Chapter 16

That night, when Ramona got home, she was preoccupied with wedding plans and sat at the kitchen table with stacks of lists and invitations and other things associated with the wedding. When Debbie offered to help her she waved her hand, saying that it was fun, even though she didn't look like she was having that much fun.

Debbie took her brother and pulled him to her bedroom.

"I love you." she told him, standing in front of him almost close enough that her breasts touched him.

"I know that." he said in typical male ignorance of what a woman wanted when she said that.

"Do you love me?" she asked.

"Of course I do. You know that." he said, digging himself even deeper into a hole he had no idea was forming around him.

"Do you love me enough to not make love to me for a while?" she asked.

"What?" he said, unsure what that meant.

"Do you love me enough to not make love to me for a while?" she repeated. It didn't help that her fingers were toying with his shirt collar.

"Um..." Robby knew suddenly that there was a right answer, but, for the life of him he didn't know what it was. He had a suspicion that he should respond in the affirmative, but was afraid to say "Sure, no problem" because that sounded like he didn't cherish what they shared. And he DID cherish what they shared - a lot.

"How long is a while?" he asked.

"I just need to do some thinking. We haven't been using anything to stop me from getting pregnant. I've been thinking about that. That might be a problem, you know?"

When it comes to problems, the difference between men and women is that women want to talk about the problem, while the men want to just solve it and move on.

"So have mom get you some birth control pills." he suggested helpfully.

"You don't want me to have your baby." Debbie said. Her voice rose at the end of the sentence, as if it were a question. But it didn't sound like a question somehow to Robby.

Robby, like his sister, hadn't really thought at any length about what could happen as a result of what they did. There had been a time or two that he had fantasized his sister with a swollen belly, but it was hard to put her face on that body. It just wasn't her.

"I don't know." he finally said. "I haven't thought much about that."

"That's why we need to take some time and think about ... things." said Debbie. "I don't want to get all pregnant and then find out you don't want to be a father." Her voice was rising steadily. "I don't want to ruin my life, and give up everything just so YOU can do what boys ALWAYS want to DO to girls!" Somehow Debbie had gotten mad. The fact that she had six or seven hours of think time that Robby wasn't aware of didn't cross her mind. SHE had thought about the consequences, and somehow expected HIM to have thought about them too. She was beginning to think more as an adult. He just hadn't caught up with her.

Robby didn't know what was going on, but he knew that tone of voice. In the past he had just run and hidden, waiting for her to calm down. But he DID realize that this was a serious subject, even if he hadn't taken the time to think much about it.

His hands came up and gripped her shoulders. She tried to pull away but he held her tightly.

"Look, I love you. I don't want you to be mad at me. Whatever you want me to do I'll do, but don't just get mad. If you don't want to get pregnant, then fine. If you DO want to get pregnant then I'll ... I don't know what I'll do, but it will be the right thing. If you want to wait and stop then I'll do that too. Just tell me what you want."

Debbie heard the honesty and care in his voice, even if he wasn't very eloquent about it. She felt those flutters in her stomach again and suddenly wanted to go to bed ... and not alone.

"That's the problem." she moaned. "I don't KNOW what I want to do. I don't know what to ask YOU to do. I just need some time to think about this and talk about this and decide."

"Then that's what we'll do." said her brother simply. "I can live with that."

She kissed him then, hope surging in her heart that somehow everything would be all right.

When the kiss broke Robby looked at her. "Can we start not doing it tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

She didn't get mad. She laughed instead.

"I'll do something for you that we used to do a lot. And you can do it for me too. But that's as far as we can go, OK?"

"I'm your man." Robby said, striking a pose.

They did end up in bed then, naked and panting. But their heads were at opposite ends as they loved each other with their mouths. They lasted a long time, dragging it out. In the end it was Robby who had to stop her from sitting down on his hard prick.

She cried.

But it was tears of happiness.

To the delight of the workmen, Debbie began spending a lot of time at the Nettleton mansion. She didn't tell her mother, because she was arranging things at the house and wanted to surprise her. She told Robby what she was doing when he got curious about where she went all day, and he started going with her. He began to work with his uncle on refurbishing the root cellar, making it into a more useful place, with a new roof and door that could be secured. Robert didn't want any workmen in that space, because he didn't want anyone to know about the secret entrance to the mansion.

