Betsy
- 2 years ago
- 34
- 0
For the most part celebrities, politicians and other public figures, enjoy seeing themselves on television. It was as if each appearance on television was another notch in their belt. The exception was when the destruction of their career was being broadcast to a large audience. At that time, they would rather see the television cease to exist, and wish that the printing press had never been invented.
A television program titled, ‘Corruption In Paradise,’ was being broadcast. It presented the Betsy Carter case starting from the moment the 911 call was made by Steve Shelton, with video taken from the dashboard of the first police car that showed up at the Iota Nu Nu frat house.
Patrolman Alex Manning was at home watching his world crumble in front of his eyes. Video and audio from the video camera in one of the patrol cars clearly showed him threatening the witness who had reported the incident to emergency operator. He hadn’t even been bribed to do it, knowing that Ivan would reward him for protecting his son.
Alex was fully aware of the fact that Malcolm was a serial rapist. That night hadn’t been his first time to be called to the scene of one of Malcolm’s crimes. He had arrived on the scene expecting to learn that another woman had been brutally abused. Malcolm was a sadist. He made sure that his victims were not ever in a state to testify against him.
He had been on the scene for a little more than five minutes when he had learned that the deceased was Malcolm, and not his intended victim. It had been a little awkward there for a moment, while he had to change the direction of his demands upon the witnesses. A couple of the other officers had snickered while watching him trying to recover.
The witness had been something else. Initially, he had tried to explain what he’d seen. After a few minutes, he’d realized the officer didn’t want to know the truth, but wanted to dictate the lie he was to tell. Then the witness had protested hiding the truth. When Alex had started with the threats, the witness’s face had turned stony and his eyes had narrowed. Alex had left, feeling that the witness had not been intimidated.
He had watched the video knowing that his career as a police officer was over. If he was lucky, all that would happen is he’d be kicked off the force. After all, he was just a bit player in the whole affair. Still, he didn’t think he’d be that lucky. He thought that he would end up serving time for his actions.
Mr. Dickerson, District Attorney, stared in horror while recordings of him were broadcast during prime time viewing hours. They were not a flattering recordings made in a setting of his choice. In the first video of him, he was shown at home, wearing his ratty old bathrobe. His hair wasn’t groomed at all. In another video, also taken in his home, he had been scratching his balls during most of it.
The first video segment of the broadcast showed a split screen video with him and Ivan Petrov, the father of Malcolm Petrov, discussing the Betsy Carter case. There was no doubt about what they were doing. Ivan wanted Betsy hung for killing his son.
The second video was a split screen image. One side showed him on the telephone ordering a hospital administrator to dispose of the blood sample and test results for the Betsy Carter case. The other side showed the hospital administrator agreeing to dispose of the material.
He couldn’t believe the quality of the video, and the sound. Not only was there no doubt that he was corrupt, he looked like a total rube.
His wife, who had silently watched the television program beside him, asked, “Were you really going to try to put that young woman away for life?”
There wasn’t much point in lying. They had just watched five minutes of him going about doing exactly that.
Tiredly, he answered, “Yes.”
“Would you do something for me before the police arrive?”
“What?”
His wife answered, “Get your gun, get in the car, drive downtown, and blow your brains out.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m serious. You’re a monster. You should be dead. I would kill you myself, but there are the children to consider. I don’t want to see you, I don’t want to touch you, and I don’t want you anywhere near my children.”
“Honey...”
“Don’t ‘Honey’ me, you sick fuck! Get your fucking gun, get the hell out here, and go kill yourself!”
“I...”
“You don’t need to write a suicide note. It’s being broadcast all over the fucking island!”
In a much richer part of the island, Ivan Petrov was watching the television program. He was angry on a number of levels.
He was angry at the television station for broadcasting his private business to the world. Someone was going to pay for that. He was angry at himself, for having discussed in such an explicit manner, matters of such a delicate nature in his home on his phone. He knew better than to talk about matters like that in his study or over the phone, but the death of his son had infuriated him, and his judgment had been a little off. It was understandable.
The idea that some slut had the gall to kill his boy made him sick. Women were nothing but whores. He could make a call and have a hundred women flown here from Moscow or St. Petersberg. They’d be on their backs by morning earning him cold hard cash. No bitch was going to kill his son and get away with it!
He called for Timur, the head of his security. Gesturing to the television, he asked, “What do you see there?”
“I see you in your study, talking on the telephone.”
Ivan asked, “How did a television station get that video?”
