Burn This Whole Town Down Pt. 02

I really didn't plan on a second part to this story but some of the commenters really left me with little choice. By the way, if you think a small town bank couldn't do what Ronald tried then you really need a reality check. Look at your loan contracts. There is always a clause that allows the bank to accelerate the loan. It could be on demand, within thirty days to allow you to find other financing or some other term but you agreed to it.

For instance, my small town bank was owned by a distant relative of mine. One year he started to put pressure on the local service station owner who also delivered fuel and oil to the area farmers. Usually the farmers had charge accounts and paid up when the harvest was sold, be it calves in the fall, pigs multiple times a year or corn.

That year, mid year, my banker relative wanted the fuel dealer to reduce his debt. Fearing his loans being called in, the fuel dealer started to try and collect from his customers. He soon found out that the banker had already called and told them all to tell the fuel dealer to wait until the normal harvest. Why did he do this? He never had to explain but it was only one of the strange dealings from his bank. He finally sold out and retired and now there is no local bank. Everyone has to travel to another town to do banking business.

And, just in case you need to know, there is no sex in this part either. (Final note: I did not take any suggestions on how to end this. Please, if you don't find this ending satisfactory then write your own and post it. I will read it and enjoy your version.)

Burn this Whole Town Down Part 2

When I stopped telling you my tale of woe I had survived the outrageous terms of my surprise divorce and had gotten some means of retribution against my wife, her lover (supposed next husband), and her father. No one had died and only a couple of volunteer firefighters had received minor injuries fighting the fires. Well, actually the ones they could get to.

I had set fire to my ex-wife's house after warning my ex-wife to leave via a voice synthesizer and when she had attempted to go to her parents' house, had found it to be in flames also.

I had relocated to another city many, many miles away and now made my home there. But, and this is a big but, when I talked of my mother's house or the town I grew up in, I called it home. It was hard to not think of where I had gown up and had spent so much time as an adult as my home, but it was now only a memory of a home.

It had now been almost three years since my married life had exploded. Or is that imploded? I really don't know for sure except that my wife, her lover and my ex-father-in-law had colluded to destroy me for some unknown reason. If my ex had come to me and just said, "I have fallen in love with my old flame and am going to leave you." I would have been broken-hearted and distraught but I could have understood. No, they had to set me up and then destroy me by taking my children away from me and even tried denying me visitation. That was the only thing Judge Gavin gave me. They had to take my business away and only provided employment at minimum wage with outrageous child support and alimony even though I had been railroaded into giving up my parental rights by the judge. I felt alone when I was denied even the slightest public support by people I had grown up with and did business with on a daily basis.

I had felt so alone that I didn't even think I could get a fair shake if I had gone as far away as the state capital for legal help. I believed Ronald Mains had long lines of influence just from what was happening in the place I should feel most secure.

I did have some friends there in my small town and they did help me where they could but they couldn't publically buck Mains Federal Bank and the owner. Their own financial lives were at risk. I tried to minimize the impact of my actions on those I knew were silently in my corner but some might have been harmed by my pyromania that fateful night.

I still was not sure if I was wanted for questioning by the local law enforcement. I hadn't really tried to hide myself since that night by changing my name or even my chosen career path. But, on the other hand, I had not admitted to anyone where I had moved to. Not even my mother knew exactly where I lived now. The company I worked for was a larger regional concern with a centrally located human resources department. I am sure my ex-wife knew what company I worked for as I had my child support deducted from my paycheck and forwarded to her checking account every payday.

I did, though, request that any inquiries into my private life, such as my address or phone number be rejected out of hand. The company was very security conscious as one of our main selling features was our expertise combating cyber crime and identity theft. That meant that its own security had to be top notch. Nothing damages your reputation faster than have it known you were hacked.

An HR representative would periodically update every team member when there was interest in someone from outside the company. Every few months there would be a request by some sort, email, snail mail, or even by phone, from an attorney for Rebecca and there were even a number of attempts to find out my information by Rebecca herself. She even posed as my mother once to try and get by the corporate guardians.

If a subpoena from a law enforcement agency or a prosecuting attorney's office had floated across the HR desk then my information would have been given out without a qualm but nothing of the sort had occurred.

I did change phones every once in a while when calling Mom. Sometimes I had to leave a message for her to call back as she couldn't be sure if it wasn't some robo-call when she didn't recognize the number. Since I always drove a ways from my new home before calling I started sending her a text message from that phone before calling. It helped her to be ready to talk to me.

Each and every time I would call we would catch up on the local news and gossip. Of course that had to include my ex-wife and her evil father. For some strange reason, after Joshua had to admit his marital status and had left town again, Rebecca insisted that she was still married to me and constantly begged my mother to get me to return. Ha, Ha, fat chance of that ever happening.

