A Christmas to Remember

Literotic asexstories – A Christmas to Remember by Fatdog25,Fatdog25 This is my entry for the Winter Holidays Story Contest 2023. Please check out the other entries, too.

Squick alert: Contains incest.

All participants in sexual activity are 18+. This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, and events is entirely coincidental and completely unintentional.

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The first thing I noticed was the beeping. Steady, insistent, annoying.

The second thing I noticed was the thing taped to my face and shoved down my throat. My vision was blurry, like looking through one of those sheer privacy panels they use for curtains. I could see colors and basic shapes but no details. I tried to move but couldn’t, almost passing out from the pain in my chest and shoulder. My head started to pound and my vision became even blurrier.

“Hey, Mike, honey. Relax. It’s okay, you’re in the hospital.” The voice was familiar but it took me a second to place it. My mother.

The hospital. Dee. Oh, God, no. Please, no. The beeping noises became quicker and an alarm sounded. I couldn’t breathe, it felt like I was going to choke to death.

My last memory before waking up here was of sitting at the intersection of State Roads 282 and 175 at the traffic light. I was driving my younger sister Diana’s Mustang, she was riding shotgun. Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” was cranked up on the stereo and we were dancing in our seats right along with it. We had been headed to the pizza place she liked for her 21st birthday celebration with some friends. The light turned green and our friend Dave’s Honda Civic started through the intersection…and that’s where my memory ended.

I tried to sit up but couldn’t. I think I passed out from the pain because when I was conscious again, there were nurses and a doctor in the room, I heard them more than saw them. My mother’s voice was off to the right, “Relax, Mike. Don’t try to move.”

I tried to wave my hand to get her attention to ask about Dee. I needed to know if she was all right and I wanted to know right now. I felt somebody grab my hand and squeeze it. My mother again, “Please try to stay still, Mike.”

Out of frustration, I started slamming my hand into the mattress, trying to get her attention. A face appeared in front of mine, looking into my eyes. I guess I finally got through.

“Diana’s okay, honey. Please try to rest, okay? She’ll be here in a little bit, after the doctor is done.” Her tone was different now. I couldn’t put a name to it but it was definitely different. She gave my hand another squeeze and her regular tone was back, “You’re going to be okay, honey. Everything’s going to be okay.”

I felt my father’s presence in the room, behind my mother. “Hey, son. It’s Dad. Hang in there, okay?” I gave him a thumbs up. He sounded worried and relieved at the same time. I hurt in so many places that I couldn’t keep track of them. I could feel myself fading again. I tried to stay conscious but it was a losing battle.

I had no idea how long I was out that time. When I woke up, it was just me and Mom. I moved my hand to get her attention and she leaned over to look at my face. I did the best I could to give her a questioning look, given that I had a contraption taped to the bottom half of my face.

“She’s downstairs, getting something to eat. She’ll be back in a few minutes.” My vision was a little better now, her face wasn’t totally clear but I could recognize her. I nodded and tried to lay still as best I could. I didn’t want to pass out again before I could see her.

It felt like forever, although I had no idea of how long it actually was before Dee came back. Mom met her at the door and there was a whispered conversation, punctuated by a “Do you understand me, Diana?” My sister whispered something back, it sounded defiant, maybe just a little petulant.

My vision was getting fuzzy again but I recognized her face as Dee bent over the side of the bed and kissed my forehead. “Thank God you’re awake, Mike. I was so worried.” I heard Mom make a noise and Dee turned to look at her. “Okay!” Obviously directed at Mom. I was starting to sense some tension between the two of them.

She pulled a chair over to the side of the bed and sat down. Sliding her hand under the side rail, she grabbed my hand and held it. Mom muttered something that sounded like “I’ll be right back, Diana. Remember what I said.”

Dee waited until Mom left before she stood up and moved so she could look into my eyes. I couldn’t make out her face clearly but she seemed concerned. “Are you in a lot of pain? Do you need a nurse?”

I shook my head no. I hurt in a few places but it was bearable now. I felt lightheaded and guessed that the morphine pump had kicked in at some point. I gave her a questioning look and she answered, “Yes, I’m okay. I didn’t get hurt.” Her voice sounded sad.

I fell asleep shortly thereafter. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. It was dark when I woke up again, Dee was slumped in the chair next to the bed, still holding my hand. I must have moved when I woke up because she jerked, asking “Mike? You okay?”

I squeezed her hand. She leaned over and kissed the side of my face, next to my eye socket. “Good. Just rest, okay?” I gave her hand another squeeze.

I tried again to remember what happened to me. I would only get to the point where we were starting to pull into the intersection and then nothing until I woke up here. With the breathing tube, I couldn’t speak and my arm movement was limited, so I couldn’t write. I was going to have to wait until I had some way to communicate to find out what happened to me.

It wasn’t until much later that I found out how long I was in the ICU. The morphine pump kicked in every four hours like clockwork and it would put me out for a while. Almost every time I came to, Dee was there. When she wasn’t, Mom was.

The day finally came when they removed the breathing and feeding tubes. My throat felt like it had been fucked with a cactus. Thankfully, they waited until the morphine knocked me out to change my catheter. I asked that they wait until I was out to remove it, too. I didn’t want that kind of trauma to my psyche.

After the tubes were out, I found out what happened. The day had started out normal enough. Around six, I took Dee to the mall to meet up with some friends, the girls did a bunch of shopping, and then we headed to the pizza place.

Dave, Mandy, and Mindy found a parking spot up front but we had to pull into the rear parking lot. Video footage showed us parking the car, we sat for a few minutes, then got out and went into the restaurant. About 90 minutes later, it shows all five of us leaving, splitting up just outside the front door with handshakes and hugs. Dave and the girls headed toward their car and we started walking toward the back lot.

We were walking slowly with our arms locked together, apparently talking, when a figure stepped out from behind a couple of dumpsters. I moved between the figure and Dee, left arm up with my palm facing out. The figure moved out into the light and it was pretty plain he was holding a gun. He was obviously jumpy and nervous. I did my best to keep myself between him and Dee, who was digging through her purse. She put the purse into my right hand and as I brought it around to give it to him, all hell broke loose.

On the video, I could see the gun come up and there were three quick flashes. I fell backward into Dee, and both of us ended up on the ground. I had dropped the purse when he started firing, he picked it up and ran towards the back of the lot and out of view of the camera.

