<div align="center"><strong><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Fluffy Slacks BTN;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 36pt;">A Very Strange Family</span></span></strong></div><br/><div align="center">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/48/House_1.gif)</div><br/><div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/52/56579_01big.jpg)</div><strong>Angela Corbett</strong><br/>Saturday Afternoon<br/><br/>I couldn't let my sister go to the poor house, now could I? Seriously, it wasn't her fault that the man she married was such a looser. The fact that she should never have married him, well, that was just me being bitchy really. Mum and Dad never really forgave me for being gay, and the fact that Beth had accidentally outed me to them wasn't her fault. Besides, I'd always had something of a crush on my cute kid sister.<br/><br/>So when the arsehole got himself killed, and it was revealed that he had more debts that the average third world country, and poor Bethany had to sell the house to pay back the mortgage and the insurance companies wouldn't pay out because they said it was suicide... Well I couldn't<em>not</em>help, really. I may not be the richest woman in the world (I think that's The Queen), but I made my bit.<br/><br/>So I paid off the late loser's creditors and told my sis that she could move in with me and bring her two charming children with her.  After all I had more than enough room.<br/><br/>I went and got them in the Land Cruiser, mostly because it was the biggest and most comfortable of my cars. Robyn, my gardener, mechanic and handy-woman, drove a van I'd hired and her partner Louise, my cook, house-keeper and cleaner, came along to help. Between the six of us we managed to get everything they were taking loaded either into the back of the spacious Toyota or into the Mercedes Sprinter.<br/><br/>"I know it's terrible", I told Beth softly as we drove back through the Wellington traffic, "and it's sad to be leaving that house that you had worked<em>so hard</em>to make into a home", my tone implying quite clearly that no amount of hard work could possibly make such a hovel even remotely liveable, and it was nothing short of a miracle that my sister had managed to do so, "But look on the bright side, dear. From now on, you won't have to cook and clean, you won't have to make beds, you won't have to shop, you won't even have to plan menus. You can take as much time as you need, get over the bad times, remember the good times",<em>if there were any</em>, I didn't say aloud, "And look forward to better times to come, hmm?"<br/><br/>I smiled at her and put my left hand on her knee, briefly, then turned my attention back to the road as we came to the turn-off from Western Hutt Road - I always thought it was like living in the Star Wars galaxy. I drove slowly through Silverstream and Pinehaven and up onto the winding road that led up into the mountains. "Sleeping arrangements", I said, to broach a subject that had been sort of puzzling me for a few months. There was something odd about the twins' behaviour, I'd noticed. The way Edward looked at Debbie before doing anything, the way they would surreptitiously touch each other, thinking no-one would notice. The way Debbie would order Ed around and he never objected. I was pretty sure that Beth had never noticed, but being a dominant lesbian bitch into the BDSM scene, I have an eye for subtle details like that.<br/><br/>"I have six bedrooms. One is mine, and Is shared with whoever I happen to be fucking at the time"... I said it deliberately for a reaction. I smirked and went on, "The bedroom in the basement is for kinky stuff. If you want to sleep there, I'm sure it can be arranged, but you may not get much sleep", again, said for the reaction. "The bedroom in the annex is Robyn and Louise's love nest. That's their home, they do what they want in there and I don't disturb them."<br/><br/>I paused, and swore violently at an idiot in a Merc coming down the road the other way who was taking one of the hairpin bends far too fast and almost went head on with me. "Fucking arsehole!" Yes, my language was never particularly clean at the best of times. Comes from hanging out with students a lot. "Sorry about that, everyone okay? So anyway", I tooled the sure-footed all-wheel-drive car around the tight turns, "That leaves three rooms. Two doubles and a twin. Now I know you twins are a bit old, but would you be okay sharing a room?" I asked and glanced in the mirror to see their faces. "Then your mum can have the room next to that shares a balcony with your room".<br/><br/>I grinned and drove through Blue Mountains with a lot less care than I had the other towns. This was my neighbourhood now. "So that's settled then." I nodded. I really didn't care whether they liked the arrangement or not. I was reasonably sure it wasn't going to last.<br/><br/>I pulled the Cruiser into the driveway and drew it to a stop. This house was only two years old and I'd had it built to my specifications. I almost had it build in Aukland, because it's a little warmer up there, but I didn't want to be that far from Wellington, and the office of my employers. Still at least they weren't in South Island. Dunedin in August is bitterly cold! Even Christchurch has some harsh weather in the winter. Wellington is nicely sheltered and far enough North to be quite mild. At least, that's my opinion.<br/><br/>"Okay, everyone out and let's help unload the van", I ordered as the larger vehicle crunched up the gravel behind the Toyota. "Just get everything inside for now, we can unpack later."