Message-ID: <43770asstr$1060132203@assm.asstr-mirror.org> Return-Path: X-Original-Message-ID: <20030805202055.41796.qmail@web14308.mail.yahoo.com> From: Anoninsac MIME-Version: 1.0 X-ASSTR-Original-Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 13:20:55 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {ASSM} Cousin Kara - 1 (MF rom cons slow) {Anoninsac} Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 21:10:03 -0400 Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail Approved: Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d X-Archived-At: X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation X-Story-Submission: X-Moderator-ID: newsman, hecate Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights reserved by the author unless explicitly waived. Non-commercial re-posts to ASSM or similar venues are allowed provided copyright information remains on the re-posted story. As a courtesy to the author please do not delete the copyright information. No commercial reprints are authorized. The author relishes your comments at anoninsac (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you like this story, see my other stories at www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/anoninsac/www. WARNINGS: This story depicts consensual sexual activity between men and women. If you are too young to read about sex please do not read this. A big thanks to Varod for correcting my typing and grammar. I like it when people think I is literate... Any errors remaining are my fault for not listening. Cousin Kara Part 1 Somebody bumped my arm and half of my wine spilled from the cheap plastic cup out onto the linoleum floor. "Sorry," someone I didn't recognize said. "Not a problem," I responded. I wondered who the old coot was. I would have been devastated, spilling wine, except that this was no great loss. It was Ohio wine, one step down from Boones Farm, which tastes like Welch's Grape Juice with alcohol added. The only thing to be said is that it was better than the beer. I noticed that a cousin, Russ, had snuck in his own beer in a cooler which he had safely tucked between his feet. He obviously knew what to expect. I looked around the hall, now filled with people. They were all my relatives. That was a scary thought. It was a scene from Mayberry and I was related to them. How did I ever let my Mom talk me into this? She just had to come back to the family reunion. My God, it had been thirty years since she had been to a reunion. I just had to meet the Ohio relatives, ad nauseam. So I had relented and agreed to take her to Ohio. And not just Ohio, it was the sticks, where fine dining was Ethel and Joe's place. Just one more day to go. Apparently on the Ohio side of the family birth control hadn't been discovered. My four Aunts and Uncles had managed to have fourteen kids who in turn had managed to have a slew more kids. I couldn't count that high without a supercomputer. And those were just my first and second cousins. The third and fourths were filling the local VFW meeting hall to overflowing. Now don't get me wrong. This really wasn't Deliverance, at least they wore shoes and had electricity and everything. I hadn't seen one banjo. But there is a real difference in outlook and attitude between San Francisco and outback Ohio. Things I take for granted like quality restaurants in walking distance and world class restaurants a cab ride away are not even in the same universe with Ohio. Lake Erie just isn't the same as the Golden Gate and the Pacific. The great heartland is just too provincial for me. So ok, I'm a snob. San Francisco is still one of the great cities of the world and that is what I was used to. I found a table with several cousins my age. Their kids were crowded around. My Mom came up and introduced me around and made a special point of introducing one of the cousin's kids, Kara. She was cute enough, seventeen or so, glasses which gave her a slightly studious look, but I was surprised by how Mom introduced us. Then I remembered a conversation on the flight back. Kara was the pride of the family. A National Merit scholar, she had recently won some big scholarship. She was in the process of picking which university she wanted to attend from among a bunch who wanted her. I was lucky to even get into college. I was intrigued how this rose grew among the thorns in my family. I caught her eye and introduced myself, "Cousin Mike from California." "Yeah, I know," she said. I waited. Nothing. "What are you planning to major in?" She was bored by all of the small talk; remember when Uncle Ferd had the operation... Now this was something interesting to talk about. Her face lit up and she leaned forward, "Theoretical physics. I want to go to Harvard." "Why Harvard?" I asked. She looked surprised. "Harvard is the best school in the country," she said with some vehemence. "First, it's not. There is no `best' school in the country. Do you know how the accrediting agencies rank schools?" She shook her head. "This is what they did. They took Harvard and decided that it was the ideal. Then they rated all other schools based on how closely they followed the Harvard model. For instance, Harvard has the biggest library because they've been building their library since the 1600's. So other schools are rated on how big their library is compared to Harvard's. The bigger the library the better the school. Does that really make it a better college? Of course Harvard is always going to come out first when you pre-judge it