Dee managed to extricate herself from under me as people came running from the restaurant. A man, who I later found out was an off-duty EMT, helped me as best he could until the ambulance got there. Dave and the girls tried to comfort Dee while they loaded me up into the ambulance. A cop escorted Dee to her patrol car and they left immediately after the ambulance.

None of it rang any bells. The detectives took another statement from Dee, who said she really didn’t have anything to add to her initial statement. She thought the robber sounded familiar but she couldn’t place a name to the voice.

Apparently, the first responding officer recognized our names and he called on his cell phone to the station desk sergeant. The deputy chief was called and he hauled ass down to the station to break the news to my father, who was the watch commander. He drove Dad to the hospital himself.

The cop also called the ER to give them a heads-up that I was coming in. The ER doc pulled Mom aside to break the news to her. A nurse’s aide was assigned to keep Mom out of the ER until I was stabilized. Mom knew the protocol, she helped write it. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like, knowing your child was on his way in with gunshot wounds and you can’t do anything about it.

I didn’t get to see video footage from the ER but from what I was told and what I overheard, it went something like this:

As I was being unloaded from the ambulance, a blood-covered Dee came flying through the entrance and into the ER. An aide tried to stop her, she kneed the poor guy in the groin and headed right toward the trauma suite. By that time, Dad had gotten there and he intercepted her with a bear hug from behind before she could breach the doors. I overheard one of the nurses tell another nurse that Dee’s scream just echoed throughout the ER and it was heartbreaking to the point of making her cry. At the same time, Mom came flying out of the conference room where they had asked her to stay. Dad collected her with his other arm and dragged them both screaming and crying back into the conference room.

They had Dee sedated and moved to one of the regular ER treatment bays to examine her. Police came and went, they collected our clothes as evidence, they tried to talk to Dee, and tried to console my parents.

As soon as they figured out I wasn’t going to die, the ER doctor came out to talk to Mom and Dad. I had been hit three times with small caliber rounds, once in the right upper chest, once in the left shoulder, and a grazing wound to the left side of my head, just above my ear. I had a skull fracture and some brain swelling so they were going to induce me into a coma to keep me from moving around too much. The chest wound and shoulder wound weren’t life-threatening, no vital organs had been hit except the right lung, which had partially collapsed and was reinflated easily.

They hooked me up to what seemed to be every medical machine known to man and parked me in the ICU. After a week, the doctors felt the pressure on my brain had decreased enough that they could let me wake up. I was breathing okay on my own but they left me hooked up to the respirator just in case.

I swear I was examined by every doctor in the state. I wasn’t allowed out of bed, although I didn’t have to use a catheter anymore, I could use one of the urinal thingies or a bedpan. My vision sucked, it was blurry more than clear for the longest time. I still had random dizzy spells. Fortunately, the pain finally eased up enough that I could get off the morphine. I had to have a couple of enemas because of the morphine-induced constipation. I swore I’d never take that stuff again after that. Apparently, the staff had already heard every single Muppet joke at least twice so my attempts to diffuse my awkwardness with humor fell flat.

The good news was that my chest wound and shoulder wound would heal without much in the way of residual effects. I’d have some restricted range of motion in that arm but they felt that the chest wound would heal without incident or disability. The brain swelling had gone down. The memory loss should only be temporary, although it was likely that I wouldn’t remember being shot at all. They couldn’t be absolutely sure but they felt that most of my memory should return over the course of a few months.

The bad news was that the tension between Dee and Mom continued to get worse. Some days, they didn’t speak to each other at all. Dad tried to keep them apart but when one of them is an ER nurse who worked there, it wasn’t always possible. I stayed in a regular room for another week just for observation. Aside from the blurry vision and dizzy spells, they felt I was good to go home.

My older sister Samantha was in Germany for the summer on a work exchange program. Since hers was the only bedroom downstairs, I ended up there because they didn’t want me on any stairs until my dizziness and vision improved. When Mom found out Dee was planning on staying in the same room with me, things went to hell in a hurry.

I could only hear part of the argument before Mom pulled her into my parents’ bedroom and closed the door. “Diana, no. I won’t allow it.” Mom was not happy.

“What if he falls, Mom? Do you even fucking care?” Dee was angry, almost shouting.

“How dare you. Don’t you ever speak to me like that again, Diana. You know damn well I care, it’s just not right. He can manage on his own.” Mom’s voice went up an octave.

“He’s not that steady yet, Mom. I don’t want him to get hurt more if he falls.” Dee’s voice was less aggressive but just as loud as before.

“We both know that’s not what this is about so don’t try to bullshit me.” I couldn’t hear Dee’s response as I heard the door close. Dee came back into Sami’s room a few minutes later, still pissed about something.

“You know, I can manage on my own, Dee.”

“She’s not going to tell me what to do. I’m staying down here with you, whether she likes it or not.”

“It’s her house, so yeah, she can. What’s going on with you two, anyway?”

She gave me a strange look, part surprise and part sadness. “We can talk about that later, Mike. Don’t worry about it for now, just work on getting better.”

It was a couple of days after returning home that I remembered the ring. We had gone to the mall for something or the other right after New Year’s and she had spotted this ring in one of the jewelry store windows. It was a ruby ring, obviously a one-of-a-kind piece as it was very intricate. Dee loved rubies, they complimented her dark hair and eyes. We went inside to look at it. I knew at first sight she couldn’t afford it, I tried to tell her but she just had to find out for herself. It was well out of her price range. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop her from trying it on. It fit perfectly.

I managed to catch the clerk’s eye and made a motion for her to save it. Dee was looking down at the ring and I don’t think she saw my signal or the clerk’s barely perceptible affirmative nod. I went back the next afternoon and bought it, planning on giving it to her for her birthday. After reluctantly surrendering the ring, she was unhappy for quite a while afterward. She really loved that ring.

It was expensive. It’s not like I didn’t have the money, though. I had a decent part-time job while going to school, I made enough to cover what my scholarship didn’t and still saved quite a bit of money. I didn’t spend much on myself, I drove an old beater, wore simple clothes from Walmart and Target, and I didn’t drink much or do drugs. It was just a thing I did, buying my sisters something special, meaning expensive, for their birthday and for Christmas.

