Big on Education

by Laurie Ames

  She took the call and put her phone to her ear. "Hello?" As she did, her mind ran over and over the different reasons why Bethany would have called her. Elaine doubted that there would be anything wrong with her uncle or any of her cousins. If there was, Bethany would simply have called Elaine's mother who would have passed the message on for Bethany. She said a silent prayer that everything was fine with her mother but her aunt's next words dashed those hopes to pieces.

  "Elaine, I have some bad news. Janine has been sick for a while and we were all hoping that she would shake whatever she had, but it's gotten worse. " Her aunt paused and Elaine felt her knees getting weak. Her mother was sick. Elaine sank down onto an upholstered bench that sat by her front door and tried to figure out what would happen next. "Elaine, she ended up going into the hospital a few days ago. She didn't want us to call you right away but she's been in for a while now and I think it would be a good idea if you came home to see her." Her aunt paused and Elaine worried about what she would say next. "Elaine, I don't want to make you panic, but you need to come home soon. As soon as possible."

  Elaine cleared her throat. It felt thick and there was a lump in it that was hard to clear away. Her eyes became scratchy and started watering. She coughed twice and then answered her aunt. "I understand. I'll call work and clear my schedule. I should be on my way tomorrow but don't expect me to get in until late in the evening." Elaine paused. "Did she.... did my mother change the locks on the house? Do I need you to let me in when I get there?"

  "No, no, everything there is just like you remember it. Your mother didn't change anything. Just come home. Call me when you get into town. Come as soon as you can." Her aunt's voice wavered a little and Elaine felt her stomach drop. Her aunt was always confident and assertive. The nervous tone in Bethany's voice was starting to scare Elaine.

  As Elaine chatted with Bethany to try make sense out of what her aunt was saying, she heard her phone's call waiting beep. She took a quick look at the screen. Tom. She silently uttered a curse word. She was late for supper but she didn't want to interrupt her aunt so she let the call go to voice mail. According to her aunt, her mother had been feeling weak and run down for a while and had recently ended up with a cough.

  She had been admitted to the hospital after she had started coughing up blood. According to Bethany, Elaine's mother had been through a bunch of tests but there were more still to come. They couldn't give Bethany a definite reason why Janine was ill but they did say that at first glance, it didn't look good. When they had told Bethany that, she had called Elaine.

  Bethany had apologized profusely for not letting Elaine know sooner. "Oh Elaine, I know you would have wanted to be here. Your mother doesn't talk much about her health, though, and none of us thought it was as bad as it was. I know you would have wanted to be here right from the start but you know how your mother hates to have anyone fussing over her." Elaine had been forced to agree. She knew what her mother was like.

  As soon as Elaine thought she had gotten all of the details she needed, she politely ended the call with her aunt and sat in silence for a minute. She looked around at her home and realized that everything in her life had just changed. She tilted her head back and rested it against the wall for a moment while she tried to figure out what to do next. When the world seemed like it was no longer spinning as much as before, she called Tom, her fingers shaking a little as she punched in his cell number.

  He picked up on the first ring. "Elaine! Where are you? I've been waiting at this restaurant for almost an hour now. I think the staff are beginning to think that you stood me up." Elaine heard him chuckling into the phone, no doubt pleased at himself for being witty.

  "Tom, I'm so sorry. I can't meet you for dinner tonight. I didn't mean to stand you up. My ride is likely waiting downstairs for me as we speak. I have to get ready and go out of town right away." Elaine felt a lump rising in her throat. She heard Tom making surprised noises on the other end of the line and she suddenly felt very, very tired.

  "Tom, my mother is sick. She's in the hospital. My aunt just called me tonight. They don't know what's wrong with her, but it sounds bad." She heard Tom mumbling words of condolence and sympathy over the phone. He offered to go with her, which was no surprise but Elaine realized this was something she had to deal with on her own. It felt right for her to be alone when she returned to the home that she had grown up in.