“I don’t know,” Timur answered breaking into a sweat.
Ivan reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a pistol. He shot Timur in the stomach. He came around from behind his desk and stood over the man who was writhing on the floor holding his stomach. Two of his men ran into the room while he emptied his pistol into the former head of his security. The men froze and watched Ivan.
Illia, his second in command, asked, “What happened?”
“He failed me.”
“I’ll get a couple of men in here to clean up.”
Ivan said, “There’s no time for that. Get the jet ready to go. We leave. Now!”
The limousine carrying Ivan, Illia, and the driver arrived at the hangar where his private jet was parked. The hangar was brightly lit with the jet parked in the middle of the building. Ivan and Illia got out of the car and looked around for the pilot who was supposed to be prepping the plane for flight, but the man was nowhere to be seen.
Looking around for the pilot, Ivan swore, “Where is that fucking pilot? We’ve got to get out of here before the police catch up to us.”
Staring at the jet, Illia said, “Sir, we’ve got a bigger problem than the pilot.”
“What?” Ivan asked irritated by how things were going.
“The tires are missing on the jet,” Illia said.
Ivan spun around and stared at the plane. He couldn’t believe his eyes. His multimillion dollar jet was standing on blocks. The jet wasn’t going anywhere.
“What the fuck happened to my jet?” Ivan asked.
A door slammed from the area where the offices were located. The two men turned to look at where the sound had originated. A Druid, wearing his red robe, stood outside the door with a smile on his face.
“Good evening. My name is Jimmy Lee, and I’m with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I have some questions about your visa.”
Illia reached inside his jacket and Ivan said, “If you pull out a gun, I’ll kill you myself.”
“There’s only one of him and two of us,” Illia said.
“He’s a Druid, you idiot. You don’t fuck with a Druid!”
“So?”
“Markov will make sure that you are tortured, and your children are tortured. Your grandchildren will be tortured, your great grandchildren will be tortured; and so on, for ten generations.”
“Markov? He’s in Russia.”
“You don’t fuck with Druids,” Ivan shouted.
Jimmy Lee said, “It’s nice dealing with people who have a little common sense.”
“Shut up,” Ivan muttered.
“I would appreciate it if you would please carefully place all of your weapons on the ground in front of you,” Jimmy Lee said.
In another house of a more moderate value, the Chief of Police watched a succession of videos in which a dozen members of the police force under his command accepted bribes to tamper with evidence and torture a prisoner. He wanted heads to roll, but he didn’t even know who to call. He suspected that there were still more people to be implicated in this mess.
“Did you know about this?” his wife asked.
“No,” he answered.
When he had asked about the case, he had been assured that it was an open and shut case. The girl had brutally murdered a boy during a party in front of a number of witnesses. The District Attorney was on the case, and was going to make sure that she got the maximum penalty possible.
His wife said, “What a mess.”
He said, “You’re telling me. I can’t even call up the District Attorney to start preparing arrest warrants. That asshole wouldn’t prepare one on himself, that’s for sure.”
“You’re going to have a lot of late nights.”
“No. I’ll probably lose my job over this,” he said feeling depressed.
“How about some ice cream?” she asked.
She knew that ice cream was one of his comfort foods. She remembered that time when he had shot a kid. He had come home after being suspended. She had never seen him so depressed. He was upset about the suspension, but more than that he was sickened at having shot someone. She had greeted him at the door with a bowl of chocolate ice cream and listened to him vent his feelings. They had both felt better afterwards.
“Sure. I’ll have some chocolate if we have it,” he answered.
His wife wouldn’t let him eat ice cream very often. In the darkest times together, they would sit and eat ice cream while talking. Now it was a very rare treat. She was afraid that it would raise his cholesterol.
He glanced at the television and all thoughts of ice cream fled his mind. He recognized the man talking to the DA. If he had thought things were bad, before, he knew that they were only going to get worse.
He shouted, “Jesus Christ. That fucking idiot. I can’t believe it. He just told a Druid to fuck off. That kind of stupidity should be fatal!”
“Calm down, dear. You’re aggravating your blood pressure.”
“Where’s my gun? I gonna kill him!”
Judge Jordan was seated at his desk writing a farewell letter to his family. He would occasionally glance up at the television dreading the moment when it was his turn in the spot light. It was going to be horrible.
He didn’t know whether it was stupidity or hubris that got him into this mess. He had known the girl was the daughter of a Druid, but he had dismissed that fact as irrelevant. After all, he was a judge – the final arbitrator of right and wrong. The only people he had to worry about were other judges and that wasn’t that big of a threat. They could over-rule his decisions, but they couldn’t toss him off the bench for bad judgment on one case.
