Positive Reinforcement Ch.6
Week 7
—Squeeze them harder—Doctor Valery ordered.
Heidi had her hands on her mother’s breasts, pressing the fabric until she reached the skin. Sarah pretended it hurt, but the sound coming from her mouth was a long moan.
—Enough—the doctor intervened.
Heidi wanted to protest, but she couldn’t find a good excuse to keep squeezing her mother’s enormous breasts.
Doctor Valery closed his notebook with a sharp thud. The sound made Ethan look up from his phone for a second.
—We’re stagnating.
Sarah and Heidi looked at each other. Ethan lowered his head again.
—I think I should refer you to another specialist. One who treats each of you separately—the doctor suddenly said.
—That’s not true—Heidi interrupted. Her voice came out higher than normal—. We’ve made a lot of progress.
Her eyes were wet. Sarah saw her hands clenched on her knees, her knuckles white.
—Separate us—Sarah pressed her lips together.
—For your own good—Doctor Valery said, and his voice sounded almost kind.
—No—Heidi said.
The word came out on its own. Louder than she expected.
—I don’t want to start over with someone else—Heidi said, her voice breaking—. I don’t want them to separate us.
The doctor looked at her in silence. Then he looked at Sarah.
Sarah’s eyes were shining. Her lower lip trembled like when she was a child with a stomachache.
—Please—Sarah said.
—I wouldn’t want to, but you don’t seem ready for the next level—the doctor said calmly. He left his pen on the closed notebook.
—What next level?—Heidi asked. Her voice was hoarse.
—Radical methods.
Ethan put down his phone for the first time since they arrived.
—We’re ready—Sarah declared.
—For this, you must understand that families have no shame with each other. There is no modesty. Can you do it?
—Yes—Heidi said without hesitation.
Sarah nodded. Too vigorously.
—Are you sure?
—Sure—Sarah said, looking Heidi in the eyes. She didn’t blink.
Doctor Valery smiled.
He opened his notebook again. He turned a page. He wrote something.
—Sarah, I want you to lift your blouse. Heidi, I want you to touch her chest again, this time directly on her skin.
Both women blushed. Heidi felt the heat rise from her neck to her ears. Sarah bit her lip.
—, there is no modesty between family, and you are among family—he said, pointing to Ethan, who was now staring—. And I am a health professional. But of course, if you’re not willing to continue, we can stop... and refer you to someone else.
The last sentence hung in the air. The doctor didn’t move a finger.
Sarah began to move her hands. She brought her fingers to the edge of her blouse. She kept them there. Her breathing made her chest rise and fall. Her fingers trembled.
—Ethan—the doctor intervened—. Why don’t you help them? After all, these exercises wouldn’t be complete without you.
Ethan almost tripped as he stood up. He got to his feet with a smile. He approached Sarah. He grabbed an empty chair and placed it next to Heidi’s. They were elbow to elbow. Heidi felt the warmth of his arm.
The music pulsed through the floorboards, a low vibration that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Heidi could feel it in her chest, in her stomach, in the space between her legs.
The doctor raised the volume of the music.
It was the same song as always, the one they heard every session, every week. A repetitive melody with no beginning and no end. It seeped into their bones, into their breathing, into the space between thought and action. Heidi no longer heard it. She felt it.
—Come on, sweetheart—Ethan told Sarah—. , there’s no modesty between family.
He took his wife’s blouse with both hands. One on each side of her waist. Ethan’s fingers were thick, rough, with hairy knuckles. He began to lift the fabric slowly. First Sarah’s navel. Then her ribs. Then the fabric met the lower curve of her breasts.
The bra was white and simple. The fabric was thin, worn from years of use. Sarah had bought it at a department store sale, three for the price of two, back when Heidi was still in elementary school. She’d never thought much about it. It was just a bra. But now, under the light, under Heidi’s gaze, it looked like something else. A barrier. And barriers were meant to fall.
Ethan pulled up, but the blouse fabric wouldn’t give. Sarah’s skin tightened from the force. Ethan pulled harder. The fabric creaked. A thread came loose in the side seam, a small pop that was heard over the music.
And when the blouse finally ed the widest part—with a final tug that lifted Sarah from her chair for a second—Sarah’s breasts bounced. The bra contained them, but her skin spilled over the top, over the sides, underneath.
Without a word, Ethan took Heidi’s hand and placed it on Sarah’s half-bare chest.
Both trembled a little.
Heidi’s hand was cold. Her fingers touched the flesh that spilled over the edge.
Ethan slowly moved Heidi’s hand to the left. Sarah’s breast moved with the pressure. Heidi’s fingers brushed the fabric, finding the hardness of the nipple beneath the cotton.
Ethan continued guiding Heidi’s hand. He made a small circle. Then another, larger one. The bra fabric wrinkled under her fingers, twisted. White skin appeared at the edges, marked by the lines of Heidi’s fingers.
Her fingers began to move on their own, following the rhythm Ethan had set.
Ethan released her hand.
He left it there.
Heidi kept touching. Caressing. Squeezing.
Sarah moaned. This time she couldn’t contain it or pretend she wasn’t. No one said anything.
When the session ended, Doctor Valery spoke alone with Ethan. He left twenty minutes later.
