Rick and Linda Bk. 11

I know it's a twenty-minute drive to the center, so we say our goodbyes. I drove. It felt like the world had ended; first, we were at war, and now this. I watched him walk in, wondering if we had any future left. Bobby was sworn in as a U.S. Marine. He waved from the bus at me as I headed home to the herb farm. I dropped out of school but studied both chemistry and psychiatry. I took my school books with me and finished them, plus all the healing arts of Wicca at home, of course.

Mom never brought up that day or what we were doing. She was happy for the first time in years. She got sick with Cancer and died in early 1944, but I made damn sure she was pain-free. Bobby was Missing In Action for over two years. When we got his letter from the Philippines, it was from the Red Cross. He was alive. Nothing else mattered.

June said. "Bobby talked about Bataan Death March only once you were here that day, Rick; it took him twenty years to tell it.''

Bobby went in as one hundred ninety-six pounds fullback. He came back weighing almost one hundred pounds in late February of 1945, and he had an open leg wound that would not heal. He had a bad limp. His mind was still in the jungle, and his thousand-yard stare spoke of the horror he witnessed or even caused. I gave him his first cup of my unique herb and mushroom Tea.

He slept for two days straight, got up, asked for food, and cleaned out everything we had to eat. Jenny, my teacher, and my friend went to the store with our ration books for more. My tea seemed to help. In a matter of days, Bobby told me that his love for me kept him alive when he should have died a dozen times daily in that hell hole. Day by day, Bobby's smile came back to us. He gained weight and got his color back. Finally, one day, Jenny was taking our plates off the dinner table. Bobby pinched my ass, not my butt; nope, it was an ass, and honey, it was his. I was on fire, just like that first night under the stars.

He asked me. "Does she know, baby?''

I said. "Yes, baby.''

Jenny came back in with coffee and cake.

Bobby said. "If you don't mind, Jenny, we will have our coffee later, But I have not made love to my woman in four years. There is money for a movie, dinner, and a hotel room after for you. I won't ask you to spend another night away from your home, but June gets loud, and she will get loud tonight.''

It was so good I started crying when he entered me; my tea kept him inside me for so long that time became forgotten. It was the second most incredible night of my life. Bobby cried that night in my arms. I held us, and my tears joined his. I told him I felt he gave me a baby for us to love. I was right, but seven months later, I lost the baby. It was not meant to be ever. We were heartbroken, but we went to Mexico with Jenny's help. I had my tubes tied. We knew they never do that in the States. But here we are.

Your Dad stayed in the States as a link trainer expert, keeping them running and training pilots during the war. Your Dad met your mom at the USO club in Houston after his basic training with your Uncle and your Aunt. I met her after the war when Bobby and I had already become Cousins instead of brother and Sister. We would have never pulled it off if your Dad did not help. Our Dad drank himself to death that year, or at least he was drunk when he learned Bobby had come home. Our Dad went looking for Bobby. He had a shotgun with him when he drove his truck off into the river. His body and truck were found three days later. They never even asked us about him. Your Sister was born in 1945, as was another Aunt, and both Bob and Bobby went back to College on the G.I. Bill. I guess you know the rest.

Bobby tells his story.

Talking about working hard from the age of nine, only half a day because of school; our day started at four a.m. My older Sister, by eleven months, was more intelligent than I. Working in the fields made me strong. I did not know I needed to be smart like my best friend Bob, not just a cousin but a lifelong friend. The school cut into the farm profit, his kids made him, their Dad said. "His wife, his farm, his cows. At age eleven, My Dad felt that five years was enough school. It was two more than he gotten.

Bob's Dad, your grand-pops, got involved with the school board and told our Dad kids are going to school as far as they wanted. The sale of three-quarters of the original homestead of 160 acres was split in two. Half of it was to send every kid in the family to College if they wanted that was in 1936. The choice given him was kids in school or jail time, with heavy loss in profits. I watched him. It took a long time to say OK, school.

I love to say I told her of my love, and it was all cute dresses and happy days with candy canes with iced Cokes. No, sorry to say that part took years. I never told anyone how I felt. I would find myself watching June, and daydreams would start. My mind kept seeing my Sister on her back naked, writhing in pleasure, and I saw Bob watching me daydream. Finally, I came back down to earth. Then, it was the week of the Sadie Hawkins dance. Bob and I received loads of invites, and June asked this dork Andy, so we were there dancing to big band swing when Sue came and whispered in my ear. "No panties, let's kiss behind the field house.''

I went out; it was pretty nice. We kissed and necked. I drove her up the wall, and she handed me her gum and went downtown on me.

