Human Sister

of our writing, and as I launched the last pinch of ashes up into the breeze Elio caught my arm and pulled us together.
    “I want to marry you,” he said. “I know you’re too young without your parents’ consent, and Ma would kill me, but we can do it ourselves, right here, right now. Besides, nobody needs to know. It’s none of their business.”
    At that moment a plane took off with a loud roar from the runway closest to us. I glanced at the plane and winced at the incongruity between our tender moment and such a storm of commerce. But Elio seemed not to hear the plane. His eyes were dreamy, as though he saw only me—and the noise and the imagined spies evaporated from my mind.
    “What do we do?” I asked.
    “Exchange promises that we’ll always love and take care of each other.” He looked at me eagerly.
    “Yes, of course,” I said. “I’ll always love you and care for you. Always.”
    “And that we’ll share all our thoughts, all our feelings, everything.”
    “I want those things, too. I never want to keep anything from you ever again.”
    We bent toward each other and kissed.
    “You go first,” he said, squeezing my hands and peering into my eyes, as if he could see directly inside me.
    I looked back into him and felt so at peace, so full of love, so very much at home. “I, Sara Jensen, promise to love you always with all my heart and mind and body; to care for you always; to share all my ideas, feelings, and desires with you; to trust you completely; to be married to you, Elio Briand, for as long as we live.”

    For our secret honeymoon, we decided to spend the six days left before my departure biking through the province of North Holland, though we had to return home each night to sleep. Obviously, Aunt Lynh’s trust of Elio’s promise to treat me as a sister went only so far. I wonder whether she ever wondered whether we might occasionally rent a hotel room for a couple of hours during the middle of the day (which we did). And did she ever wonder whether we might be sleeping together in Elio’s bed at night (which we also did), the doors to our rooms securely locked?
    During those bike trips, Elio and I frequently stopped along country roads and lay hand in hand in the grass, talking of our past and dreaming of a shared future: going to university, working on scientific projects (of course, for security reasons no further mention of Michael was made), having children after our professional lives were established. For years we had enjoyed our summer vacations together; we had spent thousands of hours on Vidtel together; we had learned and experienced so much together. But for me, those six days held special wonder. It was as though all of our earlier experiences demanded to come forth and be replayed, to live again in the new light and fullness of our love.
    On the morning of my departure, he got out of bed and walked toward the bathroom. Halfway there, he looked around. I was lying in bed, watching him. He smiled, then walked back to the bed, knelt beside me, and gave me a long warm kiss. “I love you so much,” he said. “I’d like to tell you a little secret before you go.”
    “What?”
    “It makes me feel really good inside when I know you’re watching me when I’m naked. I’d like you to come into the bathroom with me this morning, and any other time you want, and watch me do whatever I do.”
    I flung my arms around his neck. “Thank you! I think you’re so beautiful!”
    I sat naked on the toilet, cover down, and watched him take a shower. He came out and dried himself leisurely in front of me.
    “You sure seem to have an erection a lot of the time,” I said.
    He looked down at it, smiled, then turned to profile himself to me. His erection arched up playfully. “It’s the way my body smiles at you,” he said, grinning.
    Now, whenever I think of that moment, his form starts to take shape. First, an outline of his muscular thigh appears; then the curve of his firm, round buttocks; then his muscled stomach, its mid-parting incurvation enticing me—and suddenly, he’s there: black, glistening wet hair; full, ripe lips and white teeth smiling; dark-skinned torso arching back slightly to accentuate the v-shape it forms with his erection. And it’s true—his body is smiling at me!

First Brother

    S he walks, the dog runs, toward a sign that reads, “Private Property. Beware Of Owner.” She repeatedly looks toward the house just east of the graveled way