Twin Pleasures

by Josephine Scott

“What did Gran Webster have to say for herself?”

  “Oh, Gran. An - we missed out on something there. The old lady sees a lot, knows a lot, has our family just about sized up.”

  “I’m sure she does, but she damn well spoiled my party!”

  “Hey, hold on, it was mine too!”

  “I know, I know, don’t get yourself in a state, kiddo.” Annie clamped down her temper. “Tell me.”

  “Well, she said she told Father the day he brought Mother home for the first time that that woman will drain him keeping up appearances, and she’s so right, An! Look how we all match, our house, or lifestyle, even us!”

  “I’ve know that for years.”

  “I guess I have too, but didn’t want to say it.”

  Annie crossed over to the bed, laid down, put her hands under her head. “What do you think, kiddo?”

  “What about?”

  “For starters what do you think about going out of here right now, walking down the road accosting the first man you see, saying to him.

  “Sir, I am in dire need of a good spanking, would you do me the honour of putting me across your knee and spanking my bottom until I cry, until I am so red it looks as if I will be bruised for a week. And if he refuses going on to the next one and asking him.” Tammy’s breath came faster , she shut her eyes tight went red her fingers restless sliding on her own long shapely legs. Annie continued -

  “And not coming back until you find one to spank you so hard you’ll be bruised for a week come Tuesday. Well, are you going to do it?”

  “Annie -”

  “No, I won’t make you, not tonight.” Annie sat up, stared at her sister with all the force of her personality blazing out of her eyes. “What you do instead is go dig up a worm and eat it.”

  “Annie!”

  “Go!”

  “Annie - please! You already did the spider -”

  “And tomorrow we’ll talk about what we do about this adoption thing. I’m too angry, too tired and too wound up to think of it right now.”

  “Annie!” pleading begging longing to be let off this task. Annie was immovable.

  “Go, I said.”

  Slowly and reluctantly Tammy trailed across the bedroom floor, eyes down, loathing and love mixed trailing back to Annie who took in the emotions wrapped them around her own hates and smiled evilly.

  “I’ll know you’ve done it when I hear you being sick.”

  And fell back on the bed, waiting.

  Chapter Seven

  Q. Can you tell me what you meant by ‘Annie had different ideas’?

  A. I told her Gran was an all right person, but she said no, Gran had deliberately wrecked the party, her party, but of course it was mine too. Thing is, I didn’t mind, I thought it had gone on long enough and anyway we all had a lot to think about and talk about. We sat around after everyone had gone, and Mother sort of got herself together to tell us we were adopted, that they couldn’t have kids, didn’t tell us who was at fault there, just that they adopted us from this poor poor family, and we had there awful names, all done with italic type words, you know what I mean? If they were written down they’d be in italics. I think we were supposed to feel grateful to our parents for rescuing us from the poor poor family and the terrible names, Mary and Audrey.

  Q. Do you think they’re awful names?

  A. They sound awful, after we’ve grown up being Tamasine and Anastasia, my name means little twin, by the way, Mother put a lot of thought into our names!

  Q. What does Anastasia mean?

  A. Resurrection. Reborn. Reborn with a new name. It all fits.

  Q. What happened next?

  A. We went along with it, smiled a lot, said thank you for the party and the gifts, were told we’d be alone again on Friday evening, and went upstairs. Annie called me into her room, well, what she did was ask me to come in when we were going upstairs, so I did, and she had a horrid spider sitting in the middle of the bed. She’d pictured it just for me. Then, as she always does when she’s in a foul mood started on about me doing something terrible. She’d been on about walking the streets, approaching the first man I saw and asking him to spank me until I cried. And if he refused, to go on to the next one until I found someone to do it, and then I’d have to come back and show her what h’d done to me. I was simply terrified at the thought, but -

  Q. But you found it exciting as well.

  A. Yes, terribly exciting. I mean, it could be a real experience, couldn’t it? All I’d experienced up to then was Annie’s boyfriends who weren’t exactly part of the scene!

  Q. Did you do it?

  A. No. Because we knew we had Friday to ourselves again, Annie promised to get someone else to come along. But she didn’t let me off. She told me to go and get a worm and eat it.

  Q. Couldn’t you have faked that?

  A. No, she said she’d know I’d done it when she heard me being sick. And I was.

  Chapter Eight

  “Darling, I heard you being sick last night, are you all right?” Adrienne laid a caring hand on Tammy’s forehead, looked to her eyes, registered motherly concern. Tammy nodded, knowing she was white and drawn this morning, results of a night tossing and turning waiting for the worm to regurgitate itself - what it did.

  “Ate too much rich cake, I think. Don’t worry Mother, I’m all right.”

  “Good, good.” Tammy stole a look at Annie, caught the gleam of pure lust, knew Annie had heard and approved.

  Tammy thought. ‘If Mother heard me, why didn’t she come and find out if I was all right?’ and wondered if her real mother would have been more caring.

  Odd how the thoughts changed from one day to the next.

  Her real mother.

  Her adoptive mother.

  Suddenly Adrienne didn’t seem so much the perfect wife, mother and house owner, suddenly the superbly cut blonde hair seemed a sham, rather than a naturally beautiful asset.

