Chapter 1: "The Death"

July 1993

"Stupid bitch!" Jimmy Oglethorpe screamed as he produced a switchblade from his pants pocket, opened it and lunged dangerously at Becky Daily's midsection missing her by a mere fraction of an inch.

Meanwhile, as Becky was attempting to reason with Jimmy, his two brothers, Sammy and Bert, had moved to blocking positions on each side of her boyfriend, Ethan Barns. He was surrounded on all sides. To his front was his candy-apple red 1968 Mustang, to the rear Jimmy's pickup truck and on his sides were Jimmy's two brothers.

When Ethan attempted to jump over the rear of the car so he could get to Jimmy, the two grabbed him by the arms and held him forcefully at bay and, it seemed to Ethan an almost horribly surreal moment compared to the calm tranquility of a few minutes ago when he had arrived there.

Ethan Barns loved his high school sweetheart, Becky Daily, and would have married her after graduation had they both not had the good sense to know that neither of them was ready for that kind of commitment. Both of them knew how hard it was to raise a family on the limited incomes provided by the few jobs available in the small rural farming community so they decided to wait a few years and build a nest egg before starting a family together.

When one lives in a small town like Magnolia Georgia, job prospects are limited and they really had very few choices, either work at the local chicken processing plant or join the military.

Since the only time Ethan liked dead chickens was when they were on his plate covered in barbeque sauce, he chose the military.

It almost broke Becky's heart when Ethan told her that he had joined the Army after high school hoping to save up enough for a future for the two of them. She cried in his arms as she said to him, "I just know you're going to meet someone and never want to come back! You're going be just like everyone else and forget about this shit hole town and me."

But he took her in his arms and assured her that he would return to take her away with him. When he did leave her, she honestly thought she would never see him again. She felt hopeless that day. She couldn't even join the Army herself, a childhood injury to one ear had left her with a hearing loss and made sure that would never happen. So there she was, stuck in that awful little town, facing whatever nowhere low-paying job she could find to survive on.

Of course, the first thing the Army did was ship him out and, as fate would have it, for most of the seven years since his enlistment, other than on the occasional leave, he was stationed too far away from Becky to see her.

After Basic Training, he had taken his A.I.T., Advanced Individual Training or job training in the civilian world, at Aberdeen Proving Grounds Maryland for eighteen months and then was stationed at Fort Ord, California for six months. That was followed by three years in at Fort Benning Georgia, then three years in Germany, and then a year in Korea. Until finally, after spending the last year in Korea, Ethan had been shipped stateside to Fort Benning where he was to spend the last six months of his eight-year military career.

Ethan loved her so much and had spent too much time away from her.

His enlistment was almost up and so, the first thing he did when he hit stateside was to take his leave. Ethan drove back to Magnolia so he could ask Becky to marry him.

During the trip he ran over and over in his mind how he would propose to her only to forget everything. Instead, he simply asked her as soon as she opened the door.

She accepted without reservation and the two of them decided to go out for the night and celebrate.

After Becky went inside and retrieved her purse, the couple began walking to the street where Ethan's car was parked. Just as they were about to get into it, Jimmy and his two brothers, Sammy and Bert, the town's resident bullies, pulled up in an old beat-up black pickup.

They were such troublemakers that some of the local town's folk had not so affectionately started calling them the "Red Tornados", partly because of the red hair they all had but mostly because everywhere they seemed to go violence and disaster followed them.

Jimmy jumped out of the back of the pickup truck, staggered a bit, recovered his balance and then held the beer can he was holding upside down above him as he gulped down its contents. When the can was empty, he summarily threw the beer can directly at Ethan in a sign of utter contempt. All the while yelling at Becky, the enraged redhead started walking around the car until he stood in front of her.

From the way he was acting, it was plain to see that the man was drunk which made him all the more dangerous.

Ethan and Becky both knew this and Ethan could see the fear on her face. There had long been a rumor running around town about how Jimmy treated women. As the rumor went, Jimmy had gotten drunk one night after he picked up one of the local girls. Supposedly he had beaten and raped the girl. While he denied the rumor vehemently and would beat senselessly anyone he heard repeating it, it didn't help his case when she showed up three days later at school with several bruises all over her face and arms. Nor did it help when she showed up pregnant three months later and then suddenly disappeared.