He reached over and took a sip of cognac. It was the best that money could buy on the island. He had bought the bottle of Remy Martin Centaure de Diamant using the money with which he had been bribed. It was a coincidence that he had been drinking it when the television program had started broadcasting. He was well aware of the irony.
He knew exactly what was going to be shown. Ivan had sat in his office talking, detailing exactly what he wanted to happen to Betsy Carter. He had agreed to do what Ivan had demanded. He had taken an envelope full of money. He had counted it the moment Ivan had left the office. There would be no doubt that he was guilty.
Making him look even worse, Ivan had ranted about how cunts were on earth merely for men’s pleasure. Women were just cum dumps. Ivan may have believed that, but he didn’t. None the less, he had sat there and nodded his head while joking about sticking it to young bitches. It was just trash talk, a stupid attempt to keep Ivan happy.
His wife would kill him upon hearing him talk like that. He was glad that she was on the mainland, shopping. He hoped she never learned that her spending money came from Ivan to pay for incarcerating an innocent woman. She’d be ashamed.
“What a mess,” he muttered and took another taste of his cognac.
After looking over the letter, he couldn’t think of anything else to add. He’d covered all the bases – confession of his role in the Betsy Carter case, an apology for his past actions, a request begging forgiveness for his future actions, declaration of his love for his wife, and his regrets for things not done. He signed his name at the bottom of the letter.
He sealed the letter inside an envelope and wrote his wife’s name on it. He place the envelope on his desk where it would be found. He turned to watch the television hoping that he’d be able to destroy the letter. He’d do that only if he didn’t appear on the television program.
A segment came on with his discussion in chambers with Ivan. It then transitioned to a scene with him denying Betsy Carter bail. It was even worse than he had remembered.
He took out the pistol and looked at it. The time of action was upon him. His hand trembled. His heart was pounding in his chest. There was a rushing in his ears. He put the pistol to his head.
The thought that his wife would return from her trip, to discover his body after four days, stayed his hand.
“I can’t do that to her,” Judge Jordan said, slumping in his chair.
He walked out of the house. In clear sight of the neighbor’s homes, he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. His neighbors heard the shot, but ignored it.
Officer Laura Plante watched the television from her hospital bed. She had suffered serious injuries as a result of Tasing herself. Just about everyone who entered the room had teased her about it. They didn’t believe her when she said that Betsy had somehow turned the darts back at her. She knew it was impossible, but the girl had done it.
This whole nightmare had started with wanting to go skiing in Aspen. She’d been working overtime, without making much progress in saving enough money to pay for the trip. When she’d been offered a bribe to zap Betsy Carter with a Taser not just once, but over and over, she had jumped on the chance.
She watched the video of her taking a bribe to zap Betsy Carter with the Taser. Now all of her plans had unraveled. She wasn’t going to Aspen for vacation, she was going to jail for a long time. The little guy at the bottom always got the worst punishment.
Four-fifteen on a lightly raining morning marked what appeared to be the start of social disintegration in the life of Betsy Milton-Stewart. Betsy awoke to hear her husband Royce cry, ‘I don’t feel well.’ He coughed and gurgled, starved for air, dying of a massive coronary at 4:15. A former star athlete and regional Young Businessman of the Year winner, Royce (40) was publisher of The Sentinel, the morning newspaper for Milton Falls and outlying settlements. Regrettably for Betsy, that...
SIX Matilda McBride served lunch on the deck of her rough sawn timber-clad home that overlooked the Milton River, only half a mile upstream of the falls that gave the town its name. Easily the most vivacious widow in Milton Falls over the age of fifty, Matilda was dressed in a wildly splashed pink, yellow and green colored shirt and tight jeans that revealed only an entree of ‘dropped’ ass. Matilda had indirectly told her new friend and business associate, Betsy Milton-Stewart her age. In...
It was my first night at St. Marta's School for women, and had woken up when my roommate slid in to my bed with me.I had arrived with all the other girls, supposedly all raised in a religious environment, and all having a mother who had gone here before us. My mom and dad had never let me date, and the internet was something sent by the devil to lead me into temptation. I had been a little shocked at some of the language the other girls used when the nuns weren't around, but tried to not let...
