Chapter 1: Roadside Encounter

I never expected to end up with three wives. This is how it happened.

It was a snowy Friday in winter. I had just buried my mother some three days before and was heading back to Georgia - traveling from her home in the Black Hills. The back of my AWD Sienna was filled with 'stuff' willed to me when Dad died a few years back, and a few family items Mom wanted me to have.

Included in Dad's legacy were several rifles and pistols, hundreds of rounds of ammo for each, field glasses, two 60's era army down-filled sleeping bags, camping gear, two old metal canteens with web belts, fishing tackle, you know, 'stuff.'

Why two sets? Dad and I did a lot of camping when I was growing up. We liked to target shoot, but neither of us were hunters. Fishing was our game.

Now I have to confess, some of that 'stuff' was mine - stowed with Dad while I was transferred around during a four and a half years stint in the Army Signal Corps. I acquired a bum left knee in an auto accident, and the Army decided I was no longer soldier material. I wasn't fast, but I could still walk forever...

I guess that I should also confess that some of Dad's weapons had been 'liberated' and were not legal for civilians to own. Among them were two Vietnam Era M-16s and an M-14 with an automatic fire selector switch. Mine now. Where the hell was I going to keep them? No doubt but that I was...

So here I was, slowly tooling through the Black Hills, approaching Needles Highway. On this stretch, the snow was somewhere between three and four inches deep and slowly falling in large fluffy flakes. I was already regretting my decision to travel on, and now I had to pee.

There are not exactly a lot of public restrooms in that area - and damned few facilities of any kind open long after tourist season ended. There were other complications, and we'll get to them.

I was looking for a wide spot to pull over, when I rounded a curve and found one. Two cars occupied the pullover - one had slewed off the road into a ditch, and the second was close behind it, blocking it from the road. Both were covered with a couple of inches of snow, and the tire tracks and some footprints were mostly covered.

I parked and called out to see if anyone would respond. With no answer, I loosed my hose and let fly into the ditch beside the road. I was zipping up when I heard screaming from the nearby trees, and a dark-haired woman ran out towards the second car.

She was sobbing and gasping, and tears and snot were running down her cheeks. She was dressed in jeans, a ripped flannel shirt, and one walking shoe.

"Over here," I called, and she halted to turn towards me.

"They're killing him!" she sobbed. "Please help us."

"I'll try," I replied, "but I need to know what's going on."

"Two men," she gasped out, "back in the woods - maybe a half mile. We stopped to help when we saw their car skidded off the road there, and they pulled big knives and forced us to go with them. There is a cabin back there, and they stripped off my jacket and were going to rape me.

"Jack broke loose and kicked one between the legs. The other guy clubbed him down, and they tied him to a tree. They were torturing him with a big knife. I broke loose and ran back here. He may be dead by now."