I actually had this done a few days ago, but I wasn't entirely happy with it. So I revised it a little bit and found that the reason I don't like it much is because it's a bit of a filler chapter. But I think that's OK. Considering what I have in store, a little bit of fluff is nice.

Also, anyone who can guess where I live gets a cookie. You get two if you've been there and three if you live there too.

Peace

-elodie

Wisp

Chapter 14

"I've never had sex in this bed before, y'know," Mark whispered into Winnie ear mischievously.

Winnie cringed. "Mark, it's creepy in here. All this Star Wars stuff. I can't have sex with Yoda staring at me."

"He won't care," Mark insisted.

Winnie laughed, running her finger down Mark's bare chest. "That's not the point. So, you really never had a girl in here?"

Mark flushed, gesturing to the rest of the room. "If you're scared by this room, do you think normal girls would be?"

"So I'm not normal?"

"No, you're perfect."

Winnie kissed his nose gently. "Winnie the Pooh said once, 'If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.' Well, that's how I feel about you. I know I'm not perfect, but when you say that, it almost makes me think that I am, just for one fleeting moment."

"In my eyes, you're perfect," Mark whispered, nuzzling her neck and kissing her gaunt collarbone. "I love you."

"I love you too," Winnie murmured, chills running down her spine as he kissed her lips gently. She pulled away and held a finger to his lips, rising out of the bed. She disappeared from the room, entering again a minute later with a roll of Scotch tape in one hand and a big piece of wrapping paper in the other. Mark watched, amused, as she taped the paper over the Yoda poster.

"You are so weird," Mark laughed, pulling her down onto the bed, trailing kisses down her bare stomach. "It's so endearing."

Winnie smiled and caressed his hair, feeling his blond hair run through her fingers. "You shouldn't talk."

"I never said I wasn't weird."

"You are weird, but it's so endearing."

Mark grinned. "How about a little mood music?" He rummaged through the drawer next to his bed and pulled out a cassette tape, popping it into the small tape player.

Winnie cringed as the Star Wars theme began to play. "Mark…"

*          *          *

"Mark, what time are you planning on leaving today? Because Cindy's coming at noon for lunch and I want you to see her."

"Mom," Mark groaned. He and his sister… Well, they'd never gotten along to put it lightly.

Mrs. Cohen put her hands on her hips and stared at him with that look that mothers know so well. "Mark Cohen, she is your only sibling. Your own flesh and blood. When your father and I are dead and gone, you two will have to get along. Might as well start now."

"Mom…" Mark protested again but at the sound of Winnie's snort backed down and shoved a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.

"Oh Mother! Marky! Gimme a hug!"

Mark groaned. He turned to Winnie and mouthed "Cindy."

A tall, thin blond woman with a toddler on her hip and an older boy following right behind her burst into the kitchen, a big fake smile on her face. "Marky!" She squealed, setting her son down and nearly suffocating Mark with her grip. "You never call," She teased, poking his nose. "Happy to see me?"

Mark sat stunned. "Cindy, you're early. It's eight in the morning. Your voice is already giving me a headache."

Cindy scoffed. "Oh, Marky. Don't be such a sourpuss. Hi, I'm Cindy," She extended her hand toward Winnie. Winnie accepted it tentatively, giving her a small smile. "You must be Marky's girlfriend. How I pity you."

Winnie half smiled, pushing her pancakes around on her plate.

"Cindy, this is Winnie. She doesn't like loud noises. Stop screeching in her ear."

"Oh, Marky. I'm not screeching. Besides, when I came to visit Mom last night, I certainly heard loud noises coming out of your bedroom, so I doubt that she completely hates them."

Winnie's face flushed crimson. "Excuse me," She murmured, retreating back to Mark's room.

Mark scowled at his sister, remembering how much he'd loathed her when he was younger. Perfect Cindy, cheerleader Cindy, class president Cindy, snobby Cindy. "Now look what you did."

Cindy shrugged nonchalantly, taking the fork out of Mark's hand and shoveling a piece of his pancake into her mouth. "I didn't mean any harm. It was just a simple comment. She overreacted. Seems like you've got another drama queen on your hands, Marky. At least she's not as bad as that last one. What was her name again? Minnie?"

"I believe that my name is Maureen." Maureen stood in front of Cindy, hands on her hips. "You leave Mark alone. Winnie too. She's not a drama queen. If you knew the slightest thing about either of them you'd know that saying such things is only making their lives miserable."

Cindy, thoroughly surprised to see Maureen standing in front of her, scoffed at her, a cruel teasing edge to her voice. "What are they suicidal or something? Any little thing is going to make them go nuts and slit their wrists in front of everyone. Hey!" There was a loud slap and Mark stared at Maureen in stunned silence. "You little bitch!"

