Chapter 2

In the afternoon of Maddie’s scheduled date to return to Houston, I took her to the airport and saw her off. She got on the plane to return to Houston after her visit with me over the Independence Day Holiday week.

Maddie had visited with me for a few days of her vacation she took along with the holiday. She said she really enjoyed spending the time with me but she was saddened to have to go back to Houston and I could see it in her eyes, on her face and in her body movements.

I had asked her to call me when she arrived safely at our parents’ home to let me know that she had arrived safely. Later that evening I received a phone call from Maddie. She was calling to tell me that she had arrived safely at home at Mom and Dad’s house. “When do you think that you will be able to come home again, Shane?” she asked me.

“I won’t be able to get there until after this next drilling campaign is finished, Maddie.”

“I hope you’ll be able to get home pretty soon, Honey, because Mom is looking worse than she was before I left home to come see you, Shane. And Dad’s health is continuing to decline, too.

I’m very worried about them and I’m afraid of what is going to happen to them especially Mom.” I could hear the concern in her voice and her worry became my worry, too. I just wish I could be there for her to help and comfort her and help her take care of Mom and Dad.

“I’ll see what I can do but, we have been shorthanded and unless it is really an emergency I can’t promise anything, Maddie.” When I got back to work I told my boss about the situation with my parents and that it could get to be a critical situation. I asked my boss about leaving to return home if I had to.

He told me pretty much what I already knew. We were really shorthanded but, if there was an emergency he would make due and let me return to Houston to tend to my parents.

About two months later I got another phone call from Maddie saying with a very trembling voice, “Shane, the doctor said that Mom’s health has declined enough that she should be in a nursing home in order to give her much better nursing care. So he sent her directly to a nursing home from his office.”

“Ok, Maddie, keep a close eye on things and let me know if and when I need to fly home to be with Mom and Dad and to help you, Honey. I know this is an awfully big burden to heap on your small shoulders and I want to help you as much as I can from several hundred miles away, Honey.”

Just after Halloween, Maddie called me and said, “Shane, the doctor has said Mom may not last until Thanksgiving. She could go anytime now. She has been asking about you so you need to come home to see her as soon as you can get here before she passes away, Honey.”

That afternoon I called and talked to my boss and told him the situation and he said that he would have someone replace me in the morning. I made my flight arrangements that evening for the next morning. The next morning I flew to Houston and Maddie met me at the airport.

Her eyes were fire bright, puffy from worry and red when she tearfully told me, “I’m so happy to have you home, Shane. Mom is still asking for you.” We drove directly to the nursing home to see Mom. Dad was in the room with her when we got there sitting by her bedside holding her limp hand as she slept.

When I gently touched Mom’s hand and softly called her name, “Mom”?

She opened her very tired looking eyes and very weakly, looked at me and slowly said, “Is that you, Shane?”

“Yes, it’s me, Mom. Maddie called and told me that you have been asking for me so I flew home this afternoon to see you, Mom.”

She smiled weakly at me and said, “I’m so happy to see you, Son, and I love you, Honey.” she said in her very weak voice. Then she barely whispered, “Take care of Dad and Maddie, Shane.” Those were the last words I ever heard her say.

I don’t know if she heard my soft reply or not, “I’ll take good care of them, Mom.”

I took her frail hand in mine and gently held it as I said, “I love you very much, too, Mom.” and I leaned over to kiss her forehead and her cheek. She slowly closed her eyes and her hand went very limp in mine as she went back to sleep. I think that she had just been holding on until I could get there to see her. I felt sure that she knew the end was near and she really wanted to see me before she passed away and let us go.

After Mom went back to sleep I let Dad retake his place beside her bed holding Mom’s hand. Maddie had gone to the opposite side of her bed and had been holding her other hand. When Maddie took her hand Mom opened her eyes, looked at Maddie, smiled weakly at all of us and very shortly she went back to sleep again.

Maddie and I whispered to Dad that he needed to come home with us as he needed to get something to eat and get some rest. But, he whispered back to us, “No, I’m going to stay right here with your Mother.