With her business finished in Vancouver, Betsy stepped out of the jet looking fresh and alert. She was happy to be back in Hawaii. She was hungry and needed a little exercise. She somersaulted off the top step to the ground below. It wasn’t that great of a height, but it was enough to boost her energy level up another notch. Stacy followed behind her, looking a little worse for wear. It was obvious that she was tired. She had that rumpled look that came from sitting in a plane for too long....
Betsy topped the hill leading into town at a nice sedate run. At least, it was sedate for her. She was purposefully keeping her pace slow, so as to not look too anxious. Her eyes went immediately to the little store below. She smiled upon seeing that Chuck was seated outside. She frowned when he got out of his chair and raced into the store. She smiled when he came back out of the store carrying a sign. He held it up for her to see. It read, “Stop and try my Hawaiian Fruit Blast.” Her smile...
The table was loaded with enough food to feed a small army: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, toast, hash browns, pancakes, porridge, and fresh fruits. The offerings filled the little serving trays and bowls, from which the people gathered around the table could assemble their own meal. Betsy grabbed a substantial portion from each tray. Charlie took some eggs, toast, and fresh fruits. Candice ate a bowl of porridge, and some fresh fruits. There was no conversation while they ate. Betsy...
Betsy took a seat at the head of the conference table in the modular office. Once again, she was dismayed by the barrenness of the office. There were six plain metal desks, three to each side of the room, facing the front door. The chairs were plain ‘office mega-store discount chairs’ that, in her opinion, were just plain ugly and looked uncomfortable. There weren’t any partitions to give even a modicum of privacy. There were no personalized knickknacks or photographs on the desks. There...
Betsy seemed like almost the perfect mate. I was 28, single, had been very successful the first three years I worked for the most prestigious law firm in Austin trying lawsuits against large multinational corporations that tried to screw average people, and was tired of the dating scene. I wanted a woman to share my life with; and kids. Everything about Betsy said she was the one. Betsy was 22, a college graduate, and worked in pharmaceutical sales. It was not surprising that she worked in...
Wife LoversBetsy sighed. “What’s the matter?” Sally asked. Betsy was doing dumbbell hammer curls with a pair of twenty pound weights. She sped up her repetition rate. “I’m never going to meet a guy,” Betsy said. “Yes, you will,” Sally said. “I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’m still a virgin,” Betsy said. “Same here,” Sally said. Betsy said, “Maybe you are still a virgin, but at least you’ve got a boyfriend. At least you’ve been kissed once.” “I don’t have a boyfriend,” Sally said. “What about...
It was approaching lunchtime when Betsy stepped into Sally’s darkened laboratory. The only sources of light were the fish tanks, and the base of the microscope. It was enough light to see by once the eyes became adjusted to the low level, but that always took a moment upon entering. The soft burble of the aquariums running provided a background noise that one noticed initially upon arriving in the room, but which faded from awareness after a few minutes. The effect of the darkness and soft...
Betsy awoke as a result of a hand shaking her shoulder. She opened her eyes to find Sharon kneeling over her. The light was just barely bright enough from outside to see Sharon. The woman put her forefinger on her lips in the universal gesture not to say a word. She then beckoned Betsy with a finger to follow her out of the plane. Curious, Betsy followed the woman. False dawn was rapidly approaching. It brought with it enough light to see her surroundings fairly well. She could leave for...
The contrast between the lush Hawaiian tropical paradise and the harsh dry Arizona desert is not only visually striking, but is a shock to all of the senses. The rich sounds of birds, the odor of plants growing wildly, and the feel of humidity in the air is so different from the silence, the dull smell of sand, and the desiccating dryness. It is a wonder that both places can exist on the same world. Making the transition from Hawaii to Arizona was softened by the long flight between the two...
Betsy had jogged past the building a hundred times in the past, but had never gone inside. This particular morning, she noticed Lucy walking towards the entrance. She changed the direction of her run, and headed towards the door. “Lucy!” Lucy stopped while opening the door. Betsy had slowed to a walk. Lucy looked over at her sister-in-law wondering what she wanted. In a way, it was hard getting used to watching Betsy walking rather than running. She held the door open, and waited patiently...
The crack of a high powered rifle firing was clearly heard above the din of evening traffic. A second later, there was another shot fired. The majority of people didn’t even appear to notice the sounds. A handful of students stopped and looked around, before deciding that it had been nothing. Betsy sighed. “First the sniper, and then the spotter. Scratch two more evil minions,” Betsy muttering her interpretation of the two shots. Rather than returning home to her condo, Betsy headed towards...
