As a retired pastor I have learned throughout my career that when a person gets caught in a questionable situation, they will automatically lie. I do not care what you think because it is human nature. The only thing that does not lie is our behavior. Most humans when confronted with the truth will not admit it.
So, this little story is dedicated to those core haters who responded to my last story at the same time. They most likely did not read it but made their remarks to continue to push their agenda of trying to push authors like me off the site.
Haters cannot be reasoned with nor can they see or accept another's view. They will die believing their views are right. There are many who deny what history has proven was done.
We are not born with hate. It must be taught. We all come into the world with a clean slate. We die with the prejudice, the anger, and the values we have been surrounded with all our lives. Few understand why all breathing flesh bleeds red. It is God's way of telling us all that we are all equal and that he sees us all flesh in the same light.
I am also 65 years old a retired preacher and my view is that you cannot serve two masters. I declared my political choice years ago when I understood what was meant when Jesus refused all the kingdoms of the world. As a result, I have never voted. Voting implies you accept everything about the party and its representative's conduct.
I can't do that because I believe I have enough of my own conduct to be held accountable for on Judgment day. I don't need theirs added to my questionable behavior.
To find out what my true values are read my story called a Certain kind of Balance. Most of my stories have conduct, principle, or a standard to them which is something else the haters do not like. They believe that every man should be a wimp, a degenerate, and every woman a slut or a saint. To them, there is no in-between. Equality of both sexes means nothing to them, and never will.
My stories show a truth that some refuse to see. Perhaps it is because they see apart of them in themselves in my stories and they do not like seeing what they have become. No human likes having to answer themselves, let alone face what they have done. As a result, they believe they must do everything they can to drive me off the site.
For those who hate there is always only one side. Theirs! I admit it is their conduct that encourages me to write more.
I will not allow the haters to do to me, what they have been able to do to other authors. They silenced their voice by driving them out. Giving in to humans like this only empowers them to do more. My Christian views will not allow me to.
I think Plato's words say it all. "No one is more hated than the ones who speak the truth."
Choices Made.
Price Paid
Martha Stevens looked over at the no-good, overtired lug asleep in his chair looking for the changes in his health that she felt should already be appearing. Every day it was the same. He would come in dead tired from working the fields to eat supper and fall asleep in exhaustion. For twenty-five years it had been the same daily routine after getting the kids off to bed.
Both had been born from families who worked the land. It part of them as they were it. Since their children were all grown and had chosen their walk in life, there was not one of them who wanted to carry on the tradition. The glamor of an easy life with big money ruled their lives leading them to a life where no physical labor was required.
When they had gotten married, they had added on to the farmhouse building her a huge office for her to work out of. Thanks to his support she had built a successful accounting business servicing the accounting needs of the farmers and local people in the area.
It had been a blessing when each one of their children came into the world. When she was tied up with the children her two full-time assistants would fill in.
Numerous times she had mentioned to him, the suggestion of selling out and moving to the city so that they could take in a movie, go out for dinner, and experience for themselves how the other side lived. Jed was just too dam content with the life they both had made.
She wanted more excitement in her life. Jed was happy with the way things were. He loved the solitude he had as he worked through his day. Could see the progress in the achievements he made. Saw the value of the added yield he got out of the land by adopting new concepts and spending the time to nourish the land to improve it.
Every winter they went to Florida, Cuba, or on a cruise to award themselves for another successful season. While there she spends the time getting a tan. He explored the countryside to learn about its agriculture. What was working and what was not. Some of the things he learned he had applied their concepts here to learn they worked. For him life was good. They had no debts, no mortgage, and the best in health insurance.
Loneliness is what Martha was finding filled her nights and she hated it. She did not have any hobbies or skills to occupy herself with during her spare time and with the lack of fresh programming on television that stimulated her she had begun to drink a wee bit too much.
Jed was up at the crack of dawn starting on what needed to be done that day while she slept in to seven and opened the office at nine.
Ever since childhood, Martha had found it hard to make friends. She was well known in the farming community and willingly joined in whenever there was a need. But since her childhood friends had moved away because of things in their lives there was no one she was close to.
It was wandering on the web that led her to discover a website called Literotica. She went to the section called loving wives and what she read shocked her, amused her, and made her think about the woman who dominated their men.