the best," I said. "I didn't know that," she said. "Don't get me wrong, it is a fine school. And if you wanted to study business or law or wanted to make contacts with the East Coast old boy network to get into politics or government it is the best school. But it's not the best in everything. Yale, hands down, has the best drama program in the country. Julliard is the best music school. And Berkeley is the best physics school. Berkeley has more physical science Nobel Laureates than any other university in the world. If you want to do physics, go to Berkeley," I finished. Just then Mom tapped me on the shoulder, "I want you to meet you cousin Delbert from Michigan." I looked over at Kara and shrugged, "Excuse me. Duty calls." She smiled at the pained expression on my face, "I know." I followed Mom off to meet Cousin Who's It from Michigan. The rest of the day was spent meeting and greeting and drinking bad, really bad, wine. It did keep me from over imbibing. Finally it was over. We stayed with Uncle Jake that night and got an early start for the airport. When I finally boarded the flight back to California I felt like kissing the plane. This must be what it feels like when hostages board the plane back to freedom, I thought. Free at last, God Almighty, free at last. ***** It was a lazy Saturday afternoon the following year when the phone rang. "Hello?" "Thanks a lot," said the disgusted voice on the phone. Quickly sorting through voices which might be disgusted with me, I came up blank. "Excuse me," I answered. "I said thanks a lot," the female voice said again. "Who is this?" I asked. "Cousin Lisbeth," she answered. "Oh. Hi," I said. No wonder I didn't recognize the voice. I had talked to her for five minutes exactly once in my life. "What's this about?" "You talked Kara into going to Berkeley and I don't want her so far away," she said. "I did what?" I asked. "At the reunion," she said. "Oh shit. All I said..." She cut me off, "Was Berkeley is the only school if you want to study physics." Laughing, "Sorry but that's not exactly what I said but I suppose that could have been inferred from what I said," I admitted. "Well Kara inferred it. In fact, she's been accepted at Berkeley." "Tell her congratulations," I said. "I don't want her out in the Land of Fruit and Nuts," said Lisbeth. "Hey, some of us are normal," I countered. We talked for quite a while, me calming her fears about the big bad city, her letting me know she was holding me responsible for Kara being in Babylon by the Bay. I suspected that much of the allure of Berkeley for Kara was escaping from the very attitude I was hearing on the phone. I finally hung up and wondered what it was going to be like having a cousin in the area. I'd find out in due time. ***** I picked up Lisbeth and Kara at SFO the week before classes started. I had invited them to stay with me while they got Kara settled into Berkeley. They had accepted with alacrity. Kara wanted to head straight to Berkeley, Lisbeth straight to Fisherman's Wharf. I compromised; I headed to Union Square where they could go into all of the fine stores. I don't know many women who can resist the allure of all of the Tony shops on Union Square. We had lunch on the square and then headed to Fisherman's Wharf via cable car. We were lucky and the tourists weren't crowded into every possible inch of the car. Lisbeth and Kara both tried a bowl of the chowder on the wharf. We toured Ghirardelli and they both had chocolate. Kara looked pretty svelte but if she was going to eat like this she'd blow up in no time. We rode the cable car back to Union Square and got my car. I drove thru the Haight. They were disappointed that there weren't any hippies. C'mon, that was thirty years ago. I did drive through the Castro. Two pairs of eyes bugged out at the couples, guys with guys and girls with girls and some other couples whose genus and species was an open question ambled down the street. This wasn't Ohio anymore. I could see Lisbeth getting worried again. "Lisbeth it's not contagious you know," I said. "What?" she asked. "Gay. It's not contagious. Kara isn't going to catch Gay," I chided her. Kara broke into peals of laughter and Lisbeth huffed a little at being caught. "I'm a mother. I'm allowed to worry," she said. "That's fine. Just worry about things that are real, like Kara eating so much she weighs 200 by December," I said. "Hey," Kara burst out slapping me on the shoulder. "I'm not eating that much." "Yeah. Just lunch, then chowder then chocolate..." I said smiling. "I'm on vacation," she protested. "Well, it's not like Mom is setting a good example." Lisbeth slapped my other shoulder, "Take that back. I'm on vacation." They were both laughing now. That evening I fixed them a light dinner and they hit the sheets, tired from the trip, excitement and time change. The next day I drove them over to Berkeley. Kara checked in and got her dorm room assignment. Lisbeth and I helped her move her stuff into the room. Kara looked excited by the idea of living on her own. Her roommate hadn't arrived yet so she got her choice of bed and dresser. I drove us all back to my place. We walked down to Lombard Street to a small trattoria for dinner, complete with straw covered bottles on the wall. After dinner they were both fat and happy. On the way back to my place I took them up the steepest street. Maybe you've heard of the steep hills in San Francisco. But if you haven't been there you don't know. The sidewalk of this street was actually little