I did though sneak home a few times over these past few years. Just to make sure that my mother, the original Christian preaching forgiveness at all costs, didn't let Rebecca know about any plans for a visit, I would surprise her.

I finally had to junk the old pickup and did manage to save enough during the time I drove the old beast to purchase a newer more reliable auto that definitely got better gas mileage.

You might wonder why I didn't just get a loan for a vehicle. Simple, I no longer trusted a bank. I had to have a checking account so I could get paid but I used a large national bank for that and withdrew any extra cash every payday and invested it with another national brokerage. I did check my credit rating and I couldn't have qualified for a loan even if I wanted to as my former father-in-law had reported that I had defaulted on all my loans with his bank. I didn't bother to file counterclaims with the credit bureau, just went to paying cash for everything I could to reduce my paper trail.

I never flew or used any mode of transportation that would allow tracking of my movement. Cash bought all my fuel. Yeah, it's a little more time consuming to have to go in and prepay and you don't fully fuel up at each stop but there is no paper trail to catch you. I would always travel with a couple of thousand dollars in cash with me. It would be split and hidden in my bags, wallet and the car itself so I always had cash if I needed it.

I checked and found what was the most common auto make and color. I bought an older model of that color. It also was pretty economical to drive and had little mechanical issues.

I found some motels that did not belong to a chain but were still clean and quiet on my routes of travel and took cash so there was no paper trail there either. Yes, I meant it when I said "routes" of travel in the plural. Sometimes I added a couple of hundred miles to my trip just to make sure there was less of a pattern to my travel in case the bitch, excuse me: ex-wife, would somehow sic an investigator on me after finding out about one of my trips home.

Now, some would shrug their shoulders and say, "What's your problem?" I know I sound a little paranoid but what causes paranoia? For me having almost my entire home town, including people I grew up with, went to school with, hung out with, etcetera turn on me just because my ex-bitch and her evil father decided to destroy me and maybe even conspired to put me in prison. Wouldn't that make you a little paranoid?

Some others, including my mother, would like to see me back with the shrew, that is my ex, at whatever the cost. Sorry, no dice.

So periodically I would schedule a week off and head off to Culverson, USA to see my mom and my kids. From our phone conversations Constance and Thaddeus would come to mom's house after school every day and stay with her until Rebecca got off work. It seems that Rebecca had to work extra hours trying to sell loans since there was now competition in our little town. She also had to run my old IT business and try to keep it from failing. Through my mother I did hear from many of my former clients who promised to dump Rebecca if I would come back and start a new concern.

It was tempting as I truly missed my home but since my treatment there I knew it was no longer the hometown I grew up in.

So I would plan on arriving at Mom's home just after the kids would get there. Never any notice so that my well-meaning mother couldn't tip off Rebecca. I would pull in, rapidly get out of my car and approach the house. When Mom would answer the door I would hold out my hand and request her phone. After pocketing it then I would greet my kids by the names I wanted to call them. Connie and Tad would always jump in my arms as I would kneel on the floor and then would proceed to tell me everything they could remember about their life since the last time I had traveled home.

Once we got that out of the way I would hustle all of them to the car, including Mom, and head for our urban community about an hour away. There we would eat, see a movie, maybe go to the children's museum, feed the ducks at the city park lake, or do some other memorable event as I reconnected with my kids and caught up on the family from Mom.

Of course I had to endure a lecture on turning the other cheek, how forgiveness is divine, etcetera as part of the evening. I finally got to the point where I would just nod and allow her to lecture. It wasn't going to change anything.

Mom would also describe how Rebecca was doing physically. Rebecca was sad, she never smiled anymore, she always asked about how I was doing, she wanted to see me, she wanted to forgive me for what I did. It went on and on some visits. What was missing was one, Rebecca never asked for my forgiveness and two, Mom never mentioned if Rebecca loved me. Hell, I knew the truth so why make a deal of it.

Mom did sneak a burner phone on me once and I caught her texting Rebecca while we were out. I almost made a major mistake as it made me beyond angry. Just before I went to rip the phone from her hand and yell at her I remembered that this was my mother, the one who carried me for nine months, wiped my nose and my butt as needed and raised me. I took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calmly inquire as to what her intention was.

"Tim, it is simple. Rebecca says she is concerned that you might kidnap the kids. She just wants to know where they are and if they are safe. I feel, as she is their mother, that it is a reasonable request."

"Well, I don't trust her in any way whatsoever. She has proven to be a deceitful woman and the police will probably pull up in a few minutes." (I wanted to call Rebecca a bitch but young ears were close and might have been listening.) I did hustle us out to the car and I pulled into a dark corner of the parking lot when Mom insisted I was being paranoid.

