All Comments on 'The Ghost of Red River Falls'

Another good yarn

What a plot twist! Memorable, to say the least. Enjoyed the character development. Well done. 5 big ones🐃

But I didn't love it either...

Thanks

A true flower emerges from the mass of weeds. Great story and great story telling.

You made me cry. 5 stars.

I have just one complaint.....length

At times the story just kind of runs away from you. The reader does not want or need all of this information. If you could shorten this it would have been perfect!

I loved the story, the twist was beautifully crafted, and exceptionally well done. Your characters felt real, and very true to life.

BUT, and there always is....

I am probably 100% off base, but at the cemetery scene with Wendy laying down an envelope followed by Jack talking to 'Kevin', something struck me as odd.

Then we discover she is pregnant. I reread the previous pages.

Kevin's sperm samples were never destroyed.

Now, I am not a lawyer or the like, but for the writer of this wonderful story NOT to close that loophole like he did with all the others seems, interesting, foreboding, and a helluva twist!

Just saying....

5 stars too!!!!

You have crafted a wonderful story. What a good journey you took us on. You gave us normal people that showed honest reactions to somewhat realistic situations. The whole thing was very well done.

I haven't read any of your stories, but plan to do it now. As retired FF/EMS, it was especially nice to read accurate depictions of that life. For that alone, I say thank you. Add the rest of the story and you get a 5 from me.

call another's work down but got to page four and i had enough, i guess there are people like this in the world just not in my world. Lets see two parties and he sit with the kids and she says nothing even in their own home catch's her screwing to a picture sleeps on the couch most nights and is still there come on you have to be a retarded woman reading romance novels to even keep reading the rest of this story but as i said to each his own. p.s. good luck just not my cup of tea.

...allowed him to sit at the children's table at a family gathering

...called out her dead husband's name on multiple occasions during sex.

...went to Hawaii for 10 days without her husband and in spite of his request to not go

...masturbated to a video of her and her dead husband fucking.

...never once stood up for her husband on any occasion.

... made no effort to make him feel like the house was his home, just bitched.

No person with even a smattering of self-respect would continue in that sham.

soldierboy, i gotta say you sure wrote a story that pushed the commentators buttons!

A well-crafted fiction story about fictional people in fictional situations, fictonally resolved with a fictional reconciliation.

I am not sure of the legalities. However, since no one else has suggested it, how about a compromise?

Let Ed & Joanne have Kevin's spermicicle. They hire a surrogate to carry the child and then they could have the baby Kevinjr/Kevinette to raise?

Entirely p-p-p-plausible!

Anyway.... Manipulation is one thing, getting her into the self stimulation sessions - never did explain or allude to what drove those types of events.

Another good story of this serie...Thank you...4*

Up to the latter part of the tale "flat-out outstanding." But! Fatal Flaws! First: No real justification for her using a dido and screaming Kevin''s name while watching their porn video. Second: she lets her dead husband "know" she is having a child before letting Jack know. Third, going to Hawaii with her controlling and contriving ex-father-in-law. Fourth: what happened to the cryogenically sperm? Jack needs to have a DNA test done ASAP. Lastly (several more, sufficient for me), the asshole ex-tather-in-law sure got off easy.

I really liked that you through this little self referential nod in there. This story knew what it was, and was okay with what it was, but it didn't use that as an excuse for complacency. The results were great.

Kudos.

After all Wendy apparently loved both of her husbands, didn't want to fool around or make Jack a cuckold. From what I've read of late to be in loving wives the wife absolutely must not love her husband and the husband must be gay or at least bi.

Reading stories with more than 4 or 5 pages, I always look at the ending - just to find out whether it is worth struggling with so much stuff in one session. In this case, the happy end I found on page 11 made me curious how the author would lead the readers from a total "no-go" of a marriage to happy end.

I have to agree with most of the commenters, that it was a mostly well crafted turn when she was confronted. But her behaviour was not completely explained - she let her husband down at too many occasions and was reluctant to take any blame just after calling her husband by the name of her ex. It was obvious that she took him just as a surrogate. That could not be the success of her ex father-in-law's manupulations - you cannot deny that: Ed was not in bed with the newlyweds.

IMO, the reconcilliation came far too easy for her - I would never have stayed in this marriage if I was in Jake's place.