The doctor says she may not last another night and I’m not going to leave her here by herself. I’m going to be here with her as long as there is any sign of life left in her.” Dad had to have known or at least had the distinct feeling that Mom was not going to last through the night.

“Ok, Dad, Maddie and I are going to go to supper and we’ll be back after we have eaten and we’ll bring something back for you, too.” We returned and gave Dad a small plate lunch. Maddie sat beside Mom holding her hand while Dad ate his supper.

Dad, Maddie and I were not going to let her pass away without one or all of us being there with her holding her hand and letting her know she was not alone. We were not going to let her die alone.

Then Dad took over Maddie’s place beside Mom again. I think that the nursing home staff knew that Mom was very near to passing away, too. So they made a makeshift bed for Dad to spend the night next to Mom’s bedside.

Just before daylight the next morning Mom peacefully passed away in her sleep with Dad at her side holding her hand. Mom’s passing took a lot out of Dad and he seemed to be very dejected and depressed about her being gone as anyone would expect.

Maddie and I wondered just how much longer Dad was going to last after his long vigil beside Mom’s bedside. Maddie and I knew that in his condition he didn’t have all that much strength to make that long vigil beside Mom’s bed before she passed away.

Before Mom’s funeral, I called my boss and told him that I would be back at work as soon as I could make flight arrangements after Mom’s funeral. Maddie and I helped Dad arrange for Mom’s funeral and after her funeral I made my arrangements to go back to work.

Maddie took me back to the airport and I told her to keep a close eye on Dad. If I had to fly back home for Dad like I did for Mom all she needed to do was call me. But, of course, she already knew that.

I went back to work on the rig and we worked through the holidays and in January Maddie called me. “Shane, the doctor has told me that since Mom has passed away Dad’s condition has continued to slowly decline and the doctor may have to put him into the nursing home before long.

It’s like he has lost his will to live since Mom is not here with us any longer. He just sits in the chair and looks off into space or stares at the picture of him and Mom together, their wedding picture and the picture of all of us on the mantle. He hardly eats anything anymore and that ain’t good, Shane.”

“Ok, Maddie. Just let me know if things get critical with Dad like they did with Mom. If they do then I’ll fly back there to be with Dad and to help you, Honey. It’s not hard for me to understand him staring at their wedding picture after they were married for over fifty years. We both know how much they loved each other even after all of those years they were married.”

A few days after Maddie had called me about Dad I got a call from an old class mate of mine and when I answered he asked, “Is this Shane Donovan?”

I said, “Yes it is. Who is this?”

“Shane, this is Bob Ellison. We went to high school and college together in Lubbock. I’m sure you remember me. I knew that you were working in West Texas and I just wanted to give you a heads up, Man. After graduation I found a job with one of the major oil companies here in the Houston area and they say the bottom is about to drop out of the oil patch.

My management has already started to lay off a bunch of excess people just before the New Year. And the scuttlebutt is that the ass is about to drop clear out of the price of crude. That means the land and offshore rig count is going to nearly collapse, too, as a result of the drop in the price of crude. They don’t know just how low it’s going to go but, it sure as hell ain’t going to be pretty.

They are saying that by the end of next year crude will be lucky to be above $40.00 a barrel and it may even drop a whole lot lower than that. You know that the land rig count is likely to drop to below half of what it is right now. The offshore rig count is not likely to do any better for that matter either, Man.

Offshore drilling is likely to go bust if the price of oil drops that far. At $40.00 a barrel it won’t hardly pay the expenses of any offshore drilling and production operations. Of course, you know that the cost of operating offshore production is a whole lot higher than exploration and production operations are on land.”

I thought, ‘Damn, I really need to hear good news like that at this time.’ After that thought went through my mind I said, “Well, what about you, Bob are you likely to be hit, too?”

“Shane, they say they are trying to hang on to all of their technical people if they can and they may even be looking for more technical people if they can find them.

