Chapter 1

I am on my way home with another of those horrible headaches. The doctors at the V.A. say they are caused by the metal plate in my head. I doubt their conclusions. That plate has been there for ten years and the headaches started about 5 months ago. Just about the same time my wife of three years went to work as a receptionist for that law firm in town.

Let me give you some background. First me. I am Bobby Turner. I was a Marine for 4 years back in the ‘60’s. You guessed it. I was hit by a gook mortar (I’ll call them what I damn please, remember I am the one with a plate in my head). After a few months in various hospitals I was discharged and came home to the farm.

Let’s make this short and sweet. I was on disability. Not really enough to live on so I went back to school. Now I am a heavy equipment operator for the county. I keep a grader and a back-hoe in my barn out back of the house. Usually on days like today I am out with the grader smoothing out the sand roads in the county. But today was an “office day”. That’s what we called sitting in a classroom going over all the new federal, state and county regulations. I sat listening for about two hours when I decided I had to lay down. My boss was aware of my medical condition and did not object when I told him I needed to leave. Like I told you before I do not think these headaches are caused by that plate in my head.

There is a disturbance in the force.

Six months ago my wife decided she wanted to go to work. I objected. Our house and farm was passed down to me when my dad died. With my disability and my job we had more than enough money but she insisted and I caved. She found work at a law office as a receptionist. I warned her about the son of the founder of the firm. I knew him from school. He was tall handsome and rich of course. But he was a real ladies man. He dated every good looking girl in school and always bragged about his conquests. We both played sports and in the locker room he walked around naked bragging about his big cock and how no girl could resist it. Like the song says, “rich kids go to college, poor kids go to war.” That’s exactly what happened. When I came home he was a lawyer and I had a plate in my head.

Last night my wife and I had another argument. I want to start a family. She wants to wait. How much longer? She is un-certain. But she keeps looking away when we talk. I know something is wrong and I think I know what it is.

Now let’s talk about my wife Sue. I met her four years ago. She had went to work out of high school as a receptionist at a factory. She had boyfriends and was not a virgin. No problem neither was I. We dated over a year before I asked her to marry me. She had grown up in a city two counties over and never lived on a farm. But she told me that was a dream of hers. Living out in the country, having a horse and tending a garden. She wanted four kids. Sounds like my perfect woman. We married and everything was great for the first couple of years. I bought us two horses and we rode a lot. We even started doing overnight trips and camped in the forest. Then she started with the wanting to go to work. I suspected something but I could not put my finger on anything.