbye.
"I miss you already Petie," she tearfully said. Her words muffled as she pushed her face into my shoulder. "When will you come back home?"
"I don't know 'puddin but if you ever need me just let me know and I promise that if I'm able, I will do anything in my power to help you." I vowed.
"Anything?" she asked.
"Yep, anything."
"Pinky swear?" she asked as she held her little finger out to me.
"Sure 'puddin," I said as we enjoined our fingers in the age old contract of siblings.
We lost any kind of direct contact from that day until I received a brief letter through my APO address from Kerry announcing her high school graduation. In her letter she explained how much she still missed me and how she just wanted to hold her big brother again. The picture that was enclosed was from her senior portraits. She had matured into a beautiful woman at that point. The pose was her sitting with her knees sideways, feet under her butt in a field with flowers surrounding her. The modest gown she was wearing did it's best to hide her body but I sensed a very shapely woman under her electric blue gown. Her hair was long, full and wavy. And still very red. Her face was still covered in freckles but they had faded somewhat from her little girl face. I fell in love with her again as this link from my past was revealed.
But that was seven years ago.
I got her wedding invitation while on my last deployment shortly before I was scheduled to rotate back to the states. There was an engagement pic of her and her fiance. He looked kind of squirrely to me but if my baby sister wanted him and my parents had vetted him I was in no position to disagree. She said in her letter that she and her new husband would be moving to the east coast after their honeymoon. His job was in sales for a national cosmetics corporation and his territory was the north east. Along with the wedding gift I wrote a quick note explaining why I couldn't attend her wedding and wished her the best. I really felt bad in that I had missed my baby sister's growing years, her graduation and now her marriage. I made a vow that when I retired I would be more of the the brother that I had never been.
Fast forwarding a few years I finally retired as an E-8 pay grade enlisted. I had decided years before that the allure of the quietness of the north woods would be cathartic to my weary warrior bones. I was most interested in trying to reclaim any lost and misspent attachment with my family.
Before I could even contact my parents my father passed away. The email I received from my mother was short and to the point. My father had died of a massive heart attack. She also sent the obituary from our local paper. There wasn't much else. She said that he had been cremated and the services had already taken place. She also told me that she would be selling their entire estate and then move south to a retirement community that their church managed in Florida. She didn't offer any encouragement for me to visit so I suppose she still wanted to distance herself. I briefly thought of our last years together. I felt a sudden loss of a family I never really knew or understood.
After separation from the Army, I contacted a real estate agency in the area I wished to move. I wanted privacy so I settled on a large plot of several hundred acres with an old farmhouse and several outbuildings in the center. The house was more than I wanted or needed but the owners were anxious to sell so I got the old house along with two hundred acres of spotty woodland for less than a hundred grand. I figured I couldn't go wrong so I laid the cash down and signed the papers. The house was in poor but livable condition. The previous owners hadn't spent a lot of money on modern upgrades so I had a blank slate as I took on the job of a remodel. Everything had to go.
Now the house was mostly done. I had a new and modern kitchen. The electrical and plumbing were new. The walls and floors were refinished in every room. I had even demolished a bedroom wall to include a ensuite bath for the master. Now there were three bedrooms upstairs with two baths. The downstairs had its own full bath also. My house was mostly complete but was missing the one thing I had most wanted. A family to make it a home. As much as I loved the quiet and peaceful rural aspect of the area I couldn't have picked a worse area of the country to find a wife.
Now that was about to change.
It was early evening when the well used and dented pickup with attached rental trailer slowly pulled into my yard. My sister Kerry was finally here. She sat in the truck for over a minute before the door finally opened. We had talked briefly on the phone so I knew that she was divorcing the squirrel and moving here. I knew also that she was moving from the east coast but I didn't realise that she was MOVING as in HERE.
The truck door squeaked loudly as she opened it. And a bare leg slid down from the truck. I walked over to see if she needed any help but before I could open my mouth I heard a squeal and a tornado of red hair and bare legs came at me.
"PEETIE! oh my god it is you!" she launched herself at me with everything she had and when she got to me she jumped onto me like a spider monkey. I had all I could do to not fall down as this 125lb whirlwind of red hair, arms and legs literally attached herself to my body. She started kissing me all over my face while tears of joy fell from her cheeks.
"Oh my god Petie I'm so happy to see you again finally. You will never know how much I missed you. Please tell me we will never be separated again. You won't leave me ever again will you?"
"No puddin I live here now. My traveling days are over. We will never be separated again."
I can stay then? Forever?" I should have realised what she was asking before I answered.