“That don’t make sense, Bob. Why are they trying to hang onto their technical people? In the past, technical people were not sacred cows any more than other people like office helpers and restroom cleaners. They got laid off as a percent of the head count of each individual department. And out the door they went like shit through a tin horn.

They didn’t care about their technical people. They just figured they could pick up engineers fresh out of college and continue on with their work as they always had. They figured that Engineers weren’t worth any more than toilet cleaners. They were just a necessary evil and were mostly useless overhead that could be cut like the toilet cleaners, Bob.”

“Oh, no that ain’t the way it is any longer, Shane. The last time the bean counters talked management into laying off technical people, management came to rue that day big time.

When they tried to get a lot of those people back those guys told them to go pound sand. They wouldn’t even consider coming back to work for them or at least not in this lifetime anyway. They said, ‘It’ll be a cold day in hell when I come back to work and let you lay me off again.

They have learned from past layoffs that if they lay off technical people they leave the industry and they are not about to come back when they really need them. Those guys said, ‘Hell no. You laid me off once, I have found a new job and I’m not going to come back and let you lay me off again.

I’ll be damned if I let you do that to me again. And management was really hamstrung for technical people when the oil and gas business began to boom again. I think they have learned their lesson until the bean counters get to them again.

You know the old saying, Shane, ‘Once burned twice cautious’ or ‘Burn me once your fault, burn me twice my fault’. You know how big this outfit is and all of the majors laid off technical people and that put an awful lot of engineers and experienced technical people out on the street. Then other industries snapped them up and they and their new employers were all happy as hogs at the trough with the situation.

Worse the young kids just out of college with no experience really didn’t know their ass from first base. They didn’t know the difference between a blow out preventer and a production tree. Even worse the oil tool manufacturers were hit just as bad. Most of the people that the oil tool manufacturers laid off told them to go pound sand, too.”

“Well, is there something else driving this, Bob? There has to be something more driving management to take the position they have with regard to their technical people?”

“Well, Shane, they say that directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing is going to be the coming thing. So, if your rig is shut down and you’re laid off, you need to come back to Houston and see if you can get picked up by one of the majors, here in the Houston area.

I think that you would have an excellent chance of getting on with one of the majors here in Houston with your advanced degree and your rig experience. They are all looking for people. At least you know the difference between a drilling derrick, a top drive and an Annular BOP or a Ram BOP.”

“Thanks Bob. Thanks for calling me with the heads up. I’ll keep that in mind if the layoffs start here. For right now there is no way I could replace the scratch I’m making here. The next time I’m in Houston I’ll give you a call and we’ll meet somewhere for a couple of beers, Man. I owe you that much for your heads up, Man. I have your number here on my cell so it’ll be easy to find you. I think your office is in The Woodlands, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is Shane. Is your Sister, Maddie, still in town?”

“Yeah, she’s still living at home taking care of my Dad who is not doing well and she’s working, too. She got her degree in Accounting and Financial Planning from Aggie Land.”

“Well, Shane, at least it wasn’t from the Tee Sippers anyway. Maybe we can all get together and go clubbing the next time you’re in town, Shane. Just make sure you bring Maddie with you when we go clubbing. And, Man, can she dance. And she is damn good looking, too. I remember her from when you and I were in high school. I’ll see you when you get back in town, Shane.”

“Ok, Bob. We’ll catch you the next time I get back to Houston.”

By the end of July the rig drilled that site out and was to be moved to the new location. The scuttlebutt in the area was that something big was going to go down by the end of the year. I had an idea of what it was thanks to Bob but, since it was all scuttlebutt I just kept my mouth shut to see what actually went down. However, the rig was moved to the new location and it was drilling before the middle of August.

At the end of August, Maddie gave me a call and said, “The doctor told me that he had to put Dad into a nursing home since his health hasn’t improved. He wants to see how he does in a month.”

A month later Maddie called me again and said, “The doctor says that Dad’s health continues to decline and he doesn’t know just how long Dad’s going to last, Shane. You need to be prepared to fly home if things get worse, Honey. I’ll let you know what happens, Shane.”

