6R

Chapter 1

The weatherman forecast storms overnight and the dark, late afternoon sky, threatened rain. It matched the emotions enveloping us as I opened the door of my truck and helped my sister inside. Closing the door I went around and got into the driver's seat to head home from our parent's funeral. Their sudden, horrible, unexpected death, a hydroplaning car crash, had wrecked our world.

Di was curled up in a ball, leaning against the door, weeping silently, distraught, full of woe, fear and disquietude. My heart wrenched at her hurt. The loss of loved ones was hard on me but so much so for Di. I reached out and rubbed her hip.

She uncurled, turning to me, leaning her cheek against my shoulder and sobbed, full of despair.

My two toned, silver and black, the colors of my favorite NFL team, the Raiders, 2016 Ford 150 had a bench front seat so after pulling away from the cemetery I put my arm around her, pulling her close, hoping to give some comfort and assurance.

I said, "I love you Di. Don't worry. I'm going to take care of you."

Di was my lovely, 18 year old sister, or rather step sister. Mary Haynes Vancy and William Jules Vancy, my parents, having unsuccessfully tried for years to have a child, adopted one, less than a year old, me, Jules Haynes Vancy. Four years later Mama conceived and Mary Godiva Vancy was born.

Mama named her after the beautiful, independent activist, Lady Godiva, an 11th century noblewoman who was troubled by the crippling taxes her husband, a powerful Lord, levied on the citizens. She repeatedly implored for him to lessen the burden, to which he ignored. Finally in response to her ince3ssant supplications he agreed to lower taxes if she rode naked on horseback through the center of Coventry.

Determined, Lady Godiva undressed, climbed on her white horse and rode through the market square with only her long flowing hair covering naked beauty. After finishing, Godiva demanded her husband hold up his end of the bargain. True to his word, Lord Coventry reduced the people's debts.

Mama announced, lying in the hospital bed as Di, as I called her, suckled, was going to be like her namesake, beautiful, strong, smart, independent and a social reformer. Sadly not all was accurate. A lovely, healthy and otherwise vibrant baby, she incurred a brain injury during birth.

Mama had a medical issue called a breech birth. Di came out bottom first instead of head first, as is normal. The danger of breech birth is due to the fact the largest part of a baby is its head. When the breech baby's hips deliver first, it may result in a baby getting stuck in the birth canal, which can cause injury or death.

Di's oxygen deprived brain suffered damage. At first problem was not apparent, she was a happy, loving and active toddler and child. But as time went it was evident she was not developing intellectually as she should.

Mama and Daddy took her for many exams, tests and studies at prestigious facilities from well recognized experts. The common prognosis was Di probably would never progress, mentally, much farther than the age of a normal child of 12 years old. They said the lobes of her brain were still healthy but the neural pathways were blocked. Any messages sent were not received.

She was not retarded, no, just,... well,... I know no other way to put it... slow. This sounds derogatory but that is certainly not my intention. Anyone who spoke of her this way, insultingly, would have a fight on their hands. A better description would be a sweet, innocent, beautiful woman whose mind was permanently stalled at preteen.

The medical profession has a name for it, Intellectual Disability, describing those with limited intellectual functioning (learning, problem solving, judgement) and adaptive functioning (activities of daily life). Her IQ was measured at 68. IQ stands for intelligence quotient, measuring the general ability to solve problems and understand concepts. This includes reasoning, problem solving, ability to perceive relationships between things and the ability to store and retrieve information.

She had attended Pre-School, Kindergarten and 1st grade without issues, but during the 2^nd grade with the increasing social and intellectual demands, problems started to show. Mama decided she would home school Di and me. A real estate agent, she dropped everything, concentrating her time and energy on Di. At an early age I exhibited signs of high intelligence and assisted Mama in Di's tutelage.

Just looking at Di you could not discern any issue, appearing to be a happy, healthy teenager. But that observation was not likely to happen. At about ten years of age Di developed a severe phobia, Anthropophobia, the extreme, irrational and unwarranted fear of people. Her anxiety would skyrocket around people other than Mama, Daddy and me.

