Twin Trouble By Merz A teenager makes a startling discovery about his little sisters. "Gramma says we need to talk with you about puberty." "With me? That's mom and dad's job, not mine. What won't they tell you?" "No, silly, it's not about what we don't know. It's about what you don't know. Gramma said we better tell you soon before you find out the hard way." Matt sat up straighter where he lounged on his bed and looked with curiosity at his twin sisters, Rebecca and Darlene. "And what is it I'm going to find out? You little twirps aren't even supposed to be in my room. I told you it was off limits. If there's something I don't know tell me now before I toss you out." The blonde twelve year olds exchanged knowing winks, then struck identical poses with their legs planted wide and their arms crossed. "That's part of it," said Rebecca. "That's the part Gramma said you might learn the hard way," added Darlene. "You can't throw us out." "We're stronger than you are." "And we're going to get lots stronger because of puberty." "Gramma said we better let you know." They stood smiling at their older brother, making no move to leave his room. "What, the two of you together are stronger than me? No way. I'm five years older than you and I probably weigh more than you both." Matt swung his legs off his bed, facing the twins and looking them about eye to eye from his seated position. "No, we're each stronger than you." "We thought it was because we secretly use your weight set and put more weights on it that made us stronger." "But Gramma said we're just different from other people, especially from boys." "Like she is." "She's stronger than grampa and daddy put together." "She showed us." "You've been using my weights? How many times do I have to tell you to leave my stuff alone? Anyway, you kids shouldn't be playing with that stuff. You could get hurt even if I didn't swat you." Matt was becoming annoyed with his little sisters. Generally they got along well because he was enough older he didn't have to see them at school and rarely had to spend time with them when he would rather be off with his friends. "No, we won't get hurt." "We have muscles so those little weights won't hurt us." "Here, look," they finished together. The twins exchanged looks and giggles once more, then each pulled back the sleeve of her t-shirt from her short, round arm. "On three: one, two, three." "Holy cow! Those do look like you have muscles. Where did those come from?" Matt was startled that identical round masses of power had rolled up on the arms of his little sisters. "You should see when we exercise with your weights." "They get lots bigger then" "And kind of chunked up more, too." "Show him what we can do, Darlene." "No, you show him." "Okay, but then you have to show daddy when he comes home." Darlene put her impressive arm down, then locked her hands at the bent elbow of her sister, Rebecca, and lifted her feet clear of the ground so she hung free. "That's pretty good," Matt began. "That's not all of it." "Watch." Darlene began chinning herself from Rebecca's arm. "It's harder than it looks," Darlene told Matt as she rose and sank "Yeah, and my arm is harder than it looks, too," giggled Rebecca. "Do you have any muscles that look like this?" they asked in unison. Matt swallowed hard. While an average, active teenager he was not particularly proud of his physique. He hadn't suspected his sisters had been using his weight set over the past two years because he had rarely gone near it himself in that time. "Sure, of course I do. I'm a guy and guys always have bigger muscles." The girls giggled some more and Darlene resumed standing next to Rebecca, both girls again folding their arms across their chests. "Then show us." "We want to see if you really have muscles." "Gramma says sometimes boys do have bigger muscles." "But ours will be harder and stronger." "We saw Gramma's." "Hers were really big." "And hard." "Gramma doesn't have muscles. She's just a grandmother. I suppose next you'll say mom has muscles too." Matt was growing uncomfortable as the two small girls continued smiling and gripping their own arms. "No, Gramma says mom doesn't, and her mother didn't have muscles." "But we do and her grandmother did." "It just hops around around like that." "But to the girls in a family." "The boys never get extra muscles." "Just regular ones." "Like you." "That's so much bull. I know Gramma and she isn't some super woman." "She doesn't like people to know." "She said she used to get embarrassed." "But she says she's had her eye on us and now she'll spend more time here." "Cause we're special and she wants to help us understand what's going to be happening." "It's puberty. That's when our muscles really start growing." "They've been growing already, but now they're really going to start." "Gramma picked up your barbell with just one hand, even after we had put more weights on it." "She's really really strong." "We're going to get just as strong as she is." "She told us." Matt was growing dizzy from the rapid-fire choruses from the twins. "No way. You're getting on my nerves. Get out of my room and leave my weights alone. I don't want you messing with my stuff anymore." The twins exchanged looks once