So begins Chapter 8 – A Change in The Wind

Tom sat in his car, dumbfounded by the woman he was watching.  Her hair moved and flowed with the wind; and her body, wow, her body was magnificent.

Tom watched her put the stuff in her car, mesmerized.

She looked over at him.

Tom didn’t know whether to burn rubber out of the parking lot, crawl up in his seat like a child, or just somehow evaporate on the spot.  Whatever he needed to do he needed to do it fast, because she was walking over to him.

Without warning, the inside of the car burst into flames; and fire blew out of every orifice in Tom’s head.  He screamed through burning pain and tasted every melting part of his insides.  The flames subsided, and then a face formed in front of Tom.  This face was bright red with blood oozing from the mouth and eyes, black eyes that seemed like endless pits.  Tom could almost hear screams of anguish echoing from those pits.

Tom tried to wake himself up from what he hoped was a dream, as he watched the mouth open and grow.  The tongue was forked and each tip had a serpent on the end of it, hissing.  The teeth were not teeth, even though they were lined up like teeth in neat little rows on the bottom and top.  What Tom thought was teeth were actually human souls.  Each one of them was screaming, their eternity sealed in pain, smashed down into the soft flesh of Satan’s gums.

Tom heard large splashes start to hit his windshield.

He looked up as blood began to rain out of the sky and splatter on the windshield.  The drops didn’t just splat, but they screamed when they exploded on the windshield, the car, the ground, everywhere.  It was a chorus of the damned, and it was deafening.

“Let me go.  I may find it in my heart someday to forgive you because I am carrying your offspring, and my faith in the Lord compels me.  For our children’s sake, I think they need to know their father.  I also think that you better be there for them; and, if you ever, I mean ever, hurt them, you’ll never see them again.”   Martha walked off leaving Tom standing there naked and alone.

The divorce was finalized a month later.

Tom returned the advance to his book and sailed away for a while.

Martha remarried; and her husband was, not only a Christian, but a man who would never cheat on her or hurt her.

The years passed.

The twins were born and grew up.

Martha softened as she grew closer in her walk with Christ.  Tom wasn’t the evil enemy that she had made him out to be.  She came to realize that her marriage to him was just a mistake.  It happens when you are young.

Tom returned from the islands, and he was dead set on making his life right.  He got a job for a while, tried to make a go of it, and he did okay for himself.  He did his best to stay in his kid’s lives.  He may not have been there for every meeting or every birthday or every little thing a parent should be there for, but he did what he could.

Life ebbed and flowed.

So concludes Chapter Seven.  I hope you have enjoyed it so far.  If you have been a regular reader, please leave me some feedback below.  I would love to know what you think about the book so far.  Of course, if you want to purchase it, you can click on the tab at the top of this blog.  Thanks for reading and thanks for your support.

“Tom.”  Martha stepped onto the boat, and a rock hit her in her stomach.  The deck was littered with a couple of champagne bottles and several broken glasses.  Laughter from below and it wasn’t Tom’s laugh.  It was a female.

Martha flung open the door and slammed on the light.

Tom was giggling and laughing with some girl who was half his age.  They were both naked from head to toe and in the midst of some kind of sex act.

Martha threw up on herself and then left wiping the vomit away.

Tom, naked from head to toe, ran up the steps, jumped off the boat, and caught Martha on the dock.

She slapped him so hard that it made everything, and I mean everything, jiggle.

“You bastard!  I have been racking my brain all week worried about us.  And you. You haven’t even thought about us, have you!”  A few lights came on in some docked boats nearby.

“I’m sorry.”

“This isn’t your first time, is it?”

“Martha.”

“Is it!”  That scream woke up many more people and a lot more lights on boats started coming on.

“No.”

“I hope you burn in hell.”  Martha turned to leave.  Tom grabbed her.  She didn’t turn around.

“Wait.”

“To grow up and lose who I am, to give up on it all and just be a product of society.”

“My god, Tom, you’re not a teenager.  You can still keep yourself, but you got to take some actions.  You got to show me you want to be in this marriage.”

Tom held back his tongue for a moment.

“You want to be in this marriage, don’t you?”

“Yes.  I guess.”

“You guess.”  She paused.  “Sometimes I wish I had never made this move.  You have been a totally different person since we arrived and got married.  I want the Tom back that I met in Maine.  I’m not coming back until that happens.”

Martha went into the bedroom and packed up her stuff.  She changed her clothes, as Tom sat and watched TV.  He didn’t try to stop her.

When Martha walked out of the room with her suitcase, Tom didn’t bother to stop her.  She didn’t say a word.  Tom kept watching TV.

Martha stopped before she left and looked back at Tom, expecting him to come after her.  He didn’t even turn around.

Martha found a hotel and put down a deposit for a week.  She had been working on a regular basis; and, even if the money wasn’t great, it was enough to keep her going for a while.  She had also found a good home in one of the local churches, so she knew they would help her in whatever decision she made.

A week passed, and Martha hadn’t heard one word from Tom.  She decided to swallow her pride and go back to the boat.

“This is a great place for a pirate Tom, but not a family.”

“So I guess you want me to find a house, get a job, and settle down.”

“If we plan to raise a family, then yes, we need a home.”

“I quit my job.”  Martha took it like a punch in the gut.

“What?  Why?”

“I have an idea how I can take my love of ghost hunting and turn it into a profit.”

“A good profit or just some nickel and dime shit!”

“You never liked that about me, did you?”

“What?  I have no problem with your ghost hunting.  I actually think it is kind of cool, but you can’t do it for a living.”

“Why not?”

“You can’t buy a home, and raise a family, on that kind of income.”

“I can sell these . . .”

“Grow up, Tom.  You’ve got to take responsibility for your actions.  I know you had it rough growing up, but you can’t be a child all your life!”

“I have the advance and a guaranteed published novel.  That’s something.”

“Have you written anything?  Do you have any ideas?  I don’t see you doing anything related to writing.  The most productive thing you have done lately is drink, but I know, you can’t make a living out of that.”

“I could sell cans.”

“Be serious, Tom.”

“That’s what you would like, isn’t it?”

“What?”