steps because you couldn't get traction on smooth concrete. It wasn't quite like climbing a ladder but it sure seems that way if you aren't used to the hills. Lisbeth and Kara were both huffing and puffing by the time we made it to the top of that block. "Just two more blocks," I said cheerily. I saw pain on those faces. I smirked back. Ok, it was rotten thing to do to my own cousins. But they are my cousins and one shouldn't pull a dirty trick like that on strangers. After we got back to my place and the three flights of stairs to my condo, we sat out on a small balcony looking over the bay with some nice Sonoma chardonnay from Kistler. Lisbeth was looking a little down and Kara was looking a little melancholy. Pretty soon tears were flowing and they were hugging and crying. I left them alone, Lisbeth with her first bird to leave the nest and Kara to confront that she really was about to become an adult. I don't know how long they stayed up talking but it was long after I crawled into bed. The next morning we piled into my car and I took Lisbeth to SFO. More tears and admonitions to be good and call home and study and don't get in trouble and... With the security arrangements I knew we couldn't get in to the terminal so we had to drop Lisbeth at the curb. I could see her waving until we rounded the last curve and disappeared from her view. I took Kara to Berkeley and dropped her off. I told her I would call in a couple weeks and we'd get together for lunch. ***** Three weeks passed before I decided to do my Cousin duty and called Kara to set up lunch. We decided to meet the next day at a Thai place on Shattuck just down the street from Chez Panisse. I found her already there when I arrived fifteen minutes early. A quick hug and we went in. She was already sporting the bare belly look so common among the young women especially young women who shouldn't be showing their pudgy bellies to the world. Kara was one of the young women who could be showing her belly, trim and toned. She was also sporting a belly ring. After we were seated I asked, "So, does mom know about the jewelry?" She looked down and said, "God no. She'd kill me." "I take it part of the reason for choosing Berkeley was to have some distance," I said. Kara paused. I could see in her eyes she was sizing up how truthful she could be with a cousin. I must have passed the cool test, "Yeah. No way did I want to go to OSU. We live twenty miles from Columbus. Mom woulda still been trying to run my life. I had to get away from Ohio." I laughed, "I understand completely." She joined in then said "I just wish I knew how awful dorms were going to be." "Really?" I asked. "Totally sucks. I have this roommate who just slobs the places up. Then she brings her `boyfriend' who she just met at a frat party back and does him in the room with me trying to sleep," she said. "Is she a screamer and that keeps you awake," I asked innocently. Kara started to bristle and then realized I was teasing her. "No, she's a moaner. Who can sleep while someone is moaning the Appassionata Sonata? Seriously, I hate the dorms. Noise all night long. I can't study most of the time. People having sex all the time." "The study and quiet issues I understand. But I don't really believe your roommate is having sex all of the time. Why the emphasis on sex?" I asked. Kara hemmed a little and I continued, "Kara, I'm not your parents and I don't talk to them. I think I have more in common with you than with them. You can talk to me." "I know," she said, sitting up in the chair and composing her face. "You see, I never really dated in high school. I was always a nerd, you know, quiet and studious all the time. And I was smart and didn't hide it like some of my friends and all the boys were intimidated. I had exactly one real date in high school. It sucked." "Ah," I said. "So the emphasis might just be a little curiosity and maybe just a touch of envy?" Again she started to bristle but I calmly held her eye. She deflated and said, "Yeah, I suppose." "Whoa," I smiled. "Don't get so serious. Believe me, sex isn't something to get serious about." "Easy for you to say," she said vehemently but smiling. "Yeah, I suppose. It reminds me of all those people who preach abstinence so strongly don't really practice it themselves. It's always easy to preach abstinence when you are going to spend the night in bed with someone," I said. "Exactly," she said. "So is that what makes dorm life so bad?" I asked. "No, not really," Kara responded quietly. "I can't talk to my roommate. I don't know how she got into Berkeley. She's going to major in liberal arts or something." I laughed. "You know the old joke. Science majors learn to ask, why does it work? Engineering majors learn to ask, how does it work? Business majors learn to ask, how much will it cost? Liberal arts majors learn to ask, do you want fries with that order?" Kara broke up. When she wound down she continued, "All she wants to do is go to raves and get laid. I bet she's had three different `boyfriends' in our room since I got there. Besides the noise and the inconsiderate people I guess what's bad is, I don't know anyone." Loneliness, I said to myself. I was surprised that right then I felt a responsive chord struck in me. I was lonely in much the same way. Maybe if Kara moved in with me... Berkeley was just a hop over the bridge... What? AM I nuts? What if I wanted to get laid? How am I going to bring home some `girlfriend' with a teenager in the house? Then I looked at Kara