Di did not want to leave the house and if she did, every effort was made for her to have no or very limited interaction with people. Some were unavoidable, doctor's visits and such for which she was given an oral sedative beforehand. I had given her a strong dose before the funeral.

Mama and Daddy, although spiritual, were not into formal religious trappings. They did not belong to or attend any church. Given this, Di's situation, along with the fact it would have been closed caskets, our parents had been horribly burned, I declined a viewing. I opted only for a graveside service for me and Di, with a paid preacher acquaintance giving a brief eulogy.

Mama and Daddy had no family and given Di's condition, were not socially active. What few friends they had understood and respected my decision.

We arrived at Mama and Daddy's walled 1247 acre estate, twenty miles out of town. They were independently wealthy. Mama had inherited a small fortune and Daddy, an inventor, had patented and sold a couple of his inventions to oil companies for off shore drilling. He also invested early in U.S. technology stock equities and had got out, after amassing a huge profit, before the dotcom bubble burst. He reinvested heavily in stable companies, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, etc.,. They and he were very successful.

They purchased the property and developed it with the intentions of giving Di the opportunity to get out of the house, to exercise and enjoy nature without risk of encountering anyone. During my youth it also provided me a grand place for exploration, adventure and fun. Natural science always attracted me and I had a large area to satisfy the allure. During most of reconnoiters Di was by my side.

The estate was entirely enclosed by a twelve foot high, two foot thick, brick, stone and concrete wall. A single, keypad operated, heavy steel gate, allowed ingress and egress at the 20 foot wide macadam drive entrance. An intercom allowed those requesting entrance to notify the house. The security system's multiple gate cameras displayed the requester.

Pulling up to the closed gate I pressed a remote control attached to my key ring and the heavy gate smoothly slid into its recess. I pulled through and onto the estate, closing the gate behind.

A ten foot wide macadam walking or running track circled the property just inside the wall. Wild forest and field encompassed a 34 acre, deep, cold, clear, spring fed lake and surrounded a manicured 10 acre lawn with trees, shrubs and flowers, fountains, a koi pond, statuary, topiary, gazebo, greenhouse, garden with the house in the center.

A fully equipped gym was housed in the pool building containing a shower, spa, sauna and dressing room. The pool building fronted an Olympic sized swimming pool, hot tub and sundeck.

Upkeep on the grounds and the pool was maintained by a landscaping company. In consideration for Di's phobia, the contract was for one specific day a week only.

The long, mature spruce tree lined P shaped drive ended at a modest appearing house, considering the rest of the estate. It was a spacious, one story, four bedroom, four bath, brick ranch with an attached four car garage. There were wide porches, front and back.

Inside the house was a different story. Every furnishing, accommodation and accoutrement was luxury, top of the line. The kitchen was commercial equipped. Installed in the office was state of the art electronic, digital equipment.

There was an underground safe room where Di could retreat when there were visitors or house cleaning staff and yard and pool maintenance workers. The concealed entrance was in a large walk-in closet at the end of the bedroom hall.

Behind a line of clothes, hung on a movable rack, was a thick, solid steel door, opening inward which could not be locked from outside, only from the inside with a steel bar. There was a key pad on the door, when the correct combination was entered, would retract the bar. This failsafe allowed entry by me or my parents in the event that Di became incapacitated while locked inside and was unable to open it herself. Only we had the combination. Otherwise it was impregnable.

Wide concrete stairs led down deep to a landing with another steel door like the one at the top of the stairs. The door was set in a large, fully enclosed, windowless bunker, walls, floors, and ceiling of foot thick steel reinforced concrete.

Inside was a complete self-contained living area with all the luxury amenities of the upstairs; living room, bedroom, full bathroom, laundry, dining room and kitchen with a stocked freezer and pantry. It was equipped with a solar and battery power source, independent of the main house utilities. Reception was nonexistent in the concrete bunker so there was a dedicated satellite phone, computer system and television.

