Chaperone

"And?" Mom repeated herself and looked at Kelsey.

"Kevin says Tabitha would look better in it." She uncrossed her arms and clenched her fists and glared at me. The sparks in her eyes this time weren't the same as the sparks from this morning. "He thinks she's prettier."

I shrugged. Nothing I was going to say was going to change Kelsey's mind. She was wrong, but she had a tendency to stick with her impressions no matter what.

"Sir?" Helen's voice went into her cool and unruffled mode. The single word she used told me she wasn't happy about Tabitha's name being used in the same sentence with both mine and the word pretty.

"I'm not seeing Tabitha. I just think she's a nice person and that a certain someone would like her too if she'd give her a chance." I gestured toward Kelsey on the couch to show who I meant by that.

"And?" Still with the cool unruffled tones and single word sentences.

"My Heart belongs completely to another." Moving toward the door leading into what would eventually become my office, I continued. "I have no interest in Tabitha except as someone I know and can say hello to whenever we happen to cross paths."

When neither of them said anything I went into the office and dropped the paperwork on the soon to be mine desk. Soon to be. That is, if I could think of something I could be doing in there behind that desk.

My degree wasn't anything exciting. It wasn't anything useful outside of large corporate sweatshops either. Not really. Yes, I had a minor in Graphic Design, but I couldn't draw worth squat. If it weren't for CAD software, I'd have flunked out during my first exams. I had an eye for good composition, but couldn't create it from scratch myself. All I could basically do is critique and there wasn't any need for someone who's only design skills are telling others that they suck too.

My major was in Journalism but I didn't really have any motivation to be a writer, I was just good at putting words together on paper. Combined with my minor I should be looking for a career in advertising but that just didn't thrill me at all. Long hours spent putting snippets of misleading garbage together to make products sound like something they aren't while the company executives got all the credit, and the big bucks too, just wasn't my cup of tea.

Basically, I had nothing. All those years of living on a budget and sweating over my exams and I really had nothing to show for it except a part time job at a college bookstore. Which totally sucked because it meant I'd wasted years of my life to go nowhere.

I sat at the desk and turned on the computer to check my email.

"Kev?" Kelsey's voice came from outside the office doorway. "I'm . . . sorry. I didn't mean it."

A second later she gulped and burst into tears. Quick footsteps headed up the stairs to end in the slam of a door. Helen appeared in the doorway.

"Sir?" Her eyes were dark and her face was as blank as her voice toneless.

I stood up.

"Yes?"

"Kelsey needs you, Sir."

I stepped over and pulled her into an embrace. She let me but wasn't responsive.

"I don't think so. I think this time she needs you to talk to her. Not only for her sake, but for yours."

"Sir?"

"I am not straying from you. No matter what Kelsey said, or what you think right now, I am not straying from you. I swear it." I let her go and stepped back. "Kelsey needs to see that she's wrong in how she feels about Tabitha. You need to understand that I am yours, and will always be yours, no matter who I talk about or interact with. You need to convince Kelsey that jealousy and possessiveness are wrong. And then you need to tell it to yourself and believe it."

She looked at me like she was going to try and make me go upstairs to deal with my sister.

"This is your job, not mine." I added some pressure. "Mother."

It took a few moments before she lost the rigidity she'd been holding over how she'd been feeling but once it disappeared I knew she'd switched from Helen to mom.

"Mom?"

"Yes Kevin?"

"Kelsey's scared of losing what happiness she has more than anything else. She's not the only one who is feeling that way right now."

My mother nodded once and headed up the stairs. A short while later I heard her knock on Kelsey's bedroom door. It opened and clicked closed right afterward. I spent the evening reading spam emails on my computer and hating how alone I was feeling right then. Hours later I shut down my computer and went upstairs to bed. I was alone there too.

I skipped class in the morning. Instead of going to school, I sat at the tiny wrought iron table on the patio and slowly working my way through three cups of instant coffee. I'd been out there since just after dawn thinking a lot but still getting nowhere.

"Kevin?" Mom called from where she stood in the doorway into the house.

"Good morning."

I sipped some more coffee after I said it. Seconds later she sat down in the nearest chair to reach and take my free hand in both of hers. Her hair was tousled and she looked like she hadn't slept either.

