Chapter 7

The next day was Christmas Eve and then came Christmas. We had gotten out the fake tree my father had bought years before, but decided that we needed a real tree. We finally found a small tree after visiting three lots. The prices were outrageous. We got it any way, took it home and decorated it. It made things much more cheerful and the real tree aroma was great.

On Christmas day, I gave the girls their presents. They each got a pair of jade drop earrings. Each had a different design so they wouldn't get them mixed up. The girls were very happy. We went down to George's house later in the day. As soon as we got there, the girls ran off with their aunt to show her their earrings. They were back in a few minutes, and were carrying a small wrapped box. They gave it to me.

"Merry Christmas, Dave," they said. They gave George and Cindy their presents, which I had carried in, as well. Margie's present was set under the tree.

When I opened the box, it contained a very nice digital stop watch. Mine had disappeared during the accident in November. I wasn't very worried about it as it had been an inexpensive stop watch, and I wasn't doing any walking at the time, anyway.

"It's for when you start walking again, Dave," the girls said.

"Thank you, girls," I said, "this is very thoughtful." It was then that I realized that the girls needed some money of their own. I had been buying everything for them, but there were times when they needed their own money, so they could do things on their own. I later found out that Cindy had bought the stopwatch for them so that I wouldn't know. They'd had some money left from the allowance their dad gave them.

We had dinner at George's. Cindy and the girls made it while George and I watched football in the living room. It was really delicious. We had smelled it cooking all during the game. There was a great ham, gravy, sweet potatoes, biscuits, and several other vegetables. George brought out the wine for dinner and we all had a glass. Afterward there was pumpkin pie for desert. We finally left around 8:00 PM, and I drove home. It was really nice to be able to do things myself again and not to have to depend on others for transportation.

When we got home, the girls were still excited, and we wound up not getting to sleep till after midnight again. They kept wanting me to fuck their brains out. It was a trying job, but somebody has to do it!!

26 December, Friday

George called just after lunch. Margie's mother had past away that morning. The funeral was on Monday, the 29^th. He and Cindy were going to the funeral home tomorrow, Saturday. He said that Margie had been very upset, and that Howard had to finish the call. I told him that I would take the girls there on Sunday. He gave me the name and address of the funeral home. He also asked if I would bring the girls to the funeral on Monday. I told him that I would. The girls were upset at the news. They had liked their grandmother, a lot.

I did my best to cheer them up. It didn't do much good. I knew just how they felt. I had felt the same way when my father had died. Then I remembered all of the flowers that we had received. I suggested to the girls that they send a wreath. This perked them up a bit, but then they remembered that they had spent all of their money on the stopwatch and were broke. They wouldn't allow me to pay for it. She was their grandmother.

It was the perfect opportunity. I suggested to them that I give them an allowance.

"You girls have done a lot of work taking care of me for the last month plus, and I would be glad to pay you for that and give you an allowance twice a month while you stay with me."

"But Dave, we love you," they protested. "We don't want you to think that we would do this for money."

"But, you girls have already done a lot for me, and I really appreciate that. Also, you need some money of your own. I realized that yesterday when you gave me the stopwatch. Let me give you something for all the things you've done for me," I asked them. After some more wrangling, they finally consented.

We went out to find a florist. We had to really look to find one that was open on the day after Christmas. The girls ordered a very nice wreath. I gave the lady the name of the deceased and the name and address of the funeral home. The girls paid for it out of the $150 I had given to each of them. They felt better on the way home, but were still very subdued the rest of that day and the next.

28 December, Sunday

We left for the funeral home around 10:00 AM. It was about 110 miles away. We were there by noon. The staff there directed us to the correct room.

There were several people there when we arrived. Margie was sitting on one side of the room with her sister. She was crying and looked like hell. She was obviously having a hard time of it. Her sister looked to be in somewhat better shape. Neither of them looked good in black, however.

The girls introduced me to their Uncle Howard. We shook hands. They had introduced me as a friend who had given them a ride. The girls said hello to their aunt, but their mother would hardly speak to them and didn't even look in my direction. It was not exactly a warm reception.

Howard pulled me aside for privacy and to ask questions in private.

"Are you the one whose life the girls had saved?" he asked. He could see that I was still using a cane.