Were these stories real or fiction? After reading a few she realized that everything had a basis of truth in it. You just had to read all the author's stories to discern their true values and thoughts. In doing that you were able to discern what they genuinely believed.
It shocked her to learn that people could be that controlling, manipulating, and dirty when dealing with another human. It was clear that a lot of these writers saw no value in human life. She wondered how some women could control the men in their lives.
Not being religious their written stories appealed to her, so she started leaving comments on the stories she read and had even gone as far as emailing a few of them through the site's email section.
This over time had led to direct emails, then video chats, and soon she found herself chatting regularly to people around the world. She found their one on one conversations new and exciting because their views on everything were so different and puzzling.
She had gotten herself so involved with her new friends that she had gotten her husband Jed to set up a computer desk right beside their huge flat screen tv so she could watch the news and other stuff while cruising the web.
Over a few months, she began to open up to them and disclosed how much she hated her current situation and its isolation. With the children all grown up, she had nothing except Jed to keep her there.
Jed was pleased that his wife Martha seemed to be finding happiness in whatever she was doing to entertain herself and believed whatever it was that it was improving their marriage. Even the meals she was preparing seemed to be prepared with a bit more enthusiasm.
********
Jed Stevens stood about six foot three the day he got his final discharge papers from the forces because of special circumstances. Having had a military haircut style for years he started to let it grow. He had planned to make the forces his career and had planned in getting his twenty years in before coming back home.
Sadly, an escaped convict had changed all that when in desperation he had broken into his parent's farmhouse to get guns and the keys for one of his father's trucks. His father had tried to stop him and lost the battle. His mother was found in their marriage bed dead from a shotgun blast to the head. It was apparent to the investigators that the criminal did not want to leave any witnesses alive.
Jed understood the criminal mentality after all it was always about themselves, their needs, and what they needed at that moment. For most, there was no real value or appreciation for what life was. The criminal was not much different than most who walked on the earth except that they acted out on their thoughts when others did not.
Their funeral had been a closed casket. Their open investigation ended up in the cold case files. He wanted to be able to remember them the way they were full of life. They were buried in the family plot with their forefathers. It was in discussions with his father's brothers that he decided he had to come back home to run the farm.
At that time, he was a sergeant serving with the Military Police. Being an only child there was no one else to leave in charge so he had come back to take over the farm before he wanted to. He had met the grown-up Martha at his parent's funeral with her parents.
He had already enlisted when Martha started high school. After completing basic training, he was off to see the world. For eight years he had toured the world making lifelong friends along the way. It was having her serve him lunch in the restaurant she was working in that started them on the relationship they found themselves in today.
Martha was working while she got her CPA online. Her black hair at that time was tied back in a ponytail when she was working. At a height of five foot ten inches, she had a lot of the single men hitting on her, but she paid them no mind once she had met Jed. He was the quiet one who kept to himself that had caught her attention. The problem for her was getting Jed's attention.
Jed at that time was still grieving the loss of his parents and was paying no mind to everybody. Martha, he noted had a bit of mass to her frame, some would describe her as a full-figured woman, yet she was not what he would consider stout. After all, Martha did have a nice rack with natural curves that seemed inviting. She was the type of woman who could keep a man warm on a cold winter's night.
Having seen a lot of marriages break up for numerous reasons Jed was in no rush to hook up when the odds implied it would not last anyway. The last thing he wanted was to lose the farm because of the terms of a divorce.
When talking to her parents about Jed Martha had learned that he had always been like that through school. Her older brother had told her that he was always spoken highly of, even by those he had dated. No one had ever heard him speak badly about another person or swear. If he did not have something nice to say he said nothing at all.
Jed's father had been a tinker. He always had to have something he was working on. As a result, he had four huge barns filled with equipment, tools, odds, and ends that he no longer used or had seen the value in when he acquired them.
As a child, Jed had spent his spare time with his father rebuilding or restoring them. It was discovering him at a swap meet that started the two of them talking. Her father and Jed's uncle had gotten into a heated discussion about their favorite sports team and the outlook for the rest of the season. She could tell he was completely not into it.
Jed rolled his eyes and said, "Martha shall we stroll down to the refreshment stand to see what they had to offer?"
While walking to the vendors she learned that Jed was not into sports like most of the men she knew were. He saw it as entertainment for those who were too stupid to think. He would rather read a good book or watch a historical movie. With her father and brothers into sports too much she found that quite refreshing.