"Kevin . . ."

I squeezed her hands gently when she stopped.

"It hurts."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It still hurts."

She stood up and tugged lightly on my hand. I stood and followed her inside. We went up the stairs where she led me directly to her bedroom. Kelsey was already there and held up her arms in a V when I walked in behind Helen. I stopped as soon as I saw her.

"My love." Helen tugged my hand again to get me moving once more. "Come."

FOUR

We actually didn't do anything other than cuddle and be together. I'm not positive but I think shrinks call it bonding or something similar. Whatever it's called, we did it. Without any sex at all. Instead, I was sandwiched between Helen and Kelsy while they used me as a pillow.

A couple of hours later my stomach growled. At the sound Helen sat up and put her feet on the floor. Tossing Kelsey's to her, she belted her own robe tight around her waist as my sister did the same. I was left to grab my pants on my own. Sliding them on, I snagged my shirt and followed the two of them as they slowly made their way down the stairs with their arms around each other's waist and their heads tipped together.

We still weren't saying much to each other. We weren't being short or overly polite, we just didn't want to talk about what we'd done to ourselves. It was too raw and too soon to even try to be normal again. So we just did the togetherness thing we'd been doing all morning and tried to put it behind us.

It still hurt.

After eating I went into my office and turned on the computer again. I didn't really have anything to do, but I needed some me time for a little bit. Kelsey and mom were still at the table, the puzzle book making its appearance again but that wasn't for me.

Once the computer was online, I started browsing the internet with no real website destination in mind. On a whim I did a search for dresses and started clicking on image after image until they were all a big blur in my head. The only thing most of them had in common were that they were big designer names and expensive. And not very pretty.

Unhappy I closed the browser and just sat there for a bit. Then with a mouse wiggle and a couple of clicks I opened my photo album. I was clicking on the pictures when Kelsey stepped into my office.

"Kev?"

I looked up at her.

"Can I . . .? She gestured with her hands at me. "Would you mind?"

She wanted to talk. I held out my hand at the other chair inviting her to sit. She ignored the offer and instead came around the desk to perch on my thigh. Wrapping an arm around my shoulders for support she rested her temple on the top of my head.

"I love you." The words were soft. "I'm sorry that I acted that way."

I didn't know what to say.

"My love?"

Helen stepped through the door. Not waiting for an invite, she moved around the desk and sat carefully on my other knee as the chair squeaked over the extra weight. Gentle fingers caressed my jaw line while she looked me directly in the eye.

"I am sorry my love."

I just sat there and didn't say anything. Eventually Kelsey noticed the computer screen and the image there. Reaching she clicked the mouse to close that image and open another one. Grandmother's face appeared on the screen. The picture had been taken when she was about my mom's current age.

"She's beautiful."

Kelsey ran the cursor around the image as she said it, stopping the cursor at grandmother's eyes then drifting it down toward her mouth. A few clicks later a different image appeared; Kelsey. Almost instantly the image disappeared again. Reaching, I took the mouse from her hand and restored the image. Leaving it on the screen, I wrapped my arm around my sister's waist.

"She's beautiful."

Kelsey shook her head no. More clicks and I had more pictures of her appear, tiling one on top of the other across the screen until they formed a mosaic of my sister's face that filled the screen from top to bottom.

"She's beautiful." I repeated myself and sat back in the chair which creaked again. "Look objectively. What do you see?"

"A slut." She turned her face away. "And a bitch."

Mom shifted but I shook my head. I had this. This was easy.

"She's beautiful." I closed that image and opened another. Again, Kelsey's face appeared on the screen. More clicks and another shot of her face filled the monitor. "A little sharp on the edges, but guys like that sometimes."

Kelsey shook her head no.

"Yes, they do." I made a few more clicks and started a slideshow of all the pictures in her photo album. Automatically, one after another, they opened and stayed for a few seconds before being replaced by the next image. "She just needs to learn how to control herself better."

The slideshow ended, I didn't have many shots of her on the computer. Instead of leaving the screen dark, I started another slideshow. Mom's face appeared.

"Sharp isn't a bad thing." I gestured to the screen. "A knife is sharp and can cut anything and anyone if it's used carelessly. The key is to control the edge so it only cuts exactly where you want, and exactly how much you want, in exactly the way you want."