  "Tom, that's so sweet. I appreciate the offer but right now I don't know what's happening. You should stay here. If anything happens you'll be the first person I call but right now, it makes more sense for you to stay here." She spent the next few minutes trying to reassure Tom but inside she was screaming for him to get off the phone so she could start her journey home.

  Finally, Elaine managed to get off the phone. She went over to her computer and stared at the screen. Her mind was running in a million different directions. Find a train. Book tickets. Rent a car. Book a hotel. The screen wavered in front of her eyes and Elaine realized that she was crying. She rubbed her eyes and changed her mind about booking a hotel room. Home. She would stay at home. She would stay in the same room that she had shared with Sasha and she hoped that doing so would help her get through the horrible days that she knew were coming.

  She remembered one night in particular. She and her mother had been living at Edward's for about a month. It had been going pretty well for the most part. There had been the occasional arguments about who owned what in the room but in general things were pretty friendly. Then, one night, Elaine had walked in the room just before bed and had seen Sasha getting ready for bed. Elaine looked at her and suddenly knew she had a crush on Sasha Morrison.

  She had tried to ignore her feelings. After all, this was her stepsister. She knew that nobody would understand. Even if her mother would have been okay with Elaine’s lesbian feelings, she knew that feeling that way about her stepsister would not have met with approval from either parent. And, it seemed, Sasha was totally oblivious to the way Elaine felt about her. There wasn't even a hint that she liked Elaine in quite the same way. In fact, it seemed like Sasha barely even tolerated her part of the time.

  So, Elaine waited, and said nothing, and hid the way she felt as deeply as she could. It hurt sometimes, to just cram all of her feelings deep inside but in the end Elaine had somehow managed. She remembered feeling jealous whenever Sasha went out with boys and felt her bitterness grow when Sasha didn't seem to feel the same way about her.

  Chapter 4

  The trip home was pleasant and uneventful. Elaine was able to get a train and a few short hours later was pulling into her mother's driveway in her rental car. She didn't like driving in the city but here the roads were calmer and the concept of driving a car was less overwhelming. Elaine was grateful that she had gone to the trouble of keeping her driver's license up to date. She had always suspected that something like this was going to come up.

  Elaine climbed out of the car and checked her phone. There were a few messages. Some were from her assistant and the rest were from Tom. She wasn't surprised that her aunt hadn't sent her any. Bethany wasn't skilled with things like texting and she tended to just call when she needed to get in touch with someone. She had called her aunt that morning to let her know that she was on her way and Bethany had asked Elaine to let her know when she had arrived, but for the most part her aunt had not tried to get in touch for most of the day.

  Elaine hopped out of the car and grabbed her suitcase out of the back seat. She had agonized about how much to bring with her. She had no idea how long she would be staying and had been tempted to grab everything she thought she would use while she was away. It had taken Elaine the rest of the night to pare down her belongings until they fit in one large bag.

  It wasn't hard to get in the house. Elaine had been given a key years ago and her mother had urged her to use it any time she wanted to come for a visit. For the most part, it had remained unused. When Elaine let herself in the front door, the house had a stran
ge, unlived-in feeling that seemed odd to Elaine. No matter how long it had been since she had last visited, Elaine always felt like walking through the front door meant she was coming home.

  Elaine dragged her suitcase behind her and walked down the hall to her room. She saw that her mother hadn't done much to update the house. Elaine knew that her mother had been intending to fix things up and make them feel a bit more current but they hadn't been completed. While she felt sad that her mother wasn’t able to make the changes she wanted, she was strangely glad that this house was almost exactly like she remembered it.

  The suitcase wheels rattled as they moved from hardwood to carpeting. The hallway seemed shorter than Elaine remembered it being. When she opened the door to her old room and looked around, it felt smaller than when she was living in it. The furniture was all still exactly the same. The beds were both still there, pushed up against opposing walls. They were the same creaky bed frames that Elaine remembered sleeping in year after year.