  “We’ve - been invited to a dinner on Friday evening, is that all right?”

  “Is what all right?” asked Annie, with a malicious gleam her mother missed entirely.“Leaving you girls alone again, we seem to be doing a lot of that lately.”

  “Actually you mentioned it last night, it’s fine by us, isn’t it, Tam?”

  Tammy nodded, not ready to speak. As they were going to be alone on Friday, Annie would dream some devious scheme but at least it wouldn’t mean walking the street looking for a man to punish her. Yet.

  Annie pushed her plate away, traditional fried breakfast consumed, fried bread, tomatoes, sausages, egg and bacon. The cut off rind sat on the plate, a squiggle of brown looking like a -

  “Excuse me,” she pushed her chair back and left the table, toast half eaten coffee untouched. She felt Annie’s tentative enquiry.

  “What’s the matter, kiddo,” but ignored it.

  Her bedroom was cool, the morning sun didn’t touch this side of the house, she could sit in half shadow and look out across green gold richness of September and let her feelings flow out, regardless of whether Annie picked them up or not.

  The village church began tolling the calling bell, summoning people to church. Perhaps she should get to church, approach the vicar ask him for confession - she’d heard it was done in the Church of England but he would be surprised, perhaps offended, by her sins.

  “I have sinned,” she would say. “I have laid with a man not my husband - well, several times actually. I have been whipped by at least one person, someone else used a strap on me, yet another a ping pong bat to smack my bottom until I was crying. And I loved it. I loved the giving in, the feeling of being controlled, the sensation of someone else being responsible for what happened to me. And even more, I loved the knowledge my twin was sharing the feeling while I glimpsed something of her feelings,
her desire to dominate, to control to direct. Yes, to give pain, but she dare not lay a hand on me. I would like her to, oh believe me I would like her to! I would lie down at Annie’s feet and let her beat me - I would kiss her feet and worship her as she deserves, for she is the stronger twin, the older twin the more intelligent twin. I love her and would do anything for her.”

  And the vicar, young as he is with theological college stars in his eyes despite working as a curate in London - big ugly London - would reel back in shock and demand I go to the Police or the social workers, or someone. And I don’t want to.

  Annie crept into the room, looking around, wrinkling her nose as always.

  “How can you be happy in here with all this blue around?” gesturing toward the frilled blue duvet cover and pillowcase, blue walls, darker blue drapes and royal blue carpet.

  “I like it. It’s calming.”

  “Oh, you and the calming, meditation and all that! Where does it get you?”

  “Less wound up than you are, Anastasia.”

  “Oh fine, Tamasine.” Annie sat on the window seat, looked out of the window, fiddled with the tie back. “All right, are you?”

  “Now I am.”

  “Sorry about that.” The apology seemed sincere, for the first time ever. “I didn’t really mean you to be sick like that, you were so sick, kiddo.”

  “I know, I was the one doing it!”

  “How big was the worm?”

  “As big as the rind of bacon you left on your plate.”

  Annie laughed softly. “So that’s the reason for the hasty departure! Never gave it a thought, kiddo, that I didn’t.”

  “You never do.”

  “Oh but I do, you are never far from my thoughts, I plan all your penances very carefully indeed.”

  “But I won’t have to walk the streets looking for someone, will I? We’ve got Friday to ourselves.”

  “Oh you remembered that, did you.” Annie gave Tammy a knowing and understanding look. “No wonder you’re tired, use up the batteries in the vibrator, did you?”

  Tammy flushed. “Yes, I did - actually. You can buy be some new ones!”

  “Not likely, it was your pleasure, not mine. I wonder who you fantasized about, or was it a faceless stranger, someone passing through Salldown, a business man on his way to a conference, stopping overnight at the Coach and Horses, wandering around to walk off a late dinner and too many drinks, what would he think if he saw a girl looking as young as you do, kiddo, all the long blonde hair shining in the streetlight, that short short skirt, you know, the one we made together, the black one, with the slit up the side, the one that makes your behind stick out, would he think twice at your offer to give you a good tanning? In the back of his company car, a big one, upholstered seats, plenty of room, skirt up, pants down, hand coming down again and again, you wriggling and writhing and wanting to be free knowing he won’t let you free, knowing he’ll give you a good fucking afterwards, and knowing I’ll want to inspect you when you come in - is that what kept you and the vibrator busy all night?” She watched Tammy go red and start wriggling, she knew the answer before it came.

  “Yes.”

  “I know, kiddo, I felt it. I was right in there, directing his arm, his hand mopping up your tears holding your wrists so you couldn’t get away, feeling myself go red and sore in sympathy but kiddo, I didn’t need the vibrator, you did that for me, slick and wet with your juices - it suited mine too.”

  Tammy stared at her. “Were you sick with me as well? When that damned worm came back up and hit the toilet bowl? Were you there then, big sister?”

  “No, I pulled out and left you to it. What do you think I am, some kind of masochist?”

  Annie stood up, paced around the room, touched the Stephen King novel, looked at Tammy and smiled.