After getting a couple of cold beers they decided to take a stroll to see what the vendors in attendance were offering. An old black cane with a silver handle caught Jed's eyes. They stopped at the table so Jed could take a closer look at it. She caught him smile when he discovered something about it.
Martha watched in awe as he negotiated with the vendor until the price got low enough that he had found it acceptable enough to buy.
The sparkle in Jed's eyes was memorizing because that was the first time, she had seen him excited about anything. She could see the pride in his eyes as he held it in his hands as they checked a few other vendors out.
Walking away Jed said, "This cane was made in the eighteenth century. It's actually a gun that shoots bullets but not the kind we are used to."
Jed took the time to show how the handle quickly turned into the gun handle by unlocking a couple of the decorative ornaments on it. Once he unlocked the other end the length of the cane became the muzzle.
"It must be loaded with a ball and gun power to work.," Jed said. "When fired it gives off just a whiff of smoke. Once cleaned up and restored it will work like it was designed to. I estimate it can kill effectively within a hundred yards."
"If restored what will it be worth?" Martha asked.
"About ten times more than I paid for it," Jed replied before adding. "In today's market, but in ten years it could be worth even more. What helps to make this more valuable is the fact that they are now illegal to make."
From that moment on she began to see Jed in a different light as he did her. Jed found that talking to her led to some very stimulating conversations about farm life, the economy, where they thought it was going, and their dreams about life in general.
To be honest, Martha found his straightforwardness and honesty refreshing. Most of the men she had dated in the past had a bit of bull shit to them. With Jed, she did not.
When she asked about it Jed had replied "My parents taught me that if you could not be honest about the little things how could you be believed in something big. Life too short for trying to remember everything you said or did."
It was at the next neighborhood barn dance that their budding friendship began to evolve. It was a bring your own bottle sort of thing with local musicians volunteering their time. Jed arrived late to see her dancing with one of the local boys who was being a little aggressive. Being a warm summer night, she had worn a simple summer dress that had caught all the single men's attention.
She could tell as soon as she saw Jed that if Thomas Barnes did not cool it there was going to be trouble. For some reason, she had worn a soft pink dress that showed a lot of her cleavage. After their dance was over, she had gone back to join her family. Less than three dances later Jed came over and asked her to dance.
From their first dance, everyone seemed to know that Jed was putting his claim on her. Martha herself seemed quite pleased about it. Everybody thought that they would make a good couple if it all worked out.
All except for Thomas who had been trying to get an actual date with Martha for months. The more he watched them the more jealous he got. When Thomas drank too much he got loud and obnoxious. Tonight, he was consuming a lot because he thought Jed was stealing his girl.
No one was surprised when Thomas came onto the barn floor to interrupt Martha and Jed during a waltz. What surprised everyone was how easily Jed handled the situation. Within a couple of minutes, Thomas found himself outside the barn face down in the pigpen. Martha was beaming in pride and everybody knew it.
From that point on their relationship blossomed. They drove to the city for concerts, went dancing whenever they could, fished in local creeks, and had picnics down by the river. Together they had decided how to remodel the farmhouse. Over the winter they had worked to get it done. On the second Sunday in April, they had wed on her parent's front lawn.
Before the first of their four children were born, they had spent their spare time traveling looking for things that Jed could add to the collection of old equipment that his father had started. It had provided them both the time to grow deeper in their relationship with each other.
That had ended up forcing them to build two more huge storage buildings because once the tobacco was planted all he had to do was water the crops regularly and spray to protect them from the insects that could destroy them. One was crop was harvested if was left up to the corporate who had bought it in bulk on contract to make it marketable.
********
A few years back Jed had bought a three-D printer to build the molds to make the part that he needed for whatever piece of equipment that needed it. That way he could pour the liquid metal into them to make the part then dispose of it afterward.
Although it had taken a lot of time to master the printer it turned out to be a huge money and time saver. It could take months to find a special part and now he had it fabricated in a few weeks.
Every six months because of the agricultural chemicals he was dealing with regularly he had his and the hired help's blood drawn by the family doctor and sent out to be analyzed. To date, there had never been a problem.