In the living room, flush with the floor was an inside secured, steel outside exit, located under a rug beneath a couch on rollers for easy movement. When unlocked and opened it would automatically open via pneumatic hinges, revealing a six foot wide drainage pipe with an attached steel ladder. The ladder descended to an eight foot high, six foot wide, concrete tunnel leading to another steel door identical to the one in the house. On the other side of this door was a landing with steps ascending to another secured steel door. The ladder, tunnel and steps were brightly lit, designed to allow easy passage but secured ingress. The digital reception feeds for the dedicated services ran along the tunnel.

In back was a pool, bathhouse, patio, recreation area. Off to the side was a large brick building housing a laboratory furnished with equipment that would be the envy of scientific research and development. It was the exit point of the safe room escape route tunnel with the latter coming up in a back supply room.

Although connected to the local electric grid, there was a stand-alone solar power source. Both the house and the lab had solar panels that fed banks of batteries. The battery bank along with a huge 200kW propane powered generator was located in a back room of the lab building. Two large 1000 gallon propane tanks were located outside at the rear of the lab in a secured building.

Still holding Di tightly I activated the garage door via my key fob and pulled in the garage. Once parked, as the garage door automatically closed at my command, I released Di and got out. Going around to the passenger door, I picked Di up and carried her into the house to her bedroom. Laying her on her bed I told her to change to her night clothes while I got her a glass of water.

Closing the door I left her bedroom, going to the kitchen for a glass of water from the fridge, then to Mama and Daddy's bedroom's bathroom to get another sedative from their medicine cabinet.

Back at Di's room I knocked on her door, asking, "Di you dressed?"

"Yes Hay."

As I entered she came out of her bathroom pulling one of my long, plain, white t-shirts over her head. She liked to wear my t-shirts. I saw she was not wearing anything else.

She was lovely, fit and tanned, her full breasts and downy pussy were plainly visible for a moment as the t-shirt settled, striking her short of mid-thigh. When she raised her arms to pull her long, wheat blond hair out of her t-shirt, the hem rose, providing another brief glimpse of her peach.

She was never bashful being naked around me, although since she had started developing into a woman, for my sake, an unrequited hard-on is uncomfortable, I tried to limit those times.

She had washed her face and had stopped crying but eyes were red. Di didn't wear any makeup, she didn't need it, a natural beauty with a heart shaped face, flawless complexion, a cute button nose and luscious full red lips.

She flashed a brief smile as she stepped forward as I handed her the pill and glass of water, saying, "Sugar take this. It will help you sleep. You need the rest."

"You're staying?"

"Yes Honey. I'll sit with you till you are asleep, then will go to my room. Ok?"

"Ok."

"My good girl, now take your medicine."

She swallowed the pill followed by a drink of water. Setting the glass on the nightstand she climbed into bed. I pulled the covers up to her chin and leaned over to kiss her. She raised her lips to mine. Not a romantic kiss but a loving one. This was not unusual as she had been doing this since we were young children. She idolized me and was a constant companion in my youth.

"I love you Hay."

"I love you Baby, now close your eyes and go to sleep. Think about good times. I'll be right here."

I sat on the side of the bed with my hand clasped in her hands, resting on her chest, covered by the blanket and stared at her angelic beauty. In twenty minutes or so her breathing quietened as the medication took effect.

Night had settled in and as I turned off the lights, leaving only the bathroom night light, the room darkened. Having eaten nothing but a Pop Tart, early this morning with a cup of coffee, I went kitchen to make a ham sandwich. Sitting at the bar eating, drinking a beer I considered my future.

Significant life changes were in order for me. From now on Di was my number one priority. All else was secondary. Her well-being and happiness was tantamount.

It was expected but many years in the future. Mama and Daddy and I had discussed my taking care of Di when they passed. They were both in excellent health and I expected them to live well into their 70s and hopefully far beyond. They were taken from us at only 50 years of age.

Their will directed the entire estate go to me with no stated provisions. There was none concerning Di because they knew it was not necessary. They had absolute faith, well founded, that I recognized her as an equal or greater recipient and would keep her by my side, protected, until death.

