Lucky by R410a

I began writing this story last autumn before health issues affected my writing. I struggled with where to take it then, and even more so now as I see many other stories in this genre. Many of them lack a real plot and are just filled with unrealistic sexual scenarios. It has been a while since I wrote a brother/sister story, and this may be the last one, but I will continue on. I don’t know why I titled it Lucky, but it just felt right.

If you’re a factoid lover please know this, the towns and peoples in the story are all made up. I picked geographic locations based upon experiences as a much younger man.

For the lady who has sent more than one email telling me all my characters suck and my stories are for shit. I have a suggestion, don’t read them. Find something more enjoyable to do with your time. For the rest of you loyal followers, please enjoy.

Lucky

There are those who would categorize my fraternal twin sister and I as being raised privileged. In essence I suppose that may be true, but in an abstract way. We would fall into a proverbial bucket of crap and always seemed to come out smelling like a rose. We were born to loving parents with decent jobs and a solid future. Beyond that the story of our good fortune began when we were three years old.

Our parents loved to fish, it was fishing when they’d first met. Once a year they would take a week and fish, dad’s parents lived a few miles away and loved watching us kids. So, having someone reliable to watch my sister and I they continued their once-a-year extravagance. It was when we were near our fourth birthday that our first tragedy struck. Mom and dad were fishing at night when a larger faster boat hit theirs and killed them. After the investigation was complete it was determined that our folks had all the proper lighting. The onus rested entirely on the drunken driver of the larger boat.

Elka and I were placed with our grandparents to raise. Mom and dad each had a $50,000 life insurance policy that was to go to us should they die before we did. Our grandparents invested that money in our names, $50,000 each. Our grandpa being a small-town lawyer knew enough to involve a couple of his former law school classmates working in large city firms to pursue legalities concerning the drunken driver’s negligence. That resulted in a large settlement which gramps used to begin an education fund for us. We made it through grade and middle school with the normal ups and downs of kids but nothing of any great consequence. Considering those raising us were more than fifty years older than we were, respect and good manners were a part of the learning process.

High school was a bit different. Elka got a little boy crazy in our sophomore year which caused her grades to drop dramatically. Failure was looking more realistic every week when in stepped grandma. How she did it I will never know but on a weekend shopping trip she was able to help Elka see the error of her ways and bad decisions. Gram contacted all her teachers, worked out a schedule for Elka to do extra credit work and make sure she passed that school year. Once again, our bacon was saved after what could have been a serious downfall.

My bacon saving example came a year later. I had gotten my license and was being an ass with gramps car one night. I stupidly listened to what I thought were friends who talked me into doing donuts in the high school parking lot late one Saturday night. The neighbors called the cops and I was cited on the spot for reckless driving. It was gramps who spoke with the DA and asked for a reduced charge. Explaining that I was on the deans list and had never been in trouble before. I ended up receiving a charge of nuisance driving with 30 hours of community service to be served any way the school needed. Once again, we had fallen into a bucket and came out smelling alright.

Since our fathers’ parents lived on the other side of the country there was never an issue as to who would raise us. They had only seen us once and weren’t interested in our outcome. We were the only grandchildren on mom’s side. Thinking back gramps setting up our education fund was one more leg up on our behalf. When it came time for college we decided to attend our local branch of the state university system which allowed us to live at home instead of in the dorms. Elka was focused on nursing while I was focused on computer science. Though our classes and schedules were vastly different we tried to eat together most evenings and were fairly successful. Both of us dated from time to time without finding that special someone. Then again, we weren’t really looking.

Tragedy struck again in our senior year of college, grandma and grandpa died within six months of one another. Their entire estate was left to us. House, cars, money, absolutely everything. We could have partied a few years and gone back to school, but we didn’t. It wasn’t who we were, the money went into the bank. We stayed in school and graduated with honors. Elka had always been one of those knock-out girls with a bubbling personality. Me? Sort of meh, nothing to catch anyone’s eye from my point of view. Being a book worm I never seemed to fit in, sure, I had friends but no one who invited me to every shindig happening. I think I went to one field party and left early because I was puking drunk. Elka had been smart enough to refuse the drinks, me, not so much. It was she who got me home and held my head as I worshipped the porcelain alter.

