TABOO TALES(erotica)

I slumped down, winded and exhausted by my exertions, and Nia rolled into my arm, resting her head on my chest as she listened to my heartbeat slowing to normal, drumming her fingers on me as she looked up into my eyes, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Five minutes, Polar bear, then you need a shower, oh boy, do you need a shower! I’ll join you, then we go, OK?”

+++

“Are we actually going somewhere Nia, or are we just aimlessly roaming the storied streets of London until mum calls?” I asked her as we threaded through a maze of streets in Clapham Old Town that I’d never seen before, and I’d lived here all my life.

“Patience, Jamie, we’re going to see a friend, someone you know, who actually likes you, because I need to talk to her, just a couple more minutes, OK?”

We walked up to a small ‘workers cottage’ type house in a little side street and Nia rang the bell. The door opened and it was Julie. She grinned and ushered us into the small sitting-room, Nia sprawling over the back of the armchair I sat in, resting her chin on my shoulder and grinning at Julie.

“So Nia, you said you needed to see me, you and Lover-boy over here!” she nudged me with her foot. “What can I do for you, babe?”

“Jules, Jamie told me you twigged what was going on with the two of us, and that you’d been there. Why didn’t you tell me, Jules, was it Mark?”

Julie looked sad for a second. “Yeah, it was Mark, and when he was told to go, he went, and he left me behind; he got what he wanted, told me what I wanted to hear, and fucked off at the first open gate. You’re lucky, Jamie won’t go anywhere without you. Your parents obviously don’t know, which I’m guessing is what you want to talk about.”

Nia looked relieved. “Jules, how did your mum take it when you told her, how did you deal with it?”

Julie smiled, but there was no humour there. “She dragged it out of Mark, not that it took much effort, he was always under her thumb, then she came for me, screaming like a fucking banshee, telling me I’d seduced my own brother like a little whore, that normal people don’t do things like that, that even if he was older than me, Mark was so innocent and I was such a conniving little slut…”

She stopped, tears rolling down her face at the remembered pain, and Nia climbed off me and sat next to her, holding her while she cried.

She mopped her eyes, stopping crying with an effort, while I went and got her a glass of water from the small kitchen.

“When did this happen, Jules?” asked Nia softly.

“Easter, just before I moved here; I had to, mum told me to go, said the sight of me made her sick…” replied Julie, her eyes welling up again. Nia caught her before she started crying again, hugging her close and stroking her hair, making little soothing noises.

Julie pulled herself away from Nia, knuckled her eyes. “You’re lucky Nia, your dad’s a human being, he won’t go psycho on you like my bitch mother, at least he’ll try and understand. I think after you tell him, you should maybe come and stay here a few days, ’cause he might accept that what you tell him is how it’s going to be, but he may not want to be reminded of it too much, and seeing you draped around Jamie, well…”

It sounded like a good idea to me, but Nia balked at it. “No, I’m staying with Jamie, we’re both in this, and I’m not telling him then hiding in case he gets freaked by seeing us together. Mum already knows, and she has no problem with us being together, so he’ll just have to take his lead from mum!”

Julie looked at Nia. “You’re telling him tonight, aren’t you? Why else would you want to talk about this with me?” Nia smiled. “Actually, mum’s telling him, breaking it to him gently, and she wanted us out of the house until he’s ready to see us, so we may be crashing on your couch tonight, Jules!”

Julie looked unperturbed. “Be my guest, I had Shelagh on there last night, hating men until she went to sleep, and you were top of her hit-list Jamie!” she smiled maliciously. Nia and I exchanged glances. Julie grinned “Don’t sweat it, she’s already fixated on someone else, in a week you’ll be so completely off her radar she’ll never trouble you again! I helped her in my own small way, we bitch-slapped you until she got tired of it, then I pointed her at some of our friends’ older brothers, and she’s resetting her sights as we speak!”