more, but didn't move toward the door. "That's why it's so neat we have our muscles." "We don't have to do what you tell us." "That's what Gramma said you might have to learn the hard way." Matt rose from the bed and grabbed the closer of the twins, Rebecca. He grabbed her arm partly because he was curious to feel how it compared with his own. When they had all been younger he had played and wrestled with the little girls, but that had ended years before when he felt he had outgrown taking any interest in them. Now he swallowed hard as he gripped Rebecca's upper arm. He had held bricks that yielded as much. He tried pushing her toward the door to his room but found she stood utterly immovable. The girls giggled as Rebecca easily held her ground. "See? We told you." "Did you want to see how strong we are?" "We'll show you" "It won't really be the hard way." Once more they giggled in unison. "Just a little bit hard." Abruptly Rebecca shrugged Matt's hand off her arm, making it look effortless. Then she stooped to grab him around the knees and lifted him off the floor, smiling up with her head at his crotch. Matt struggled and wriggled in her grasp but failed to dim the happy smile let alone loosen her grip. He was aware of her small breasts pressing against his legs. "I'm going to take off my shirt so he can see my muscles better," Darlene announced. She pulled her t-shirt off, then stepped out of the shorts she had been wearing over a modest two-piece swimsuit. "Okay, let me hold him now." She stepped behind Matt and reached up to grip his belt. He felt himself jerked backwards, flailing his arms to maintain his balance as Darlene pulled him down, Rebecca maintaining her hold around his legs. Then he felt Darlene's small hand in the middle of his back. Suddenly Rebecca wasn't holding his legs anymore and he found himself suspended face up, Darlene's fist digging in where she gripped his belt and her other hand pressing between his shoulder blades. He trembled first from fear of falling, and then trembled more when he realized his little sister was holding him steady above her head. Finally he felt Darlene lower him several inches, only to press him back up again. "Okay, now let me show off," he heard Rebecca's voice below him. He turned his head to see she had also stripped to her swim suit and was down in a crab position, facing up with her feet and hands on the floor. Darlene lowered him to chest level, then stepped up onto the bare abdomen of her twin sister. "Ta dah!" Matt felt himself bounced by the rhythms of Rebecca's giggles as she supported the combined weight of her sister and brother. Finally Darlene stepped back to the floor and set Matt onto his feet. The giggling girls exchanged high fives as Matt noticed their breasts tenting up the tops of their swimsuits. He hadn't before noticed the girls were developing the breasts of young women. Now he looked away, embarrassed, and focused instead on how much thicker were their shoulders and thighs than he remembered from the previous summer when he had last seen them dressed for swimming. Matt's head was spinning from the revelations that seemed to come faster and faster. The twins resumed their positions, side by side with folded arms and mischievous smiles lighting their freckled faces. "Remember when we were little and you used to punch us in the arms because you said we bothered you?" "Maybe you should do that now." "To make us get out of your room." They turned simultaneously to each offer Matt a shoulder. Without thinking Matt punched Rebecca a moderately hard blow. As he shook his stinging hand the rising titter of giggles seemed to be the only reaction to his assault. "Maybe we could punch you in the shoulder now." "Except Gramma said we had to be careful and not hurt people." "Maybe our muscles got bigger from lifting you." "Did you want to see again?" "No, just get out of my room and leave me alone." Matt stared at his sisters as if he had never seen them before. In a way, he realized, he hadn't seen them. At least not like he was seeing them now. "Here, let's show him how hard we can punch now." "But we better not on him." "No, you punch me in the tummy." "Then you punch me." Again a cascade of giggles as first Darlene and then Rebecca exchanged solid punches smacking loudly into their tight youthful bellies. "Now you need to go downstairs." "Gramma is waiting to talk with daddy." "She said you should be there, too." "He'll be home any minute." "We don't want to miss hearing when Gramma tells daddy about puberty." "No way. I'm just going to stay in my room. I don't want to talk with Gramma if she's been telling you guys all this junk about getting strong. Just get out of my room and let me know when it's time for dinner." Matt turned back to lie on his bed, hoping he could forget this entire episode, or maybe wake up from a nap to find none of it had happened, that this was all a bad dream. The twins looked at each other in surprise. They hadn't anticipated that Matt would refuse to accompany them in response to the summons they had been sent to deliver. "But Gramma said." "And Mom was there." "She heard it too." "So you hafta come." "Now." "Forget it. I'll come down when I'm ready." The girls again