Bobby Said. "My first, but I hope not my last.''

We had talked about wanting more than brother or Sister, but every time my mind went there, I felt such shame for wanting my Sister before another woman. Your Dad caught me looking at June more than once, and by the time I got the nerve up to ask for help. Your Dad was ready to end me. Not because I wanted my Sister, but because he thought it was a notch on the bedpost. But when I told him I wanted the impossible from June, he moved heaven and earth to help make it happen. I stopped June in the hallway and told her.

Bobby said. "We can take a ride with Bob on a triple date tonight and drop him off at his latest girlfriend's house. Then, we all get alone time and pick him up after.''

Over the next year, Bob had many such triple dates for us. I am sure we covered for each other so we did not get caught. Bob was happy he was helping our sins as he was doing his sins. On one of the triple dates, we had to bring Kelly with us as she had a bad breakup with her boyfriend of a few years. So fast thinking, we all agreed to ask our 'dates' to stay home, and we have a super date night for them, but we wanted to be there for our Kelly.

We made big brownie points with Kelly, but Bob's folks were beside themselves. They were so happy. We drove out to the old Bogart homestead. The house was in bad shape, but the barn was good. Bob and I had a project. This plane crashed a few miles out of town at a river bank, and Bob found the Pratt & Whitney radial engine off a Stearman biplane. It had four hundred forty-four horsepower, a Model 75 made in 1935. Bob said we could rebuild it and sell it. I said sure, but we had that Packard chassis with a drive train to play with first. We want to show the girls this Frankenstein monster's car in the barn. A big ass engine off a plane mounted on four wheels, the prop had been shortened to mount to the frame. The propeller was to cool the radial engine mounted behind two bench seats a cage made by wire fencing was added safety factor, but the transmission with the drive train was hooked up to it. Rick, your Dad was a mechanical genius cutting the parts in a machine shop.

Two bench seats, a steering wheel with the dashboard, a couple of gauges, a fuel tank, and fenders, but the fenders have headlights mounted on flagpole mounts, with ten-foot cables on the headlights. The girls saw two ten-foot bamboo poles strapped to the side of the car body, the front of it anyway. Four sets of goggles, two motorcycle ones, and two from high school lab class was to protect our eyes. I had no clue what a ride it would be. Bob started up this monster and handed us the lab goggles, and the girls held on. Bob was always safety first, so Bob and I tied ropes to the girls to the seats as we tied them in and pulled out of the barn. We are on the highway doing fifty-five miles per hour, Bob yells. "Hold on, hit it, Bobby.''

I'm pushing the throttle forward a quarter of the way forward. The car jumps to seventy-five miles per hour, and the speed-o-meter falls off as it went to sixty, so Bob tries more on the throttle. It feels twice as fast. In a few minutes, all four of us have gone more quickly on land till my airplane ride, But Bob pulls off on the last big and busy dirt road near town we have a flat busy road twelve miles long and only four farms but Friday night was four or five cars full of people wanting a night out with their best girl. Then we pull over and wink at the girls, removing the headlights and putting them on top of the ten-foot poles. I drive this time, and cars are coming down the road to places unknown on a Friday night, but you see the vehicles hitting forty-five miles per hour on a dirt road. Bob opens up to nearly eighty-five miles per hour, and the headlights are bouncing like the road has been washed out and is badly wash-boarded, making the car's lights reflect poorly. The vehicles approaching us slow or stop crawling along, looking for the bad parts of the road. We heard from someone working in the Police station that a few days later, they were getting reports of wild lights and fast UFOs. Kelly and June thought it was silly till the locals in four cop cars ran down the road with lights and sirens, looking for Foo Fighters. We had put up the poles so we did not get stopped. We were going for Cokes at the drugstore before heading home. I love to say we had many such fun dates after that, but for June and Bob, College started, and I joined June the following year. We made it home for Thanksgiving twice and Christmas only once. Our Dad was less than charming; it looked like he drank daily. Having two hard workers meant he could slow down, but I thought the farm to Dad was something to own, and we were just things to point to. I own that, and me, man, kind of shit.

I hate to say it. "How right I was on that. I love to go on and write more, but If you don't mind, Mr. Rick and Mrs. Linda, it's been a while since I made a certain sister of mine scream to the stars."

"Just keep loving each other. We wanted you to know the truth. In the bottom of the envelope are a silver June bug charm and Bobby's Dog tags on the keys of my pickup. We love you two as much as our own we never had take care of Linda and my June if I go first were so glad you found each-other."