And, as they worked together, as often happens when people share a task, they became friends.

The next month passed amazingly quickly, considering that neither couple was engaging in sexual intercourse. For Robby and Debbie it became a sort of game in a way, to see which one would be the first to ask for more than oral sex. Debbie taunted her brother, while she sucked on his cock, milking his balls for their fruit. She told him she'd made her decision, but that she wasn't going to act on it until the wedding. When her mother started her new life and began using her old name, Debbie would begin her new life too, with Robby. She wouldn't tell him what her decision had been.

For Ramona and Robert, it was more of an attempt to build the suspense until they could be together as husband and wife. Ramona went to the house a few times, but the temptation to drag Robert into a bedroom and fuck his brains out was too much. It was easier just to stay away and meet him for dates in public, where it was easier to control herself.

Ramona was also doing something else, that no one knew about. She contacted an attorney at the home office of the bank, which was in another state. As a representative of the bank, and as handler of the Robert Nettleton account, she asked, on his behalf, what his sister would have to do to satisfy the bank, so that she could make withdrawals from her account. The attorney did the research into the account, which had not been touched since 1951, when an order was received to pay Elizabeth Nettleton's tuition at a college. The lawyer wrote back to Ramona that all that would be required legally was an updated signature card, which could be supplied either by having Ms. Nettleton come to the bank and execute it there, or by having her provide a duly notarized card in the mail. Once the new signature was received, she could access funds again with no problem.

Twelve days before the wedding, Ramona announced that she had to go on a short trip. One of her girlfriends from college was getting remarried and wanted Ramona to be there. She'd only be gone from Friday to Sunday. Everything for her own wedding was on track.

Being in the house alone together was nerve wracking for the twins. Robby had dreams of forcing his sister and was so upset by them that he asked his Uncle Bob if he could stay at the manor the rest of the weekend. He told his sister exactly why he was doing this, and apologized, even though he couldn't control his dreams.

Ramona, who really did visit her old college roommate, didn't have to go to a wedding because there wasn't one. Michelle was happily married with three children. But Michelle was a licensed Notary Public, who knew Ramona Shanks was also Elizabeth Nettleton. Things like that are almost impossible to hide from one's roommate, and secrets are often shared in the dark of night when sleep comes slowly. Ramona was nervous about her plan only because she had to tell Michelle about the incestuous marriage. The only reason Ramona felt she could do this was because, in the dark of night, back in college, the secrets Michelle shared with Ramona involved lurid descriptions of her love affairs with her father and two brothers, all of whom hoped she would graduate college and come back home. While Michelle loved all three men, there was competition between them for her that she didn't love, and she decided to live a more normal life.

But Michelle would understand why Ramona was doing what she was doing. And more importantly, she'd keep her mouth shut about it.

Michelle notarized the new signature card, placing various stamps and seals on it and mailed it to the Carver State Bank in Nettleton herself. She charged Ramona one dollar for processing the document.

Then Michelle, who worked for a tax attorney, began filling out the paperwork for the other thing Ramona wanted to do. That process would cost ten thousand times as much as the notarizing of the signature card, and then roughly five or six thousand dollars a year after that in administrative and legal fees. But the law office would provide all the help needed for Ramona's plan for as long as it was needed.

Kissing Michelle on the cheek, Ramona drove back to Nettleton to get married.

The wedding was scheduled for the fifteenth of September. That was because that was the date that Elizabeth and Robert were reunited in foster care after being separated at boarding school. By sheer chance, that was one day after the twins celebrated their sixteenth birthday. Ramona and Robert talked to the kids about why they wanted that particular day for their wedding. Both kids didn't care about the proximity to their birthday and, since this was their first birthday since they had ... consummated ... their relationship, they even thought it was kind of appropriate.

The birthday celebration was a quiet affair, amidst the storm of emotion that surrounded the wedding. That was OK too. Ramona was busy with last minute wedding arrangements, but took time at lunch to have a small party. After that, Robert drove them to the Driver's License Office, where they took the test and were issued brand new licenses.

Then the kids were left to their own devices for the rest of the day. Debbie, just dripping mystery, told Robby that she had ordered his birthday present in a catalogue, but that it hadn't arrived yet. He tried to find out what it was, but she wouldn't budge. Robby, at the suggestion of his mother, had gotten Debbie flowers. He had gone to the florist shop on Broadway. It had been hilarious.