After his latest checkup, Jed was surprised to be called back into the doctor's office. He was wondering what medical problem had been discovered and hope it was not something that needed surgery.
The doctor had the county Sherriff there when he was told why. He had Arsenic in him when his employees didn't. Jed was even more surprised to learn that someone could be trying to slowly poison him using a chemical found in rat killer. Unlike what was seen in movies rat poising had never killed a human but could make them sick.
Arsenic was a natural chemical found in the ground, so minut quantities could be found in most humans but the quality found in his system would take him down for good within a year if the doctor had not caught it. The doctor prescribed some heavy chelating agents to be taken externally while they conducted further tests.
The doctor took a few hairs with the stems on so that they could be analyzed to learn when it had started and how long it had been going on. Once that was done, they would get together to try to figure out who or what was behind it.
After a long heated discussion where he had to go through every chemical used in any manner by him on the farm, the three of them concluded that none of them had a clue to who was doing it or why it was being done. The chemicals he was using to protect his tobacco crop did not contain what they were looking for.
Three weeks later the Doctor discovered thanks to the tests that the chemical design being used on him was not available in the North American market. Thus, proving that what was being done to Jed was deliberate. That is when things got serious. Since it had to be imported the three of them began to get the full picture and knew it was not a one-time accident.
Though there was no direct proof all three were starting to believe that all things pointed towards his wife Martha. The question was why? For the rest of the afternoon, the local Sherriff and Jed started to put a plan in place.
It was during this time that the tests done on his hair had revealed the poisoning of him had begun just after his last blood sample had been drawn.
About two weeks later a Thursday Sherriff Ranger Garrison stopped off at the farm because he needed Jed to fill in as a temporary member of the force while one of his men was off dealing with a private matter. At that time none of them knew he would not be returning. After discussing it with Martha and Jed, Jed reluctantly agreed to fill in for the three-month duration. Their after harvesting annual vacation would have to be postponed.
That Saturday when Martha and Jed went out for the day to look after a few minor things the Sherriff's team moved in. It took them about four hours to copy the hard drive on her personal computer and plant a program that would give them access to everything she did. They also took samples of drinks and prepared foods while making sure that nothing could be noticed.
On the Monday that Jed was supposed to be starting his first day, he spent the day figurately getting a body cleansing at the University Hospital. Over the day they replaced his red blood cells and did a bowel cleansing. It was the only way to make sure that there was no Arsenic still in his system.
During that day Jed learned that the poison had been given to him in small doses to start about six months ago but over the last month the amount had doubled. Thankfully, they had caught it in its early stages so there should not be any permanent damage.
Before he got home, he decided to explain to the wife that with the twelve-hour workdays he now had to put in, he thought that he would eat in town while he was working. Martha accepted that simple fact, but he knew she was not happy about it.
On Tuesday Jed's first official day in uniform Sherriff Ranger Garrison informed him that all the food and beverage samples had been sent to the state's forensics for testing. The hard drive had been forwarded to the Cyber Security division of the F.B.I.
It took about three weeks for the reports to get back. The arsenic had been found in the Orange Juice that she made from a frozen can. Jed assumed that he had fed it to himself when he drank a couple of screwdrivers after supper. That night before going home he bought a bottle of rye and a six-pack of cokes.
The cyber report was interesting as it revealed that a few friendships Martha had developed over a couple of years were with twelve writers, she had met through literotica.com. Some were male, some were female but there was no romantic relationship between them.
It had started out like most on-line relationships but had evolved as they learned about her growing hate for her life as it was.
They all had one thing in common they all believed thanks to Martha's point of view that Jed Stevens was to set in his ways, and he had to go. At first, they discussed turning the land against him but soon realized that whatever scheme they produced would put the farmhands in danger and Martha did not want that to happen. The other problem was that anything they did would destroy the value of the land in the retail market.
The other problem was that Martha did not have the technical knowledge to cause an industrial accident without it being obvious. The way Jed had to be killed had to be done in such a way that it could not be considered deliberate.
Between the twelve of her new online friends from six different countries after looking at all ways to kill a human under the guise that they were discussing further story idea's they came up with the idea of using arsenic.
It was clear from the transcripts of their conversations that the twelve were encouraging her to hate. They tore apart without knowing everything about the life Jed and Martha had built together since they got married.
