At family gatherings the two cousins couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. They sat there politely as the adults talked. As soon as they saw the chance, they took it, and hid in the closet under the hanging clothes. They sat awkwardly among the miscellaneous shoes where they sought each other for comfort and fun.
Kiss, kiss, giggle, grope in the dark with a flashlight. This pleasure seeking would go on for some time when inevitably an adult would discover them, call them “Nasty!” and make them take a time out on the piano bench facing the wall.
As soon as the cousins noticed the adult conversation rising with banter and laughter indicating that they weren’t paying attention to the two mischievous ones, they slipped out to hide behind the garage to play grind and shimmy until some of the other younger kids came to find them on direction from the adults.
Then they would take off running to the park down by the Tar Pits where they stayed ahead of their little tattle tale siblings. They ooh and ahh at the dinosaur bones sticking out of the tar and look for a shaded grassy knoll to continue their new found exploration of each other.
They lie back and look at the clouds floating above them where they see shapes and ships and wild animals between stealing a kiss, a grope, or a tickle. “I want to marry you when we grow up,” he whispered in her ear. She didn’t know how this would be possible since there were laws against first cousins getting together like that.
These games continued for many years throughout their pubescence. But when they reached an age of possibility, Kristie put a stop to it. She did not want to have full on intercourse with her cousin. The games were over.
Still, he kept trying, never able to forget the excitement they shared as youngsters. He hit her up at one family gathering in the bathroom, tried to feel her up while thrusting his tongue down her throat. She was thirteen and ripe as a plum. But she evaded him, staying close to other family members.
He kept trying to seal the deal in college where he showed up unexpectedly at her dorm room and tried to dry hump her on the bed. He ran his foot up and down her leg under the table at her brother’s wedding while holding his young toddler in his lap. At every family gathering, every wedding, every holiday, their lust lingered. It probably always would. They would always be Kissin’ Cousins.
(First published 5/8/12)