again. Our eyes met and there was a simpatico, we felt each other's loneliness. We both smiled. "You could move in with me," I said and then quickly followed with, "If your folks say it's ok." It's amazing how our social conditioning so often overrides are real desires. I knew I would love to have company but still the social conditioning made the offer conditional. "Why would my folks have to approve?" she asked. "I suppose technically they don't but no way am I getting that entire half of the family mad at me," I said. "Why would they be mad?' she asked. "Kara, boy-girl. You know," I said. "But you're my cousin," she said perplexed. "Yeah, but we're kissing cousins," I said. "Huh? We've never kissed," she said. "It's just a saying. It means cousins who can marry," I said. "That's creepy," she said. "Kara, please. I thought you were trying to get out of the back woods of Ohio and into the modern world," I said. She looked contrite. "Ok, but I thought cousins couldn't marry." "Depends. It's all based on consanguinity, the degree of genetic relation of the people involved. Ancients noticed that sexual union between close relations had a higher chance of birth defects. So they outlawed as incest close sexual relations. But the Bible is full of cousins who married, many `commanded' by God. Over the years, at least in this country, cousins started to be included in the ban of incest relations, maybe because of incomplete understanding of genetics. Modern research has shown maybe a one percent increase in birth defect risk of offspring of first cousins. Statistically insignificant. So twenty-six states now allow first cousins to marry, that's the third degree of consanguinity. California allows first cousins to marry. We're fourth degree, like second cousins. There would be no increased risk for us. Most states allow second cousins to marry. Ohio says we could marry. A few backwards states have even more restrictions like Utah which requires the fifth degree of consanguinity to marry while below the age of sixty-five, third cousins. First and second cousins can only marry if they are too old to have kids even though there is no evidence that there is an increased risk of birth defects. Long story, but we could be a couple, except for the age difference I mean. Because of that I wouldn't want the relatives thinking that `something' is going on." "I didn't know any of that. Why are the laws so crazy? Every state is different. That's nuts," she said. "When it comes to sex every state has crazy laws and every state is different. I think it's safe to say that when it comes to laws about sex our country is insane. Back to the question. Would you like to move out of the dorm? I have two cars so you could get back and forth to campus. Rent would be cheap, you do the dishes. That would be worth it to me right there." She laughed as I continued, "I know you wanted to get away from family and pressure but I don't have any need to run your life." Kara smiled, "Yeah, I really did want to get away and be my own person. But it's lonely. I didn't think it would be this hard to be on my own. I think I'd like to try living with you, if my parents approve," she said with a note of irony in her voice. We finished lunch and Kara went off to her next class and I drove back across the Bay Bridge and into the city. ***** It was eight that night when my phone rang. "Hello." "Mike, this is Lisbeth," she said over the line. "Hey, what's up?" I asked. It's gotta be eleven her time. Heck of a time to call. "It's Kara. She's so unhappy," Lisbeth was practically burbling into the phone. So unhappy, I wondered. I just talked to her that afternoon and while she didn't like her roommate I didn't get the impression that she was suicidal. Then it clicked. She had worked Mom on the call home. "Really," I said. "Yes. And the things going on. I can't even believe it," Lisbeth said. Yep, I said to myself. She really worked Mom. "Do tell," I said. "Mike, her roommate is having SEX in the same room while Kara is trying to sleep," she said. "That is rude," I agreed. "Rude! It's disgusting. I knew she shouldn't go to Berkeley," she blubbered near tears. "Lisbeth, calm down. It's not just Berkeley. It's any college, even at Ohio State or Oral Roberts kids are having sex," I said. "Is Kara doing ok?" "Oh yes, that's why I called. Kara said you had offered to let her stay with you," Lisbeth said. "Would that make you feel better?" I asked. "Oh yes. Would that be alright? I mean, I don't want you too feel like you have to," she continued. "I wouldn't have offered if it wasn't ok. It will be good for me too. Make me keep regular hours and even clean the place more often. Bachelorhood isn't good for me," I said. "And you'll watch out for her," Lisbeth asked. "Of course. We'll be fine," I answered. Calming down, "Oh Mike, thank you. When Kara called me I just knew it was bad. I just knew something was going to happen," she said. "Lisbeth, nothing happened. And nothing is going to. I'll see to that," I said. Lisbeth wanted to pay me rent. I said no but she insisted. We compromised on half of what she was paying Berkeley for room and board. I said she could pay me board but not for the room. I was paying rent on the place whether Kara lived here or not. I intended to give it to Kara as spending money anyway. It would be plenty for an eighteen-year-old in the big city. (Continued in Part 2) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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