I could remember having it with me but not what I did with it. I finally worked up the nerve to ask her about it. She cried as she explained that the guy who robbed us had taken it along with her purse. Mom and Dad weren’t happy about the ring at all, especially when they found out its value. Mom and Dee ended up in yet another heated conversation behind closed doors, which Dee wouldn’t discuss. Mom kept going between friendly and distant with me. I was beginning to wonder if maybe I had said something I shouldn’t have while under the influence of morphine or anesthesia.

Mom and Dad both worked the graveyard shift, so they slept during the day. Most of the time, they were asleep by the time I got up in the morning. That morning was no different. Dee insisted on helping me walk to the bathroom so I could go, take care of brushing my teeth, run an electric shaver over my face, and take a bath of sorts. My wounds still hadn’t quite healed completely and they didn’t want me getting them wet just yet so showers were out.

Dee usually waited just outside the bathroom door, which I had to keep unlocked in case I needed help. The first two days had gone off without a hitch, no problems whatsoever with doing what I needed to do. That streak came to an end on the third day.

I suppose I should have known something bad was going to happen. First off, I woke up with a raging case of morning wood. That hadn’t happened since I was shot. All I had on were boxers, meaning there was no hiding what was going on inside them. I knew Dee saw it. I tried to pretend it wasn’t there and she had the decency to go along with the charade.

Second, I woke up feeling fuzzy, like my balance and cognitive function were just a little off. I tried to work through it and succeeded up until the point where I was trying to wash my crotch and armpits. Summer in Illinois is hot and humid. Even in refrigerated air, somehow my crotch and armpits still got sweaty and therefore smelly. The simple act of trying to lift one leg and move my arm caused me to lose my balance and I fell backward, into the wall. I slid down into the sitting position just as Dee came bursting in the door.

“Jesus Christ, Mike, are you okay? Are you hurt?” She was frantic, her words coming at a million miles per hour.

“Yeah, I’m good. I just lost my balance.” I was trying to cover my groin the best I could. I was still mostly hard.

“Let me help you up.” She held out her hands for me to grab but I kept mine in my lap, trying to hide my boner.

“Nah, I’m good. I can get up on my own. You might want to wait outside, though.” I could feel my face turning red. I’m buck ass naked in front of my sister and she won’t take the hint.

“No. Gimme your hands.”

“I can’t.” It was more of a stutter than a statement.

“Why?” The thought crossed my mind that she might be fucking with me somehow.

“I don’t have underwear on.” That sentence was hard to choke out. There was absolutely no way she could have missed that fact.

“Why not? What were you doing?” I could only stare at her. Being naked in the bathroom usually means one of two things, I’m bathing or jerking it. I was trying to do the former and it probably looked like I was engaged in the latter.

“Trying to take a bath.”

“Oh. Stand up, I’ll help you.” She was being very matter-of-fact, despite my obvious embarrassment.

“I got this –”

“Bullshit, why are you on the floor then? Get your ass up so I can help you –“, she reached down to grab my right arm to help me up, pulled it away from my crotch, and froze when she saw my hard-on. “Get up.”

The silence was awkward. I could see in the mirror that her gaze kept drifting back to my cock, which was now bobbing merrily away to its own internal beat. Her nipples were jutting out, visible through the T-shirt.

“Did you already do your upper body?” She barely whispered the question. Our eyes locked in the mirror.

I could only nod. She kept rubbing her thighs together, I could see her hips shifting in the mirror as she went back and forth. There was a little bead of liquid forming on the tip of my dick, now painfully erect from looking at her hard nipples in the mirror. We were both breathing heavily and she kept running her tongue over her lips.

I noticed her hand shaking as she slid it palm up under the faucet and squirted a dollop of soap into her palm. My cock jumped as she slowly slid her hand around the base, lightly soaping my balls before washing the areas where my legs joined my torso. She then wet a washcloth and cleaned up the soapy residue, while I watched my dick do acrobatics in the mirror. She avoided making eye contact until she had rinsed the washcloth and hung it up. I was reaching for the towel when she whispered, “I’m not done yet, Mike.” Her voice had a throaty quality I’d never heard from her before.

She ran her hand back under the running water and again squirted soap into her palm. Then she slowly wrapped her hand around the shaft and started sliding it up and down. As soon as she had her fingers wrapped around me, she looked at me in the mirror as she started stroking.

“Dee, you can’t –” I tried to protest but she shushed me.

“Be quiet.” She wasn’t washing me. I could tell from the look on her face she was enjoying this. Problem was, so was I. I was also deathly afraid of getting caught.

“Mom –”

“They’re asleep already. They can’t hear us on the other side of the house anyway. Now be quiet and let me finish getting you clean.”

“Dee — oh, shit, please stop. Stop it now, Dee. I mean it. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Ohhh –” Part of me was deeply embarrassed by how little time it took for me to reach orgasm. She had to wrap her left arm around me to help support me as my knees started to give way. The first two spurts hit the mirror, the third draped itself over the faucet and the remainder ended up on the countertop and Dee’s hand. Another part of me couldn’t believe what just happened. That was the most intense orgasm I had ever had and the expression on her face was one of the most erotic things I’d ever seen. She had really enjoyed doing that, I could sense how aroused she was from it.

Dee ran her hand back under the faucet again. When she thought I wasn’t looking, she licked a spot off the back of her hand before soaping up and thoroughly washing her hands. I was still trying to get my legs to work right as she took the washcloth and cleaned me off once again. While I put underwear on, she cleaned up the mess we made on the mirror and sink, tossing the washcloth in the dirty clothes when she was done.

Before she opened the bathroom door, she gave me a quick hug, “Feel better now?”

I could only nod yes. I also started getting hard again. This wasn’t right. Our parents would kill me if they found us doing that. It also brought to the forefront a problem I had been trying to avoid thinking about.

I had an intense physical and emotional attraction to Dee, present long before I got shot. I tried everything I could to hide it. I knew logically that buying her expensive gifts was a giveaway so I bought them for Sami, too. I enjoyed that as well, don’t get me wrong. It just didn’t give me the same kind of pleasure. The rest of the time, I tried to keep how I felt under wraps.

The problem I now had was determining whether she felt the same way towards me, this was just some form of trauma bonding that was temporary, or it was a one-off thing where she took advantage of an opportunity with no chance of being exposed for it. Seriously, who was I going to tell?