  “Gerald’s Game. Bondage. We’ll try that some time when we can get the guys in here, get you tied to the bed instead of in the garage, see what they do to you then. In the meantime - what are we going to do about this adoption business?”

  The sudden change of subject took Tammy by surprise.

  “Can we do anything?”

  “Sure we can.” Annie crossed the floor again grabbed Tammy’s shoulders shook her lightly. “Listen, kiddo, they gave us away! Those people - what was the name? Gibling. They gave us away! We have a whole family out there, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents! We don’t know who they are, what they gave to us. Did one of them have dominant desires and pass it on to us? How did we get to be psychic? Don’t you want to know?”

  “Well -”

  “Sure you do.” Annie paced again. “And another thing. These two who call themselves out parents, they took us in, fine, they’re to be let off a lot of things for that, but kiddo, they didn’t tell us! They deceived us! Let us find out from that vicious nasty old lady! That I don’t forgive!”

  “But Annie -”

  “Don’t but Annie me! Think about it. Work on it. Let’s see where we go and what we can do with this knowledge!”

  “You mean - blackmail someone?”

  “I didn’t mean that, but anything and everything is up for grabs, kiddo, and I mean everything.”

  Tammy became infected with Annie’s enthusiasm as she knew she would. Sooner or later whatever Annie thought and felt she would. Sooner or later whatever Annie thought and felt came over the psychic link, became part of her too.

  “Where do we start?”

  “Well, I can scour the telephone directory and see what I can find. And you can find out where we send off for birth certificates.”

  “I feel better already.” Colour had returned to her face, life to her eyes. She had something to do.

  “And Friday to look forward to,” added Annie, as if reading her mind.

  “Yes, and Friday to look forward to as well.” What game would Annie devise this time? Who would Annie find this time, that wimp Mark again?

  “Find me someone strong for Friday,” begged Tammy, putting on her shoes and finding a jacket.

  Annie grinned. “You bet I will!”

  Chapter Nine

  Q. What happened next, Tammy?

  A. Something odd. I was walking in our churchyard, before you laugh it’s a good place to escape from Annie and family at times! Those who go there are silent, mourning over graves, arranging flowers, clearing weeds away, and I discovered a grave with Gibling on it. Then I found some more. We might have been born in London, but Giblings are from Salldown, for sure. Annie came with me on another visit, and we began building up a picture of our family. The real family. It was like a game, nothing really meant anything, and we put them in some kind of order. We knew for example that there was a baby buried there, lived for three months, a Loving Husband and Brother, so that was an uncle who died, one set of grandparents, we didn’t have the other name, I only looked for Giblings, there could have been other family members, I couldn’t do anything about that at the time.

  Q. And?

  A. Annie got busy with the phone books for the area and the adjoining area, even got onto Directory Enquires in a quiet moment! She got the number of other Giblings around the area. Unusual name, had to be the same family.

  Q. What happened then? Did you use the information? Did you get your birth certificates? Did you get in touch with this family?

  A. No, that was the odd thing. It took Annie some time to think about doing anything about it, and then when it happened, it all happened by pure accident. Because before then she had other ideas, did Annie, about getting revenge on our family, what we thought of as family No. 2, and she started with Uncle Phil.

  Chapter Ten

  “Wait to Friday.” Annie said it over and over, sometimes without Tammy asking other times in answer to her question -

  “Have you found some
one? And what are we going to do Friday?” It all got her the same enigmatic answer. Friday was a lifetime away, an eternity of being nice to parents, avoiding the over solicitous hugs, kisses and enquiries after health and mental well-being.

  “Why can’t she just leave us alone?” Annie demanded after one particularly sickly session of mother love. “We were all right before!”

  “Before we thought she was our real mother,” Tammy had invincible logic. Annie found it hard to accept.

  “Much more and I’ll be really rude to her!”

  “Oh give her time, An, give her time, she’ll get used to it.”

  “Give her time! All right, I’ll try and be good.”

  “Tell me about Friday.”

  “Wait to Friday,” and that’s all Tammy could get. But there were whispered telephone calls which stopped when she got close and a general air of mystery that intrigued and nearly drove her mad.

  She guessed Annie knew exactly what she was doing. Most likely laying traps which no man could resist.

  “Friday came at last, Adrienne and Martin got themselves ready, kissed and hugged the girls, drove away to a chorus of ‘take care’, ‘see you later’, and other meaningless expressions.

  Tammy and Annie raced upstairs and changed, Tammy into a virtually backless low cut tight black dress as Annie had ordered, Annie into tiny cut off shorts and cropped top. When the bell rang they were ready and waiting. Annie opened the front door slowly, smiling her most inviting smile.

  “Uncle Phil, do come in.”

  “Thanks Annie. I must say this all sounds highly mysterious and interesting, what’s going on? Didn’t I see your parents going off down the road?”

  If you did you were hanging around watching. Annie smothered her thoughts, smilingly inviting him into the lounge.

  “You did. Tammy, Uncle Phil’s here.”

  Tammy got up from the settee, aware of her twin’s prickling of excitement and lust, did some deep breathing to control her own feelings.