exchanged startled looks, then Darlene stepped forward and grabbed Matt's legs while Rebecca took his arm and began dragging him off the bed. Matt struggled and grabbed the headboard of his bed, but felt himself pulled inexorably. Then Rebecca shifted her grip to seize him around the chest. She boosted him up to her shoulder and nodded for Darlene lead the way. Matt gave up thrashing as his little sisters carried him bodily down the stairs and out into the backyard. "He said he didn't want to come." "Even after we said he had to, that you were waiting." "But we didn't hurt him." "He didn't have to learn the hard way." "Just a little bit hard." Matt was fighting back tears of humiliation as the girls deposited him on the lawn where his grandmother sat talking with Matt's mother. "That's nice, dears. Hello, Matt. I guess you know now that things might be changing around your house." Matt did a double take at his grandmother as she sat in the lawn chair speaking down to him. He noted the familiar barrel shape with the wide shoulders, thick waist and pronounced breasts. But now instead of her usual conservative dress or loose blouse with slacks she wore a halter and snug Capris with a bright scarf knotted around her throat. Instead of the flabby midsection he had assumed hid beneath her costumes was a flat, muscle-banded wall. Matching the firm roundness of her prominent breasts was a pair of equally prominent and rounded biceps. "Oh good, I hear your father coming. I had hoped we could have the whole family together for this conversation." "Guess what Daddy. Gramma says we get to have big muscles." The twins raced to greet their father as he came into the backyard from the house. In their enthusiasm they were acting younger than their years, barely restraining themselves from jumping on him as he surveyed the scene before him. Like Matt he had overlooked the fact they were becoming budding young women and saw only the little girls they had been for their first dozen years. "That's nice, kids. Hi, Diane. How was your day, Marian? What's up, Matt." He loosened his necktie as he walked to the vacant lawn chair between his wife and mother in law. "Hi, Richard. Mother has been having a little talk with the girls. I think you need to hear what she has to say, too." Richard looked quizzically at his wife and then at her mother, Diane, as he settled into a vacant lawn chair. "We're going to get muscles," the twins proudly announced once more. "That's nice kids," he responded a little distractedly as he took in the unfamiliar costume Diane was wearing. "I didn't think you liked shellfish. What's new, Diane?" "Not mussels, silly. Muscles. Like these ones." And the twins ran to grip Diane's thick upper arms, impressive even as she sat relaxed and smiling coolly at Richard. "Not much new with me, but there are a few developments that we all need to talk about. The girls are right, Richard. They seem to have inherited an odd tendency to become unusually strong and put on muscle mass. It shows up from time to time in my family tree, among some of the women. Like me. There really isn't anything to do about it except help the kids enjoy it and make the most of it. And make sure they don't hurt anyone unintentionally. They've already talked with Matt about it and I think he understands now." Richard continued sitting calmly, trying to make sense of what was being said. "I see. And Matt, how was school? Have you thought anymore about trying out for the tennis team?" He stole looks at Diane's thick arms and wide shoulders as Darlene and Rebecca continued to squeeze and massage her solid flesh. Like Matt he had assumed Diane was a soft, somewhat overweight matron who he considered vaguely attractive anyway, thanks to the glimpses her clothes sometimes allowed of the tops of her breasts and her firm calf muscles. "I think you need to listen to Gramma, dad. The girls are right. They are a lot stronger than you think." Matt had lain in the same spot and same position as his sisters had deposited him. Now he raised his head slightly to look at his father. "Rebecca, why don't you go to the garage and get that tow rope we were looking at before. And Darlene, how about if you roll up this scarf and lay it on the grass over there as a boundary line. Let's do a family tug of war." Diane removed the colorful scarf from around her thick neck and handed it to the nearest girl while the other ran off to the garage. Then she stood, looking at Richard in an inviting manner. "Don't get dirty with that old rope, dear," Richard called as he raised a questioning eyebrow at his wife who had sat silent since greeting him at his arrival. She merely shrugged and settled further back in her chair. "Let's do boys against the girls. Matt, you and your father can be on one side, and I'll take Rebecca and Darlene. Losers get to do the dishes after dinner." Matt continued to lie flat on the grass until Diane nudged him with her toe and fixed him with a steely eye. Then he rose to encourage his father toward what he expected would be their mutual humiliation. "Up you get, Richard," Diane persisted. "Time for a little family activity. Marian, maybe this would be a good time to mix up a couple strong gin and tonics." Richard