The middle aged man ran across the parking lot, glancing fearfully over his shoulder for signs of pursuit. He tripped over a concrete parking lot divider, flying face first towards the pavement. While attempting to catch his fall, he let loose of his briefcase. It skittered across the pavement. Ignoring his cuts and scrapes, he scrambled forward to catch his briefcase. His suit was torn and dirty as a result of his fall. Betsy had detoured from her parkour run across the roof of the...
Colonel Stewart watched the young woman running across the top of the four story building. She was headed across the building he was facing. He gasped when she suddenly changed directions and jumped off the building. Unable to believe what he was seeing, his jaw dropped when she grabbed the flag pole in mid-flight and then slid to the ground. Seconds later, she was headed in his direction. Major Morgan said, “Did you see that?” “Yes.” Both men watched her approach them. She slowed down....
“It’s clear what we need to do. We need to restore the banks by lending money to them. They can collect the bad debts and repay the loans. That’s the quickest way to return to a regular economy.” The man had been speaking in a tone of voice suggesting that he was talking to an ignorant school kid. His whole manner was dismissive of his audience, and that didn’t sit well with some of the people in the room. One person, in particular, was getting very irritated. “Are you an idiot?” The man...
Sally floated into the condo as if walking on air. Betsy hadn’t seen her since the afternoon she had sent Steve over, with instructions that he was to kiss her. She had not been around the condo, her lab, or her apartment, for two days. She hadn’t answered her phone during that entire time, either. Betsy took one look at her and said, “I guess you’ve been kissed.” “Yes,” Sally said. Sally had been kissed! And, despite her lack of experience, she knew she had been kissed well. He had...
Betsy watched a tree remove the wing from her side of the jet, thinking that this had to be the trip from hell. The jet made another spine wrenching jog when another tree removed the wing from the other side of the aircraft. There was a jolt, then the jet came to an abrupt stop, and then the world went black. Unable to guess how long she had been unconscious, Betsy woke with a start. She glanced around the little commuter jet that was supposed to have taken her and ten other passengers from...
“Hi, Mom.” “Hi, Betsy,” Ling said. “What’s up?” “Ivan is dead.” “It was going to happen, sooner or later,” Betsy said. “It looks like Russians are leaving Hawaii by the plane load,” Ling said. “I’m sure that they all got tired of the sand and sun,” Betsy said. Barely cracking a smile, Ling said, “The word is out that if anyone is even rude to you, that person and his or her entire family will be punished, permanently.” “I can live with that,” Betsy said. Ling looked at all of the...
The cell phone rang. Thinking it was important, Betsy answered without checking the caller id. “Hello?” William said, “Hello, Betsy.” “What’s up?” “Just called to tell you to say: ‘yes.’” “Yes?” Betsy asked. “Yes.” Betsy said, “Okay. I say: ‘yes.’” “You haven’t been asked the question yet,” William said. “What question?” “You’ll know the question when you hear it,” William said. “I hate it when you do this to me,” Betsy said in frustration. William laughed. “By the way, you’ve...
Chuck stepped into the manufacturing facility. It was a machine shop that produced ‘one off’ kinds of products. Usually, they were parts to repair equipment used in other manufacturing facilities. It had filled a niche market, prior to the collapse. He had purchased a five percent share of the business about a month before the collapse. The owner, Al Lynch, had run short of capital when trying to purchase a couple of very high precision machines in order to support a contract with one of the...
Betsy was at the head of the conference room jumping a skip rope, it was actually a length of CAT-5 cable, while waiting for the next applicant to come into the room. What she had thought would be easy was turning out to be a nightmare. The last applicant had gotten so frustrated trying to talk with Betsy, who was jumping up and down skipping rope, that she had stormed out of the room swearing that she had never dealt with anyone so rude. Betsy had been crushed. Ed, Ling, Dan, and Kelly were...
Betsy turned on her cell phone, and set it down on the instrument panel. The light, although not very bright, managed to displace the overwhelming and depressing darkness inside the cabin. She looked over at Ben and saw that he was looking a little pale. “Is that better?” Betsy asked. “It’s much better,” Ben said. “Good. I got Sharon’s cell phone next to the two guys who are trapped in the back,” Betsy said. “How are they?” “They keep drifting in and out of consciousness. They aren’t...
Chuck stepped out of the jet and looked around hoping to spot Betsy. A blur was heading towards him. He braced himself for the impact. She threw herself at him, landing with her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist. He staggered back a step or two. She was kissing him passionately with tears running down her cheek. In a husky voice, Chuck said, “I missed you.” “I missed you.” Chuck said, “We need to stop by my house.” “Don’t worry, I straightened it up. I cleaned out...
