by Cliff Ball
Chapter 9
“You did what!?” yelled a very ticked off Gregory Evans.
“I became a Christian, Dad. I think it’s one of the best things that has ever happened to me. That and meeting Amy, who’s my fiancée,” replied Jason, a day after arriving home on summer break.
“I don’t believe it, I just don’t believe it. You were raised not to believe such superstitious nonsense, yet, here you are, and you’re telling me you became a Christian. Who is this Amy anyway?”
“Amy Atwood, she’s from Virginia, and I met her in one of my classes. She led me to the Lord and helped me ask Jesus into my heart. I asked her to marry me a couple of days ago before we both came back East to visit with our parents over the summer,”
“So, you turned because of some pretty face? I knew you shouldn’t have gone to California. I demand that you renounce this stupid superstition, especially if you think I’m going to let you apprentice under me and learn everything about what I do now that you’ve become one of them,”
“I can’t and I won’t renounce Jesus as my Lord and Savior,”
Gregory went into an obscenity-laced rage and began destroying things by throwing stuff to the floor in his home office. Jason had never seen his father so angry before and it really frightened him, so he prayed to the Lord for protection.
His father, with a red face and now wild looking hair, looked at Jason with cold, dead eyes, and said in a scarily even-toned voice, “Get out! Get out! Get out! You’re dead to me. I don’t want to hear from you, see you, or have anything to do with you from now on. While I have funded your college education, you will get no more money from me from here on out. Why are you still here? Get out!”
Jason left, disheartened, even though he knew his father would not like his decision. His father’s over-reaction saddened him.
Gregory Evans had long ago hardened his heart to God’s voice, had financed many atheistic causes because of his reprobate mind, and wanted to see the conservative Christian influence in the United States disappear once and for all.
Jason prayed for his father as he got into his car, praying that someone stronger than him could convince Gregory that he would go to Hell if he didn’t repent and ask Jesus into his heart. Jason briefly wondered where he should go now and decided that going to visit Amy and her parents would be a good idea. He needed to officially ask Amy’s father for her hand in marriage anyway, so Jason put his car into gear, and drove towards Virginia.
Back in the house, Gregory, still fuming, called for one of his aides. When the aide showed up, Gregory ordered, “I want you to find out all about these Atwood’s from Virginia. Who they are and what they do, basically everything I’ve wanted to know about other people since you’ve been employed with me. Jason has forced me to start over, and I will probably have to wait another twenty years or so for another apprentice to be ready, but I will get it done. Now get to it.”
A few hours later, Amy was outside, helping her mom with the garden, when she heard a car drive up into the driveway. She looked up to see the familiar blue Ford Mustang and instantly knew that Jason had arrived, “Mom, he’s arrived! I want to introduce him to you!” Amy excitedly dragged her mother by the arm to meet Jason.
Jason stepped out of the car and didn’t look at all like he was happy. Amy hugged him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Dad threw me out. He was furious when I told him,”
“We thought that might happen. What are you going to do now?”
Jason shrugged, “I don’t know,”
“Well, let’s not worry about it for now. Jason, I’d like you to meet my momma, Betty Atwood,”
“Jason, I’m glad to finally meet you. Amy’s told us so much about you. I’m sorry about your father,”
Jason shook Betty’s hand, and replied, “I’m glad to meet you too. Amy’s told me a lot about you as parents and her siblings. I’m glad that someone in this world has parents who have unconditional love for them. By the way, where is Mr. Atwood, I’d like to talk to him,”
“Yeah, where is Daddy, Momma?”
“He had to go to the Feed Store to pick up some feed for the horses, but he should be back anytime now. In the meantime, how about I get you a cold drink? Do you like lemonade, Jason? I’m sure you’re thirsty after your trip.”
“Oh, yes, ma’am, and lemonade is fine. Thank you, Mrs. Atwood.”
“Jason, please call me Betty. Now, you two young-ins come inside and we’ll get some lemonade.”
Thirty minutes later, Charles showed up with the feed, noticed the blue Mustang parked in the driveway, but went ahead and placed the feed in the barn. Once he got the feed squared away, he went into the house to find out who was visiting them. “Betty, who’s here?” Charles shouted the second he came into the house.
“Dear, why don’t you come into the living room? We have a visitor that would really like to talk to you.”
Charles walked into the living room to see Jason Evans sitting next to his daughter. Although Charles had never met Jason in person, he’d seen Jason’s picture enough to know who this was and why he might be here. So he approached Jason, shook his hand, and said, “This must be Jason. What brings you this way?”
“I need to talk to you about me and Amy. Can we go somewhere private?”
“Sure. Let’s go out to the barn.” Once they were in the barn, Charles asked, “What’s this about, young man?”
“Well, I, uh, I would like to officially ask for your permission to marry your daughter,”
“Before I do give you permission, I have a couple of questions for you. One: Were you sincere when asking Jesus into your heart?”
“Yes, sir, I was very sincere,”
“Since I have to take you at your word, I believe you. Second: Do you love my daughter with all your heart?”
“Yes,”
“How do you plan on supporting my daughter?”
“I’m going for a business degree and I plan on working in Wall Street once I graduate. While my father rejected me because I asked Jesus into my heart, I still have enough contacts in that world for me to be able to get a job. Amy will be taken care of, no matter what,”
“I’m glad to hear it. Jason, you have my permission to marry my daughter. When do you plan on getting married?”
“We were thinking this time next year. We’ll be halfway through college then, so we’ll be much more prepared. What do you think, sir?”
“I think as long as you are responsible and treat my daughter with respect, I have no problem with your time line when it comes to getting married. What does your father think?”