4 * with a strong tendency to five (but the rating system does not accept 4.5*)

I can guarantee you that this part is true: "She said that couples who slept naked had the benefits of skin-on-skin contact when they slept, were more likely to cuddle together when sleeping, and that helped to form much closer emotional bonds." Its worked for us for 38 years, so far. We're still making sure. ;)

was very frustrated at the overlong patience Jack was having with his new bride, no way I would share a home or furnishings with a ghost, or let Ed dominate the wedding dances. He shoulda put his foot down right there and then. But all worked out.

.....Great! 5*

The author isn't explicit about it, but one reason he may not have objected right away to his treatment was a subconscious understanding based on his own grief over Connie. In this case, that subconscious understanding and the delay in asserting himself laid the groundwork for a lot of pain on all sides.

Ed was a tyrant no one in the family wanted to cross because they were conflict-averse, as many abuse victims (among others) are. They understood the basis of his anger and gave it (and him) far more leeway than they should have.

When my father married my stepmother, they returned home from their honeymoon to find her ex-husband relaxing in the house he used to share with his (now ex-) wife. The ex-husband explained he had come over to visit their two sons. My father went upstairs to the master bedroom and waited for his wife to say goodbye to the ex. When she came upstairs, he calmly but firmly told her that the ex was never to enter the house without being invited in. Further, the ex was to return all house keys in his possession because the house wasn't his anymore - it belonged to his ex-wife, my stepmother. Allowing the ex-husband unlimited entry, especially after she remarried, was crossing significant boundaries. My stepmother readily agreed, understanding the situation.

A very good writer...thanks for sharing.

1. the third draft is your first chance to look at your story from the reader's point of view and focus on what they really need to read. Drafts one and two are about you, the writer, getting a chance to write what you need to write. You obviously never got to the 3rd draft stage. There were pages of stuff that really didn't need to be in there.

2. she was a real cunt to him, and that was never dealt with. I grant that you may have had much more exposure to loss and perhaps have real exemplars of this type of behavior, but from my reader's point of view, I see her as exhibiting borderline sociopath personality tendencies. She utterly lacked empathy and self-awareness, and she was a real cunt. When any of you are making love to your spouses next, try calling out some other woman's name in the heat of passion, and then just deny it and get mad at her for even bringing it up. Rinse and repeat a few times. Tell me how that works out. When he told her what she did, she not only went into denial, she went into attack mode. Not even a whiff of regret or even a moment of reflecting that she might have done it. She blamed *him* for bringing it up every time she did it.

Oh, yes, it was because she was suddenly feeling guilty and didn't know what she was doing, and couldn't face it, either. Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure that when that goes on for 2 months solid, it makes her some flavor of psychotic, and you don't just get over that because we are approaching the end of this episode of the sitcom.

And that's exactly what the ending felt like, one of those horrible old TV shows where all the guest star has to do is admit their feelings and, voila! the fever breaks and we all smile as the credits roll.

After Jack's first love untimely demise he finds love again. Jack should have confronted the issue of having to live in Kevin's shadow. Even if it is her first in-laws controlling influence that is to blame. Overall 5 stars an excellent story.

favorite authors. The only unbelievable part was that Wendy had never heard (from anyone!) about Connie. The law office must have had a huge conference room! Small glitch there = Wendy and Ed were on one side of the table (Wendy in the middle?) and Jack was on the other side (In the middle?). When Ed and Wendy stood, Jack moved between them and took Wendy's hand. I had a tough time picturing that. How often did Jack have to go to work? Didn't seem to spend much time there.

Tags: No requirement to fill all ten fields. Cheating, porn, and cuckold do not belong. I doubt I would ever easily find, via a tag search, this story again. The few things most likely to stick with me would be firefighter, dead husband, and ex in-laws.

As Buzzczar pointed out Wendy behaved badly towards Jack and did nothing when Ed (and sometimes others) did the same. I know personally how the never standing up for your spouse hurts.

It is not that weird that she wanted to tell her dead husband she was pregnant but I find it bizarre that "he" is told before the father. As others have pointed out nothing was said about Kevin's sperm samples. I would hate myself for doing it, but I would quietly have the babies DNA checked.

turned out to be a big misunderstanding between both of them. him for not telling her about his lose and her for trying to hold on to hers without much thought of him. i can see the ex father in law really pushing her and all of it for his own gain and he sure knew how to make her do things that he wanted her to do. glad they worked it out in the end. keep on writing so enjoyable to read a well written story and not just sex story.