"Cindy, don't swear in front of the kids!"

"Sorry Mom," Cindy said, holding her cheek with her hand. "Geez, what was that for you stupid wench?"

Maureen said coldly, "That was for everything you've done to make Mark's life miserable. Don't ever say anything like that again. You don't know them."

"He's my brother. Of course I know him."

"Sure you do. Who was Mark's first girlfriend? Who's his best friend? What's his favorite color? Huh? Do you know any of that?"

"He had a girlfriend before you? I'm certainly surprised."

"That's not the point."

"Who are you to march into this house and talk to me like this? You shouldn't even be here. You dumped Mark. You helped to make his life miserable. Don't blame it all on me. I haven't even seen him in three years."

Mark grabbed Maureen's arm and whispered, "Mo, it's OK. Let's just leave." He could see Winnie peering out from his room, her eyebrows lifted in surprise.

"So, what's for breakfast?"

Mark sighed and passed Roger his half-eaten plate of pancakes. "Here, eat this then get packed. We're leaving." He left into his room and closed the door.

Roger looked around at Maureen and Cindy, shoveling pancakes into his mouth. "What did I miss?"

*          *          *

"I still can't believe that bitch! Mark, how could you have put up with her growing up?" Maureen was still ranting and they were an hour away from Scarsdale.

Roger asked again, "Really, what did I miss?"

"Maureen, forget about it. She's just like that, OK? She was always kind of embarrassed of me. Y'know, she thought she was all high and mighty and I was her dorky little brother. You saw the old pictures. Would you have wanted to hang around me with the braces and the acne?"

"But it's so rude and demeaning. And to judge Winnie like that. She'd never even met her!"

Winnie remained silent, curled up again Mark in the backseat.

"Really, what did I miss?"

"Shut up Roger," Maureen ordered, turning back to look at Mark. "Mark, it's cruel. And you didn't even stand up for yourself!"

Mark shrugged, looking out the window at the trees going by. "I never did. Probably never will. I'll only see her every so many years. It's not so bad."

Collins spoke up from behind him, "Mark, I remember how you used to complain about her. She was horrible to you."

"It's in the past."

"What happened?" Roger asked again.

Maureen sighed and rolled her eyes. "Cindy came early, made a mean comment to Winnie, was mean to Mark, called me Minnie of all things," She shuddered. "Then she proceeded to make an extremely inappropriate comment about Mark and Winnie."

Mark glared at her. "Maureen, it's not that bad."

"No! She doesn't know what you two have to go through. She doesn't know that you really are-"

"Maureen! Stop," Mark ordered. "Really. Listen, I'll explain later. Just not now."

Maureen sniffed and turned around to face the front again. "Pookie, are we there yet?"

Joanne gritted her teeth. "Not for a few more hours, Maureen. We have to go through Connecticut and Rhode Island and then it's another two hours from there."

"Pookie, I have to piss really bad."

"Me too," Winnie piped up.

"Actually, I kind of have to also," Collins said from the way back.

"Pookie, I'm gonna wet my pants!"

Joanne squinted at the road ahead. "Maureen, I don't see anyplace to stop. Looks like you might have to just use the woods."

Maureen cringed. "Pull over."

*          *          *

As the hours dragged on, Winnie found herself drifting in between sleep and consciousness. Mark was sleeping. She felt his steady breathing. Roger was too. She could hear his familiar snores behind her.

They were in Massachusetts, she could tell from the signs. Probably near the coast too. She could smell the salty air coming in from Joanne's open window in front of her. She always loved the ocean. Living right near the ocean growing up had been her one fond memory.

Sometimes she'd get up really early in the morning and sit in the sand and watch the sun come up. It was really pretty at night too. With the moon sparkling in the water. She couldn't wait to see it again.

Mark and Maureen had never seen the ocean before. Joanne used to vacation on the Cape. She and her family had a summer house in Chatham. And Roger went camping in Maine once, right on the shore. Collins said he'd skinny-dipped with his first boyfriend on the Jersey Shore.

Winnie couldn't imagine never seeing the ocean before. She loved both the gentle spray and the hard crashing waves.

"Joanne, look! There's the bridge!"

Joanne smiled in the mirror at her. "I loved these bridges. We'd always take the Bourne Bridge, but personally, I liked the Sagamore Bridge better. I don't know why. Something about seeing that thatch-roofed Christmas Tree Shop would just remind me that it's just great to be on the Cape."