The summer following graduation from college was spent chilling, going to the beach and sending out countless resumes. Sitting on the back porch nursing a beer late one Friday night we reached the conclusion that there was nothing holding us to our small city any longer. We were going to move away, but somewhere that had employment for both of us. We had also determined that until one of us married we were going to stay together, just as it had always been. A few weeks later during another of those late-night moments on the porch nursing a beer that Elka quipped, “If we don’t find the right one to marry we can always marry each other.”

My answer was less enthusiastic, “As close as we are with that twin thing and damned near know each other’s thoughts, I’m pretty sure it’s against the law.”

She took my hand and said with all sincerity, “Not everywhere.”

I chuckled and was wise enough to leave that alone. Not another word was said about it, we finished our beer and adjourned to our bedrooms. It was late August that things once again fell into place. We had each received offers of employment in the same city one state away.

After securing our employment we found a small three-bedroom house with a two-car attached garage that we were able to purchase with a huge down payment from money left over from the education fund. It was perfect for us, low mortgage, nice older part of town with mature trees and on a dead end street with little to no traffic. We still had the $200,000 plus interest in the bank from the sale of our grandparents home and auctioning off what we didn’t want.

Yes, we could have paid for the house outright, except we had little to no credit history. It was the lawyer handling the purchase of the house that advised to have a small mortgage and build up our credit history. When I brought up the fact that we had lots of money in the bank he smiled, “Ya just never know son, might be a good idea to leave some of that money in the bank.” Hmm, made sense to us. It was while eating cheeseburgers a few months later at the neighborhood tavern that our next leg up occurred. Finishing the last of our tap beer Elka asked.

“How much do you think those life insurance policies are worth now?”

I hadn’t thought of that money in like, forever. I had no clue and neither did she. After digging around in our home safe we found the proper paperwork and contacted the investment group to set up a meeting. Imagine the surprised look on our faces when they told us that the $50,000 invested when we were three had multiplied into just shy of $137,000 each. We contemplated leaving it with them but ultimately chose to move it into funds we were more comfortable with as well as more easily accessible.

Yet again another step up in the world that had been instituted by others with our futures in mind.

Life was rolling along smoothly. Elka landed a job as an ER nurse, the hours were long and the demand great, but she was in her element. I had landed a job as an in-house IT tech for the same hospital, you couldn’t have asked for a better set up. With Elka’s odd hours I had lots of time on my hands and began playing around with ideas to improve the system being used at the hospital. After six months of calculations along with millions of ones and zeroes I had achieved my goal. I presented my findings to the supervisor of my department who immediately told me it wouldn’t work.

Feeling rejected I went about my business only to find out six weeks later he was going to present my program to the hospital board as his own idea. I was fuming mad when I approached him. He laughed in my face when I asked him.

“Do you have any of these findings to document that you did the work and it’s your idea? No, didn’t think so.”

He smirked, “You can say you did it at home but can you prove it. I think the board will take my word over yours.”

I was fuming mad as I walked away. I was never one who confronted people, I sort of let them push me around. Thanks to my sister that was about to change.

When Elka found out she was pissed, thoroughly pissed. Her immediate supervisor was the daughter of a board member and somehow word got to her dad that Tom was going to try and present my idea. I was pissed when I found out Tom would be attending the meeting and suggest the hospital implement his proposed changes. Changes that would save the hospital more than a million dollars a year and upgrade the entire system to the latest protocol. Though no decision had been made by the board at that point I was sullen for days after the meeting, Tom never mentioned it, but his smug attitude and ruthless grin let me know he’d gotten one over on me. Perhaps the end of my good luck had arrived.