I suggested we went out for a drink, as the conversation on this particular subject seemed to have run its course, so we headed out to the Windmill Tavern, a huge pub over on Clapham Common itself, and we slid into a corner booth, waiting for mum or 10 o’clock, whichever came first. A couple of guys I recognised from school came in, and came over to say hello. They didn’t know Nia, of course, and gave her the once-over, some very admiring looks, nudging me to introduce them. So I introduced Nia to them as my fiancee, getting a very warm look from Nia and some very envious looks from my school friends. Julie just grinned broadly. That incident seemed to lighten Nia’s mood considerably, and she and Julie got down to some serious yakking about people I’d never met, school days etc etc. I clock-watched; I was keyed-up and waiting for Zero-hour, when this would all either be resolved, or blow-up in our faces. Either way, Nia and I would stick together, with or without dad’s blessing, but I also had faith in mum; she’d never let things go that far.

So Nia chatted, and I second-guessed mum until, suddenly, Nia’s phone went off, she looked at it and it was the house number; mum. She picked up, and spoke briefly and hung up.

“Jamie, that was mum, she wants us to come home now, says everything is fine, dad’s anxious to see us.” I gulped down my drink, a little Dutch-courage never hurt anyone, and we left, walking Julie back home before carrying on to our own. When we dropped her off, she hugged Nia, whispered something to her, then reached up and pecked me on the cheek. “Cheer up Jamie, you’re not dead yet!” she grinned, hugged me and waved us off.

When we came in, mum and dad were in their night clothes, mum in a nighty and dad in his sweat pants and dressing robe, which I thought was odd, they never got changed for bed until they actually went to bed.

Dad cleared his throat. “Jamie, Nia, please sit down.” When we had, he continued. “Your mother tells me you have something you want to tell me, so please, whenever you’re ready.”

I started. “Dad, Nia and I, we, that is… I wanted to tell you how I feel… about Nia, about how we feel about each other…” Dad raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Dad, I love Nia… and she loves me, and we want to … be together.” I dried up under that calm stare.

Dad flicked his gaze over to Nia. “And you, Nguye’t, what do you have to say?” Nia gulped and moved closer to me, slipping her hand into mine. “Dad, Jamie’s right, everything he says is true. Toi yeu anh ay rat nhieu, Cha, xin vui long khong ghet toi!” (I love him very much, father, please do not hate me!)

I didn’t understand what she said, but dad obviously did, because he looked closely at her. “Is that what you think I would do, Nugget, really? Anh em la con cua toi va toi yeu em, toi khong the ghet ban!” (You are my children and I love you, I cannot hate you!)This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

I don’t know what he’d said, but suddenly Nia was crying, and she took her hand out of mine to walk over and stand in front of where he was sitting. “Toi khong muon dieu nay xay ra, Cha, xin vui long khong do loi cho Jamie! (I did not ask this to happen, father, please do not blame Jamie!)

Dad ran his fingers through his hair, and looked closely at Nia, and I could swear I saw tears glimmering in his eyes. Nia had said something about ‘blame’, and ‘Father’ and me, but my Vietnamese was way too sketchy to follow the rapid fire conversation they’d had. She held out her hand, and he took it, gently pulled her over to him, and rested his head against her, his arm curled around her waist.

“Jamie, what do you and Nia intend to do or have you even gotten that far yet?” he asked me, “because you’re in no position to support my daughter, and you can’t live here as husband and wife, or whatever. So what do you plan to do?”

I marshalled my thoughts; I hadn’t banked on this. “I will be looking for a job as soon as I can, once I get a job, I’ll find a flat, somewhere we can live, until then Nia will have to live here, and I’ll find somewhere to stay until I can get my own place.”

Nia looked stricken, and mum gasped, but dad just nodded. “Seems like a reasonable plan. I presume you and Nia have talked about what you’re doing, what the law says you are doing, how were you planning on getting around that?”

I replied with the answer I had come up with while pondering this same question. “I know we can’t get married, but we can live together. We have the same name, and we’re not obviously related, so people can assume we’re married if they wish to, we just take care not to correct them.” Dad nodded again. “And children, have you thought about children, and what it means to them to have parents who are as closely related as you are, the possible risks to them?”

Nia spoke up. “I checked up on this. As we both only have one parent in common, we only share half the DNA, which means our children would probably have the same risk of genetic issues as children born to first cousins, and those risks are small in the first generation cross. I looked up the studies, and a risk does exist, but it’s low.”