"Yes, can I help you?" asked the middle aged woman behind the counter in the sweet smelling store. Her name tag said "Madge".

"Uh ... yeah ... I need some flowers." said Robby.

"Wonderful! What kind of flowers do you want?" asked Madge.

Robby blinked. "Um ... I don't know. What kind do you have?"

Madge stifled her groan. "How about this? Who are these flowers for? What's the occasion?"

"Oh!" said Robby. "It's my sister's birthday."

"I see" said Madge. She'd made up literally thousands of bouquets of flowers, but flowers for a teenaged boy's sister's birthday was a new one for her. "And how much do you want to spend?" she asked.

"Gee," said Robby. "I didn't think about that." He pulled out his wallet and peered inside. He pulled out three crumpled one dollar bills. "How much are flowers anyway?" he asked.

Madge sighed. "You've never done this before, have you?"

"Done what?" asked Robby, looking from the three dollars to Madge.

"Gotten a woman flowers." said Madge.

Robby ducked his head. He didn't know why, but suddenly he felt like he was supposed to have gotten somebody flowers a lot of times already, and dropped the ball. "Uh ... I don't guess I ever did." he admitted.

Madge eyed the bills in his hand. "How about I put a nice rose in a bud vase and put a ribbon around it and you can give that to your sister.

Robby thought about that. He remembered how happy Debbie had been when Uncle Bob had given her a whole bunch of flowers, and one didn't seem like very much to him.

"How much would a whole bunch cost?" he asked.

"Of roses?" asked Madge.

Robby had a flash of brilliance. "Yeah, like maybe sixteen of them."

Madge eyed the boy. "Now you're talking closer to fifty dollars." she said.

"FIFTY DOLLARS!" yelped Robby. "I don't have fifty dollars!"

Madge wanted to chuckle. The boy looked so distressed. "Well, they're three dollars apiece." she said. "Look, I'll give you two roses and the vase for the three dollars you have. I need to get back to work. I have a ton of things to do. There's a big wedding tomorrow and I've never handled anything that big."

Robby was still shocked by the idea that sixteen flowers could cost that much. Her comment gave him something to say. "Yeah, that's my mom's wedding."

Madge blinked this time. "Your mother is Ramona Franklin?"

Robby nodded, looking at his three crumpled bills.

Madge's attitude changed dramatically. "How would you like to earn the flowers?" she asked.

Robby looked up at her. "Earn them? How?" he asked.

"I have to get so many flowers over to that mansion that it's going to take four or five trips in the station wagon. You help me get them all over there and I'll make you up a nice bouquet of flowers for your sister. Are these flowers for the wedding too?" she asked.

"No" said Robby. "It's her sixteenth birthday today. That's why I thought about sixteen flowers."

Madge sighed. What a sweet boy to think of his sister's sixteenth birthday like that. She exploded into action and directed Robby, who loaded up the station wagon and rode with Madge to the Nettleton mansion. Madge had a sort of map of where everything went, both in the house and outside on and around the gazebo. It took six trips in all, but when they were done Robby left the shop with a long white box containing sixteen pink roses and two dozen long stemmed red roses, artfully bound together with ribbons and baby's breath.

"I think she'll like these." said Madge, handing the box to Robby.

"You don't think she'll be upset because there's no vase?" asked Robby.

"Trust me" said Madge. "If you weren't her brother you'd get a whole lot more than a thank you kiss on the cheek."

It was a fairy tale wedding. The weather was beautiful, with a dark blue sky filled with fluffy clouds. The weather had cooled enough that the heat wasn't as oppressive as it had been only a few weeks before. There was a light breeze, but really all that did was make the decorations move around a little. As much trouble as Ramona had gone to to plan this wedding, there were only fifty or sixty guests present when the ceremony began. Everyone from the bank had come, of course, and another dozen people Ramona had become acquainted with over the years. Sixteen missionaries from Robert's old group showed up. They brought with them a quilt just like one of the ones Ramona had made and given away. Hers had been used as a pattern and dozens had been produced with painstaking labor in a village thousands of miles away. Making them had become the primary income producing venture for a group of widows in the village. There were differences, primarily the design in the center of the quilt, which was a beautiful rendition of an African looking pair of masks, stitched in beautiful detail. Robert laughed when he saw them, and explained that they were fertility symbols.