But he didn't even hear her. He could feel the red rage pumping in his temples; there was a congestion in his chest. He felt her hand pull loose and rake his chest, leaving a clean, hot path of pain in its wake. Bewildered, he looked down at himself and saw the bloody traces of her fingernails on his flesh. A terrible anger rose up in him.
"You cock-teaser!" he yelled, swinging his free hand. The blow caught her on the side of her face. knocking her back against the bed. She stared up at him with frightened eyes.
"You bitch!" he said, tearing his belt from his trousers. He raised her arms over her head and lashed her wrists to the iron bedpost. He picked up the half-empty bottle from the bed where it had fallen. "Still thirsty?"
She shook her head.
He tilted the bottle and began to laugh as the orange soda ran down over her. "Drink!" he said. "Drink all you can!"
The bottle flew from his hands as she kicked it away. He caught at her legs and pinned them against the bed with his knees. He laughed wildly. "Now, my darling little sister, there'll be no more games."
"No more games," she gasped, staring up into his eyes. His face came down and his mouth covered hers. She felt herself begin to relax.
Then the fierce, sharp pain penetrated her body. She screamed. His hand came down heavily over her mouth, as again and again the pain ripped through her.
And all that was left was the sound of her voice, screaming silently in the confines of her throat, and the ugliness and horror of his body on her own.
Laddie rolled over on the sand. It was all over now. Tomorrow his mother would know. And it would be his fault. They would blame him and they would be right. No matter what, he shouldn't have let it happen. A shadow fell across him and he looked up.
Rina was standing there. She dropped to the sand beside him. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," he said dully.
She reached a hand out to his. "I shouldn't have let you do it," she whispered.
"You couldn't have stopped me," he said. "I must have been crazy." He looked at her. "If we were anybody else, we could run away and get married."
"I know."
His voice turned bitter. "It isn't as if we were really brother and sister. If only they hadn't adopted- "
"But they did," Rina said quickly, and with a sure knowledge. "Besides, we can't blame it on them. It wasn't their fault." She felt the tears come into her eyes. She sat there silently as they rolled down her cheeks.
"Don't cry."
"I- I can't help it," she whispered. "I'm scared."
"I am, too," he said. "But crying won't help."
The tears kept rolling silently down her cheeks. After a moment, she heard his voice. She looked at him. His lips moved awkwardly. "Even if you are my sister, you know that I love you?"
She didn't answer.
"I've always loved you, I guess. I couldn't help it. Somehow, the other girls were nothing when I compared them with you."
"I guess the reason I was so bad was because I was jealous of the girls you went with," she confessed. "I didn't want them to have you. That's why I did what I did. I couldn't let any other boy touch me. I couldn't stand them."
His hand tightened on her fingers. "Maybe it'll turn out all right yet," he said, trying for reassurance.
"Maybe," she said, a dull hopelessness in her voice.
Then they ran out of language and they turned and watched the surf run away with their childhood.
Laddie sat at the helm of his small sailboat and watched his mother in the bow. He felt a gust of wind take the sail and automatically he compensated for the drift while scanning the sky. There were squall clouds coming up ahead. Time to head for the dock. Slowly he began to come about.
"Turning back?" he heard his mother call.
"Yes, Mother," he replied. It seemed strange to have her aboard. But she had wanted to come. It was almost as if she had sensed there was something troubling him.
"You've been pretty quiet this morning," she said.
He didn't meet her gaze. "I have to concentrate on the boat, Mother."
"I don't know what's the matter with you children," she said. "You're both so moody lately."
He didn't answer. He kept his eyes on the squall clouds up ahead. He thought about Rina. Then himself. Then his parents. A sorrow began to well up inside him. He felt his eyes begin to burn and smart.
His mother's voice was shocked. "Why, Laddie, you're crying!"
Then the dam broke and the sobs racked his chest. He felt his mother's hand draw his head down to her breast as she had done so often when he was a baby. "What's the matter, Laddie? What's wrong?" she asked softly.
"Nothing," he gasped, trying to choke back the tears. "Nothing."
She stroked his head gently. "Something is wrong," she said softly. "I know there is. You can tell me, Laddie. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I’ll understand and try to help."
"There's nothing you can do," he cried. "Nothing anybody can do now!"
"Try me and see." He didn't speak, his eyes searching her face for something, she didn't know what. A curious dread came into her. "Has it- is it something to do with Rina?"
It was as if the muscles that held his face together all dissolved at once. "Yes, yes!" he cried. "She's going to have a baby! My baby, Mother," he added through tight lips. "I raped her, she's going to have my baby!"
"Oh, no!"
"Yes, Mother," he said, his face suddenly stony.
The tears sprang to her eyes and she covered her face with her hands. This couldn't happen to her children. Not her children. She had wanted everything for them, given them everything. After a moment, she regained control of herself. "I think we'd better turn back," she managed to say quietly.
"We are, Mother," he said. He looked down at his hands on the tiller. The words slipped from him now. "I don't know what got into me, Mother." He stared at her with agonized eyes, his voice strained and tense. "But growing up isn't what it's cracked up to be, it's not what it says in books. Growing up's such a crock of shit!"
He stopped in shock at his own language. "I'm sorry, Mother."
"It's all right, son."
They were silent for a moment and the waves slapped wildly against the hull of the boat. "You mustn't blame Rina, Mother," he said, raising his voice. "She's only a kid. Whatever happened was my fault."
She looked up at her son. A glimmer of intuition pierced the gray veil that seemed to have fallen in front of her eyes. "Rina's a very beautiful girl, Laddie," she said. "I think anyone would find it difficult not to love your sister."
Laddie met his mother's eyes. "I love her, Mother," he said quietly. "And she really isn't my sister."
Geraldine didn't speak.
"Is it terribly wrong to say that, Mother?" he asked. "I don't love her like a sister. I love her" – he searched for a word – "different."
Different, Geraldine thought. It was as good a word as any.
"Is it terribly wrong, Mother?" Laddie asked again.
She looked at her son, feeling a sorrow for him that she could not explain. "No, Laddie," she said quietly. "It’s just one of those things that can't be helped."
He took a deep breath, beginning to feel better. At least she understood, she hadn't condemned him. "What are we going to do, Mother?" he asked.
She looked into his eyes. "The first thing we have to do is let Rina know we understand. The poor child must be frightened out of her mind."
He reached forward and took his mother's hand, pressing it to his lips. "You're so good to us, Mother," he whispered, looking gratefully into her eyes.
They were the last words he ever spoke. For just at that moment, the squall came roaring in from the starboard side and capsized the boat.
Rina watched stolidly as the lobstermen brought the pitifully small bodies to the shore and laid them on the beach. She looked down at them. Laddie and Mother. A vague spinning began to roar inside her. A cramp suddenly seized her groin and she doubled over, sinking to her knees in the sand beside the still figures. She closed her eyes, weeping as a terrible moisture began to seep from her.