To Read or Not to Read
Book 1: Tangled Web Chapter 1
By The Familiar Stranger

copyright 2006 by Familiar Stranger, all rights reserved

* * * * *
This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY It contains explicit depictions of sexual activity involving minors. If you are not of a legal age in your locality to view such material or if such material does not appeal to you, do not read further, and do not save this story.
* * * * *

This begins a series of stories where the reader gets to decide when the story needs to begin.
Read Chapter 1. Then You decide which chapters to read and which chapters to skip.
Be warned! You won't know what you missed. Sure you can always go back to find out.
It might not always be the same.


To Read or Not to Read
Book 1: Tangled Web
By The Familiar Stranger

Chapter One (read this one)

"A ten year old girl and a 12 year old boy taking a bubble bath together? Naked!! Cousins or not don't you find this a little... Well awkward?"

My 10 year old cousin Olivia had a very good point. We both were naked and trying our best to keep hidden under the bubbles. I was trying to hide more than being naked at this point. Cousin or not I have to admit I felt a certain thrill.

"Well." I began to say.

Before I answered her I had to think about how we got here.

About 2 years ago after our grandfather died at 101 years old my 80 year old grandmother decided she didn't want to live in their house anymore. She sold the house and moved into a retirement village closer to her daughters. Her place wound up being half way between my house and where Olivia and her family lived.

Olivia and I were the only grandchildren and my grandmother asked our parents if we could visit one weekend a month(give or take).

I was reluctant when I heard about it. Grandma didn't have video games, a DVD player or a computer. How could I possibly have any fun?

My dad sat me down for a little talk before they dropped me off that first weekend. "Son you need to be respectful to your elders. Your Grandmother is alone over there and I bet she is lonely. After all the birthday cards and Christmas presents you should be happy to go. The good of the one.."

"What?" I asked my dad. I just realized my mother had left the room.

"Son. Your grandmother has only 2 grandchildren. She never liked me or Olivia father but she loves her grandchildren. Be nice to her, don't complain about anything. Just pretend you are having a good time no matter what. When the day comes and she .." He choose his words carefully. "When she goes to meet god and join your grandfather. You and your cousin will get a nice inheritance."

"What is that?" I asked.

"Lets just say you will have a new TV in your room. A new car when your 17 and be able to pay for college to say the least." Dad finally finished "So just remember your grandmother loves you. You should look forward to these trips." Mom was back.

The last thing Dad said to me as they left me at Grandmothers house he said in words I understood. "Son your mom and I could use these weekends alone. If you never complain and always act happy I will get you that new system and you will have a good flow of new games."

For the first year I didn't complain at all. You would have thought I was returning from Disneyland. Most of the time it was legit,

Chapter 1A. (feel free to skip to chapter 2 if you have read enough plot)

We started towards the end of spring and Grandmothers development had a pool. Mostly people her age but it was a pool.

Olivia turned out to be pretty cool. For an 8 year old she seemed very smart. She was more mature than what I expected from an 8 year old girl. She would only get smarter and more mature as the years passed.

It was weird at first sharing a room and bunk beads with my cousin. We both quickly got used to it.

"Dad can I talk to you a second." I asked him about a 14 months ago. I made sure mom was out. "Things are getting a little weird with Granny." She told us to call her granny.

"Son. We talked about this." Dad thought for a second. "Is there anything dangerous or life threatening? " He asked a bunch of the serious questions.

"No.. Nothing like that." I said after thinking about it. "Weird but nothing dangerous."

"Then son I will make you a deal. First off if you ever think something is dangerous or someone might be or get hurt you call 911 right away. Then call me and your Uncle Tom. Otherwise if we never talk about this again. If your mother and your Aunt and Uncle never hear anything I will make it worth your while. Your birthday isn't to far off."

"Ok Dad." I agreed.

"Conner! Your sure its nothing dangerous right?" Dad asked before I left.

"I am sure. Nothing Dangerous."

No but it certainly was weird and getting weirder each visit. Granny was starting to forget things. It never seemed to happen in large groups. It started when it was just the 3 of us

First she would ask Olivia and I who we were and why we were in her house. When we told her she would act like it was a joke. There were times when she thought Olivia was her mom(Maria) or I was some boy(Kevin) that lived next door 30 years ago when he was 10.

I had to miss a weekend about a year ago. Olivia told me Granny thought she was her mom that whole weekend. "Saturday night she told me she was going to play cards with some friends. She got me a babysitter!!"

Olivia was only 10. I even thought a babysitter wasn't that weird.

"No but she came back in like an hour. The older lady who came to baby sit was the one she thought she was playing cards with. We had fun after that they drank some wine and taught me to play cards like an adult." Olivia smiled for the first time in her story.

I was allowed to bring my video game some weekends. Granny would spend hours gardening or cooking and almost ignore Olivia and I. Those hours were well spent in front of the TV with my cousin playing video games, There were some games she was pretty good at for a girl.

Things weren't really that bad after all. Olivia and I had both started to look forward to our weekends at Granny's.

Until about 10 months ago,

That was the weekend Granny decided that we needed to take baths each Saturday night at 8pm. That wasn't the worse thing but since we both showered every morning I thought it was odd.

Olivia went first and I would have just enough time to watch my show at 8:00 p.m, before it was my turn. Olivia would yell that she was finished as she was shutting the door to our room. She was dressed and in her pajamas well before I was done and knocked three times on the bathroom door to tell me.

It was our cool little code.