Both Jed and the Sherriff found that their long-term relationship with Martha showed that these were deliberately encouraging Martha's hate for their own personal reasons. Repeatedly planting lies over and over again slowly convinced even an innocent person to believe them.
Copies of the shipping manifest addressed to her showed how the arsenic came in and who supplied it, but the authorities believed that the information would be considered circumstantial and not strong enough for an extraction order to be granted.
Sadly, the twelve who conspired to encourage Martha's hate to satisfy their agenda would never be held accountable and were free to repeat their pattern of behavior on another future person who could be easily led.
The investigation into them had been so detailed that they had current images, addresses, and phone numbers. Each one of the twelve had its own bibliography which was incredibly detailed. The cooperation of Interpol and British contacts was overwhelming.
What Jed and Sherriff Ranger Garrison could not figure out why these twelve felt they had the right to interfere with another human's life. Who were they to decide if life had value or not?
Jed when no one was around scanned and printed out copies about the individuals for later use. He would know these individuals in time better than they knew themselves. American justice may not be able to touch them but in time justice would.
In his spare time at home, he began the process of designing a small new weapon that would shoot a small one-inch pin eight feet that had been dipped in a liquid made from the seed of Rosary peas. Once mastered he would need twelve of them.
While the seeds from this plant are not poisonous if intact, seeds that have been liquefied are lethal. It only takes three micrograms of the chemical abrin which is found in them to kill an adult. It stops the human body's protein synthesis in the cells. Within four days their organs start to fail. By day seven most victims were dead.
In its pure liquid form, all the pin had to do was prick a spot that would bleed and the abrin would enter the bloodstream in its consecrated state. The result would be that the process could be speeded up bringing on death faster.
The beauty of using this as an instrument to cause death was that the time of infection could never be determined. The one-inch paper-thin pin would disappear into its surroundings once making contact never to be found. Most would likely be swept into the garbage when they mopped the floors.
On the last day of Jed Stevens's employment, they took Martha Stevens in and charged her with attempted murder. The first thing the Judge did was issue a court order that she be held for a physical and mental evaluation. It was learned when it was done that Martha was bi-polar and was suffering from a bout of long-term severe depression.
Jed gave her firm a thirty-day notice of eviction and filed for a divorce. He also got a restraining order which ordered her to stay at least two hundred and fifty feet away from him.
When their four children found out they all came home. At first, they believed what was happening was impossible. After reviewing the evidence with the Sherriff and Jed all their doubts had been answered.
Jed put most of the farm up for sale except for the house and ten acres which he decided to keep for himself. That way he could keep all the outbuildings and the family collection of old machinery and related farming products. With the loss of the land for farming, he would have to reinvent himself.
It took two months for the case to come to trial. Martha was found guilty of attempted murder and was given a sentence of five to ten years. Their children together had moved their mother's items out of the house and into storage. Their eldest daughter who was managing her affairs quickly sold her accounting business to one of her Mother's former employees.
Jed had just come out of the courthouse after hearing his divorce had been granted. Martha would get three-quarters of the money from the sale of the land, but he kept the ten acres, the house, and the equipment in his barns.
With the drama behind him, Sherriff Ranger Garrison offered him a permanent position in the Sherriff's department. Jed gladly accepted wearing the badge thanks to his military training. Within six months he was the most respected Deputy in the county.
When his first official two-week holiday came up Jed Stevens went on a tour of England. He was seen in Liverpool England on a Saturday afternoon with the group he was with having lunch at a typical British restaurant pub having an order fish and chips.
Its owner and chief cook were known as BlueStar79 in Literotica. There was nothing that would make the balding man outstanding except the locals called him Humpty dumpty because of his body shape and his apparent childish behavior.
As he paid the man for the food before taking it to his table, he could be seen holding a pen in his hand. No one seemed to notice BlueStar79 rub the side of his neck just before Jed finished making payment.
Seven days later that man died from organ failure. Every organ in his body slowly quit working until his heart gave out. It was a slow lingering scornful death that showed no mercy. A living hell for those watching it. Watching a loved one die is something no one wishes on another.
It was as if the gates of hell were giving them all a taste of what was to come for him. Medical officials could not explain why and nothing they had tried had been able to reverse or stop it.
The family could not understand the postcard that got delivered to their door after his death. All it said was one down eleven to go.
After all, hate always wins.
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