Kelsey looked at the screen.

"Helen has that control." I stopped the slideshow on a picture of my mother in one of her hats.

The hat brim framed her face with a neutral backdrop so all you really saw was her face because there wasn't anything to distract your eye. "She's beautiful. Sharp, poised, controlled, and ready to capture any male she desires."

I waited a few seconds.

"Mom is not a slut. Or a bitch."

It took a few more seconds for me to replace the image on the screen with the first shot of Kelsey's face.

"You aren't either."

A few more seconds as I closed the image and left the screen dark.

"Neither is Tabitha."

I could feel her stiffen, but I ignored it and turned to Helen. Lifting one of her hands I kissed her palm and folded her fingers over it.

"I need your help."

"My love?"

"I need to raid your closet. There's a certain someone who needs to learn that she's beautiful." I turned to rest my forehead against Kelsey's shoulder blade. "Some additional training will also be required."

FIVE

Kelsey didn't want to play dress up but I insisted. Helen almost forced her to put on dress after dress after dress until she'd tried on almost everything in Helen's closet. The only thing that was suitable for her, was the black and white outfit she'd worn that one time when grandmother had taken us both out for dinner.

De-accessorizing it by removing the scarf from the pocket, I stepped back. Good enough. Silently saying good bye to what little savings I'd been able to accumulate in the months since I'd moved back home and no longer had to pay rent, I turned to Helen.

"Time to go shopping." I moved Kelsey toward the chair in the corner of the bedroom and used some leverage on her arm to push her into it. "Sit and stay there until I come back."

"Kevin?" Mom wanted to know what was going on in my head.

"Helen," I turned to her and my voice dipped into the rumble I rarely used. "We are going shopping. Please dress appropriately for the outing."

"Yes my love." Her eyes dropped for a moment then she moved toward her closet. I watched as she looked over the contents then reached for the hangar with the black and white dress on it.

While Helen was getting dressed, I did a fast shave and took an even faster marine shower. Finished, I donned my regular jeans and a T shirt. Today wasn't about me so I didn't need to do anything special. Returning to my mom's bedroom I found the both of them ready and waiting. I gestured and led the way downstairs.

The mall wasn't that crowded. As I pulled into a parking space, I looked at Helen.

"I want you to lead off. Be very Helen."

She nodded. She'd figured it out.

"Let's go." I got out and waited for Kelsey. Mom delayed for a short bit until we were all out of the car then headed toward the shops without us.

"Watch her. See how she moves." I nodded toward Helen. "Do that."

"I know how to strut Kev."

"Helen isn't doing a strut. She's actually pushing everyone away to give herself some space to work in." Again I nodded in our mother's direction. "Watch her. And then see all the men watching her even though she's not strutting."

The walk Helen used when she was meeting someone was different than her usual way of walking. Slow and controlled, she was epitome of strolling. Yet she grabbed the eye because of the energy she was putting into making it look like she wasn't doing anything special.

"Graceful with a lot of energy but not a strut." I murmured to my sister. "No bounce and keep your body centered and relaxed. Walk like that."

"Kev . . ." Kelsey sounded waspish.

"Try it." I stepped away. "Walk like Helen."

She sighed but stretched her legs and began to swing her hips as she duckwalked.

"Don't strut." I murmured. "Try being less in their face and more like a controlled burn."

"Kev . . ."

"Less passion, be more aloof." I overrode her objection. "Iced coffee and not sex on a stick. Smooth and pleasing instead of a hot sauce chili bomb."

She nearly growled at me and almost stomped her feet but caught herself before she got a full head of steam going. The backlash from yesterday was still in her mind as well as how much we'd all gotten emotionally hurt from it. Throwing another temper tantrum, in public this time, wasn't going to go well for any of us so she needed to control herself.

"You got it." A few steps later I slowed a bit to let her get ahead of me. "Just like that."

A few more steps and I slowed even more, pausing at one point to let her get further in front. Without looking back, Helen slowed to let Kelsey catch up then smoothly matched her forward speed with Kelsey's. Now there were two of them to look at.

And boy did they. Men stopped to watch as the two of them walked by. Several turned around to watch longer. A few women got into it too. One guy even got punched by the woman he was with who was pushing a stroller.