Betsy walked down to the beach intending to have a nice relaxing swim. It was the weekend and the house was a little crowded. She was still bothered by Chuck’s abduction, but at least something good came of it. He was now living at her house, where he could be adequately protected. There were other benefits of having him around so much, too. At the moment, though, she just wanted a little time of her own. She desired a chance to just get her thoughts in order. It seemed to her that things...
Betsy stood in front of a full body mirror, looking at her reflection. She was wearing a black robe. This was the first time she had put one on. Rather than having the full length sleeves of Druid robes, the robe she wore was sleeveless. This allowed the golden torq, her symbol of service to the Two-Sided One on her arm, to be visible. She turned a little to catch her profile in the mirror. Then she turned the other way examining her appearance once again. She decided she liked the way the...
The evening’s entertainment came to a typical end. The curtains closed, the lights came up, the applause died, and the audience rose to make their way out of the theater. It was noisy and chaotic with individual groups of people caught up in their own conversations and actions. Engaged in their own little dramas, no one noticed the pair of young women who hadn’t moved. Betsy sat there with tears running down her cheeks. “It was a comedy,” Sally said. They had just watched a university...
It was three o’clock in the morning when the jet Betsy was on arrived at the Honolulu airport. It touched down on the runway, and taxied over to the hangar. Betsy looked out the window. There was one person on duty, along with the limousine driver waiting for them to exit the jet. The man on duty was wearing the overalls that identified him as a mechanic. The limousine driver was wearing the typical black outfit of commercial limo drivers everywhere. While gathering her stuff, Betsy asked...
Ling woke up, immediately aware that every part of her body hurt. She started going through the mental inventory of body parts. Ribs? It hurt to breathe, so she had a couple of cracked ribs. She gingerly moved her arms, legs, fingers, and toes. She was relieved to discover that there weren’t any casts. There weren’t any broken bones. She tried to locate a muscle that wasn’t screaming out in pain and failed, miserably. She knew it was going to hurt to get up and try to move around. She...
Sweating profusely, Betsy wrestled the fifty-five gallon steel drum down the ramp from the ‘Bloated Shark’ to the dock. The wooden ramp creaked under the strain of the load. Forty-five gallons of salt water weighed over three hundred and eighty pounds. It was a little too bulky and heavy for even Betsy to carry. The Bloated Shark was the name she had given the tugboat she had purchased for a research platform. When she had found it, it was just an old tug that had seen better days. It had...
“Hello,” the man said when Betsy stepped into the instrument room on the tug. He was big as a mountain, with tattoos that ran the full length of his arms. His legs were the size of tree trunks. His hair was cut short, and he had a scar on his chin that gave him the appearance that he ate small babies for breakfast. He was holding a screwdriver in his hand, which was pointed in her general direction. “Who are you?” “I’m Paul.” “Well, Paul, what are you doing on my boat?” “I work for Dr....
Betsy stood atop the building looking down at the people below. Several people were looking up at her, thinking that she was going to jump. She smiled, backed up a few steps, and then ran forward and off of the roof. She spread her arms and legs wide while gravity made its presence known. The people below screamed thinking they were about to see her splatter on the sidewalk. She was only on a four story building, so it wouldn’t have been that great of a splatter, but people aren’t rational...
Betsy waded ashore. She had a large fish, which she held by its tail, slung over her shoulder nearly to her waist. It was flopping around, but she ignored its motions. Once away from the water, she dropped the fish on the sand and removed the rebreather from her back. Then she knelt down, and with her knife, filleted the fish. It didn’t take long for her to remove several nice fillets from the fish. She took a minute to wash the fish filets off in the ocean as well as return the innards to...
Once the family left, Betsy and the staff settled into the process of learning to live together. There were quirks to learn and preferences to discover. The house, with its wide open spacious rooms, was designed to give great views of the exotic landscape. It did not promote privacy, particularly with six people living in the house. Betsy was willing to drop her clothes without a moment’s notice, and head out to the beach. She was just as likely to wear clothes around the house as not. About...
In the process of selling the idea of their filtration system, Jake and John Widmeir had made two interesting discoveries. The first was that Betsy Carter had almost limitless energy. They had been told that, but seeing was believing. She could keep going long after everyone else collapsed from exhaustion. There had been one funny little incident in which a cocksure kid had thought he could keep up with her, in the workout room of the hotel. She had walked out bubbly and full of energy,...