Jason paused, knowing this question would come up eventually. “My dad isn’t happy. He doesn’t like Christians and threw me out of the house when he found out I converted. I don’t think he wants anything to do with me now.”
“I’m sorry, Jason, but you’re more than welcome in our family. Do you need a Best Man? Our son, Tom, is supposed to be home from Vietnam in six months, maybe he’ll do the honors,”
“I don’t know, I guess I do. I’ll have to ask Tom when he gets back and hopefully he’ll want to.”
“Well, now that you have my official permission to marry my daughter, let’s go tell her the good news.”
A few days later, Gregory was given all the information known about the Atwood family from Virginia. Basically, they were poor dirt farmers and had been for over three hundred years. What Jason wanted to do with such rabble, Gregory didn’t know, but he really didn’t consider them a threat just yet, so he had no plans to correct the situation until after Jason and Amy were married, whenever that would be. Gregory knew he could make the Atwood’s miserable, but he decided to hold back on that for a while, in the meantime, he would set about figuring out how to ruin Richard Nixon now that he had won a second term.
Tom returned from Vietnam, accepted Jason’s request that he be his Best Man, and then told the family, “I’ve decided to move to Nebraska after I marry Stephan
ie. A buddy of mine in Vietnam sold me some acres of land that he was selling, since he wanted to move to California, and I plan on going out there in the next couple of months to get started. Maybe all of us can move there?”
“We can’t, at least not right now, son. We’ve invested too much in the land we have now to up and move. Where is this place in Nebraska?” asked Charles.
“A little town called Delaney, in northern Nebraska,”
“Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yeah, Pop, it seems like a really good opportunity for me and I don’t want to miss out on it.”
“We’ll miss you, you know, but, you got to do what’s best for you.” then the whole family hugged each other and both Amy and Betty cried a little.
A year later, July, 1973, Amy and Jason were married, and a week later, Tom and Stephanie were married.
Tom had already moved most of his belongings to Nebraska, so all he had to do was bring his new bride with him, and as soon as their honeymoon was over with, they officially moved to Delaney, Nebraska to begin their life on a property of fifty acres. A year after they moved, their son Aaron was born, followed by two daughters, Grace and Kate.
Amy and Jason, both graduated from USC, and moved to New York City so Jason could begin working for a firm on Wall Street, while Amy began teaching at a private Christian school.
Gregory kept close tabs on his son and daughter-in-law, unbeknownst to them, mostly to find out when and if she ever gave birth, especially if their firstborn was a son. One of Gregory’s many eyes and ears in New York City came to him in early 1974, and said, “Amy is supposed to give birth in early summer. What do you want to do?”
“I’ll wait for the appropriate time. This is something that requires patience, and when we strike, it’ll be out of left field. Now go, watch their every move, while I begin to formulate my plans.”
Amy gave birth to a healthy son, and they named him Michael James. Gregory’s plans for his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were now nearing fruition, and he would implement the plan soon when an opportunity to do so would present itself. Gregory knew he had to have patience. He had never gotten anywhere wanting things done without a clear-cut plan. If he did, it would blow up in his face and that’s just something he couldn’t let happen.
The opportunity came when Gregory found out that Jason and Amy were going to take Michael to visit Amy’s parents for Thanksgiving, and they would drive to Jonesville instead of flying to the nearest major airport in the area. Gregory ordered one of his men, “I want them to be in a fatal car wreck, involving a semi-truck, make it look like little Michael died with them. Find a kid around the same age in a hospital or wherever, and make sure the body is burned beyond recognition. Do what you have to do to make this work. When you have Michael, bring him to me. Is that understood?”
“We understand, Mr. Evans. We will get to work right away.” then Gregory’s minion hurried away.
Gregory’s cronies went to the home of Jason and Amy in the middle of the night, and killed them while they were sleeping by suffocating them. They made off with Michael and took him to Gregory. Jason, Amy, and a baby who had just died from pneumonia while in the hospital, were put into Jason’s Mustang, and driven out to a road that was mostly void of traffic. One of the cronies had a semi-truck nearby, started it up, pushed the vehicle to a speed that would destroy the Mustang with the hope that the car would catch on fire. The truck hit the Mustang at seventy miles an hour, causing the car to ricochet off of the truck’s massive bumper, going down the bar ditch, up the embankment, and then smashed into a tree. The car was a total wreck as one of the cronies walked over to it to inspect the damage, and seeing fuel puddled around the car, lit a match to it. The car went up in flames, enough to make the two adult bodies recognizable enough as Amy and Jason, but the baby suffered worse burns, enough for anyone to think he was Michael.
“It’s done, Boss.” reported one of the cronies to Gregory soon after.
“Excellent. No one knows Michael is still alive, so I can raise him to take over the work when I’m gone. My name isn’t going to die with me. When I’m through with him, he will hate Christians, and will have a hatred for the Atwood family. Now, when I have need of your services again, I’ll call you. Good work.”
Charles and Betty were devastated by the deaths of the three. At the funeral, they couldn’t help wondering why Gregory Evans hadn’t attended the funeral, but Charles decided it was because Jason and Gregory Evans were estranged and didn’t want to have anything to do with the funeral.
Charles, who was now fifty-five, suffered a devastating stroke as he and his wife were about to go home from the funeral, and died a month after the funeral. Betty mourned and was depressed for nearly a year because of the deaths of her husband, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. She considered moving to Nebraska to live with Tom and his family.
Gregory Evans, finding out that Betty now had a whole lot of land, but really no way to work it all by herself, used some of his influence to foreclose on the property, even though the Atwood’s had everything up-to-date. Betty didn’t have the money to fight the foreclosure, so she made the decision to move to Nebraska to live with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren. For now, Gregory Evans was satisfied.
******