Just like what happened with Mom just after Halloween, Maddie called me and said, “Shane, Dad’s condition has declined even further and you need to fly home and see Dad while you still can, Honey.”

I called and talked to my boss and told him of the situation and the next day I caught a flight to Houston. Maddie met me at the airport and she hugged me and kissed me very affectionately. Her arms were warm as she welcomed me. Her eyes were fire bright.

On our way out to the parking garage Maddie told me, “I’m so happy to see you, Shane. Dad has been asking for you just like Mom did before she passed away last year about this time.”

I could see the sadness in her eyes and in her trembling voice. But, she seemed to be somewhat relieved to have me home to give her the strength and the moral support she really needed. I think she was very nervous at the burden she was having to carry.

We drove directly to the nursing home like we did when I came home for Mom. When we got there Dad was sleeping. I softly called his name and touched his hand. He slowly opened his eyes. He barely whispered, “Is that you Shane?

“Yes, it’s Shane, Dad. Maddie called me and she said you have been asking about me. I just got back from West Texas to see you, Dad.”

Dad very lightly squeezed my fingers and whispered, “I’m happy that you’re here, Shane. Take good care of Maddie, Son.” and then he went back to sleep just like Mom had done. Like Mom, those were the last words I ever heard him say.

I could feel that he was not going to make it through the night. I felt like he had done the same thing that Mom had done before she passed away. He was just hanging on until I could get back home for him to see me and tell me to take care of Maddie.

Maddie and I stayed the night in Dad’s room with him and just like Mom he passed away just before daylight the next morning. We paid our last respects to our Dad and after sunup we went back to the house.

When we stepped into the house Maddie turned to me threw her arms around my neck and kissed me very affectionately with tears in her eyes. She said, “Shane, the two of us are alone now as Mom and Dad are both gone from us. You are all I have left in this world, Honey. Hold me, Shane, please.”

I took her in my arms and held her very tightly and said, “Yeah, Sis, you and I are all alone now and I don’t want to let you go, Sweetheart. I know that you didn’t get much sleep last night and I didn’t either. And neither one of us got any rest. I’m dog tired and I know you are, too. I can see it on your face and in your eyes and I can really hear it in your voice, too. So let’s go get some shut eye, Ok, Maddie?”

“Ok, Shane. Then after we get a little sleep we can visit with each other.” We both went to our bedrooms and I stripped down to my skivvies and got into the sack as I usually did. I was so tired that I went to sleep immediately. I don’t know how much later it was that I felt soft tender kisses on my forehead, my cheeks, my neck and on my chest and the kissing felt wonderful to me.

When I woke up fully and was able to focus my eyes on the face, I saw Maddie’s beautiful face and her pretty brown eyes looking back at me. She had pulled the blanket and the sheet back and was sitting astraddle of my hips. I wrapped my arms around her, kissed her pulling her down to lay on top of my chest.

I could feel her hot wet pussy through my skivvies and found that she had no clothes on at all. I automatically wrapped my arms around her warm soft body more tightly and kissed her again very tenderly.

“You know I love you but, what is going on, Maddie? I thought that we were going to get some of the sleep that we had both missed last night while we were sitting up with Dad before he passed away early this morning? And where are your baby dolls, Honey?”

“I went to sleep for a couple of hours, Shane. And then I woke up thinking about you in here and I had to come in here to make love with you, Baby.”

“But, I thought that we agreed that we couldn’t be doing this since we are Brother and Sister, Maddie?”

“When I came out to visit you in your room you told me that we couldn’t be doing that as long as we still had Mom and Dad with us. Well, they are both gone now and it’s just you and me, Sweetheart. I really need to have you make love with me, Shane. I love you so much, Honey. And I want to show you just how much I love you by having you slowly slip that hard member fully inside my warm slippery wet vagina.”

“I want the feeling of your hot love cream squirting deep into me, Shane. I have to feel you inside me and I want your scalding hot love cream squirting your love into me, Sweetheart.”