Another version of the sordid story added that the girl had been given an undisclosed some of money by Doc Harris and then "escorted" out of town by the local sheriff.

"I told you not to see him any more. You're my girl now!" Jimmy yelled at Becky in a slurred voice that usually comes after several hours of consuming too much alcohol.

Calmly she replied, "You're drunk Jimmy. Go home and sleep it off. Maybe when you wake up in the morning you'll remember that we only went out once."

She hadn't known about his reputation back then so Becky had dated him. Now she regretted it though, for every time he drank, Jimmy would come track her down and harass her as he attempted to assert his ownership over her.

But this time he was in rare form, Becky guessed he must have been set off when he heard that Ethan was back in town.

Unfortunately, Jimmy's blood alcohol level was far too high for his brain to be functioning much higher than that of a rabid dog and he was enraged beyond belief. The inebriated man reached wildly for her blouse. It was obvious that he intended to tear it off, her leaving her exposed for all to see. "What are you doing with him? Didn't I tell you that you're mine?"

All the while, Ethan was protesting loudly as he struggled to free himself so he could help Becky.

"Jimmy, I've told you before that this cave man attitude of yours doesn't work with me. I can see anyone I want. Now go on home! I'm not going to argue with you any more." She told him flatly and started to get into the car.

Jimmy grabbed her and when he missed her blouse, the drunken man reached for her arm as he yelled once more. "Since you want to act like a slut, why don't you show us all what a whore you really are and do me right here?"

Becky slapped Jimmy hard on the left side of his face and pulled her arm away from him.

From the force Becky's hand had impacted his face, there could be no doubt that he would have a large red welt the next morning.

That's when Jimmy yelled at her "Stupid bitch! No body hits me! Nobody!" and took out the switchblade from his pants pocket and pressed the stud that exposed the knife's deadly blade. He was well beyond reasoning now and just seemed to be ignoring her as he thrust the knife in her direction. Luckily, the drunken man missed her midsection by a mere fraction of an inch, mostly because she jumped back just at the last second before impact.

Ethan knew that Jimmy was going to try again; he had seen a few of his Army buddies get this drunk before and also knew that when they were in that condition, there was no reasoning with them. He feared for Becky's life but with Sammy and Bert holding him Ethan couldn't get to her. Ethan also knew that if he didn't do something fast Jimmy was going to kill her.

Seeing what looked like a .38 revolver protruding from the right side pocket of Sammy's blue-jean jacket, Ethan tried in vain to free his left arm free from Sammy's grasp.

Cursing the two men, Ethan began struggling violently with the two brothers but they held him tightly. In desperation, he stomped down hard with the heal of his left boot onto the instep of Sammy's right foot causing the man to wince in pain and momentarily loosen his grip. It was all Ethan needed and he suddenly broke his left arm free long enough to grab the pistol.

Before either of the two men holding him could react, Ethan snapped off a single shot just as Jimmy lunged as he made another attempt to cut Becky with the knife for the second time.

Jimmy grimaced for a second and then dropped the knife, which slid in the direction of Ethan's car and disappeared. Blood began pulsing from a dark spot in the center of his chest all over the Budweiser tee-shirt he was wearing. Jimmy fell to his knees and continued his downward decent face first to the ground and lay there motionless.

He lay there with his life's blood pouring onto the ground, creeping ever so slowly around him until it found its way up to his face and hair.

The two brothers ran to aid their fallen sibling but it was too late, Jimmy was already beyond help. Later, the coroner's examination would reveal that the mortal wound had entered the man's chest on the right side, penetrated his right lung, continued through his heart and then entered his left lung killing him almost instantly.

While Ethan had been trained by the Army how to kill, they had never showed him what it would actually look like. The reality is that all the training in the world doesn't prepare anyone how to live with it afterwards. He just stood there stunned, unable to move as a sickening feeling grew in the pit of his stomach.