The Peacock 47

 "And you haven't heard from them.  Anything."

"I could hardly blame them.  She was of course rescuing her little brother from me.  Who could blame her?"

"How old was Eric?" Carl asks.

"He would have been twenty.  He was here on a visit.  You see, their mother died in Sweden.  They had no father.  Her mother was a lesbian who got pregnant from a sperm donor. He was ten years younger than Greta.  She had flown back to Sweden for the funeral, and wanted to stay a bit longer, since there was quite an extended family there she wanted to connect with.  Her brother was going to visit us anyway, so he flew out ahead of her.  I met Eric in the airport, and at first I thought he was Greta, they look so much alike.  By the way, it was the same sperm donor for both of them.  I had a week off from the hospital I was working in--I'm a registered nurse--so it gave me lots of time to spend with Greta's brother before she came back almost a week later.  I found him really hard to reach at first, and knowing that he must be grieving for his mother, I tried to balance giving him space with spending time together.  A very quiet kid, even more introverted and withdrawn than his sister.

I left him in the apartment to do grocery shopping.  We weren't needing a lot, just salad greens for dinner.  I was gone less than an hour.  Eric was on the couch, weeping.  Loudly.  I set the groceries on the floor and instinctively went over and sat next to him. Then, he kind of leaned into me, and was still weeping convulsively.  I put my arms around him and held him for a while, for quite a while.  He eventually began to calm down, but instead of separating from me, he leaned even closer into me, then started to caress my hair, my back, my arms, and my chest.  Then he began to kiss me. lightly and gently all over my face. This was so strange to me.  I had never been with another man, not that way.  It wasn't that I wasn't attracted, and I certainly wasn't repulsed either, but more that it was a barrier I didn't want to cross with anyone.  It was hard enough being a partner for my wife.  

I was bewildered, and confused.  I was of course turned on, but not too drastically.  More than that, I just wanted to comfort and console the poor kid. But he wasn't going to leave me alone.  We ate dinner, then sat and watched a couple of movies.  Then he asked me if he could sleep with me. I wasn't sure how to answer.  We sat together on the couch.  Eric drew me close to him, put his arms around me.  I felt all strength and resolve drain away from me, knowing full well that I had just abdicated my own free will, my personal agency, in order to comfort and gratify the urgent primal needs of my young brother in law..."