Maddie reached down and began to pull my skivvies off of me then she grabbed and gently squeezed my already hard dick. Then she straddled my hips again and I could feel her hot, nearly dripping wet love flower sitting on top of my pubic area and on top of my hard dick.

I pulled her down to have her lay her gorgeous, soft warm titties pressed tightly against my chest, as I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her passionately. Whispering in her ear I said, “I can’t tell you how much I love you, too, Maddie. I guess it’s well past the time for us to really show each other how much we love one another in this way, Honey.

We have been flirting with doing this for such a long time now. And I don’t think you are going to take no for an answer this time. Even if I wanted to I don’t think i could tell you that I wouldn’t make love with you, Baby.

I can feel your love, with you laying here on my chest and I know I will feel your love even more when I slip my love member deep into your sweet love treasure, Maddie. I hope you’ll be able to feel my love when I slip my hard love member into you, too, Maddie, especially when my hot love cream is squirting deep into you.”

She sat up then rose up on her knees high enough to grab my hard dick. She put the head of my dick just inside her inner lips at the opening of her delicate love flower. Maddie very slowly lowered herself onto my dick until it completely penetrated her very tight pussy.

Her breathing had become somewhat erratic and ragged. She slowly raised and lowered herself on my dick and I met her down strokes to give her as much pleasure as she could get with each of our thrusts.

Within several minutes after she began thrusting down onto my dick she cried out very loudly, “You’re about to make me climax, Honey. Cum into me, Baby.” Within moments her body shook and she continued to tremble as her orgasm spread throughout her body like a bolt of lightning followed by earth shaking thunder.

Momentarily, I started squirting my full load of hot love cream inside her sweet warm love passage. When she felt my hot cream begin squirting inside her she collapsed on my chest laying her soft warm titties on my chest again gasping for her breath. She had laid her cheek right next to mine and my hard dick was still deep inside her sweet love flower.

Reaching down behind her I took the warm soft globes of her bottom in my hands and lovingly squeezed and held them. Then I wrapped one arm around the small of her back and softly laid my other hand gently and lovingly holding the back of her head and held her cheek next to mine. She wrapped her arms around my neck kissing my forehead, my cheek, my neck and then my lips again.

Kissing her neck and her cheek I softly whispered in her ear, “I love you so much, Honey, and I love my hot cream squirting into your love flower that shows you how much I really love you, Maddie. I know you have wanted this for a very long time and I want to make love with you again later tonight, too, Sweetheart.”

My dick slowly softened and it began to gradually slip out of her love passage slick with our combined love fluids. That allowed the mixture of our love fluids to drip out of her tight pussy and fall on my dick, my pubic area and my balls slowly dripping on the sheet beneath us.

As I continued to hold her, she breathlessly whispered into my ear, “That is what I have wanted us to do for so long and it has finally happened, Shane. I’m extremely happy to have made love with you, Honey.

You have made me love you even more than I really knew I did before now. I can’t wait to have you inside me again later on tonight, Sweetheart. I just feel like I’m still floating on that pink cloud of love where you just took me.”

Maddie continued to lay there on top of my chest kissing the crook of my neck and she dozed off to sleep after a short while. She was so tired from her lack of sleep and she was so contented and relaxed from having just had such satisfying love making with me.

I continued to let her lay there holding her in my arms as she slept. I kissed her cheek and forehead and I softly ran my hand over her hair, her neck and her back with my warm hand. Her breathing had become deep and rhythmic and I knew she was in deep sleep.

Very gently, I rolled her over onto the bed beside me so that we could both rest more comfortably. We both slept well into the early evening. When we finally awakened, I took her warm soft body into my arms again with her titties pressed to my chest and kissed her very affectionately. Her arms tightened around me and she kissed me back very sweetly and very lovingly.

Maddie is the sweetest and most loving young woman I’d ever had in my arms and made love with. I could certainly feel her returning all of the love I had just given her. I knew she would want us to make love like this again like we just did.