They were cognizant of what they were asking of me. Commitment to Di's lifelong care would create demands, restricting any personal life for me outside of her. I joyfully accepted the responsibility and swore to it. My love and devotion for Di easily trumped any issues that her abiding care wrought.               I was a 23 years old, single and with no significant other or even a present girlfriend. While in college there had been a serious affair. Well, it was for me but Tracy did not love me enough to handle the situation with Di. Even with fantastic sex and comfortable connection between us, she felt it would be an anchor on our lives. One she did not want deal with and bailed unceremoniously.

Since then I have had multiple women in my life, but no relationships. These were mostly one nightstands with women picked up in bars. A couple of lasted for a couple dates but none longer.

I love sex and beautiful women were something to treasure and enjoy. Whether true or not, I can't speak to it, but have been told I am handsome. Muscular, fit, 6'3", 220 lbs., curly, reddish blond hair, cut close to my scalp, strong, angular facial features. Regardless I had no problems regularly finding willing, wanton women to share my bed. It was a two-way street as I was well endowed and competently pleasured the ladies I was with. But it never progressed further than a temporary friendly, energetic, sultry, satisfying romp.

At 16, having completed high school requirements two years early, on a full scholarship, resulting from a perfect 4.0 SAT, I attended and graduated Stanford University in three years with a double major, in Chemistry and Biological Science, and double minor in Business and Economics.

While attending Stanford I became a member of Mensa with a measured IQ of 165. Mensa is an international organization serving as a round-table society for highly intelligent people to meet on a monthly basis. I did not regularly attend many meetings in college, in person or on-line. Once I left academia I had not made any. I still occasionally checked the Mensa website where members posted but did not enter into any conversations.

Completing my Bachelors, I decided to forego a Masters and PhD. I was already exceeding what my Stanford professors or most higher education institutions could offer. I thought it would be a waste of my time attending school to just attain degrees for the purpose of having a bunch of letters behind my name.

After graduating I worked for a year at a national chemical corporation in a grunt level scientist position. Seeing no path to a more rewarding future, without an advance doctorate, and homesick, I resigned, moving back to home, renting a one bedroom flat in Eugene.

I was more than welcome to live in my parent's house and Di begged me to, but the reason I did not was it would have put a serious crimp in my amorous activities. Mama and Daddy may have been tolerant of women spending the night but the presence of strangers would have upset Di.

I started up an investment podcast covering money management, investment-specific information such as strategies, risk analysis, and how current events and politics affect the stock market, fiscal policy, investment news, international news, taxes, and real estate. I researched the market and presented a synopsis and my podcast provided a general outlook on market movement. It did not offer financial advice or guarantees about investing in certain stocks, bonds, etc. In the year since its inception I had garnered thousands of patrons who paid for my weekly articles.

I was not going to get rich but it paid the bills, allowing me, to a small degree, to act upon my information. It did not take but a couple of hours per day to do the research and produce the podcast. I could do it from anywhere there was internet connection for my laptop.

Daddy instilled in me at an early age the same inventor magnetism which drove him and a good bit of my time I spent in his lab, often in Di's company. He had set aside a portion of the lab for my benefit and when I returned he turned over the entire lab to me, retaining only a small area for his tinkering. While his work concentrated on mechanical, my interest was molecular biology.

I had a burning desire to find a way to reconnect Di's synapsis. Working on the project during high school, college and since, progress was made but still no success but I was certain the right combination of chemicals would regenerate Di's damaged synapsis.

The human brain is complex, mysterious and fragile. Complete knowledge on how the brain works is unknown. The brain is divided in to five lobes, each used for a specific task, integral to our daily functioning. Only a small percent of each of lobe or area is accessed for a total of about 10% of the brain being used. If the other inactive 90% could be unlocked much more would be available. You could possibly become a super genius, or acquire psychic powers like mind reading and telekinesis.

The thalamus is a large egg-shaped mass of the forebrain, where the sensory information from all over the body, via the nerves and spinal cord, converge and are sent to the various areas of the brain.