Chapter 7: Dispersal
After Davie showed off his magical talents out in the retreat area — with some small help from me — and we’d tested the family for magical talents, we were all sitting around in the living room, still naked. Allison had dared the rest of us to streak the few feet from the relaxation area across the porch to the house’s back door, and I’d dared her to be first. That was foolish of me, because of course she’d gone and done just that!
After the thrill of the streak wore off, we were all left in a strangely emotional state. Everyone was impressed with Davie’s feat, but everyone other than me was simultaneously bummed about not being mages themselves. Vin and I had our own reasons for being emotionally scrambled.
I was happy to see Vin get up and motion Miguel out of the living room, taking him off to his bedroom. I hoped he was confessing what he’d done, and I became certain when I saw him sheepishly emerge from his bedroom and motion Carmen in there with him. There were raised voices from his room, but we couldn’t catch the words.
Vin emerged from his bedroom shortly after Miguel and Carmen came out, dressed and carrying his bags. “Mom, dad, I’m leaving today rather than next weekend as I’d originally planned. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, so I need to be about it.”
Mary said, “Vicente! You three didn’t have a fight, did you? You’re not running off mad now?”
The three all did their best to reassure her. Davie and I kept our peace, too, none of us wanting to spill the sordid little secret.
“No, madrecita, I’ve just got a lot to get done before classes start on Tuesday. Well, bye, y’all!” he said, then crept out the door, ducking our returning good-byes.
“Well, that was awkward,” observed Allison.
“That’s our bro,” I answered, and we shared a knowing smile. Then turning to our mother, I said, “Shall we get lunch started?”
Back in our own bed that night, I said, “Davie, I have to confess something to you.” I felt him squeeze me from behind with his forearm, our fingers interlaced, he in the big spoon pose he so loves for sleeping. Truth be told, I liked being the little spoon.
“You’re forgiven,” he said.
“You don’t even know what I did!” I retorted, miffed.
“Ah, so you are guilty, then!” he chortled, giving me a kiss on the neck.
“Dammit, Davie, I’m trying to confess here!”
“My deepest apologies, my love. You may continue.”
“Most gracious,” I replied mockingly. I took a breath and said, “Vin and I slept together.” I felt his breath stop. I waited several seconds. “Breathe, Davie.” I felt it resume, so I relaxed a smidge and continued, “That’s not even true. What we did was… Well, I was teaching him how to seduce a girl after he admitted he’d completely flubbed it with Jess.”
“Nothing happened between them?” he asked, sounding disappointed.
“Well, there’s an irony: those two actually slept together. As in two separate unconscious individuals in a tent together, in two separate bags, as chaste as you could wish for two naked young people to be! Ooooh, I was so saddened by this, Davie, I just had to teach him a thing or two! Had to!” I took a calming breath and continued, “Well, one thing led to another, and we started groping, and kissing, and then he was so pent up… Well, shit, Davie, I let him have me. I told myself it was just more of the same, teaching him how to treat a girl properly. We didn’t sleep, Davie, we just boned incestuously, me and my little brother!” I was feeling like dirt by this point.
In a smooth low voice, my new husband replied, “I was joking with my offer of forgiveness earlier, but now I see that there’s nothing to forgive. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Not mollified by this in the least, I persisted with my self-flagellation. “Well, it’d all have been fine except that he confessed I was his first. I fracking took my little brother’s virginity, Davie! Took it like a thief!” Tears rolled from my eyes, and my nose began to run.
“Oh, my love,” he whispered in my ear. “That was a very kind thing for you to do.”
I sniffed voluminously, then pushed out through the tears, “Was it, Davie? What’s he going to say when someone asks him how he lost his V-card? ‘Oh, me and my sister boned down one quiet Sunday afternoon?’” I was almost bawling by this point.
“Ssssh, shhhh. It’ll be fine. You two will be fine.” He wiped my tears away and kissed my hair.
“I couldn’t even hug him goodbye. What if he’d gotten an erection? Aw, shit! I royally fucked up!”
“No, my love, you did something generous and beautiful and kind. You taught him lessons he’d have had to learn a much harder way out in the world. You probably saved him a tonne of grief.”
“I hope so,” I sniffled. “I’m the reason he left early. Not because of what we did. Well, maybe partly that, but because I sent him to Jess. They’ve been talking since the wedding, so maybe there’s still hope for them.”
“That’d be nice. I’d love to have Jess in the family,” Davie replied. “And, maybe what you did will help ensure that. He’ll be more confident, more skilled, more able to attract her. Now shush. We’re fine. A-OK, you hear me?”
“Thank you, Davie. I don’t deserve you.”
“By Minsky’s mukluks, that’s one of the most backwards things you’ve ever said to me! Have you never considered how blessed I am to have you?” He squeezed me again. “I won the love lottery, Kaitlyn. Now quiet yourself. Everything’s fine, and if I learn different from Vin, I’ll pound him until he agrees, all right?”
I started chuckling sub-audibly at that so that Davie only felt it through his embrace.
Then Davie began humming a tune, his neck stretched over the back of my head, transducing the soothing melody into my skull, sending me into dreamland to heal from and process the day.