Dee had me lay back down on the bed while she showered and dressed. She was in the bathroom for quite a while. There was something different about this, too. She rarely brought any music with her into the shower but she did today, and it was up loud. When she was younger, she would bring music in with her if it was a new album she was in love with or something like that, but she hadn’t done that in years. She also didn’t sing along like she used to.

Usually, during the day, she would wear a T-shirt and exercise or yoga shorts. Today, it was just the T-shirt and panties. They appeared to be bikini cut since I saw a lot of ass cheek from time to time when she bent over.

For the remainder of the day, we avoided talking about what happened. She was very helpful, seemingly hovering nearby at all times. I could sort of understand that, I was off all day, partially because of my head and partially because I was too much in my head.

I was feeling tired about 4 in the afternoon so I laid down to take a short nap. Dee was sitting in the little recliner Sami used to watch TV, reading something on her tablet. I set an alarm for about 90 minutes and immediately drifted off to sleep.

I was awakened by Mom shouting, “Diana, what the hell? What did I tell you, dammit?” Dee was lying next to me, curled up against my right side.

“We’re just taking a nap, Mom. Jesus, gimme a break.” Dee never liked being woken up suddenly. Today was obviously no different.

“Outside, now.” You only ignored the Mom voice if you wanted to die. Dee shuffled out and Mom closed the door behind them. They started going at it immediately.

“He fell this morning and I didn’t want him falling again.” Their voices were fading as they went to the other side of the house.

“In your underwear, Diana? What did I tell you? I said it as plainly as I could, ‘not in my house’. You know damn well that he’s not well.”

“We didn’t do anything except take a nap. He was already out when I got in bed.”

“Don’t try to bullshit me, missy. You have a choice –” The slamming bedroom door cut off the rest of it. I could still hear their voices occasionally and it wasn’t a friendly discussion. Dee came back about fifteen minutes later, acting as if nothing had happened. She had put on a pair of yoga shorts and a bra. She threw herself into the recliner and went back to reading.

Dinner was awkward. Mom and Dee glared daggers at each other while Dad and I tried to maintain some sense of normalcy. Mom kept giving me the evil eye up until the time she left for work. All Dad said was, “Don’t do anything strenuous, son. Remember, doctor’s orders.”

As soon as Mom was out the door, Dee did that magical bra removal thing without taking off her shirt and flung it dramatically across the den. Then she stood up, turned her back to me, and dropped her yoga shorts, bending fully at the waist to remove them and slinging them on top of the discarded bra. At least she left her underwear on, thank God. I was hard again just watching her do the bra thing. The sight of her panty-clad ass almost sent me into orbit.

“You’re courting disaster, Dee. I don’t know what’s going on but you might want to consider dialing it back a bit.”

“She thinks you’re made of glass.” That wasn’t the impression I was getting but I couldn’t hear a lot of the conversations they had, so I decided to take her word for it.

“I think maybe we should –”

“Nope. I’m going to do what I think is best. I’m here, she’s not.” Dee had this tone when she was pissed and in no mood to discuss it. It was now turned up to eleven so I dropped the subject. I had claimed the recliner so I could stretch out a bit. I was surprised when she came over carrying the remote, wedged herself between me and the arm of the chair, and turned the TV on. I managed to get my right arm around her shoulder and she snuggled in. She started watching some drama series and I dozed throughout the evening. At one point, I woke up and she had her head on my chest and her arm draped across my stomach. I remember nuzzling her hair, she sighed, and I went back to sleep for a while.

Eventually, she got tired and woke me up to go to bed. The previous two nights, she had slept on an air mattress on Sami’s floor. Tonight, she helped me into bed and then proceeded to climb in after me.

“You know, the last time we did this didn’t end well –” I didn’t want a repeat of this afternoon. It made my head hurt and I had enough trouble with that as it was.

“I set my alarm to be up before she gets home.” She spooned into my right side, pressing her ass against my hip. My chest still hurt a little too much to sleep on my side just yet so I slept on my back. I had a raging erection and she would have noticed it immediately if I had been able to lay on my side.

“And what if she comes home early? I’m pretty sure she’s gonna check on you now.” It’s not that I didn’t want her in bed with me, it just wasn’t a good idea with Mom on whatever kick she was on.

“I’ll take that risk.” I knew arguing with her was pointless, so I shut up.

We lay there silently for a while. I could tell by her breathing that she wasn’t asleep. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “What’s going on with you? Why are you acting like this?”

She sighed and shifted position to her other side so she could look at me. “I owe you, Mike. You saved my life and I want to do everything I can to repay you for that. Mom doesn’t understand.” I could feel her breasts pressing into my arm and her foot sliding up and down my lower leg.

“You don’t owe me anything, Dee. Really. I’m worried about you, though. I –” Her eyes flashed and I could tell she was starting to get mad. Really mad.

“You don’t re–,” she corrected herself quickly, “understand how I feel. You don’t know what I went through that night. Don’t try to tell me how I should feel. I get enough of that from Mom and I’m sick of it.”

She threw her arm across my stomach and kissed my cheek. “Now shut up and go to sleep.” Despite my hard-on, I did as I was told. Good thing I did.

The next morning started out normally. I woke up with Dee’s alarm, she got up and did her thing in the bathroom, coming out dressed in a T-shirt, bra, and gym shorts. I stayed in bed for a while and then got up. Mom stopped by to check on us while I was in the bathroom getting cleaned up, which I managed to do just fine by myself. The conversation didn’t sound all that friendly but at least they weren’t yelling at each other.

The doorbell rang about 9:30 and Dad answered it. He came back into the den with a huge box. Unpacking it took a few minutes and when he was finished, Dee was absolutely livid. Holy shit, was she mad.

My mother had ordered security cameras. There was one for the kitchen, two each for the den and the formal living room, and one for Sami’s room. There was a master control unit that connected to the internet so that the cameras could be monitored remotely. It took Dad about ninety minutes to hook everything up, download the app to their phones, and configure it. He had mounted the camera in Sami’s room so that you could see almost the entire room, including the door to the bathroom.

“Really, Mom? Why not just put one in the goddamn bathroom too? What about his privacy? You gonna sit and watch him go to the bathroom every time?” Dee was worked up, all right.

Mom just looked at her. “Do we need one in the bathroom, Diana? Is that what you’re saying? I watch people shower and go to the bathroom all the time, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

Dee practically shouted at her, “What about my privacy?”, emphasizing the word “my”.

