Tom left the house, saying he was going out with a couple of friends so I asked him not to be too late home. The rest of us settled back to an evening in front of the TV. At about half past nine Mel retired saying she had exams tomorrow which left us three adults in front of the flickering screen, each lost in our own thoughts.
Brian’s voice cut into my thought processes, “Have you thought about what Trish said this afternoon?” I’d been thinking of nothing else and still hadn’t come to any decision.
“I just don’t know, Brian. First, I want to see your research. I don’t want to bear a monster.”
My brother smiled as he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a sheaf of papers which he passed over to me. “Here’s what we have found. To summarise, the odds of us having a damaged child together is surprisingly small. But there is that small risk which we must accept if we do it. Take your time to read this – I’ve put all the links you might need to verify what it says in those papers you have. But the other side is the emotional consequences. Would you make love with me?”
“Well,” I replied, drawing the word out, “let’s just say I don’t find you physically repulsive. If you weren’t my brother, I could certainly sleep with you. But it’s that incest taboo …”
“Well, Steph,” he said, “to be honest, the more I see of you, the more I find myself attracted to you. You’re one sexy lady; forbidden fruit, if you like, being an added thrill.” I looked over at him and he winked back at me, a grin a mile wide spread over his face. Sure, I was tempted.
“There’s one more thing, Steph,” Trish started. She hesitated for a few seconds before continuing, “When you two make love, I have to be there, in bed with you. If Brian makes love to us both at the same time, it would feel better for me. Naturally any, er… ‘bodily fluids,'” here she chuckled, “would be deposited in you.”
That was a shocker. I had never shared a bed with two people before, never even thought about having another woman around at such times. In a way, I could understand where she was coming from in wanting to be close at every stage of the project. That’s how she worked in her business life: hands on, as it were. ‘So long as her hands were on Brian,’ was my silent thought. I had never had any thoughts of straying to the other side of the street.
After saying their pieces, Brian and Trish put no pressure on me and turned to watch the TV. I picked up the folder with all the ‘evidence’. They had been fair and retained some contrary views but the majority supported what Brian had told me: the extra risks to a child born to us, although not negligible, were slight.
“OK, folks,” as I spoke, both their heads turned towards me, an expectant look on their faces. “Let’s say we do this and I carry a monster …?”
Trish shuffled closer to me on the sofa, patted my arm gently and looked me straight in the eyes. Hers were brimming with tears. “Then we give him or her all the love they need for as long as they need it. In all conscience, we could do no other.”