Winnie grinned, pressing her face against the window to get a good look at the canal. It was hard to believe that men had really dug it all. The water was dark blue, churned only by a small boat speeding through.

She shook Mark gently, waking him up. "Mark, look out the window."

He looked and smiled. "It's beautiful."

"Look closely at the horizon! See that? It's the ocean, Mark!"

Mark grinned through the groggy haze of sleep. She was so excited. This made him so happy. After what had happened in July, anything that made her even slightly happy just made his heart swell. Anything that made her excited about living, anything that made her eyes sparkle, anything that made her smile. He kissed the top of her head and stared at the horizon. It was the ocean. Such a beautiful thing.

Roger snored loudly, shifting positions. Collins made a sound of discomfort. He elbowed Roger to wake him up. "He keeps elbowing me."

Roger's eyes fluttered open. "Hey, don't elbow me."

"Ok, everyone," Joanne announced. "Now that you're all awake, I have a few things to explain about the Cape. For one thing, you are on the Cape, not in it. OK? Another thing, there's no canal tunnel and no bridge to Nantucket. Also, you can't talk to me on a certain stretch of highway. They call it Suicide Alley because there are so many crashes there. So I need to concentrate a bit. We still have a long way to go. Remember that Provincetown's at the very tip? Well, it'll take over an hour to get there and that's if we don't hit traffic. I don't think we will, seeing as that it's slightly out of season here."

"Yes ma'am," Mark said, leaning his head on Winnie's shoulder.

"Maureen, you got any aspirin?" Roger asked, rubbing his eyes. "I've got a headache."

Maureen fished a bottle out of the glove compartment and handed it back to Mark who handed it back to Roger.

"You don't get carsick, do you?" Collins asked Roger.

Roger shrugged. "Sometimes. Usually not so bad. I usually don't get headaches though. I'm probably just tired."

"Let's play a game!" Maureen suggested, unbuckling her seatbelt and turning around to face the four in the back. "Truth. Truth or dare without the dare. Y'know?"

Collins raised an eyebrow. "What are you twelve?"

"Collins, for that, you're going first. When did you first have sex?"

"Maureen…"

"C'mon, there's nothing else to do."

"This is so juvenile."

"Just answer the question!"

Collins sighed. "Fine. When I was fifteen."

"With who?"

"With whom and you already got your one question. Now, what's with that tattoo that says 'Roger' on your butt?"

Maureen burst into laughter. "You've seen that? Oh, Mark, remember that? We had a bet and if I won then you'd have to shave off all your hair and I meant all of it and if you won then I had to tattoo Roger's name on my butt. And you won. So Roger's name adorns my ass."

"And why did it have to be my name?" Roger asked.

Mark shrugged. "That was back when you were in the band. You were the sex god of the neighborhood. An obvious choice."

"And that tattoo hurt like hell! Anyway, Winnie, what was your first impression of all of us? Individually."

Winnie froze, remembering the circumstances under which they'd met. "Um, well… I felt kind of sorry for Roger because the first time I saw him he was sobbing. And I thought Collins was really nice. He'd brought me my candle. And Joanne seemed like the rational, level-headed one. Maureen, I don't really remember much but I thought you were really loud. Everything was kind of blurry. And Mark… Mark, I was kind of afraid of you."

Mark was surprised. "Afraid of me? But I'd never hurt a fly."

Winnie shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't know that. I was scared and alone and you were a strange guy with a camera and you just started talking to me. You startled me. I didn't trust anyone when I first met you. But I'm not afraid anymore."

Mark tightened his arms around her. "That's perfect."

"It's your turn to ask the question," Maureen prodded.

Winnie smiled and turned to face Roger. "Roger, what sort of image do you have in your head when you masturbate?"

Roger's jaw dropped in shock. "What? Little innocent Miss Winnie asking a question like that?"

"Answer the question," She sing-songed.

"Fine," Roger grumbled. "Bettie Page."

"I knew it!" Winnie grinned widely, turning to Mark. "It must be that picture you gave him."

"You told her?" Roger demanded of Mark.

Mark grinned at Roger. "Oh you'd be surprised at what I tell her."

Roger scowled. "Ok, little Marky. Here's a question for you. Have you ever fucked in your childhood bed?"

Mark and Winnie glanced at each other, blushing furiously. "Um, yeah…" Mark muttered.

Roger saw the looks on their faces and smirked. "Oh yeah? When?"

"You got your one question!"

"I think most of us can testify that it happened last night. Correct Collins?"

Collins winced. "Unfortunately, yes."

"But I didn't think we were being that loud!" Mark protested.

"Pookie," Maureen interrupted them. "I really gotta piss."