Dad cautioned her, “Diana, that’s your mother. Lower your voice, please.” He usually stayed out of arguments among the females of the family. Dee was dangerously close to crossing a line and if he hadn’t said something, I was about to.

“There’s no camera in your room, which is where you belong at night anyway. I’m not stupid, missy. I warned you and you ignored that warning. You made this choice for me.” Mom apparently felt it necessary to rub in it a little or she was just in a mood to bait Dee. It worked, either way.

“I can’t believe this shit –”

“Diana, enough.” It had been a long time since I had heard my father raise his voice. This was his “police voice”. Dee immediately shut up.

“Did you think about what Sami –“, Dee’s voice was calmer and her question was directed at Dad.

“She knows. It will be removed when Mike is back in his own room. As soon as he stops being a fall risk, we’ll take it out of there, too.” Mom was back to a calmer voice, too.

“What about the other cameras?” I just had to ask. Dee glared at me.

“They are there for your protection, in case you have a problem when nobody’s home.” Dad didn’t really sound all that convincing.

I swear I heard Dee mutter “Bullshit” under her breath. Either nobody else heard it or I was imagining things. With the conversation having come to an uncomfortable and unsatisfying ending, my parents excused themselves to go to bed. Dee sulked the rest of the day. According to the instructions, the hard drive would hold 96 hours of video footage for each camera. For us, that was a whole lot of nothing. I was either in the den or Sami’s room, about the only time I was in the kitchen was for family meals.

It took three days for us to find out that my mother was indeed monitoring the cameras. I fell again in the bathroom and less than thirty seconds after Dee opened the bathroom door, Mom was calling Dee’s phone to find out what happened. Turns out, they were wired for sound, too. It was a good thing that whatever Dee had to say, she said it out of camera range. Maybe she suspected it but I certainly didn’t. That audio thing made me more uncomfortable than the video. I tended to talk in my sleep and sometimes my dreams were, to say the least, inappropriate for a brother to be having about his sister.

One unfortunate side effect of the cameras was that I could no longer engage in self-service except in the bathroom. I couldn’t stop thinking about the time she had jerked me off but I couldn’t get it done knowing she was sitting on the other side of the bathroom door. If I got up at night to try, Mom was calling me to make sure I was all right and to ask if I needed Dee to help me. Took all the steam right out of me.

As soon as we figured it out, we started texting each other. Apparently, the cameras had a zoom feature built in. I had no idea if my parents ever used it but we knew it existed so we would text from a position where the camera couldn’t see our phone screens. It was the only way Dee could vent and that’s what I told Mom when she asked why we were texting so much. They refused to discuss what the problem was between the two of them, Sami was no help at all, and Dad just pleaded ignorance.

It was about a month or so later that I realized I was starting to remember more and more details about what happened between the intersection and the hospital. They were just little things here and there, usually just a fleeting vision, part of a song on the radio, a bit of conversation. There were still huge gaps in my memory but at least they were starting to get smaller.

Labor Day weekend was eventful, at least for the guy who shot me. It seems he tried to carjack an off-duty sheriff’s deputy and took a 9mm in the leg for his trouble. His car had quit, he was going through withdrawals and he tried to cop a new ride. The detectives found Dee’s purse behind the front seat, along with a bunch of other purses. The idiot just took what cash she had in her wallet and never bothered to check the rest of the bag. The ring was at the bottom. Mom didn’t seem to be too happy about that and I wasn’t sure why that was.

That was also the weekend that Sami came back from Germany. In what was an unforeseen turn of events, the camera that had been in her room went into the upstairs hallway between my room and Dee’s room. This did not go over well at all. Dee at least had somebody else to vent about it to and she spent a lot of time in Sami’s room when she first got back. I was glad she was back, too. She had a calming influence on both Dee and Mom. Things were still tense, especially about the upstairs camera, but there was a hell of a lot less yelling about it. Dee had been under the impression that they would all be removed when I went back to sleeping upstairs. Apparently not, as long as Mom had a say in it.

As summer progressed to fall, my vision and balance got better, at least to the point where I felt okay leaving the house on my good days. At Mom’s insistence, we started slow, just a short walk to the end of the block or a short drive to get burgers or ice cream, progressing to slightly longer trips as Halloween closed in. Halloween itself was uneventful, Mom and Dee seemed to forget their feud for one night, and we all had a good time messing with the kids coming to the door looking for candy.

November brought news that the kid who shot me was going to accept a plea deal. Dee wasn’t happy about that and for once, Mom was in total agreement. They wanted the poor bastard drawn, quartered, boiled in oil, and then immolated.

His story wasn’t much different than that of many other small town young adults. He had been in Dee’s graduating class, which is why she recognized the voice. He had played sports, he had been good enough to start at the high school level but not good enough to get a scholarship. After graduating, he got mixed up with the wrong friends, ended up hooked on meth, and robbed people to support his habit. I was the only one he shot and that was because he recognized us and panicked.

He would end up serving thirty years behind bars but would avoid the attempted murder charge they initially filed. I thought it should have been more but I couldn’t actually identify him from a lineup and my testimony wouldn’t be much help. They had the video and his admission before he lawyered up. According to Dad, there was no guarantee the admission would hold up in court.

When I asked about the ring, Dad explained that it was evidence until the plea deal was accepted by the judge, and the deadline for filing an appeal passed. It would likely be right around Christmas at the earliest and well after New Year’s at the latest.

I was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast one morning when Mom came home. From the look on her face, we were about to have a conversation I wasn’t going to like. Not surprisingly, I didn’t like it at all.

“What possessed you to buy that ring, Michael?” I hated when she used my full name. It was never a good sign.

“Dee liked it, it looked good when she tried it on, and it fit her perfectly.” I elected to stick to the basics.

“That was a lot of money, too much money. Especially for a birthday gift.” I had the feeling she wasn’t going to let this drop.

“It’s not a birthday gift now, it’s a Christmas gift.” My attempt at humor fell flat. She didn’t find that even remotely amusing.

“This isn’t a joke, Mike. That’s not appropriate for any gift except –“, she caught herself before she finished the thought.

“Why isn’t it appropriate, Mom? I’ve bought Dee and Sami things before and there’s never been a problem. I buy one ring and it’s a federal crime?”

“Because it’s not what you bought, it’s what you spent on it.” Her glare was working its way to the white hot stage.