Really all over the place. suddenly bringing in the in vitro business and inventing Connie was a poor ploy to rescue a failing story. you then failed to get Jack to mention it in his explanations to his folks or anybody else and knd of chucked it into those conversations as an after thought. It felt like both Connie and the IV were added after you had written the story. There was the guts of a five there but only if you edited it down to about seven pages.

from Scrooge to Ichabod. TK U MLJ LV NV

I usually don't read long stories, but the offering is so slim lately that I finished that one. Thank God I didn't write this story or we would end up with managing to intercept the sperm samples then replacing them with samples from guys of another race and enjoying the circus after 9 months. 5*

I hope we get to read more of the Red River community

Well written but as said the main character jake was really wimpy.

He was so soft that i struggled to have any sympathy for him.

The IV and connie part's also seemed to be to convenient and not thought out properly.

if you could have made jake more manly then a 8 year old girl this story could have had some real grit in it and still finished with them married and happy.

But after saying that I still enjoyed the story.

Well done

Well, that was a different angle for sure. Don't any LW writers think of morning breath? OMG! Good reading and writing again SB50401. Lived 7 years in the corn patch. Cheers!

while not sure what category, this story belongs, nonetheless, a good story. With the exception of Ed, all likeable characters. Who knows, maybe even ol' Ed will break with his shit head ways. I gave it a four.

BSU really exists! With a 90% acceptance rate, not that hard to be admitted. With the exception of Trade type classes, Fire Science, Mechanics, etc, community colleges require faculty to have a Masters degree. In this story Wendy starts teaching right after getting her Bachelors from good ol' Bimidji State. Other then that, overall, a good story. Oh right, let's give it up for BSU!

Well written and powerful.I do agree with others that the way Wendy let Jack be treated like shit would be the hardest part of all this,he wouldn't forgive all that easily.

Plus blame ed all you want,but it is clear Wendy never got past Kevin,yet to the end all she says is 'I don't know why I did that',she never fully in the story admits she was fucked up.

I also have,some quibbles with the way Jack reacts Ed being such an ass,No one,especially someone who has grieved themselves,would excuse Ed like that.It is obvious Ed is nothing more than an abusive jackass, your sadly too typical bigoted bully who thinks he is God's answer to perfection,he was an asshole long before Kevin died,his family shows that.I think jack's dad would have taken Ed's head off,no Irish guy I know would stand being treated,or allow jack,to be treated like garbage,Ed needed,like most bullies do,a good beat down..and the wife was just as bad

5*

Very interesting plot, enjoyed it a lot. Will be waiting on more . Thanks for sharing

he shouldve divorced this bitch the day after his wedding. why would he let her and that asshole ed ruin his own wedding. he let them treat him like shit for weeks. how can someone have so little self respect.this dipshit is a total pussy.

And that trip would have been the end . But a good read.

but I really didn't like it very much at all. Wendy was a totally stupid and hateful witch. She absolutely should have been divorced. There was no logical reason for them getting back together. She was absolutely under the spell of her former father-in-law and had a total and aggressive disregard for Jack's feelings. When she married him she became part of his family and should not have still been more loyal and devoted to her dead husband and his family. There was no excuse for her to spend all of her time with them, at the expense of time with her new husband. He should have been in the wedding pictures, not a picture of her ex-husband. That was just the first of many red flags surrounding her. The first time that her ex father-in-law got in Jack's face, she took the wrong side, in fact she did every time. She should die an old maid. If she was that easily led by Ed then Jack should have hit the road right then. It is never going to get any better, if not Ed, it will just be someone else. And seeing a therapist because Jack was partly to blame too, because he had PTSD because of an event that he was already over and of course the stress of having been a fireman and paramedic. Bullshit.

Him and her didn't make enough sense to stay together. Forced reconciliation. Even up until the very end of the therapy she still tended to blame Jack instead of taking the blame herself. No, he didn't need to be understanding. He knew she had a loss, he took it slow in dating her. The only thing that was his fault in this little tale of woe was taking her back. And he will regret it. Never try to live with a crazy woman either, you can't descend to her lever and stay there long enough to live with her. She's already crazy and you soon will be.