  Elaine threw her suitcase on what had been Sasha's bed, knowing that her stepsister hadn't slept there in years. She opened her case and began to unpack, sliding her clothes into various dresser drawers and hanging things in the closet. The bed creaked and groaned each time she put any pressure on it and Elaine chuckled. She remembered when she had first moved in. Sasha had marched into the living room where Elaine had been watching a movie.

  "Give me my bed back," Sasha had hissed. When she was younger, Sasha had been a redhead. At the time, Sasha had been so angry that her face was almost as red as her hair. She had put her hands on her hips and had squared off against Elaine. "It's not fair. You got to pick the bed and you got the quiet one. I can't sleep because my bed is too squeaky."

  Elaine had laughed at her and when Sasha saw that Elaine wouldn't simply give in and switch beds, she shrieked with anger and launched herself at Elaine. Sasha always had quite a temper. Elaine admired the fact that Sasha was never afraid to get into a fight, regardless of whether that fight was verbal or physical. In this case, however, Sasha's fighting experience put Elaine at a definite disadvantage.

  Once Sasha had reconnected with Elaine and “hugged it out” by wrapping her arms around her, Elaine had felt a hot thrill go through her body. Was this what it felt like to be with someone you had a crush on? The elation had only lasted a moment though and then the two girls had slammed into the back of the couch. Their combined weight tipped the couch over and everything crashed to the floor.

  In the end, Sasha had been told she was stuck with her bed as punishment for starting a fight. She hadn't talked to Elaine for about a week in protest. Elaine found herself watching her sister, waiting for the moment when Sasha would want to talk to her again. They fought like that, off and on, all the way through middle and high school. As years went by, the fights had grown fewer and farther apart and by the time Elaine left for college, the two girls were fast friends.

  Elaine remembered one time, just before they had parted ways. She had been on a date with her boyfriend Christopher. They had gone to see a movie and afterwards Christopher drove to a secluded park and manoeuvred the car into an area where they wouldn't be seen. They had made their way from the front seat to the back and Christopher, with her blessing, rolled up Elaine's skirt and pulled down her panties.

  He had told her he wanted to try something and then began lowering his mouth to Elaine's pussy. She had felt him breathing on her inner thighs before he began to gently explore her. He started with his fingers, tracing them delicately along her outer lips and then, when her response encouraged him, began to gently slide them in and out of her mound. Elaine closed her eyes, giving into the sensation, but in her mind it was Sasha that was stroking and probing her, not Christopher.

  After he had made her purr and moan for a while, Christopher checked his watch and drove Elaine home. She had bounded out of the car and sprinted into the house. Her mother and stepfather weren't up but Sasha was. Sasha had taken one look at the expression on Elaine's face and had guessed that she and Christopher had been fooling around.

  "I want to know all of the details. I want you to tell me," Sasha said, her hair a mass of red curls that shone in the light of her bedside lamp. Elaine first blushed but then told her sister all about it. She described how Christopher had made her feel, how he had touched her and how, finally, she had what could only be described as an orgasm. Sasha had laid in bed, her eyes closed, listening intently to what Elaine was saying.

  "I don't know why you haven't gone all the way with him, come on, whats wrong with you girl?" said Sasha, turning to look at Elaine. "You're eighteen now. You're an adult. You should be able to screw your boyfriend if that's what you want. I mean, maybe it's sad that I'm still single. I'm a little older than you and I’ve only had boys ask me to the movies. I'm so jealous," said Sasha.

  Elaine had wanted to say something but hadn't known what to say. Instead, she closed her eyes and wished Sasha a good night. The light clicked off and the room was dark. Then, after a little while, Elaine heard Sasha's bed creaking. The sound was different than when her stepsister tossed and turned. This was a regular, steady sound that Elaine heard over and over and over.

