Copyright 2009 by madengineer3
I want to thank MiliktheRed for his great help in editing this story. He found many errors that I missed.
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It started out as a simple Saturday at home. I had a couple of hours of work that I needed to get done. I own my own business and I had received a request for quote from a large firm. My specialty is doing analysis on complex electronic circuits. The people who wanted the quote for a worst case analysis were in a bind. They had discovered that the firm that they had chosen to do the work was not technically qualified to do it. The company was in a bind and needed a response by the following Monday. If I could get the contract it would be a lot of good paying work. I had a bit of an edge since I had done such work for them in the past.
I tell you this to explain the source of the tragedy. I had promised my wife and son that I would take them into the city to visit a large hobby store and then to an art supply house. This proposal I needed to finish got in the way of that. Now, to fully explain the problem you need to know about my family. My parents had two boys; my brother Bob and me (Jim). My wife's parents had three children, all girls, Rose, June, and Mae. They lived next door to my parents. We, children, grew up knowing each other, and to a large extent trusting each other.
In time I fell in love with June. It was, fortunately, mutual. She loved me too. After college, we married. We had decided on having one child. That child was Fred, our son. Four years later my brother, Bob, married Rose. As it turned out we ended up living about twenty miles outside of the same medium sized city halfway across the country from our parents. We lived in the country in an old farm houses with no neighbors It was wonderful.
This particular day, I realized that I needed to finish the RFQ (request for quote) so that I could carefully review it on Sunday and get it submitted by Monday morning. I didn't want to let my wife and boy down, so I called my brother Bob.
Bob agreed to take my wife and son into the city for the shopping trip, as well as treat them to a nice meal. It had turned out that Bob had a very low sperm count. As a result Bob and Rose had no children, and had nothing planned for this particular Saturday. Bob picked up my wife and son at about ten in the morning and left for a fun day of shopping. Since I make a lot more money than Bob I slipped him a couple of hundred dollars to cover the meal and whatever else he felt like. Being family he knew that this wasn't a put down, it was brother helping brother.
I then got down to work.
At about four in the afternoon I heard the front door open and then slam shut. Noises of someone running toward my home office were accompanied by sounds of sobbing.
"We lost them, Jim! We lost them!"
"What have we lost, Rose?"
"Bob, June, and Fred: some Islamic terror group, like the ones that destroyed the towers on 9/11 decided to take out the Centertown mall. There was no advance warning. Nobody even knew that this group existed. But, at eleven this morning the explosion was set off. There were thousands of people in the mall. Nobody is sure exactly how they did it, but the police said something about a fuel air explosion. They're all dead!"
"Calm down a minute, Rose. Are you sure, I haven't heard anything about it!"
"They've been identifying bodies. Bob's was one of the first ones identified. They called me to tell me the news. There are too many dead to send people around to notify the survivors. Fred didn't have any identification on him and the blast must have taken June's purse out of her hand. They're all dead."
All I could do is guide Rose to the couch in my home office and we held onto each other and cried.
"Jim, I can't face going back to the empty house. I can't be alone during this! Can I use your guest room so that I will be near family?"
"Of course you can. We'll pick up some of your stuff tomorrow morning. You can use June's stuff for the moment. For what it is worth I don't want to be alone either."
The next week went by as a blur. It turned out that the federal government's counter terrorism group had been blinded by a recent court order shutting down international wire taps against known terrorists, and a presidential executive order issued requiring all new wire taps be granted only after a federal judge had permitted them. The agencies had no way to know that this tragedy was "in the works". The bombing of the mall was one of the results of liberalism gone wild.
One funeral was held for all three of our loved ones. We all attended the same church and it made a lot of sense to memorialize all three close family members at the same time. At the conclusion of the burials Rose and I asked to not have any visitors for the next week or two while we tried to come to grips with the extent of our losses.
I could not tell you what happened the next few days. I know that I never did complete that request for quote. I just couldn't concentrate. I must admit that my alcohol intake went up significantly during the days after the deaths and funeral. One night, about a week after the funeral, we had a violent thunder storm. A large "super cell" passed directly over our small community. I have no problems with lightning. I love watching it. However, in this case, I was fast asleep when it rolled through. I suddenly felt myself being shaken.
"What wrong?"
"Jim, I'm terrified of lightning. I always have been. Bob used to just hold me during storms. Can I sleep next to you so that I feel safe?"
I was just barely awake, my mind wasn't working yet, so I just said "sure!". I felt the bed depress as Rose climbed onto it, then I felt her back up against my back. Moments later I was asleep. To indicate how asleep I was during this exchange, it never dawned on me to explain that I sleep in the nude.
I had strange dreams that night. They were dreams of my wife and me cuddling in bed. Like often happened in real life, in my dream my wife rolled over and gently cupped my balls while kissing me. I responded as I usually did by fondling her beautiful breasts and kissing her. She, in turn, started to rub her pussy on my thigh. The dream was so real. When I woke up, I could smell fresh coffee. Mixed in with the coffee smell was the unmistakable smell of French toast. I got up, put on a bathrobe, and headed for the kitchen.
"Good morning, sleepyhead. I wondered how long you could sleep when the coffee aroma started wafting through the house."
"This is a wonderful treat, Rose. What made you think of making a super breakfast?"
"Well, to be honest, I had a wonderful night's sleep. The best night's sleep since Bob died. I had dreams of Bob and me cuddling in bed, and it was wonderful. It was so real that I woke up happy. You see the results in the coffee pot, and will soon see results on your plate. I also cooked some Gionelli breakfast sausage to go with the French toast."
I must have had a very strange look on my face.
"What's wrong Jim? Did I say something I shouldn't have?"
"No, not really. It's just that your dream and the dreams I had are exceedingly similar. By the way, I vaguely remember you getting into bed saying something about lightning. Did you sleep in my bed last night?"
"Yes, you said I could."
"Hmmmm, I vaguely remember something like that. I hope I didn't embarrass you too much. I never wear pajamas."
"No, of course you didn't. Neither Bob nor I wear pajamas either. I guess I should have rephrased that. Bob didn't used to wear pajamas and I don't wear them either.."
Hunger took over, and I put plates, cups, and silverware on the table. Rose put the food on the plates, and we enjoyed a good meal. After eating, I washed the dishes, and Rose dried them.
After getting dressed I went to make the bed and found that the bottom sheet needed to be washed. It obviously had dried semen on it, as well as a very wet spot of a different nature.
I called out, "Rose, could you come here for a moment?"
"What do you need Jim?"