...was pussy-whipped!

The score for this story is way too high. Jack comes off as a weak girly man wimp.

.....when you don't have any skin in the game, have not suffered as the characters, or have the same fears as they do.

Tragedy changes you.

I really enjoyed your presentation and the general themes in your story. I did not, however, care much for the rather protracted and blatantly obvious development of the major conflict and the characters that carried it. In the real world, any but a seriously damaged Jack would have marched out of that house with a loud declaration about not living another minute in the shadow of a dead man.

I felt a more realistic Jack would also have dealt with Ed much sooner and much more aggressively. The same for his supposedly fed-up children in the conference room confrontation. It seems Ed gets away far too often with insulting, demeaning and offensive behavior. That sort of thing is usually handled much sooner and much more decisively than in your story.

Finally, Wendy was obvious and one dimensional. Very few of the women I've known in life would have gone that long with that much manipulation without recognizing and responding to it.

Finally, I liked the conclusion. Once it became clear to her, what Ed and Joanne had done, Wendy did a 180 and put all her effort into making Jack number one in her life.

... Unfortunately, this long winded, as usual for you, tale of woe deteriorated into just another wimpy husband story. Really, I was unable to suspend my disbelief that a guy could be so clueless as to walk into a marriage with a woman so obviously emotionally attached to her long dead husband. Anybody with half a brain would've bailed as soon as he saw Kevin's parents on the guest list for the wedding. As for Wendy, you changed her personality so profoundly at the end of the story that her character had absolutely no credibility. Overall, the story just plain missed the mark. Sorry.

however, "Kevin" will always be in their being...from the first day to 50 years later.. I know I am there...

The protagonist allows himself to be bullied by the wife's ex father in law and then allows himself to be cucked by a dead man and apparently many readers think this is a good story. Pathetic!

If you consider all of the timeline of the story, everything important happened within a fairly short time period - about two months or less. The engagement between Jack and Wendy was fairly innocuous and they took their time getting ready for the marriage. So for everyone who says the Jack was a puss for putting up with all of Wendy's and Ed's shit for so long, it really wasn't that long at all. I'd have to say that Jack got sick of dealing with so much shit pretty quickly and decided to move out and file for divorce immediately. He apparently decided pretty quickly how much he was going to take and reached his boiling point less than two months in. People don't just get divorced on a dime. It is usually going to take anywhere from two to six months to make it happen. Overall, I'd say Jack acted pretty decisively.

Love your work and detail of all the players, glad you had them work it out. The ex. Father in law was a real controlling jerk, I'm glad everyone else came around to them . So now after so much turmoil they can live happily ever after.

He was a completely soft spoken wimp until page 8 and then he turns into a beer guzzling drunk who curses like a sailor!?!?

In the first stories in this series, Pat Quinn cheats on his wife with her mother, then discovers that his boss (Bud) is a corrupt SOB who maintains his power by convicting people on false evidence and making deals with mobsters, and that he's being set up to take the fall so Bud can have his wife. Does he bring Bud and his co-conspirators down by shining the light of day on their activities and bringing honest law enforcement to the community? No! He turns the tables on them, blackmails them and then makes a deal to shove everything they've done under the rug so he can take Bud's place.

Ever since that sad beginning, we've seen that for all his many serious faults, Pat Quinn actually seems to be the best man there is in a community whose male population seems to otherwise consist of cucks, chastised wimps and people even more corrupt than he is.

Must be something in the water.

Thought that this was consistent with your other stories and well written. I thought that the reconciliation was both plausible.and warranted. Look forward to other offerings.Thanks

an apology from her.. all she said was "its not like you caught me with another man" and then she tried to blame him witholding Connie as part of the reason lol

Understand why an american students go to Bengali, India for schooling. Bemidji uni is now defunct due to poor administration. Many better schools for Americans.

Your knowledge is admirable. Thank You very much.

I agree with sdc97230. There is nothing to look forward to.

Jack and Wendy courted for a long time because she was grieving the loss of her husband. It is inconceivable that at no time in the 18 months leading up to their wedding that Jack would not have disclosed that he had been married before and the horrific way he witnessed his wife dying. Even if it had not been brought up before the wedding, it would have been mentioned one of the many times Wendy said that he did not understand what she was going through.