Carl had no real idea where he was. Upon learning that he was single and lived alone; Betsy’s father, Ed, had insisted on taking him to the Carter home, where Carl would get around the clock care. It was an offer that Carl found nearly impossible to turn down. It wasn’t that Carl was concerned about the care he would receive in the hospital; but what would happen after he was discharged, was an issue. There was no one at his apartment to take care of him, and he wasn’t about to ask one of his...
Head buried in her closet, Betsy was tossing clothes out left and right. Charlie and Alice were standing at the door watching her. They were a little amused by her behavior. Alice said, “I do believe that Betsy is in a tizzy.” “Tizzy? Yes, she does look like a person in a tizzy,” Charlie said. “It could be a dither,” Alice said. “No. It’s definitely a tizzy, not a dither,” Charlie said. “I wonder why she’s in a tizzy?” Betsy growled and then muttered, “I’ll show them a tizzy.” “I have...
Charlie was seated at the desk in her office inside the house, watching Betsy fidget in her chair. They had returned from the capital the previous day. It was necessary to get caught up on all of the work that had accumulated over the past few days. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken nearly as long as she expected to get caught up on the business aspects of Betsy’s life. The staff had taken care of nearly everything in their absence. She looked down at Betsy’s calendar for a moment, flipped...
The modern person, who has lived a significant percentage of their life in a digital economy, can not imagine what life would be like without checks, credit cards, debit cards, and online banking. Mortgages, rent, utilities, and insurance are paid with check or by electronic transfer. Large purchases and consumer goods are paid with credit cards, or checks. Plastic is not reserved only for big items. People will whip out a credit or debit card to pay for a five dollar lunch, or a cup of...
With Sally away on her honeymoon, Betsy was at loose ends. After Chuck’s kidnapping, she just didn’t want to take off for the ocean for a week at a time. At this point, it wasn’t necessary. She had all of the biological data necessary for her dissertation. All that was missing was sufficient tracking data to support her arguments and time would take care of that. She didn’t need to tag any more sharks since she had already tagged far more of them than was necessary for her dissertation. For...
Ling said, “You look like hell.” “I’ve been around your daughter for a couple of days,” Gary replied pointedly. He tried to count the days, but they all ran into a blur of move and move and move. He had never been so tired in his life. Trying to keep up with Betsy was a constant effort. She was always in motion and that required him to always be in motion. The normal human being wasn’t built for that level of activity. “You should get some rest,” Kelly said. Gary pointed at Ling and said,...
In what has to be one of the greatest plays on words of all time, Mark Twain wrote: ‘Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.’ “This can’t possibly be happening. It’s impossible. I just won’t accept it.” Everyone has observed denial at work. Everyone has experienced denial for him or her self. Denial is a universal experience. One can deny it, but that denial rather proves the point. Denial is an unavoidable consequence of how the human mind works. The human mind makes gross generalizations...
In the short time she had worked for Betsy, life for Charlie had been interesting. Still unable to get around with any kind of ease, Charlie was more than happy to sit behind the desk and take care of the hundreds of little things, that had been ignored by Betsy. She’d been stunned to discover that Betsy hadn’t even bothered to open a local bank account. She had been shocked one day, to discover a past due statement buried with the stack of mail that had accumulated over a couple of weeks....
Betsy was pacing around outside the construction site. The site engineer (Stan Kubrick) and one of the foremen (Jim Franklin) were there with her, wondering why she had literally dragged them away from their homes. Chuck was standing under a palm, enjoying the shade, while George was nervously licking his lips. A man wandered by and stared at the group for a second. Finally, he approached and said, “Hey, Jim!” “Hello, Kirk.” “What are you doing here?” Kirk asked. He had been working on...
Betsy stood in front of the little stand that was selling meat. The stand had once been a little souvenir hut that had sold glitzy trinkets to tourists. It had a fake grass roof, giving it a kind of hokey appearance that tourists expected of a tropical island. She wondered where it had come from, but wasn’t interested enough to ask. A bird flew overhead and landed upon a branch of a nearby bush. She turned to look at it. It was a red crested cardinal. Like many of the more common birds on...
Betsy skipped down the hallway pausing to read the sign on each door. The other students in the hallway would move over to the other side to avoid getting hit by the jump rope. She stopped in front of one of the doors and read the name off the nameplate aloud, “Sally Tilton.” She stepped back nearly hitting a student with her jump rope and read the sign on the door aloud, “Keep out.” She stopped swinging the rope around, but kept up the jumping motion while knocking on the door. She called...