Every once in a while Granny would pop in on one of us in the bath and start telling a story about her childhood. It was a little strange but when I realized she was telling me the story like I had been there I decided to cut the old woman some slack.

By 9pm every Saturday night with Granny ,Olivia and I would sit in our pj's on the floor in front of TV watching some show called Lawyers Welk. I never did see any lawyers. It was some black and white rip off of that Idol show.

About 7 months ago, around 7pm, granny had been longer than usual. Just when we thought about being worried she came home.

"Sorry little ones. Good game of rummy today. Granny won 25 dollars. I bet your hungry children, but don't worry dinner is on Granny tonight."

If I didn't know better Granny was drunk. I didn't even know what drunk was then.

The door bell rang and after giving her 20 dollars granny told Olivia to answer it. I only half saw the blonde hair pizza delivery guy but I did notice how Olivia seemed smitten by him. She was in a daze all through dinner.

Olivia always wanted to order pizza from there after that. She always made the guy feel welcome.

Granny's neighborhood had a strict and limited recyclable policy. After dinner Granny asked Olivia to bring the boxes to the recyclable area. She happily agreed.

5 minutes later Granny started to get all worked up. Like the world would end if her schedule got disrupted. She insisted someone had to be in the bath at 8pm exactly.

"You have to go now now now" She said in a panic Olivia was not back and I didn't want her to have a stroke or something so I ran off to the bathroom and started taking a bath.

I was naked and had just managed to sit myself in the bath when Granny ran into the bathroom. She was immediately calmer when she saw me in the tub. She grabbed the box of bubble bath and pretty much dumped the whole thing into the tub before leaving.

"I will be watching my program" She told me as she left. She didn't quite shut the door all the way behind her. Lucky for me the bathtub had a nice dark shower curtain which I pulled around the tub.

"I wonder if I should tell dad about this?" I asked myself 10 minutes later when the bubbles and warm water had finally calmed me down.

"Now Now Now" I heard granny screaming again.

10 seconds later there was a slash in the tub. The water went everywhere, water and bubbles went in my eyes and I swore someone kicked me.

When I cleared the bubbles out of my eyes I saw the shower curtain open and granny standing next to the tub.

There was no long pause. No awkward silence. No confusion.

"Conner?" I heard Olivia ask in a whisper. Where was she I would have asked my self if I didn't see her sitting across from me in the bath tub.

"Olivia?" I asked back.

"What a great idea. We can save so much time" Granny shouted "From now on you two will take your bath's together."

From that weekend on my ten year old cousin Olivia and I would take our baths together. One of us(usually Olivia) would already be naked in the tub full of bubbles with the shower curtain closed when the other one was told to join.

Granny usually sat on the closed toilet seat. Sometimes she told stories. Other times she would try and help one of us clean a hard to reach spot. The last couple of times she just stared off like she was watching some TV that only she could see.

I had never actually seen Olivia naked, I was pretty sure or hoped I was pretty sure she had not seen me either. Granny usually snapped back just in time to make sure we both got out of the tub with some privacy.

She sometimes made a game out of it. Turning off the lights, making one of us go under water, giving us towels while we were still in the water. It was actually the only fun part of our baths.

Today Granny's story was longer than usual. The water was getting warm, Olivia and I were getting cold and more importantly the bubbles were almost gone.

"Oh dear look at the time." Granny said standing up. "I don't want to be late tonight. Don't go anywhere children." Before she walked out of the bathroom.

"A ten year old girl and a 12 year old boy taking a bubble bath together? Cousins or not don't you find this a little.. Well awkward?"

And here we are..

"Weird?" I had casually placed my hands in the water trying to cover my nakedness. Olivia was trying in vain to do the same, "Weird doesn't begin to describe this cousin."

We both laughed awkwardly. We talked and joked about some of the weird event for a little while.

"Should we tell our.. "Olivia started to ask but she changed her train of thought. The bubbles were now disappearing fast. I could feel her squirming in the water. Like I said the tub wasn't that big.

"No offense Conner. I mean you're my cousin and my friend but I don't want to see you naked." She was trying to act like she wasn't trying to cover her nudity. "I am sure you don't want to see me naked either."

We both laughed for a second.

"Do you?" She asked me shyly.

Granny walked back into the bathroom before I could answer my naked cousin. I don't know what I would have said.

"You two will have to finish your bath without me. I don't want to be late." Granny informed us.

All day she was talking about her big card game with the girls tonight. Olivia and I didn't know what to think. She never went out on Friday nights. We never questioned her.

"Sure Granny we can handle it alone." I said. I knew the faster she left the faster my naked cousin and I could figure a discreet way out of the tub.

"Alone? You wont be alone. I have a sitter coming." Granny told us. The doorbell rang before we could question it. "Right on time. You two sit tight while I let her in."

"Her?" I asked already embarrassed "I just assumed Granny was going to let us stay alone." I told Olivia. Now I was starting to squirming. I heard the door open and heard the distinct sound of a female voice.

"Don't worry Conner." Olivia tried to comfort me, and cover herself at the same time. "She is as old as Granny and her glasses are so thick I don't think she could tell us apart.. Naked or not."

I felt a little better. I also felt strangely excited. Worse case Olivia might catch a glimpse of me naked. I just hoped my cousin was right. "Thick glasses huh? And old?" I asked.

Olivia smiled and nodded at me.

The erection I was casually trying to hide was slowly starting to fade. Unfortunately for me the bubbles were fading faster.