The marriage should have been annulled in the first week. The reception was a fiasco, she screamed the dead guy's name in the wedding bed and let her ex-in-laws treat him like shit. Jack was also a passive figure who just let them walk all over him. It was painful to read page after page of his torment. This story was way too long and Wendy was way too clueless. Ten pages of torment and they reconcile in a few paragraphs and lived happily thereafter. Should have been condensed to a 3 or 4 page story. Three stars. You can do better.

reasonable man

As always, thanks for all the comments! I'm always grateful to get feedback on my writing. As I've said before, I do this for fun and write about things that interest me. So I'm glad that others find them interesting, too - whether they eventually liked the story or not. Grief is a difficult topic to incorporate into a story with traditional story mechanisms. Someone needs to be the protagonist, someone needs to be the antagonist and some type of conflict generally ensues. I guess the overall theme that I was going for in this story is how difficult it can be to let go of the past and how, sometimes, even if we THINK we are ready to move on from a relationship or a bad experience, sometimes we find that we are not. And sometimes we only discover that after it is too late. And some people, like Jack, just avoid their issues and bury them. How many combat Veterans find that familiar? Probably a lot. And police officers, firefighters and EMS people are NOTORIOUS for hiding a lot of hurt for YEARS. I knew everyone was going to see Ed as the total bastard that he can be. But he is that way because a lot of his hopes, dreams and aspirations died with his first-born. For both Wendy and Ed, the catalyst for regression into their grief was Wendy's wedding to Jack. For Ed, Kevin's loss became more real as Wendy was preparing to move on. For Wendy, she still has some lingering issues to deal with that didn't creep up until after the wedding. At that point, it is REAL. And Jack was a classic case of avoiding the past for thirteen years. My intent was to make all of them seem both reprehensible on one hand, while trying to gain them some sympathy on the other. I guess it was a hit with some and a miss with others. But again, thanks for the comments. Some of the issues people had with various plot devices will eventually get resolved in future stories.

Very good story. Liked the original plot very much.

Enough character development that the reader feels emotionally connected to them.

Dialogue is believable and flows smoothly. Gave you 4*s .

The bad guy ' Ed ' could have been explored a little more. Sharing more of his grief, the way it twisted his mind and affected his wife 'Sharon' . The confrontation would have been better and the epilogue( Ed and Sharon get therapy and forgiveness ) have more impact. Maybe it would have added another page, big deal.

The best complete story on the site this week. Thank You soldierboy50401 .

AMerryMan

Therapy and counselling carried the day over the bogeyman, more's the pity. I enjoyed too much of the story to issue any withering critique, but I will say this story vould have been hall of fame greatness if there had been a true organic conclusion. The tale as it is, stands as extended riff fit for 'Chicken Soup for the Soul ' series.

+

I STILL rate this at five stars because for awhile soldierboy504051 had a very credible twist on´ Rebbeca ' theme for six to seven pages. SB veered from supernatural. It wouldn't have been easy, but that's where this story's shot at greatness lay. I thank the author for the hard work in furthering this engaging series. The preceding entries were home runs in my estimation. This one is mere double. Quite good and worthy of respect, but not awe. A grudging five stars is awarded. *****

Really enjoyed this story!!!

Struggled to give this one a 5. Thought the ending was a bit rushed and the 'Connie' aspect a little too contrived... then I remembered how pissed off I was as I read the first two pages. I had to get up and take several breaks. I was mad at all the characters for letting it get that bad. The mark of a good story if it can evoke that kinda emotion without the shockjock crap. Congrats for writing a story well enough and with enough character deapth to make me care about the outcome! A definate 5 for pulling me into your story!

@soldierboy-

I am not sure of your categorization of Ed,that he is a bastard Simply because Kevin died.From your story and the descriptions Nathan and the kids give,he was difficult when they were growing up,and it appears he was dominating and an ass to his family all along.His wife in your story comes out like an abused spouse,a doormat.More importantly,the types of parents who put all their hopes and dreams on one child are usually pushy,nasty people,think of sports parents and the like.His grief might have pushed him over the edge,but that simply was between an asshole and an over the top asshole.The fact that his family puts up with his over the top behavior,don't have one shred of empathy for jack paints a picture of a petty tyrant who turned into a monster,not a nice guy who lost itm

your stories involve every character in the best of ways, each is important and adds to the theme. the plots are great with a bit of who dunnit added as well. I'm looking forward to the next one you put together.