let himself be led to the open lawn where Rebecca trotted up to hand him one end of the thick rope. Matt looked helplessly at his father and took his own position, gripping the rope and facing the twins a dozen feet away, again bursting with giggles, with his grandmother looming as an anchor behind them. As soon as all contestants were in position Diane called go. Matt and his father pulled, with Matt giving it everything he had, his father increasing his own efforts as he gradually realized they were making no headway against the smaller opposing side. At a whispered direction from Diane the girls let go of the rope, leaving Diane holding their side by herself. Matt stared as he saw he and his father were struggling against the bent arms of one woman more than forty years older than himself. Then Diane let go with one arm so she held them with the bicep strength of a single arm. Matt heard his father making gasping noises behind him. Diane smiled at them, traded hands on the rope and flexed her pumped right arm, creating an intimidating mountain of strength. Then she had the girls seize the rope again while she gradually released her own hold and stood aside. They had no difficulty holding their side, their giggling whipping Matt and his father to greater effort but to no effect. Again Matt's eyes became riveted on the startling definition in the four upper arms his sister employed to match the best efforts of the men in the family. Finally Diane again seized the end of the rope and began briskly hauling it in hand over hand, she and girls having no difficulty drawing in the span between themselves and their overmatched competitors. Matt felt his feet sliding forward toward the scarf that marked the midpoint of the contest. By now his father's breaths came as wheezes and whimpers, so Matt felt mostly relief as he was dragged across the midline. At least nobody had suffered a heart attack in the course of the contest. "Are you ready for that drink now, Richard, and a little chat about how life is going to be around here from now on?" Diane quickly coiled the rope as she walked back to the lawn chairs. The twins were happily high fiving each other and feeling each other's arm. Matt's mother came out to the house carrying two cocktails. Richard gratefully accepted the icy glass offered to him and took a sip. Matt took the glass being extended to Diane and drained it before her hand could accept it, then he sat heavily in the chair his mother had previously occupied. The adults gaped at him as he sheepishly sank further in his seat. "Sorry, it seemed like the thing to do at the time." "I understand, Matt, but discretion is one of the things we all need to talk about. It's okay, Marian, I wasn't thirsty." Diane rummaged in the large handbag she had left next to her chair. One by one she pulled three horseshoes from its depths, handing a small one to each of the twins and keeping the third, large one. "I think you all get the idea now that our little girls are even more special than you realized. In the next few years they're going to get more so, and will need a lot of patience and understanding, just as you all will from them." As she talked Diane studied the steel arch in her hand, then began applying force to it. Her brow furrowed, her arms swelled, her chest expanded. As her chest muscles flexed Matt could not stop staring at the breasts that strained and threatened to burst her top. Richard was more mesmerized by the fact the horseshoe was steadily changing shape in her irresistible grip, astonished by the power forcing the change and the massive swelling in her upper arms. Diane first pulled the legs of the horseshoe several inches apart, then forced them back into something like the original shape. Then she shifted her grip slightly and began twisting the thick steel legs of the horseshoe, her chest taking on even more of the work until her pectoral muscles had her nipples thrusting like bullets against the thin fabric of her top. Matt wondered if this sight was increasing his sense of dizziness or if it was the alcohol he had so impulsively gulped. The twins were erupting in giggles and cheers as they watched the performance. At last Diane gave a gasp of satisfaction and handed the deformed metal to the twins for inspection. They in turn passed it to Matt and then to their father. Marian showed no interest in the object nor amazement at her mother's feat of strength. Instead she looked closely at her husband and son, recognizing the effect Diane's presence had often had on the men around her even when she had concealed her strength and dressed in her usual loose clothing. "Girls, I don't expect you'll be able to do that with the horseshoes I gave you. Not yet. But I want you to start practicing, because you will be able to. On your next birthday I'll check on your progress. If you can bend your horseshoe I'll give you each the next larger size. There's no need to show off for anyone else, but it's kind of nice to know you can do things that your friends can't." She surveyed her family and gave her daughter a wink. "Richard, you look a little pale. How about if you and Marian go rest for a bit before dinner? I'm sure you have lots to talk about." Marian