Maddie looked directly into my eyes and softly said, “I love you more than I can ever tell you, Shane. I didn’t think that I was ever going to get you to make love with me, Baby, but, now you have made me so very happy, Sweetheart, that you have finally made me your woman. Now I feel like you have finally made me your woman, your full woman. And you are finally my man, too, Shane. I don’t ever want that to change.”

“I’m really glad that I have finally made you so happy, Maddie. But, you know that is as far as we can go, Honey. We can never get married since it is against the law and nobody would ever or could ever marry us.”

“I know we aren’t supposed to be doing this, Shane, but, I’m not going to allow us to quit making love like this even if it is against the law. I don’t care as long as I can be with you and I can make love with you, Sweetheart. No one can keep us from making love with one another.”

“Well, Honey, that’s right it’s against the law, too, but, no one can keep us from making love with one another if neither one of us ever tells anyone else, Ok?”

“Yeah, that’s Ok. I don’t ever want anyone else to ever know as I want to continue making love with you, Shane. I really loved the feel of your big love member and your hot love cream squirting deep into me, Baby.”

“Maddie, it’s very late in the afternoon, actually early evening, and it is time for us to get up, get dressed and make us some supper. I’m starving and I’ll bet you’re starving, too. Neither one of us has had anything to eat all day.”

“Why don’t you order us a couple of home delivery meals while I take a shower? Then you can take your shower. Or better yet, I want you to shower with me and then we can order a couple of home delivery meals.

I really want us to shower together, Baby. That is what I wanted us to do back in your room in West Texas and I want us to see, feel and explore each other’s bodies as we are washing one another, Shane.”

About 30 minutes later, we had both gotten out of the shower and gotten dressed. We ordered our home delivery meals and when they arrived and we talked over our meals. I told Maddie, “Tomorrow we need to make the funeral arrangements for Dad.” After our meal, Maddie and I poured another glass of wine and we sat in the living room and visited in front of the TV.

“Maddie, you never did tell me how much the cost of your flight was when you flew out to see me back in July and I told you I’d pick up that cost for you.”

“Shane, I took care of it and you don’t need to pay for my flight.”

“Well, Honey, I’ll just call the airline and get the cost of your flight and pick it up that way. You know I make a hell of a lot more money than you do and I’m not going to sponge off of you. That would make me feel like a real asshole if I did that, Maddie.”

She just got up, went to her bedroom, got her receipt and handed it to me. I took it and when I got back to my room I made out a check for double that amount and gave it to her. I thought that was a small partial compensation for all the work she did for Mom and Dad while I was working in West Texas.

I asked her, “Did Mom and Dad leave a will, Maddie?”

“Yes, they did.” And she went into Mom and Dad’s bedroom and found their will. She brought it back and she sat down beside me as we looked through it.

“Well, Maddie, the first thing we need to do is find out who they designated as the executor of their estate?”

I read through it for a little bit and then she showed me what it said. “They left you as the executor of their estate, Maddie.” With my arm around her, I pulled her tightly to me and jokingly said with a broad smile on my face, “That means that you could finagle the will and keep most of the folks’ estate for yourself don’t you?”

Maddie started crying and testily shot back, “And just what would that get me, Shane? I have worked all of this time to get you to make love with me. And if I did that you’d pick up and leave me here alone and I would likely never see you again.

I love you a whole lot more than all of what Mom and Dad’s estate is worth.” She turned to me with tears in the corners of her eyes and tears streaming down her cheeks. Seeing Maddie with tears in her eyes nearly brought tears to my eyes, too.

It broke my heart to think that I had hurt her like that. I quickly put my arms around her, holding her tightly and I told her, “Maddie, I know that you’d never do anything like that. I know you’re too sweet to do something like that. I was just teasing you. I love you and please forgive me for hurting you, Honey.”

I pulled her to me, with my arms around her, held her tightly to me. I pulled her into my lap and kissed her and kissed her tears away. I was trying to make amends and re-assure her that I wasn’t serious about what I had just said.