I often fail to read to the end of stories that annoy or bore me. This also means I don't have to spend a lot of time writing 'put-down' comments. There was never any chance I wouldn't complete this one.

However, as her indifference to her new husband, and obsession with the deceased (and even more so with the family). was so well belabored by the author, it seemed to me that there must be a happy ending in the offing. The only alternative would have been a continuing slide into depression. No story there. So I looked for the Deus Ex Machina that would force a180 degree turn in short order. I didn't see Nate coming although clues had been inserted.

I'm sorry though Mr. Author, the ending was too slick, too abrupt, and a bit 'Mom and Apple Pie'.

You can't expect us to overlook the very extensive series of events that clearly demonstrated a complete disregard for both the new husband and the institute of marriage. You kept having Jack say that "she just doesn't get it". We readers accepted and believed that. It makes the ending a little absurd.

I still like a happy ending though!

Well planned, with lots of depth. kept the interest up right to the end.

Very well done, and kept my interest from start to finish. ***** stars!

Soldierboy's stories are actually very consistent, and therein lies the problem for Red River Falls. If these stories were set in different locales across the country, it would not be an issue, but having ALL these examples of un-manhood concentrated in the same small community is like 100 cases of measles traceable to Disneyland. It's a literal epidemic of male pathetic-ism.

I really did not have the time for a story of this length, but I could not put aside.

The author gave a very good exposition of what he was trying to do, and if he did not describe the chicken after if hatched did reach his objectives!

Truth is, I agree with the guy who said that he would have had the marriage annulled.

The humiliation in Ed's party is understandable but I would have told my wife that I was not going back in the future. On my own ground I would have told Ed that he was in my chair... and I would have started the divorce proceedings again when she told me that she was pregnant and that she told Kevin first..... He should have had a memorial to Connie in his living room..

Much of this story involved grief and pain, which are not fun subjects. The premise behind the plot is an Interresting one. Long read, but a good read. Appreciate your writing SB5! Five stars from me.

But I still have a few issues with Wendy:

Her denial to the point of anger with her calling Kevin's name during sex.

Her disrespect to Jack's father by giving the second dance to Ed.

Her refusal to stand up to Ed when he disrespected Jack.

Her refusal to change the house in ANY way.

Good story. I think he forgave her and accepted her back too quickly. And the baby name thing is too much considering everything that happened.

Yes, Anonymous, I had forgotten about the baby name - to give the baby his name once his paternity had been dis-proven is distasteful, at best.

And how did Ed get past the HIPAA rules to set up the IVF? Did he use Joanne to pretend she was Wendy?

And going off on the Hawaii trip without him, was quite unforgivable, IMHO. If it had been me, I would have said, "I can't order you not to go, but if you get on that plane, make your first stop on your return to a divorce attorney! I can't/won't stay married to someone who shows such disregard for my wishes."

There are just SO many times she showed zero regard for him, from not insisting that he have a seat at the main table, to saying nothing when her father won't allow her niece to call Jack "Uncle", that I'm sure I missed some others.

And this is coming from someone who likes happy endings, and in that sense I'm okay with this, but it just seems like there was a lot of wrongness coming from Wendy, not Ed, that makes the reconciliation seem a bit Deus Ex Machina.

I generally avoid stories that run 11 pages. Somehow I got sucked into this one. Then I enjoyed it. Except for the utterly gratuitous appearance of the Sheriff. That was like an OJ cameo on "Friends". What the hell was that intended to do other than allow the name in the title blurb?

I'll be honest this story wasn't as great as the others and let's face it you can't say this is a Sheriff Quinn story seeing as he had like what a handful of lines which didn't contribute anything to the story. I also find it hard to believe they stayed together given how little respect Wendy showed her husband. Not a bad story but it's not in the same league as the other stories

I felt this story belonged in the fetish section. No person would tolerate a relationship with their significant other as described in this story.

The level of cognition in their relationship was laughable. Interference by an ex in-law is beyond implausible. The characters were cartoonish.

I usually don’t read stories that are as long as this one because I like quick gratification. Sure glad I stuck with this one and I didn’t peek at the end; the story kept my interest the entire time. I also read many of the comments which are all over the place. Many had merit.