On the table was roast chicken, potatoes, a salad no one touched. Sarah bit a piece of chicken, then left it on her plate. Heidi took it, bit where her mother had bitten, and gave it back.
Ethan ate alone on his side of the table.
They were like that when the doorbell rang.
Ethan wiped his mouth with a napkin. He got up slowly and walked to the door. He seemed to know who it was.
Heidi and Sarah looked at each other.
When he came back, he wasn’t alone. Doctor Valery was there. With a plastic bag in his hand.
—Good evening—he said, entering without waiting to be invited—. I brought dessert.
It was chocolate ice cream.
—I forgot, sweetheart. I invited Doctor Valery to dinner—Ethan intervened.
—Heidi. Sarah. Try it—the doctor said.
Both women stood up. Neither wanted to be rude to the doctor.
Valery opened the ice cream. It was a little melted at the edges. He placed the container in the middle of the table.
—No, no, no—the doctor scolded when he saw Sarah about to take a bite—. That’s not how you eat. You take turns. United families eat at the same time.
Heidi and Sarah didn’t seem to understand.
—Come on—the doctor said—. Try the ice cream. Both at the same time.
Heidi leaned in first. Sarah did the same a second later. Their tongues touched the ice cream at the same time. The edges of the container pressed against their cheeks. Their foreheads almost touched.
Doctor Valery didn’t ask them to their tongues. But he didn’t tell them not to either.
Heidi moved her tongue to one side. Sarah to the other. They met in the middle of the ice cream. They didn’t separate.
They stayed like that, both tongues tangled, the ice cream melting between them. Heidi felt Sarah’s tongue moving against hers. Licking. Pushing. Sharing the same bite.
Doctor Valery, taking advantage of the girls being distracted with their tongues, began to walk around the house. He offered Ethan to come with him, but he declined. He was too entertained watching his wife and stepdaughter tangle their tongues.
The doctor took the liberty of opening Ethan’s toolbox and taking a screwdriver. He went to the kitchen door. He started taking out the screws.
The door fell. The doctor leaned it against the wall.
—Where’s the bathroom?—he asked.
—At the end—Ethan said.
The doctor went down the hallway. Screws were heard falling to the floor. Another door. And another.
Heidi and Sarah were still in the kitchen. Ethan was discreetly taking photos.
Twenty minutes later, the doctor came back. The bathroom door, Heidi’s bedroom door, Sarah and Ethan’s bedroom door—all were leaning against the walls of the hallway.
Ethan smiled.
At that moment, an engine was heard outside. It was a moving truck.
—Ethan, can you help me?—the doctor said, putting the screwdriver back in the box.
Ethan reluctantly got up. He was recording the girls. He opened the door and they started loading things.
It was at that moment that Sarah and Heidi realized what was happening.
—What’s going on, sweetheart?—Sarah asked Ethan.
—It’s part of your treatment, sweetheart. Families have no boundaries—he replied as if nothing extraordinary was happening.
—Wait, that’s my bed—Heidi pointed.
—Not anymore. Families are inseparable—the doctor said—. Come.
They both followed him to the bathroom, now free of boundaries.
—This one doesn’t work—he said.
—What do you mean it doesn’t work?—Sarah asked—. It works perfectly.
The doctor hit the toilet with a metal rod, breaking it.
—Not anymore—Valery replied.
Then he began to throw everything out that was in there.
—But my toothbrush is in there—Heidi said.
The doctor looked at her.
—Not anymore. Now you’ll use the same one as your mother’s in your new room.
No one said anything.
The doctor picked up his bag. He put on his jacket.
Ethan walked him to the door. Doctor Valery left. The truck was gone.
Ethan closed the door.
HEIDI
The bed was too small for the three of them. It forced them to be cramped together.
Ethan had lain down on the left side. Sarah had gotten into the middle, staring at the ceiling. Heidi curled up on the right side. She wasn’t touching her mother. But she felt her warmth.
Her bladder was pressing.
At first it was a mild warning. Something she could ignore. She moved a little toward the edge of the bed. The sheet stretched. Sarah didn’t move. Ethan didn’t either.
Five minutes ed. Ten.
The warning became insistence. The insistence became urgency.
Heidi squeezed her thighs together. She crossed them. She uncrossed them. She bit her lip. Her toes curled on their own, gripping the sheet.
She could get up. The bathroom was a few steps away. But if she did, anyone in the bed could hear her. Worse, they could see her.
She tried to sleep. She counted to ten. To twenty. Her bladder didn’t understand numbers.
She squirmed. She turned over. She put a knee on the mattress. The pressure went down a little. It went back up.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
She got up slowly. Her bare feet touched the cold floor. Ethan didn’t move. Sarah didn’t either. They seemed asleep.
Heidi tiptoed to the bathroom. She sat on the toilet in the dark. The stream sounded loud. Too loud. She tried to stop it by clenching her muscles, but her body no longer obeyed. It kept coming. Water hitting water.
She wiped quickly. She didn’t wash her hands. She went back to bed, walking just as slowly.
She got under the sheets. She closed her eyes.
She didn’t see that Ethan had his eyes half-open. Nor did she see that Sarah had turned around at some point and was watching him from the left side of the bed.