"Yes, I am," I told him. He said that George had talked to him yesterday. Margie had been barely civil when George and Cindy had been there.

"Are the girls really living with you?" he asked.

"Yes, they are,"I admitted. "and I am going to marry both of them." He looked at me strangely.

"Are you Mormon?" he inquired.

"No," I admitted, "but I will figure out a way to marry both of them. They are such sweet girls and won't be separated. They are both in love with me, also." Howard just shivered and then shrugged his shoulders.

"What about Margie and George?" he asked, changing the subject. "What's wrong with them?"

"It has something to do with Margie having a female friend and George having sex with Cindy." I told him flat out.

"Yes, I know that Margie had been into girls before she met George, but George and his sister?" Howard asked, shocked.

"Well," I said, "it happens in the best of families."

We went back into the room. The girls stayed for another forty- five minutes. They were very pleased with the wreath they had chosen. Howard let me know where the service would be held the next day and when it started. Then he asked if we would be going to the grave also. The girls indicated that they would like to. We would go in my car not one of the limos.

In the car on the way home, the girls said that they were sorry that their mother had not even spoken to me. I told then that I had explained things to Howard. That night the girls were very subdued. We went to sleep early.

On Monday, the 29th, we were up early and got on the road in plenty of time to get to the service. We rode with George. His SUV was more than big enough for all of us, and we didn't need to take two cars. We had worked it out the night before when he had called.

We met Howard outside the church. He explained that he and his other sister had had a long talk with Margie, the night before. She had promised to behave today. The funeral and burial took about four hours. We were on our way home by 2:30 that afternoon. Margie had been civil, not warm or loving, but civil. She just barely shook hands with George, and only looked at her daughters. Neither Cindy nor I got even a glance. The girls were somewhat morose on the way home. They were upset with their mother's behavior and couldn't understand it. They were also sad over their grandmother's death.

I sat between them on the ride back, as I had on the way there, and hugged them to me. I kissed each one on the cheek, a lot. They put their heads on my shoulders and cried for awhile. I just kept an arm around both of them. Eventually, they were a little better and started to return my kisses.

30 December, Tuesday

Today was my final planned doctor's appointment and physical therapy session. Dr John and his assistant went over the leg again. It certainly looked a lot better. They removed the remainder of the external stitches in my leg, and then we went to physical therapy. Trudy worked me over as usual, and said I was doing well. When she took me over to the whirlpool, she asked, "Dave, what's wrong with your friends? They don't seem very happy."

"Their grandmother died the end of last week and the funeral was yesterday. They are a little depressed," I told her.

The girls attitudes improved on New Year's eve. That night we went to bed late. At the stroke of midnight, I was buried deep in Belle, and she was licking Mel's pussy clean of my leavings. It was a very good way to ring in the New Year. The New Year would bring many changes in our lives. We just didn't know that yet.

1 January 2009, Thursday

We didn't get up till late as we were still tired from celebrating last night. Shortly after a late breakfast, Cindy called and invited us to dinner down there. We left shortly after that. The girls helped Cindy with the cooking while George and I watched football. The girls and Cindy came in and watched part of the game. The girls cuddled up to me, and Cindy sat in George's lap for a while. The dinner was very good. I won't say that George was anxious to get rid of us, but most of the lights in the house went out while we were still in the driveway.

2 January 2009, Friday

Gary called today to tell me that we had to be in court on the 20^th, over the wrongful death suite.

My leg was doing well, though I still needed to use the cane. The girls had gotten back to their old selves and seemed happy again.

Margie came back to town on the third. She only stopped at George's long enough to pickup some of her clothes. She said she was moving in with her friend. She would pickup the remainder of her things later.

George didn't seen surprised. He told me later that Howard had called him on New Years and told him that Margie had been on the phone a lot since the funeral. George also told me that Cindy would be moving in after Margie moved the rest of her things out. He asked me not to tell the girls yet.

The days up to the 20^th of January slipped by. We had definitely fallen into a routine. The girls did their schoolwork in the morning. After lunch was free time for them. They did a lot of different things: listened to music, read, watched TV, cleaned the house, did the laundry. Some times we went out shopping or to eat.

I was writing some and also tried a little woodwork. That was too much for my leg for now, as you have to stand up a lot. The same is true for blacksmithing and dark room work.

