"	Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

I woke on my own, sniffed the air and was disappointed, hoping to smell bacon again. 'Oh well,' I thought as I fought my way out of the bed clothes. By the time I got free, a trip to the potty was important.

The shower felt particularly good this morning, so I stayed in longer then usual. I finally turned the water off, wrapped a towel around my hair and a second towel around my body and sat down at the poor excuse of a makeup table I have.

Ginny's emergence into womanhood got me thinking about my own appearance. I really don't work too hard on it, I mean I'm a Resident Engineer on outdoor construction jobs; most of the time my make-up consists of concrete dust and sweat, and yes I know, women don't sweat, they perspire. None-the-less, other than laziness, I had no excuse on weekends. Maybe I'd start today taking more pride in my looks, or if I'm beside Ginny, people will think I'm the guy.

After drying my hair, I got out the curling iron and went to work. A few twists here, a couple of turns there, and I was satisfied. My mother would be horrified. Since today was going to a home day I put on jeans and a sweat shirt, then went into the kitchen to make coffee.

“It's about time,” I heard. “I've held off on vacuuming until you were up.” I turned around and there was Ginny wearing an apron, with a bottle of Windex and paper towels in her hands.

“I said I was going to do some cleaning and cook for us as my share of staying here,” Ginny shrugged. “No time like the present.”

“Where did you find that Windex?” I asked. “I don't ever remember buying any.”

“You didn't, I just did. I borrowed your car and went to the variety store down the street.”

“You took my car? What if some one recognized it and wondered who was driving it!”

Ginny chuckled and said “Oh, it was recognized all right, a real cute cop asked me what I was doing in it.”

I sat down and groaned, “Who was it?”

Ginny just smiled and handed me a business card. It was a Swampscott police card with Officer Tom Kelly imprinted on it. “Turn it over,” urged Ginny, “turn it over.”

I did; on the back in ink was a phone number.

“Tom said to give him a call, we'll have coffee.”

With that, I burst out laughing. I don't know how much of it was relief and how much was thinking of what Tom's reaction would be if he knew the truth.

“Ginny, what did you tell him?” I asked.

“Just what we talked about before, that I'm your cousin from Falmouth on the Cape, and I'm staying with you, at least for a while. Why, did I do something wrong?” she asked.

I thought for a bit, “No, It's that he collects phone numbers instead of fines from cute girls, and you are definitely a cute girl.”

With that, Ginny blushed a bright red, and asked “You really think so Ellen?”

I grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her to the mirror next to the door and said to her “Look in the mirror sweetie, beside you I'm rather plain. Does wonders for my self- confidence. So, what's for breakfast, Martha Stewart, I'm hungry.”

Ginny laughed “Omelets. I waited for you so they'd still be hot when we ate. What kind do you want, or would you rather be surprised?”

“Surprise me,” I yelled from the front door, “I'll get the Sunday papers.”

All I wanted was coffee, hot, steaming, coffee.

I sat down at the counter with the Herald open to the front page. “Well honey, you are now famous,” I said as I held up the paper, so Ginny could see it from the stove.

“'America's Most Wanted',” I teased, “Here's a bad photo of Gene, with the headline, 'Boston man wanted in conjunction with hauling drugs'.”

“Jesus, good thing I was Ginny when we went shopping yesterday, wasn't it?”

I looked at her, “We would have caused quite a stir if you wore flannels and leather construction boots while trying on bras in Walmart.” On second thoughts maybe not. But I kept that to myself.

“Speaking of bras, we have a date with the computer after breakfast, so shake a leg.”

To be continued

Many thanks to Bronwen for fixing the typos and grammar.