“It’s my money. I earned it. To me, that means I can spend it any way I choose. That was the whole point of getting a job, to have money I could spend as I wanted.” I didn’t want a fight, I was just trying to present my side of the story.

Mom had a different opinion. “You can’t buy things like that for certain people, Michael. It sends the wrong impression.”

Oh, shit. It was finally starting to dawn on me what her problem was. She suspected I had feelings for Dee. “Who really cares, Mom? I don’t think she’s going to run around bragging ‘Look at what Mike bought me’. I’m certainly not going to run around telling people how much I spent on it. It’s none of their business.”

I was concentrating on finishing my breakfast, so her hand slamming down on the table startled the shit out of me. “I fucking care, Michael. I don’t like how it looks. You need to start thinking long and hard about where your life is headed, young man. There are some roads that once you start down one, you can’t ever go back. You’re a smart man, Michael. Think it through, all the way through, before you commit to something you can’t take back.” With that, she got up and strode out of the kitchen toward the master bedroom.

I had pretty much lost my appetite by then. I scraped what I had left on my plate into the garbage, washed it and the utensils, and put them in the drying rack. The truth was, I had thought it through. I knew I didn’t have a future with Dee, she would eventually get over the whole “you saved my life” thing and we would go back to being a regular brother and sister, just like my relationship with Sami. I hadn’t met any other women who made me feel like Dee did. Not even close to it. If that was ever going to happen, it wouldn’t be in this town.

I wandered into the den and sat on the couch. Angling my phone so the camera could see the screen, I brought up the local apartment finder website and started browsing studio apartments. I had reached an agreement with work, logging in from home whenever I was up to it while sitting out this semester. Health permitting, I would start my final classes during the upcoming winter term, graduate in June, and then start working for them full-time. They would help with tuition assistance, so I would be able to save a decent amount of money. The hard truth was that the only way I would ever get over Dee was to move out and create some distance. The company had branches in several cities and it wasn’t difficult to transfer to another office. I would have to wait two years to be eligible but I could handle that.

Unfortunately, Dee wasn’t letting go. She blew up at anybody who even sounded like they were mentioning the prospect of going to therapy. My relationship with Mom deteriorated even further and I started avoiding her altogether whenever possible. I worked as much as I could, just to avoid dealing with anybody. Other times, I slept a lot.

Thanksgiving was a forced affair. Mom and Dad were still on speaking terms with each other and Sami. Sami spoke to Dee and our parents. I just tried to avoid everybody as much as possible. Dee blamed Mom, Mom blamed Dee, and Dad stuck his head in the sand while Sami tried to keep the peace.

I was remembering more and more but I had one annoying gap that I couldn’t fill in. It started with pulling into the parking lot at the pizzeria and the next memory was of sitting at the table in the restaurant, laughing and kidding around with Dee, Dave, Mandy, and Mindy. The gap really bothered me for some reason, bordering on irritation most days. The memory was there, I knew it was there, it just wouldn’t come to me.

Finally, it was Dad of all people who broached the subject of me looking at apartments. “Are you seriously considering moving out, Mike?”

We were sitting in the den, watching a game. I pointed to the cameras, “It’s like living in a prison, Dad. I haven’t done anything wrong but it sure feels like it more and more every day. It’s like she’s trying to push me out of here.”

He looked uncomfortable. I was getting the feeling that there was something he really wanted to say and, for some unknown reason, couldn’t say it. “Your mother is worried about you.”

“It isn’t me she should worry about, it’s Dee. She acts like she doesn’t care about her anymore, Dad, and I don’t get it.”

We sat in silence for a few plays. He then changed the subject to the game, obviously uncomfortable and unwilling to continue talking about Mom and Dee. I just gave up. I was starting to feel like some kind of freak because something happened to me and it changed everybody around me.

With Christmas coming, I tried to make my planned last one at home as pleasant as possible. I carefully thought through gifts for everybody, aware of what I spent for each one to keep Mom off my back. I socialized more with the family. Mom seemed to be making an effort along the same lines. For a couple of weeks, we tried to pretend that everything was normal.

On the morning of the 24th, Dad came home a little earlier than usual. I was in the kitchen, just cleaning up my cereal bowl from breakfast. After saying “Good morning,” he silently handed me the ring. He had told Mom previously that it wouldn’t be released from evidence until after Christmas. I didn’t ask if he pulled strings or lied to Mom. I thanked him and stuck it in my pocket, not a moment too soon. Mom came into the kitchen as I was pulling my hand out of my pocket. I think she was too busy giving Dad a hug to notice.

The evening of the 24th, it was just Sami, Dee, and I hanging out in the den. Mom and Dad always worked Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to give the younger employees the evening with their families. Since we were all 21 now, Sami brought out the good stuff and we had eggnog while they watched Christmas movies all evening.

I couldn’t get interested in them, partially because I’d seen them at least twenty times that I could remember, and because that memory gap was really eating at me. I could feel it, like when you’re searching for a word, you know that you know what it is, and you just can’t quite get there. We waited until midnight to exchange our private gifts for each other.

I had gotten Sami an engraved pen and pencil set, which she loved. Dee was given a small ruby pendant. She teared up when she opened it. I could tell she liked it but that she was sad about the ring. I think she had been hoping we would get it back before Christmas. I thought about giving it to her then but I decided to save it for later when I was going to tell her that I would be moving out the first week of January. Hopefully, it would make the news a little less painful.

Thankfully, it had been a quiet night for Mom and Dad and they were home Christmas morning around the usual time for the holidays. We ate breakfast together and opened gifts as a family. Mom wasn’t thrilled about the ruby pendant but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t have to deal with that bullshit much longer so I just put up with it. It wasn’t more than what I had spent on anybody else, in fact, Sami’s gift had cost more.

After a while, Mom and Dad shuffled off to bed, leaving the three of us sitting in the den. Sami and Dee watched a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies and I napped on the couch. When I wasn’t napping, we talked about previous Christmas Days.

Eventually, they ran out of things they were interested in watching and Sami went to take a nap. That left me and Dee in the den. She waited until Sami’s door closed and she spooned into me on the couch.

“Finally.” Her sigh was about as heartfelt as it gets.

I wasn’t against her laying against me, I had an erection that I would prefer she not know about. Every time I tried to move away from her, she would move with me. That just made things worse. I was also concerned about the security cameras in the den, you could see the couch from both of them and I expected Mom to check them, especially after some of the comments this morning.