returned the wink and took her husband's arm to lead him inside. He was obviously very aroused by watching Diane's performance and would respond eagerly once his wife got him alone in their bedroom. "Darlene, Rebecca, as part of the responsibility that comes with your gift, I'm assigning you two to get dinner for us all. Matt and your father get to clean up afterwards, since they lost at the tug of war. I'm sure you're old enough now that you can pick some things to cook without supervision. Matt, you and I should talk." She settled into the chair next to Matt. The two girls accepted their task and followed their parents toward the house, discussing menus and recipe ideas. Left alone with her, Matt asked his grandmother, "So how come you kept all this a secret, about your being so strong and all?" Diane smiled. "It was never a secret from my family. You knew, when you were young. Did Rebecca and Darlene show you their trick of chinning themselves off each other's arm? You used to like hanging from my arm when you were a little guy, after seeing your grandfather chin himself there. Surely you remember that. And you used to like it when I bounced you up and down on my biceps." "I sort of do remember that now. That was your arm, not Grampa's? Yeah, I guess he's always been pretty skinny so it had to be you. But then all that sort of stuff stopped, didn't it? And now anytime I go over to your house I might hang out with Grampa but you're always in the kitchen cooking or something." Diane sat back in her chair and gazed into the distance. "Your mother and I decided it might get confusing for you, seeing one woman who was a lot stronger than the others you were likely to meet. We didn't know how your sisters would turn out then, if they'd be like me or like your mom. Now I think we made a mistake. It's like you only got to learn parts of the facts of life." She reached over to take Matt's hand. "I'm going to feel like such a wimp. I do already, and if the girls get as strong as you all say, it'll really be miserable around here. And aren't they going to get pretty grotesque if all these muscles start popping up on them?" "I don't think any of that's true. You aren't a wimp, you're a normal boy who happens to have sisters who aren't quite the same as you. And the girls understand they have certain responsibilities that go along with their changes. And as to their looks, they'll just seem a little heavier than most young women, but nobody will confuse them with men. You seemed to like what you were seeing when you looked at them just now, just as you obviously like what you're seeing about me." Diane looked closely at Matt. "They won't have any trouble getting boyfriends, just like any healthy young women. There are boys who prefer strong girls. I'll bet five dollars you're one of them." "Who me? No, that's too weird. Muscle girls." "Matt, you're a smart boy. When you were young and spent nights at our house you were always a good storyteller, making up stories about the little soldiers you played with and that sort of thing. You never had any trouble mixing Barbie in with GI Joe in the games you played, and the stories you'd tell me and your grandfather afterwards usually mentioned a Barbie who could easily whip GI Joe. I doubt you've changed so much. For instance, I notice you've hardly taken your eyes off my arms since the girls brought you outside. Your father was staring even harder than you were." Matt blushed a deep red and tore his eyes away from the beefy forearm he had been staring out. "You mean I'm not the only guy who thinks all this might be kind of cool?" Diane laughed. She released his hand and placed it on top of her forearm and began moving her wrist around so the thick cords under her skin churned and writhed. "Goodness no. Did you think your grandfather just put up with me? He's as thrilled about your sisters as I was. And you aren't the only storyteller in the family. He's been making up stories about women who are stronger than men for years. He's even written some of them out and sent them away for other people to read. I'll tell you what. Why don't you come over for dinner next Saturday? I'll ask Tom to show you some of his stories. Maybe we can all get together in the back yard and I'll show you how I lift him and carry him around when we're alone. He just loves that! How about if you try writing some stories of your own? Imagine if you and your sisters didn't get along as well as you do, if you had mistreated them when they were growing up and now they found this chance to get even. What sorts of things do you think they might do, now that they have the chance? Your grandfather and I would love to read whatever you wrote. Even if they got a little bit racy," she concluded with a wink. Matt had moved his hand up his grandmother's arm, exploring the size and density. He thought about the imaginary games he had played when he was younger and the fantasies he had kept hidden as he had grown, fantasies involving powerful women coming to his rescue, punishing him at school, dominating his life. Yes, he would try to write some of them down. If his grandfather had similar interests maybe he wasn't as strange and out of place as he had always imagined himself.