Yes, it could have been edited to a few pages shorter, but I had no trouble with the length. I could see Wendy’s former father-in-law manipulating her in her grief. People grieve differently; some are able to move on much faster than others. My problem was Jake didn’t want the divorce but used it as a means to wake Wendy up, but when it did he refused to talk to her until her lawyer demanded a face to face. And then, if Wendy wanted to save the marriage, why did she bring her former in-laws? But if they weren’t there, there wouldn’t have that great confrontation.

All in all I thought it was a great story and look forward to reading more of your work. I gave it 5 stars, Maddie

A well written story with good characters and scenes. I believe you covered well what grief can do to some people and how it effects them. All around worth the time to read. Please continue to write and I will continue to read. Thank you for your effort

five stars. I thought this was your best by far. Not sure if I would have even stuck it out as long as Jack did. Wonderfully detailed and engaging. Thanks.

woman treats you this bad you kick the shit out of her and take your 30 days in jail.

f u you think its gonna be more in a little town, she was a total bitch, i hope you wimps ass fags boys sons die horribly at the hands of a woman like this, she fucking destroyed him, and you cunts want him to just let it go!!!!......and the mother in law just lets the father abuse the kids....and no one calls her on it.....every time a mom dies no one thinks maybe she deserved it, your telling me them the women in this story are good..moms? or future moms?......the ex father in law was evil....but at least he was honest....she drank the cup of her own freewill....if you ask me women get a free ride playing at being a victim......drugs ,rape, violence,abuse it always someone else's fault.....and he is supposed to be a fireman....a guy who charges into burning building.....fucking pussy....he stayed in the house way to long after she left.

She cheated....it is over....fuck that catholic thing of victim christian guilt,maybe x(him) did something wrong, he is told to believe(because men deserve to be abused by women)(ask your sons u fucks how the female teacher treats them, studies show like future rapists)... just..just give the nazis/kkk/child molester/cheating cunt wife another chance, cries the female mom/courts/any thing with a cunt...the cries of every fat christian woman.....they all stick together in hell too.

great story accurate view of the average abusive western white woman.

Hey anonymous 4/12/15. Get help.

The conference room where everything came to a head was done a little wrong in my mind.

Two things bothered me; One, when ALL of Ed's children sat on the hero's side of the table, I think you went too far. I believe it would have been more likely--and more literarily effective--if you would have had only Nate sit on the side opposite his parents, and have the other siblings come around slowly to his side (mentally, not literally) as the meeting progressed.

The other thing that seemed a little too dramatic, was the use of the terms "unholy, Satanic, and witchcraft." Time to dial those three back to something else, as it makes you, the author, sound a little too extreme for the mainstream reader, which this piece is intended to reach.

This very well written story points out the risk someone takes in marriying a recent widow,you will have to compete with a ghost and most of the time you wil loose

5 well earned *****l

This is an easy 5 stars. You had me guessing and second guessing almost 75% of the way through on who was manipulating whom. You have easily become one of the authors I continually look forward to reading. I can't wait to see more stories from Red River Falls.

Still with some reservations though:

- She was pretty horrible to him throughout, without showing much remorse even at the end. I think she needed to do this on a one to one basis for the story to tie up.

- He went too far in his behaviours. One minute he was being wimpish with her bad attitude, the next he was being a hardass who wouldn't communicate with her. If he'd steered the middle course and been more assertive to get to the bottom of her poor attitude this would have been more believable.

Yes, this was a well written story and very imaginative and creative. However, I don't see how this guy could ever forgive this pitiful excuse for a wife. Forgetting about the ex father-in-law and the dead guy's sperm.

1) Calling the dead husband's name during sex several times per session and more than 1 session.

2) masturbating with dead guy's picture and watching movies. (This would have been enough for a divorce)

3) Hawaii trip without husband with dead guy's family when their marriage is in real trouble. (This would have been enough for a divorce)

4) Allowing dead guy's father to continually disrespect her husband time and time again and not saying anything. If I was invited as a guest to someone's home and they did not seat me at the main table, I would have just walked out on the whole bunch of them.

5) The house...refusing to change anything and keeping it her house and not their house. And then getting all bent out of shape when he makes the basement his own.