The stress level ratcheted up a few more notches when she took my hand and placed it on her stomach. Five minutes later, it was under the hem of her shirt and on her bare skin. I had progressed to poking her ass with my cock and had no way to adjust it. She wiggled back against me every so often, I think she was making sure I stayed erect. It was working.

I tried napping some more. Eventually, I fell asleep. She was warm, she smelled heavenly and my thoughts drifted toward images that were absolutely inappropriate.

When I woke up again, it was almost dark. Clouds had moved in from the west and the setting sun was illuminating them with a fire orange hue. Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” was just winding down on my streaming station. I could smell the lavender body spray Dee loved…

We were in the Mustang with the top down. Dee was messing with her phone, scrolling through her music. I had just pulled into the parking spot and triggered the top to close. The ring was poking me through my shirt pocket, reminding me it was there. She finally found the song she was looking for just as the top settled into the channel and I locked it down.

The opening arpeggiated chords of Bad Company’s “If You Needed Somebody” started to come through the speakers. She grabbed my wrist as I went to shut the engine off. “Don’t, I want to listen to this.” I knew better than to disobey. Her music was sacrosanct and cutting off a song before it was finished was nearly a capital crime. For just a brief moment, I let myself fantasize about us being together as Simon Kirke got down to business.

I had dropped my hand to the shift lever when she stopped me. Her hand covered it and she lightly squeezed as she sang along with the lyrics to the song. She was looking out the passenger side window, really looking at nothing. Her earrings reflected a little light from one of the lamps lighting the parking lot. She was so beautiful it made my heart hurt.

It wasn’t until she turned to look at me that I knew. With total certainty, I knew. It wasn’t a fantasy at all.

She watched as I lifted my right hand from the shifter and turned it over to raise her left hand up. With my left hand, I dug the tissue-wrapped ring out of my shirt pocket and unwrapped it without dropping it. Tears started running down her cheeks as I slid the ring onto her left ring finger and kissed the back of her hand.

“Merry Christmas. I love you, Diana.” I could barely whisper it, afraid I was about to start crying myself. I almost never called her Diana, as a kid it always came out Dianina so I called her Dee to stop all the laughing. I only called her Diana now when I was serious.

The look in her eyes spoke volumes when I said that. Her response was to lean over and kiss me. Not the family type of kiss on the cheek, not a “that’s so sweet” kiss, it was a kiss that made all sorts of promises. It lasted until we had to catch our breath.

We sat and looked at each other for a few moments and then kissed again, more passionately. She squeezed my hand again as she looked at the ring and then back at me. She still hadn’t spoken a word.

When she did, I could barely understand her, she was so emotional. “I love you, too, Mike.” She pulled the sun visor down on her side and opened the mirror so she could fix her makeup. She then took one of her little face wipes and cleaned off the lipstick she had left on my face. “We need to get inside before somebody comes looking for us.”

By then, the song had ended and a different one started. I shut off the engine without complaint and we got out to go inside. I held her hand until we got to the door. We knew people inside, they knew us, and we both knew we had to be careful now.

It was special. Everybody had a great time, me included. I didn’t usually like crowded places but tonight I didn’t mind at all. She sat next to me, her leg pressed against mine, the entire time we were there.

When it came time for the movie to let out, it started getting busier and we finished up. Dave and the girls were headed to see a later showing of that movie and Dee wanted to go home. Her hand under the table made it pretty clear what her plan was when we got there. I paid the check, we chatted with some people we knew on the way out, and we parted ways just outside the door to the restaurant. That’s all I have been able to remember since then, nothing else until I regained consciousness in the hospital.

Dee sensed something was different when I awoke because she shifted so she could see me. I reached into the pocket of my shorts and pulled out the ring. My right hand found her left hand and brought it up so I could slip the ring on it. Her eyes filled with tears and she rotated so that we were laying face to face and I kissed her, as softly and gently as I could.

She let out a little moan and pressed against me, pushing my back into the cushions. Her return kiss was neither soft nor gentle, it was hard and it was hungry. After a few minutes of that, she whispered “I want to go upstairs.” I wasn’t about to say no.

Once inside her room, any thought that our parents and sister were still home went right out the window. About the only time our lips weren’t pressed together was to breathe or remove our shirts. Once that task was accomplished, we were right back at it.

My hands went from her waist to her breasts, where I lightly stroked her nipples with my thumbs before dropping my head to lick and kiss them. She would promptly pull my head right back up to continue kissing. After a few times of that, she let me remove her panties and I sat her down on the bed, prepared to kneel between her legs and lavish my attention on her pussy.

She was already aroused. Her scent was incredibly addicting, her taste indescribable. I started gently, lightly exploring her folds and hardened nub. She was becoming more aroused as I lightly started to suck on her clit as I slid two of my fingers inside her. I wanted to give her what she had given me when she had jerked me off, an orgasm to remember.

She didn’t want me to do it that way. She made me stand back up so she could remove my shorts, stroking my cock gently before laying back and pulling me down on top of her. She wrapped herself around me while we continued to kiss and touch, grinding against me whenever I played with her nipples. I could feel the heat from her pussy against me as she humped my erection slowly.

She slid her hand in between us, lightly rubbed her clit and lips with her fingers, then smeared it all over the head of my cock, which was already slick with the fluid I had been steadily leaking. She gently gripped around the shaft and slid the head in between her lips, up to the entrance. I could feel the give of the cuff around the head as we continued to grind against each other.

“Mike,” her whisper was incredibly rough, “make love to me.” I kissed her as she lifted her hips and I started pushing forward. It was tight but it felt so incredible. I went slowly, expecting to hit her hymen. I stopped at one point, confused. I knew she was a virgin, we both were, and I guess I looked at her funny because she smiled and whispered, “Tampons”. Then I got it.

I still went slow until I was in as far as I could go. She adjusted herself and I slowly slid back and then forward. Her eyes closed, her lips parted and she moaned. Then she began doing things I never imagined a vagina was capable of. I couldn’t stop staring at her face. I wanted to remember this forever, even if I managed to get shot in the head again. Our kisses were slow and heartfelt.

It didn’t take long before I knew I was going to cum. I think she sensed it, too. We rolled over so she could rock back and forth while rubbing her clit. She had this serene expression on her face as she did so. I played with her nipples to get her to cum first, her fingernails leaving marks on my chest as she whimpered and shook, followed immediately by my orgasm because hers set me off.

