Mom walked downstairs and into the kitchen just as I was heating up two sets of hot dogs for an easy dinner. Mandy told her that, following our afternoon at the mall, the two of us were going to stay in and watch movies while she and Dad were heading out to his Elk's Club.
"Oh, cute, the two of you spending the evening at home? Oh John! It's just like when you would babysit your little sister!"
I know she misses us being close as a family, so it didn't surprise me that she was glad to see us spending time together. Her enthusiasm did make me self-conscious, though. What would she think of how I had been staring at my little sister at the mall, modeling a slinky adult dress? It struck me that I would forever have to keep secret from Mom the feelings - never mind the lustful images - that I was having for her daughter.
What did surprise me was that she had changed from the flattering new pants that she had worn to work, now back into a rather frumpy and familiar dress. Dad didn't seem to notice, however.
An hour later, popcorn bowl filled and sodas refreshed, I plopped down on the couch just as Mandy walked back down. I was still in jeans and t-shirt, but Mandy had slipped up to her room while I was shaking the noisy pan of popcorn kernels, and now wore a pair of close fitting corduroy pants, a purple color that my mind couldn't help noticing were similar to the edging on the panties I had bought as a gift for her. I was struck by the ironic coincidence between mom and daughter today, both in tight pants. Above them she wore a loose-fitting, cream-colored top, the satiny-finish looking slick in the reflected in the glow from the t.v. screen. I pulled my eyes away before I had worked out whether she was wearing a bra underneath.
"Hey there John, you get hold of Alison?"
"Yeah, I did."
"And?"
"We're meeting Sunday afternoon. Going for a walk over at River Park."
"Good," Mandy responded, and at that moment saw me reaching for the remote. She lunged at the couch, and pretty soon I had lost the tussle over the channel changer, in part because Mandy pulled it against the loose-fitting cloth at her chest. She smirked, taking advantage of my self-prescribed out-of-bounds area. We sat side by side and drifted through a handful of predictable sit-coms, none of which I was able to pay much attention to, distracted by my sister sitting next to me in clothes which I guessed were chosen to get my attention and yet not sure what to do about it. Suddenly she had switched over to cable, which Dad had always defined as 'parents only television', and I realized she had either stumbled on, or navigated to, the erotically charged Spartacus series on Starz. I must have gone a little stiff, my mind swirling with a mix of reactions, because Mandy turned around and peered over at me with a grin.
I reddened a bit. I'd seen three of the episodes before, over at a friend's house in my senior year at high school. He'd invited a bunch of us from the track team over to celebrate the end of Spring Training. His parents had generously gone out and left us alone - pretty different than our Dad would have reacted - and apparently ignored the two six packs in the garage fridge. It had been fun to feel like we were really becoming adults. And the raunchy historical fiction of the Roman Spartacus series - gladiators and slaves and the like - had been pretty eye-catching. I think the other boys were like me, though. Not quite sure what to do with the idea of getting turned on in front of a bunch of other guys. A couple of them tried being crude, but that wasn't really our scene, so we ended pretty much watching through it in silence. I was left with a secret hard on, and an undefined sense that such soft-porn images were designed more for men than women.
"Really, you wanna watch this stuff?" I said now, once again grabbing unsuccessfully for the remote.
My sister eyed me coolly, easily fending me off by burying her hand in the soft folds at her breasts. I tried not to stare.
"What, girls aren't allowed?"
"I didn't say that. Just, you know...aren't you into, like, the romance novel stuff? I thought visuals were more kind of what men went for."
"Wow, bro. You really think that?"
"I dunno. Just haven't heard girls talking about the visuals much I suppose."
Mandy was looking sideways across at me, seeming to be evaluating something. Finally she spoke.
"Would it surprise you to hear that I can get turned on by visuals?"
I didn't answer this in words, but made a noncommittal face. Truth was I hoped she would continue.
"Wanna hear one image that really turned me on?" she finally said softly.
My throat was too clenched to speak, but my expression must have given me away, because she continued even more softly, so I could hardly hear her over the volume of the t.v.
"Last summer when you ran the 5,000 meters. And I sat up in the bleachers. You remember?"
Of course I remembered. Final race meet of the year, and I was favored with a good chance at that distance. Dad told me afterwards that I blew it, coming in second, but I believed that I was just unlucky with the competition. I felt that I had run the fastest race I could on the day. But it was disappointing. For a start, it hadn't helped any on my scholarship application. And also, I knew that Mandy had taken time out from Music to watch me. She had greeted me with a wrap around hug in front of all the teams before the starters gun and had perched herself up in the stand to see the whole of the field. But at the end she had kind of disappeared. Maybe, I had reflected sourly at the time, as disappointed as Dad.
Oh yeah, I remembered. Now I was all ears.
"Do you recall towards the end, when you got stuck behind that pack of runners? I guess they were from Valley, right?"
Wow, she had really paid attention. I nodded, unable to see where this was going.