"Watch the windows."

The words were quiet but I could see Kelsey turn her head slightly.

"Don't be so obvious." Again, the quiet words of instruction. "And don't lose focus on what you're doing. If you're doing it right, you'll see them watching you in the windows."

"See who?"

"Everyone." Helen turned her head toward her daughter. "You cannot catch the eye if you do not use the correct bait."

"I know how to do that."

"No dear heart, you do not." Helen faced front again and headed straight for a women's clothing shop. "But you will learn. One way or another, you will learn. This I promise you."

Inside the shop Helen moved toward the racks of dresses. Kelsey stopped and took a shirtdress with a colorful flower print off the rack and held it up.

"Ugh." I took it from her and stuffed in back where it'd come from.

"It's pretty!" She resisted when I took her arm and hauled her away.

"It's trash."

I had to drag her forcibly to a different section of the store. Stopping at a rack I ran my eyes over her and then started scanning the clothes.

"Kev . . ." She turned back toward the shirtdress.

"Kelsey, pay attention." Helen appeared by our side with a dress in her hand. Holding it up for me she waited.

"Close, but no." I shook my head. "We need something bolder and edgier."

"Why are you letting Kevin decide?"

"Because only a Male knows what Males like." Helen placed the dress on a rolling rack nearby. "You cannot attract a Male if you choose what a female prefers and no female can truly know what a Male actually likes even if she is trained to emulate a Male. She is not a Male no matter how much she wishes to pretend she is."

"Try this on." I held up what I'd found.

She almost sniffed in disdain at it.

"Dear heart." Helen's voice dropped in warning. "Go try it on."

We didn't spend much more time in that shop before we left to head for the next one. The dress I'd had her try on wasn't correct, so we left it for better possibilities elsewhere.

"Shopping isn't just looking for something to buy." Helen was in training mode again. "Shopping is looking for something specific for a specific purpose."

"Specific purpose?" Kelsey missed a few steps and reverted to her usual way of walking.

"Focus dear heart." Helen reminded her. "Never lose focus."

"Sorry." She worked at it again for a few more steps before catching the swing of it once more. "This is hard."

"Nothing of value that you desire to achieve is ever easy." Helen opened the door of the next shop and waited for Kelsey to go in first. "Sometimes that is a very painful lesson to learn."

"So what's the specific purpose for today?" Kelsey asked again as they looked through a rack together.

"Advertising." I answered as I left that rack and started combing through another.

"What?"

"This," I gestured to encompass the entire shop. "This is all advertising. The key to selling what you've got is to advertise it in the best possible way."

Kelsey stiffened and opened her mouth.

"You're beautiful." I ignored her beginning tirade about how she wasn't interested in selling herself. "That's what you're selling here; your beauty not your body. You're also not selling what someone else thinks is pretty, you're selling your own image. Grandmother taught me that."

"Grandmother?" Kelsey stopped pawing through the rack she was digging through.

I nodded.

"You have to own it. Own the look. Be the girl that everyone wants. Be that girl."

She stepped close to me and whispered.

"Anyone can be a slut. It's easy."

"You're not a slut." I didn't bother to lower my voice and kept on looking. "You're a beautiful woman. The trick is to be so much woman that you're nearly untouchable. Be so perfect that it's obvious you're not a slut even though many men will fantasize about you being their slut in private. You being untouchable means they'll never be able to say so for sure. Or prove it."

"Men like you?" The dangerous sparks returned to her eyes.

I shrugged carelessly.

"You know me, I like quick and easy conquests. But then, I'm not whose eye you're looking to catch."

"And whose eye am I looking to catch?"

I used my chin to indicate the people outside the shop.

"Theirs."

"I don't want them."

"Yes you do." Helen spoke from behind us. Kelsey shook her head no.

"This is perfect." I held up what I'd found. "Try this on."

Deep, deep violet, the dress was slash cut mid thigh. Up close, the dark color combined with her hair to frame her and focus the eye directly on her face. The larger picture was even better. The slash cut hemline showed off her legs and the longer side made an interesting to look at flippy swing when she walked. The whole thing whistled yoo hoo! while being very understated and conservative at the same time. I paid for it, and some pantyhose, then made Kelsey wear it all out of the store.