Betsy paced the floor, criss-crossing the living room in her house. Fortunately, the house was built with a wide open spacial style that allowed her a lot of room to move. If the room had been a bit smaller, she would have been bouncing off the walls ... literally, not figuratively. Not for the first time since returning to the house that morning, she asked, “Where is he?” “I don’t know,” Charlie answered without having to ask who he was. “Why isn’t Gary here?” “He had to go to the...
With the destruction of the economy, a number of things had changed in the world. One, which almost no one would even think about, was the disappearance of certain specialty shops, of which bridal stores were a good example. There just wasn’t a place to buy what had become a traditional wedding gown. What few dresses had remained on the shelves of stores at the time of the collapse had long since disappeared. Young couples getting married now tended to wear nice dresses and suits. The new...
The desert stretches from horizon to horizon, existing in both time and space. One man gazes upon it and sees paradise. Another man gazes upon the same scene and only sees desolation. One desert, two men, and three entirely different worlds. It is not a mystery why people argue and bicker over nearly everything. If two people can’t agree on something as vast and as timeless as a desert, why should it be a surprise if they can’t agree on much of anything? The variations in preferences of even...
Charlie was wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair. As with a lot of patients, she had argued that it wasn’t necessary, except that it was. Her prosthetic was packed away in her luggage, which Betsy was carrying. Either the infection had been a little more aggressive than she had thought, or she had really been a lot more tired than she had felt. She was so weak that she was afraid that she might not be able to use the crutches she’d been given. Once they were outside, Betsy handed the...
Tight-lipped, Ed stared at the man. Talking with him was a constant assault on his truth sense. The longer he talked, the worse the lies got. It was as if one lie emboldened the next. Ed said, “She was drugged.” “The test results were lost,” the man said with a smirk. Ed’s truth sense stabbed him in the brain upon hearing the lie. He said, “Quit lying.” “I’m not lying. They were lost.” “She was drugged, and you know it!” Ed shouted. The man replied, “She chewed his arm off and beat him...
Chuck wandered over to the security center and office building construction site, searching for Gary. The building was still a long ways from finished, but he could imagine what it would look like when it would be completed. The foundation was in place, the framing was complete, and some of the exterior walls had been added. Chuck found Gary inspecting the building. Gary was checking to make sure that nothing that didn’t belong had been added to the walls. There were folks who would be...
Chuck was seated in the backyard passing the time by watching a couple of birds working together in building a nest. Watching them build a structure for the results of their mating reminded him that he was going to be married soon. He was looking forward to the event without the kind of nervousness that plagued many grooms. There was only one downside – he wished his parents were still alive to see him get married. He wished his parents could have met Betsy. He was sure they would have loved...
Sally walked into the room thinking that she had made a horrible mistake. There were a lot of people, none of whom she recognized, moving around. She grabbed Gary’s arm to prevent being separated from him. Betsy had disappeared somewhere into the heart of the party. It was a typical frat party – a lot of testosterone driven young men, scantily dressed young women, too much booze, not enough light; and loud music, which made talking impossible. The air had the lingering hint of a sickly sweet...
The sound of waves crashing along the beach provided a background noise that Betsy found particularly relaxing. She was sitting tailor fashion on the beach, looking out across the ocean at the distant horizon. This was about as calm as Betsy could appear to act. It truly was an appearance of calm rather than true calm. She was digging two holes. She was excavating one hole with each hand, and using the sand in the other hand to fill it in again. The strength required to shove her hands into...
By the morning after the altercation with Kyle, the swelling in Carl’s face had reduced to the point where he could see again. His nose was still tender, but most of the pain was gone. It was hard to believe that Kyle had been able to hurt him so badly, with just two punches. He’d been beaten up a few times in high school, but that had been nothing compared to the previous day. He had awakened that morning to find Betsy, wearing a knee-length skirt and white blouse, seated in a chair reading...
Ling, pulling Cal behind her by his ear, followed Millie and Melvin out of the plane. Betsy was inside with Kelly and the rescuers planning how to free the two men trapped in the chairs. Jimmy was over by the fire piling branches on it after getting it restarted. Ed was with him giving him pointers on the care and management of a good campfire. Ling threw Cal to the ground. Looking at Millie, she asked, “What’s the story with him?” “He’s an asshole,” Millie answered. “I figured that much...