Extraordinary Circumstances

Each day Samuel moved farther into the abyss of denial and shame as he anesthetized himself to what was happening to everybody else because his mind was preoccupied with what was happening to Lucy Anne. Even after such a long time, he could not face the possibility that his beautiful Lucy Anne might never get well—and never the thought that she could be dangerous.

Micah slowly pushed the door open because he was afraid. And there she was, his beautiful mommie, completely naked...on her knees right in the middle of the big bed, and right under her was Uncle David. She jerked her sweaty, startled face toward the door. David closed his eyes and lay perfectly still and quiet. Dammit Lucy! he wanted to scream. Samuel will bury me alive Micah gasped, "M-M-Mommie I-I..."

The fury in the glare of her eyes stopped him, and he screamed then ran, more out of instinct or reflex than understanding. Unfortunately, he would understand what really happened too soon, and the consequences of the unwinding ball of deceit would change the course of so many lives.

Micah tried to keep the secret, but he was just a little boy, and the longer he kept it, the more dangerous it became as with all children who bear the burden of adult mistakes, he changed. He lost his sense of pride and trust, and from that day on, he went into himself with all secrets, some he lost to the point of no remembrance. But their scars remained...

Samuel had learned enough about Ben to believe that he was psychotic and to fear for Micah's life. He also knew that blackmail didn't work. If he supplied fifty thousand now, there would be more requests, and Micah's life would be more endangered as the money failed to show. Besides, he had no way to get together that much money by midnight. ...He decided to run with the boy. Samuel ordered a new name for himself and for his son, two new birth certificates and social security numbers, two passports, and a driver's license for himself.

As time moved on, running became the hope that J.J. lived by. J.J. stood quietly in the doorway and observed. Everything was as always. Without hesitation and with astounding fearlessness for such a small child, he moved back to the crowded dormitory of a room, put on his clothes, pushed his pajamas under the pillow, and covered it with the sheet. He stuffed the chocolates Nellie had given him into his pocket, crammed a shirt, underwear, and pants into his book bag, and dropped the bag out the window onto the side porch. All of this he had rehearsed in his mind so many times that he moved as precisely and determinedly as a preset robot.

With that part of the plan finished off smoothly, with his heart knocking in his neck and chest, he waited and listened for the steadiness of Gus's thunderous snoring. When he was sure, he moved as stealthily as a cat, opening the bedroom door, taking the money clip, and tip-toeing frantically back through the boys' room. In a matter of a couple of minutes he was out the window, off the porch, and running to the road.

The driver knew what was in the ditch and had come to determine if lye could be used to destroy the snakes around the hoard and yet save the ring. Watching two monstrous snakes casually glide toward the ditch, where the man's bobbing head was making shadows in the dusk of evening, gave this watcher a sense of power and excitement. Just one scream or movement of the flasWight would have alerted the poor man, but that never happened.

The greedy and determined watcher hadn't flinched at Zack's horrifying screams, had waited until complete silence and then picked up the Smith and Wesson and shot both snakes, hitting one and grazing the other. The bigger viper was temporarily stunned by the sting of the bullet and the stillness of his dead mate but slowly started to move toward the vibration above so the angry shooter left—with Zack's rifle and not a flutter of remorse Zack never left the pit. He died a slow paralyzing and painful death, eventually withering and drying up like the babies under him. He was, of course, the corpse found wearing the emerald ring.

She decided that it would be fun to keep up with her enemies and continue the rest of her life in payback—one man at a time—each one in a special, exciting way. She had cleaned that damned fireplace a thousand times, scrubbing hard on her knees. Intellectually, she knew there could be nothing in the thing, but still she kept looking for ashes or a splinter of bone. Having no control over the urge to examine the fireplace or hearing the talking box, she had to find an escape. Since she couldn't move the fireplace, she concentrated on the box and its contents—Ben's ashes and ring. The more she watched the box, the more insane she became.