It wasn’t until we had caught our breath that I thought to ask, “Birth control?”

She looked sad, almost like it hadn’t been her choice, “Yeah, right after.” She rolled over into my arms and we drifted off.

I was woken up suddenly as the bed jerked violently underneath me. Opening my eyes, Mom was standing by the side of the bed, a naked Dee draped across me. Mom’s expression still haunts me.

Dee started to speak, “Mom –” but she just turned around and walked out, closing the door behind her. By the time I put some shorts on, both our parents were gone and Sami was sitting in the den, crying. As soon as she saw me, she fled into her room and slammed the door.

I sat down on the couch in the den, totally at a loss for something to say or do. Dee sat next to me, taking my hand and holding it. We sat there for a few minutes and then Dee started talking.

“The night you got shot, when they brought you into the ER, I lost it. You were covered in blood, not moving, and I thought you were dead. Dad pulled me back into the conference room and I broke down. It was so bad, the ER doctor thought I needed to be sedated and Mom said go ahead.

“When the sedative started kicking in, I started talking and talking, I couldn’t shut up. I told them everything. How much I loved you, how much I thought you loved me, the ring, the kiss in the parking lot, what I had planned for us when we got home, everything. Mom and Dad were in shock to begin with and I guess it didn’t really sink in, I was just rambling. Then the surgeon came in to talk to us and told them that you were asking for your girlfriend. I guess it dawned on them then.

“Right after that, I got a warning when the sedative wore off. Under no circumstances was I allowed to tell you anything about us. I got a lecture about how bad incest was, it was unacceptable, and it was not going to happen in her house. Dad had no choice but to back her up on it. He wasn’t happy about it, either, but I think he kind of understood. She didn’t want me ‘poisoning’ your mind with my ‘dirty talk’. I started on the pill because she let it slip that they were both positive for the markers for birth defects. She found my pill dispenser one day and we never really recovered from that.

“After you were taken off the respirator and still on the morphine, you would talk about me, the things you wanted to do to me. Mostly it was in front of me but Mom heard some of it. She was bound and determined that you were going to be ‘cured’ of it if she could only keep me away from you. But she couldn’t do that without having to answer a lot of questions from you. That’s what the cameras were for, to keep me away from you. I bent the rules as much as I dared to to help you but it was clear you weren’t going to remember that night until you did it on your own.

“I need to find someplace to stay now. She warned me that she would throw me out if I broke her rules. I love Mom, I really do. I love you too and I just couldn’t –”

“I was going to move out after the first of the year anyway. I can’t live like this anymore, under a fucking microscope. Dad knows and I suppose he told Mom.” I thought for a moment and came up with an interim plan. “Go get a bag and pack a week’s worth of clothes. We’ll get a room somewhere and let them cool down. If she doesn’t want to change her mind, we’ll find a place together.”

I went online and found an extended stay place that wasn’t outrageously overpriced and booked a room. We packed quickly and stopped by Sami’s room on our way out. She wouldn’t open the door so we announced our plans loudly enough so that the hallway camera would pick it up, and I left the name of the hotel and the room number on a slip on the kitchen table just in case Sami didn’t tell them.

That first night, Dee cried most of the night while I held her. The next morning, we ate a quick breakfast, went to the store for some things, and then started apartment hunting. There would be no turning back now.

##### Epilogue #####

It took two days for Dad to call to check on us. He came to our suite on New Year’s Eve on his way to work for a sit down with us. We sat and talked like adults, he wasn’t happy but he wasn’t that mad, either.

“You two need to understand where your mother and I are coming from here. Yeah, we get that you think you’re in love, maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. Not my place to decide that. We know what we see too often.

“We see the bad side of these ‘relationships’. The sexual abuse, the teen pregnancies, it’s like the very worst of human behavior delivered by your own family members. We also have a duty to the law. Whatever this is between you, love or lust, is illegal. You’re putting us in a position where we have to choose our family or our principles, we can’t have it both ways. I don’t think you appreciate how that feels. We’ve devoted our lives to what we do and now we have to decide what part of ourselves we’re going to compromise.

“We love the both of you. Always have, always will. We’ve done our best to protect you and provide you with everything you need to be healthy and happy in this world. We never thought it would end up with the two of you being together. Your sister is devastated, she blames herself for this because she saw it coming and didn’t say anything. Nothing your mother or I say makes her feel any better. You need to call her and talk to her.

“I came here to tell you that we are still here for you both. I’m asking that you give your mother a little time. She’ll never totally accept this but she’ll learn to live with it if you’re both happy. That’s just gonna take some time.”

It took a few years, in fact. We’re on good terms with Sami again, she’s married and has kids of her own. They don’t know that Uncle Mike and Aunt Diana are a couple. Her husband doesn’t know either, we don’t make a big deal out of it, and we never stay more than a couple of hours at a time. We get along after a fashion.

Mom won’t come to visit us. When we visit them, we stay in a hotel because I refuse to sleep in separate rooms, per her request. They have their principles, I have mine. Mom and Dee do talk regularly now. I only talk to her on Mother’s Day, our birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas if we’re not visiting that year. We don’t have much to say to each other anymore. I talk with Dad a little more regularly. He’s had one bout with prostate cancer, he’s in remission, and we’re hopeful.

We have lived in Indianapolis for a while now, she works at a hospital as an ER nurse, just like Mom. Sometimes, she comes home and cries at what she has seen, and I do what I can to make her feel loved and safe. I work as a programmer and part-time instructor at the community college. We live as husband and wife, we bought a house in a nice neighborhood, mind our own business, and live our lives. We haven’t run into anybody that knows us from back home yet and we’re hoping we never do.

The only long-term effect of my injuries is the headaches I get from time to time. The shoulder healed nicely and my lung function is normal for my age. I never remembered the actual shooting. Dee’s nightmares are reminder enough, thankfully they don’t happen as often as they used to.

I’ve never forgotten her birthday, which also doubles as our anniversary, or Christmas. Remembering garbage pickup day is another matter entirely…but Dee won’t ever let me forget that, either.

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Thanks for reading, I hope you found it worth your time. Votes and comments are always welcome.

Please, please, please check out the other Winter Holiday 2023 entries and vote. We all appreciate those and your comments, too.

Whichever holiday(s) you celebrate, I sincerely hope you have a good one. Stay safe!

Fatdog25