Chapter 2: April Tells Their Family History

Dad and Mom were married and dropped out of high school before they graduated. Mom was 15 at the time and dad was 17 but there is only 15 months between their ages. Dave or David was born six months later. Four years and three months later Matt or Mathew was born.

Mom wanted to have a girl and I was born when Mom was 32 years old and Dad was 33. Dave was 16 and Matt 12 years old. Dave left for college when I was three years old and never really came back except for visits. Being in the ROTC program when he graduated from college, he entered the Army as an officer. Later he went to Desert Storm where he died when helicopter he was flying in crashed. I was 19 years old at the time.

Matt left for college when I was 10 years old and two years before Robin was born. Dad virtually disowned Matt when he switched degree programs to be an aeronautical engineer. The only time he ever came back to the farm before Dad's funeral was for Robin's christening, Dave's and then Mom's funeral.

Robin was born two days after my 12^th birthday. Mom had a very hard time with the birth and almost died. This caused her to spend two weeks in the hospital and made it impossible for her to have any more children. Robin slept with Mom and Dad until she was almost three when Dad said it had to stop.

Of course, Robin stopped sleeping with them but started to sleep with me. This tapered off and ended when I left for college almost three years later. Matt had graduated and gone to work for a defense contractor and we rarely saw or heard from him. Between my Junior/Senior year of college Matt got married.

Robin started first grade when she turned six years old but advanced to the third grade the next year. She also skipped the 6^th grade and started the 7^th grade when she was ten years old. This is when Robin started to have a few problems in school, which were not her fault.

I had graduated with my masters in Businesses Administration and returned to the farm when I was 21 and Robin was nine years old. About a week after I returned Mom told me she had cancer but the discovery was too late for any meaningful treatment. Mom died in early December the next year.

Robin started to join me in bed once or twice a week during this time. She was having trouble adjusting to the fact Mom was very sick and would soon die. When Mom died, she moved into my room although Dad did not like it he never really forbade it.

Robin did not have many friends and living on the farm did not help. After Mom's death, she turned into a bookworm and withdrew more. Dad was drinking a little more but things at home were going good. I was looking for a job in town. Then we started to have some problems; the kids at school were teasing Robin because of her small stature. I would talk to her, one-night things got out of hand, and we satisfied each other. The next few days were a strain for us, as neither of us seemed willing to talk.

It took a week before Robin returned to our bed and then it was as if nothing had changed and we both needed each other more than ever.

Late March things changed again. The police where chasing a speeder on the Interstate when he took our exit and turned back under the overpass. Traveling at that high a rate of speed he was not able to stay in his lane and clipped the rear of Dad's pickup as he tried to avoid him. Dad lost control and spun around into one of the bridge support columns crushing in the driver side door. The doctors said that he died instantly from a massive blow to the side of the head.

Robin barely passed that year but with my support, the school agreed to allow her to proceed to the 8^th grade and continue in the advance placement classes. According to Dad's will, Matt received a third of the farm and everything else went to Robin and me equally. Matt started coming to the farm once a month and made some comments about selling the place. This kept up for about a year then his wife started to make snide comments about our sleeping arrangements.

A friend of mine let me know that Matt's wife had called Social Services about six months later. Social Services had interviewed and upset Robin at school and when they interviewed me; I like Robin denied all wrongdoing but agreed that since the death of our parents had upset Robin so badly we did tend to sleep in our parents bed together. The woman from Social Services said that they had not found anything wrong and given the fact my brother and his wife wanted us to sell the farm felt the whole situation needed no further investigation.