Chapter 1

Stillwater, Wisconsin is a small community, not dramatically different than many other small communities in America. It offers its five thousand or so residents an opportunity to enjoy a peaceful life among some of nature's most beautiful lands. It offers those same residents opportunities to work in their choice of several industries having factories located in or around Stillwater. A modest shopping center, with two chain department stores that are the featured draws in that mall provide a variety of shopping opportunities. There are numerous churches, doctors, lawyers and a much better than average school system. The nearest larger city, offering more of the same on a somewhat grander scale, is about fifty miles west, and yet it only offers more of the same opportunities. There is nothing that approximates the life style of a large metropolitan area, like Chicago or New York or Los Angeles. That lifestyle, if you polled the adult residents of Stillwater, would be a pretty radical change from how they lived in Stillwater. Life was much calmer here.

At seventeen, Kyle Monson was in his final year of high school. Throughout much of the day his mind focused on considering all of his options, or at least all those that he could imagine, for life after high school. He wasn't sure about college; that much he did know. Last summer, some scouts from major league baseball had come to several of his summer league games, and one had talked to him then about his aspirations, but nothing more was ever said. He did enjoy playing baseball and he really did think he had the skills and talent necessary to play big league baseball, but he also knew that every kid who played baseball probably thought the exact same thing about himself.

Kyle's mother, Rose, very much wanted him to go on to college. He was smart enough, she told him often, and he did have a B+ grade average, so that was a consideration, too. His dad, Al, thought a stint on the Army or the Navy would be best. "Makes you into a real man," he would say, every time the subject came up.

Rose and Al would have extended discussions about the merits of each alternative, but nothing was ever concluded from those conversations. Neither person would acknowledge the validity of even the slightest point that the other person made. It was a silly discussion, one that repeated itself nearly every week now. It was beginning to upset Kyle because he had concluded that neither his mom nor his dad ever gave any consideration to what he wanted. He had thought about the military, didn't know what branch yet, as an option, and he even gave college some serious thought.

The thing about college that he pondered was how kids actually decided on a career. Was there some special test, or technique, or did it just sort of "come to them in a dream"? There were only two things that were important to him in his life, playing baseball and being with Stephanie.

Ah yes, Stephanie. Stephanie Meyers, sixteen year old, five feet six inches tall, medium length blond hair, dark brown eyes, a gorgeous smile, and cute as a button. Yes, that Stephanie Meyers, his girl friend for the past three years, ever since he met her the summer before she started in high school. Yes, that Stephanie Meyers, the same one that he had spent every Saturday evening with, first at her house, then when her parents trusted him, on walks around town, and finally, when he was old enough to drive, on dates to the movies or pizza or who knows where else. Yes, that Stephanie Meyers, the same one he was in love with so much that nothing else mattered, oh, except maybe the question that his history teacher had just asked him while he was daydreaming about Stephanie. Um, what was the question again??? Yes, it was THAT Stephanie Meyers.

Melody and John Meyers arrived in Stillwater in the middle of the summer, just about three and a half years ago, following John's transfer by his company, and the subsequent promotion. John was now the Vice President and General Manager of one of the local manufacturing plants. His responsibilities and the success of his operation provided employment for nearly three hundred workers from the area. His promotion was truly a meaningful event in his career, and established that he was in a line of development for even greater opportunities within the parent company.

Melody and John had both come from families of privilege. As children, their parents were loving, caring and provided for them in almost every way, and each set of parents made certain that their children had outstanding educational opportunities, including attending prestigious colleges and universities. John is the younger of two children, while Melody was the youngest of four other girls. Like her sisters before her, and like his older brother, both Melody and John graduated, with honors, from one of the Ivy League schools.

John and Melody have two children, both girls. Sue-Ellyn is three years older than Stephanie. While still a child of modest intelligence, she is certainly not as bright as Stephanie, or as either of her parents. This was more than amply demonstrated when, during the very early hours of a Saturday morning, John had been awakened unexpectedly and left the warmth and comfort of his bed to verify the security and welfare of his children and home. He was more than shocked and less than amused to discover a young man sleeping beside the naked body of his elder daughter, both having fallen asleep after enjoying all of the comforts that she could offer the young man.

The subsequent and immediate result was a cacophony of voices, John's, Sue-Ellyn's, then Melody's, and then the sound of John's fist against the tender jaw of a young man as he made his way back to the same window through which he had previously crawled. Then the voices of the policemen, and the boy's parents, and by the time every thing returned to its previous level of tranquility, it was nearly time for breakfast.

The more lasting impact of Sue-Ellyn's indiscretion was the establishment of new rules of conduct, limitations on dating, curfew hours and some even less noteworthy attempts to retrieve and restore a certain young lady's lost virginity. All of these new regulations, in turn, applied to Stephanie as she began high school. Initially, dating at thirteen was out of the question. Being new to the community and new to the school, meeting and making friends, a challenge for new kids under normal circumstances, became almost impossible for Stephanie. Although she was disappointed by the ruling, and upset with her sister for causing it, Stephanie obeyed her mother and honored her wishes. She came directly home after school and spent all weekend at home, studying. But Stillwater is a smaller city, compared to their previous residence, and John, as well as the entire family, was in a much more visible position within the community. Restricting his younger daughter from selected weekend activities at the high school began to be noticed by members of the community, no doubt prompted by certain less than complimentary comments made by the parents of a certain boy. While no one knew the whole story, the part of the story that continued to be passed from person to person was that John Meyers had little regard for the young men of Stillwater and would not allow his daughter to socialize with them.

John first learned of this during a telephone conversation with his immediate boss, the corporate vice president, who counseled him that, "While his family life was his own business, it became the company's business when it had such a negative impact." John was stunned. Leaving work much earlier than usual that afternoon, John returned home to explain the problem to Melody. By dinnertime, the rules for Stephanie were revised to require only that she first introduce her date to her parents, and that he provide a telephone number for his parents, in the event of an emergency. The weekend curfew was changed to be midnight, or one hour after the end of an event, whichever was later. Stephanie was encouraged to attend all after school activities of her choosing, and to feel free to participate in any that interested her as well.

Three weeks later, while in the stands of the last home football game of the season, she happened to bump into another student walking in the aisle ahead of her. Bump into really isn't a fair description; was pushed into is more appropriate. Pushed into while they were walking down the stairs of the stands by two rowdy students who thought the stands an appropriate place to wrestle, or at least to shove others around, causing several more students to fall to the floor of the stands. Pushed into so that Stephanie slid on her front, up the body of the young man, who had landed on his back and innocently put out both hands to protect himsef from others falling on him. Pushed into, so that when she stopped falling and sliding, she was face to face with that student, a very handsome student whom she did not know, whose hands were cupping her breasts on top of her bra, but inside her blouse, the buttons of which had instantly torn away in the commotion. Once the shock of the landing passed, she knew immediately where his hands were, and the instant she began to move around, as the others began to stand up, he knew also. The feeling, the pleasure, the softness, and warmth of her breasts was not lost on him, but being the gentleman that his parents had raised, he declined to even acknowledge his good fortune, much less make a spectacle of it. As she began to lift off of his chest, he immediately moved his hands to her rib cage before anyone else could see, thus hopefully saving the girl great embarrassment. When they had regained their feet, he saw that her blouse was torn and that she was having to hold it closed with her hand. He offered his jacket to the obviously embarrassed girl, which she accepted with a grateful smile.