At night after dinner, there was TV or movies we had gotten. There was usually sex before we went to sleep. Some times the girls just liked to sit and cuddle without doing anything else.

20 January

We were due in court at 10:00 AM. We got there early and talked with Gary. He wasn't worried. At 10:00 the court was called to order. I was the first one called. Jackson's lawyer tried to get me to say that it was my fault. No way! After twenty minutes of fruitless questioning, it was Gary's turn. He had me tell my story. I did.

Then they called the girls. Since they were minors, the judge did the questioning and had them tell their stories. Since they had not been in court when I gave my testimony or to hear each other, their stories varied a little. Of course, each had done something different when saving me. The basic facts were the same though.

The next person called was the veterinarian.

"Tell me Doctor, why were you hired to perform the autopsy on my client's dog?" Jackson's lawyer asked.

"The medical examiner only performs autopsies on humans. He is not expected to have any expertise on animals. I do."

"What were your findings, Doctor," the lawyer asked.

"The subject was a male dog about three and a half years of age. The records from the owner's vet indicated a weight of 86 pounds at the last visit. The remains that I examined weighed in at just over forty pounds. Adding a few pounds for blood loss, that would mean that at least forty-four pounds of the dog were missing. The back was broken as well as the jaws.

"I had never seen a dog's back broken like this one and I acquired a recently killed dog of a similar size from the sheriff. It had been hit by a car. I used it as a test subject to determine how much force was required to break a back like that. It took two blows with a ten-pound sledge hammer to break the test subjects back. I had to stand at right angles and about thirty inches from the body to hit it with the sledge. I brought the hammer down from over my head.

"I acquired a second test body for the jaw test. This dog had been put to sleep biting on a stick. Again it required a very precise blow from both sides at the same time to break the dogs jaws the way the plaintiff's dog's jaws were broken. My assistant and I tried five-pound hammers but that didn't work. We switched to ten pound hammers and broke the jaw on the second set of blows.

"The indications on the plaintiff's dog were that only one blow was struck each time. I then had Sergeant Morse of the Sheriff's Department attempt to break the second test subject's spine. Sergeant Morse is an expert in Karate and can break six concrete blocks at a time. He was, however, unable to break the dog's spine with one blow and had to hit it a second time. Sergeant please stand up," the vet asked. The man who stood up was about 5'-10" tall but must have weighed 250 pounds, not fat, but having a lot of muscle. He looked like a gorilla. "As you can see, the Sergeant is quite well muscled," the vet added. "I do not believe anyone could do the damage done to the back and jaws with their hands and certainly not while being bitten on the leg.

"I also measured the bite radius marks left on the corpse. No human could have left those marks, and no human could have consumed forty pounds of raw dog in the time period we are talking about here. The police and ambulance were there within ten minutes of the 911 call. I checked that with the sheriff's department. I can therefore make no guess as to what killed and ate the dog. It is possible that a wolf or large cat could have eaten it, but nothing short of an elephant would have the required strength." The judge thanked the vet and dismissed him.

The next witness called was the Sheriff. Jackson's lawyer questioned him for a few minutes but got nowhere.

"Sheriff can you tell us what conclusions your department has come to on this case," Gary asked when it was his turn to question him...

"My crime scene people checked the fence first. The board that gave away had a large weak layer inside where the tree it came from had been subject to stress and cracked the outer layers of wood. These were grown over in later years and the crack didn't show when the board was cut. After repeated impact from the dog, the crack spread and finally the board gave way."

"Could they tell from which direction the board was broken?" Gary asked.

"Yes, from the splinter pattern, it was obvious that the board had been broken outward, apparently by the dog, as he was on the inside."

"What else did they determine, Sheriff?" Gary asked.

"They took samples of the blood there. There was a lot of it. All the samples matched either Mr. Westbrook or the dog. There were no unmatched samples there. They also found some hair samples. They finally managed to match them to a rather rare kind of wolf that lives in central Asia. They have no explanation of how it could have gotten to the scene," the Sheriff finished.

"And Mr. Westbrook's involvement in this, Sheriff?" Gary asked.

"Mr. Westbrook was unconscious for three days after the accident. When I finally got to talk to him, on the sixth day, he had no idea what had happened. He was out for all of it except for a few minutes when the paramedics were working on his leg." The Sheriff was dismissed.