I am sitting here in my cell awaiting the guards to take me down the long corridor for my execution by lethal injection. It seems that I couldn't convince a jury of twelve of my peers that I was justified in killing four people on July 4^th five years ago. I've had my last meal and the padre has already blessed my soul and prayed for me. But I really don't give a good Damn. I was right in what I did and if I have to die to make things right then so be it. Maybe it will end my misery too.

I'm sure you would like to know what this is all about, right? We let me start about ten years ago. My name is Billy Bob Sherman, Yeah I know who in their right mind names their kids such names, well my parents had a sense of humor, but it was skewed a little. Anyway, I was 22 at the time and was due to graduate from college with highest honors, actually fifth in my class of 984 graduates. When I was tested in high school my IQ was 142. So you say how come I took four years to graduate college if I was so smart, well I graduated with three degrees, that's how come it took all four years.

I did all that studying for those three degrees, plus had my football career. I was the middle linebacker for our Bobcat team. In college I stood 6'-1 and weighted 205 I could run like the wind and hit like a tank. I think that is why my nickname was Tank like Sherman Tank. Only I was known as Tank Sherman. Anyway in my last year I met a girl that changed my life. She was Mary Lou Singer, 5-3, 98lbs of pure unadulterated sex goddess. Mary Lou could give hardons to brass statues. She was a walking, talking wet dream and somehow she decided that I was going to go somewhere and she latched on to me and wouldn't let go. Not that I was complaining mind you. But besides all the outside glamour, Mary Lou was smart too. She was only two spots below me in the class standings.

We met in February just before Valentine's Day as I was going into the library and she was coming out. Someone said something to me and I turned around and she bumped into me about five feet from the door. She of course crashed to the ground and all her books and papers scattered. I on the other hand had only felt a slight jar and that was it. I heard, "Oh shit!" and turned back around to see this vision of loveliness sprawled on the ground amidst books and papers blowing in the slight breeze. I immediately knelt down and started grabbing papers and books with a giant paw and offering a hand out to the angel to help her get up.

"Are you alright Miss? I'm sorry if I knocked you down. I heard someone call my name behind me and turned to see who it was and I..." That was as far as I got in my apology when I met those emerald green orbs that sucked my life and soul right out of me and into them. I was frozen in that spot, captured by the gaze of that redheaded pixie on the ground. I think she had a somewhat similar experience as neither of us moved. Someone else came up the library steps and was trying to help us, and until Bubba Harkins slapped me on the back I hadn't moved and I don't think Mary Lou did either. Bubba had come out of the library's other door and had seen what happened and was trying to help. Bubba knew that I had sworn off girls so that I could get as much education as I could because I needed that to get out of my home life.

My home town was Wimberley, Texas it is a small town southwest of Austin and northwest of San Marcos. It is kind of a touristy town with its weekend markets and art galleries. But there is nothing for me there. My parents died in a car crash during my second year in college and my aunt is an unmarried spinster who is some thirty years older than me. At my twenty she was fifty-two but looked and acted as though she was in her eighty's and so set in her ways that she was determined that I would be raised by the values she got from her parents who were Quakers. She disavowed modern appliances and had no electricity in her home outside of town. She didn't have a telephone either. If she had had her way, I would not have finished school, I was needed to farm her twenty acres because she was getting to the point she could no longer manage the farm by herself. I let her know in no uncertain terms that I was an adult and that she would not be running my life, however she got it in her head that since my parents will had stipulated that she was to be my guardian upon their death then she would rule my life for me. I tried to explain to her that once I attained majority age, she no longer had that control over me legally. It didn't work, I had to get a court order for her to cease and desist. I guess that was the last straw, because two weeks after the court hearing, she died in her sleep.

I had come home for a weekend to my family home to see if there was any interest in selling my home since I was at school all the time. I decided to check in with my Aunt Mildred. She didn't answer my call to her when I drove into her driveway. I first looked around the farm and I saw nobody, I then checked the house and found her in bed and cold. I called 911 and told them I needed the sheriff and the county coroner as I found my aunt dead in her bed. That took forever to get taken care of so now I had a house in town and a 20 acre farm and no relatives. I never knew my father's family. I think there was some bad blood concerning him marrying my mother who was seven years older than him. I really don't know any more about that. Anyway, I had no home life to speak of so I was on my own.

Okay, back to that day outside the library. Once Mary Lou and I met I asked her if she would like to have a coffee or coke to make sure I hadn't hurt her. She said she would love to sit and talk. We walked down the hill from the library and sat and talked and got to know each other. I couldn't believe that we sat there and talked for almost four hours. Thank God it was a Saturday and we had no classes. After that meeting we saw each other many times on campus and I finally asked her for a date a couple of weeks later. I checked around and from what I could find out about her, she had dated quite a few guys, but they never lasted long. I finally found one guy that she had dated that I knew, Jerry Hansen, one of our strong safeties. I asked why he broke up with her or was it the other way around.

"Tank, she and I had a great time for a while, a couple of months, but then it seemed that she and I were into different things. I wanted a more long term relationship and she didn't so we broke up. I guess we decided that we were just not right for each other, but I wish you luck." That was it, he never told me the real reason they broke up, but I'll get into that later.

So we dated until I graduated as she was still a junior and I went to Houston to find a job. I had bachelor degrees in business management, computer systems and electrical engineering and had gotten offers from several companies. During the first couple of months after school I was interviewing at several companies and one stood out from the rest. It was a company located in Tomball, Texas, about 35 miles north-northwest of Houston off IH-45. The benefits were great, the place was a small town, and a bedroom community for Houston. The population was just over nine thousand people. I found a nice apartment and settled in to make my mark in the world. I did get to visit with Mary Lou and on weekends when I wasn't working and on some holidays. But my main interest was getting started in saving for a future, be it with Mary Lou or someone else. Long distance relationships don't really work very well and ours fizzled out after Christmas that first year. I didn't hear from her again for quite a while.