  She quietly turned onto her side, pretending to fake sleep. She was grateful for her silent mattress. She stared at Sasha and her mouth fell open. Sasha 's back was arched; her mouth was open and her hand was moving down between her thighs. Elaine could see that Sasha's nightgown had worked its way up her body so that one of her pert breasts was exposed and the nipple was hard and pointed.

  Elaine listened to Sasha's gasps and moans. It was clear that Sasha started out trying to be quiet but as her passion grew, her moans were getting louder. She could hear her fingers sliding in and out with a wet slurping sound, and it was obvious her pussy was well lubricated. Finally, Elaine saw Sasha shudder and heard her let out one last muffled moan before she finally caught her breath and relaxed back on her bed. Elaine watched as Sasha's body stretched out, loving the pale, curvy look of Sasha's body. Elaine could now feel her body tingling deep between her legs and she ached to do what Sasha had been doing. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to ignore the burn that was deep inside her. She continually rolled from side to side, trying to get comfortable and to fall asleep.

  Sleep did not come easily.

  Chapter 5

  Elaine strode down the hall looking for her mother's hospital room. Room 412. It was in a newer part of the hospital and Elaine was pleased to find out that her mother had a private room. Elaine had made sure that Janine was covered under her work health insurance but half the time Janine never used the benefits. Elaine had gotten into more than one argument with Janine about it. She had tried telling Elaine that she didn't use them because she didn't want to be a burden. Her mother always agreed to start using Elaine's benefits but after every argument, things went back to the way they had been before.

  Elaine found her mother's room and pushed the door open. She listened for a moment, checking to see if a nurse was already in there. She didn't hear anyone. The last thing she wanted was to interrupt if her mother was in the middle of getting a treatment. She also knew that if she interrupted her mother's meal time that Janine would quite happily miss a meal and that was something she did not want to do.

  When she looked in the room, she saw that Janine was in bed, the head raised. Her mother was happily watching one of her favorite daytime television programs. Elaine was pleased to see her mother awake but was shocked by how old and thin she looked. Her hands, resting on the hospital bedspread, looked thin and the bones were shockingly visible.

  Elaine made a point of tapping on the door and when she did, her mother's head turned. When she saw Elaine standing there, Janine's face lit up.

  "Oh honey! You're here! I didn't know you were coming for a visit. How did you know I was in the hospital?" Janine studied her daughter's face. She hated anyone making a fuss over her and she was truly surprised that her daughter had come to visit her.


  "Mom, it was Bethany. She called and let me know that you had been sick. I wanted to come when I heard that you weren't feeling well." Elaine sat down on the edge of her mother's bed and scanned Janine's face, trying to get a feel for how her mother was actually doing. Janine had always been very good at pretending to be healthier than she actually was. Janine saw what Elaine was doing and gave her a pained look.

  "Ah, relax. I have a lot more in me than your sister or those doctors think. You don't need to worry about me." A sudden coughing fit overtook Janine and she doubled over. Elaine watched as her mother coughed deeply, with a worried look on her face. Her mother seemed to be choking. Halfway through the coughing fit, Janine waved for Elaine to leave the room. As Elaine hurried out, she saw her mother reaching for the call button.

  Elaine paced up and down the hallway. She watched as a nurse passed her at a quick pace. Another nurse came shortly after. Elaine was tempted to poke her head inside to see what was happening but she resisted the urge to do so. She didn't want to be in the way and she had a feeling that her presence would only interfere with the professionals. There would be plenty of time to go in and resume talking to her mother.

  After about half an hour, the nurses walked out of the room. One looked at Elaine.

  "Are you Janine's daughter?" Elaine nodded.

  "Your mother sure is a nice lady. You can go back in and talk to her but she's pretty weak. Her coughing takes a lot out of her. We gave her a breathing treatment with a nebulizer but it isn't as effective as it used to be." The nurse paused for a moment and looked at Elaine. "It's good you came. Your mom is having a good day today but I don't know how many more of them she will have."