6) Naming baby after dead husband shows me that nothing is going to change. And to make it worse the dead guy is the first one she told that she was pregnant.

I'm sure I missed a lot of other examples of her complete disrespect over the way she treated him. I do not believe that this woman really loved this guy at all. This guy is in for a world of hurt in the future.

I also think that she did a complete turn-around at the meeting in the lawyer's office. All of a sudden she really, really loves this guy and wants to stay married. She was too easily led around by the ex-father-in-law to completely disrespect her husband and she followed along willingly blaming her husband. No this was not anyway near a reconciliation story. She was not worthy. But then again, he changed awful quickly at that meeting. From trying to do the right thing to becoming a complete wimp.

Thanks for the story, but it just didn't work for me.

what a load of shit. and they stay together? 1*

BEING A PUSSY, once the cunt said the dead mans name, toss her from bed, kick her in the cunt that she is.

no compromise no forgiveness without remorse, look at who like's this this vs those who don't, the ones who don't are great people the ones that don't given in, the others are NAZI scum, fall in line compromise,= British cuckold scum.

She abused him left him alone, i hope all women like this and there kids die painfully, the arrogance of the modern female is very real in this story. Ever notice how women want men to clean up other countries but never load a gun? She fucked Kevin in their bed and blamed him, she blamed him for not telling her about Connie? She abused him and ran, i laugh at women who commit suicide, always the victim like this bitch.

Well if nothing else she ended up getting a paid vacation out of the whole fiasco.

Britease said it well...I just wish other respected authors would show more respect for good authorship. This was a very poignant and touching tale. Thank you for a well-deserved Five Star story.

He forgives her instantly. She didn't plan the invitro, but what she did do was bad enough. I can't imagine any husband forgiving her without some long conversations about her conduct.

All in all a good read, but all is forgiven and love regained happened much to quickly spoiling 'the rest of the story'. With 'they lived happily ever after' happening much too fast while all the pain and anguish of making up and all the loose ends were crammed into the epilog.

That being said, I really like the way you keep remembering out of sequence events in dear old Pat's life. Please share some more, possibly longer segments with him in a supporting roll within a subplot.

A beautiful story told very well! Please keep writing.

- A fan from India

Funny how people think it wrapped up to quickly when we have the meeting at lawyers office then lots of counselling both individual and marriage plus time elapsing including a month living separately. Or did I read a different story?

Love ya work.

One of the best, really!

I love your stories and this one was even better then the others. Please keep it up and I will continue reading.

You took a story line that could have travelled anywhere and took it to a new place. I loved how you wove the story line and brought it along. A very interesting read which I certainly enjoyed. Thanks for sharing. BK.

Five* keep the stories coming.

Soldierboy,

I have to say that I became hooked when I came across your 'Badge of Betrayal'. That tale had so much to offer on so many different levels. Yet you were able to manage the complexities of plot as well as providing your readers with believable three dimensional characters they could connect with. That led me to seek out your other Red River spin-off gems. Each one is just as masterfully put together as the mighty BOB saga with many other plot and themes that your explore. Noone expects to read tales that are supposed to be classical literature, but we are expecting to read adult level erotica that engages us. You have succeeded in this. I hope that you have many more to offer us in the future. Many thanks!

but well written! How sick can Wendy be, to hold a picture of her dead husband and dildo herself to a sex video of herself and dead husband ( which she has preserved!) Ed, Wendy and to a lesser extent Joanne, three psychos supporting each other. How on earth did Wendy remarry when she was still in the past with her dead husband, living in a shrine to his memory?! Then at the meeting she tells Jack, " Please Baby, please tell me you know I would never do anything so sick and perverted as this." Then just a little later, she says, "If he had gotten to me in Hawaii and stated his case, he would have probably talked me into it."!!! Jack is in a sick marriage and should not have scrapped the divorce. Therapy? Too little too late.Ximand 02/27/18 has it right.

Just in comment on the previous comment by "anonymous"....

The emotion of grief is a deep and serious one that you will never truely understand until you go through it yourself. The "theories" on it are featureless and meaningless until you have felt the depth of "never again". NEVER is almost as unfathomable as the federal deficit.

Have you ever TRIED envisioning a trillion? so how can you say or judge another's grief? emotion is not objective. You cannot put a number on it, like pain or joy or love.

Smokepole