A few minutes later there were three police cruisers with two officers per vehicle at the front and back door of the restaurant we had been visiting. I looked over at Mom. Of course her response was, "Maybe they are not here for you."

I just nodded as the officers exited the building and started to look around carefully. Since they had no idea what I was driving and my windows were tinted and I had the engine off and headlights off they didn't pay my car any attention. Soon they were satisfied that their quarry was gone and headed off to the next call.

Mom still wouldn't believe she had been made a patsy by my ex. "Son, Becky wanted me to let her know where we were so she could join us and you could finally talk. You need to sit down with her and get this out of the way and maybe you can get back together."

I shook my head. "Why don't you call her right now and see what she says about us?"

I gave her the phone and she was connected to Rebecca quickly. I had her put it on speaker phone but kept quiet. The kids were taking a cue from me and also didn't say anything as Rebecca immediately started in with questions. "Did they get him? Was he arrested? I told them he had kidnapped my children and had taken them from our home town."

My mom had a shocked look on her face. I know my demeanor hardened. The bitch tried to get me arrested for visiting my own children and I had a legal right to visit them at any time. The court papers said so. Mom finally answered. "No, Tim saw me text you our location and hustled us out of the building. We watched from the parking lot. How could you try to do this to Tim? What has he done to deserve being arrested? I thought you were going to come and join us, not the police."

Rebecca immediately became conciliatory. I don't know if she realized we were all listening or not but she immediately tried to minimize the damage. "Margaret, I just wanted to make sure that he would sit down and talk to me. I decided that if he was in custody he would have to talk to me. Then I could drop the charges and see where we go from there."

I shook my head in disgust. The bitch would probably only drop the charges if I agreed to something that was only to her benefit but a detriment to my needs and wants. Rebecca asked the dreaded question. "Where are you guys now? I want my babies safe with me."

I couldn't take it anymore. "Listen, Bitch, my children are safe with me and my mother. We will return home sometime this evening. I have not kidnapped them. They are not in any danger except from your manipulations. If the cops had tried to arrest me your children would have to witness their father being arrested by the behest of their own mother. Did you ever think how that would affect them and their relationship with you?

And, in what way could you possibly believe I would kidnap your children? Why would I deny them their mother, even a bitch like you are?"

As I was speaking I was driving out of the parking lot. If Rebecca was close she would be looking for us. I do believe she was entering the other entrance as we exited onto the street. Mom gave me a dirty look but didn't say anything. I gave Rebecca my last comment. "We are heading home now. I guess you will have to trump up some other charges to get me arrested as soon as we get to Mom's house."

Mom took the phone off speaker phone as the kids were starting to understand that I was very upset and were starting to cry. I was ashamed to realize that I had called her a bitch in front of them. Mom spoke low to Rebecca and then got off the phone to try and reassure Connie and Tad that everything was okay. It took a few miles down the road before they started to settle down. How do you explain to an almost nine and six year old that their mother tried to get their daddy arrested?

I was paranoid enough to believe that I was going to be pulled over at any moment the entire trip back to mom's house. I tried to tell myself that no one knew what kind of car, color or style I was driving and there would never be any reason to create a roadblock to check every vehicle but I kept looking in my mirror and made sure to stay right at the speed limit even though it impeded traffic a little.

When I got back to Culverson I diverted around the town via a paved county road so I would enter from a different direction than would be anticipated by the bitch or law enforcement. Then I carefully circumnavigated a few blocks around Mom's house to make sure there was no ambush set up. Seeing nothing I then stopped on the street at the end of the driveway and let Mom and the kids out. As soon as they cleared the car I took off and headed a great deal away from my new home city before circling back again. Yeah, I know, I am just being paranoid but I successfully got away again.

Normally I would get a motel a few miles away and then come back and visit the kids each afternoon for the balance of the week but I was afraid Rebecca might have the kids watched knowing that I was close by. I drove for a few hours before stopping at a different motel for the night.

Something had to change. I decided to contact the bitch. The motel had a decent wi-fi signal so I decided to try a video contact so she could see how upset I was. I made sure there was nothing to identify my location on the screen behind me. I also planned on leaving as soon as the call was over in case she could somehow track the IP address of the motel.

I figured she had plenty of time to retrieve the kids and get them home and put down for bed. I got lucky on my first attempt. I sent a request for a video link to her and she answered immediately. I really didn't want to look at her but that was the breaks of the game I was playing right now. It had been three years but she still looked pretty good but I know her beauty was only skin deep.

"Tim, it is so good to see you. Why didn't you just come over to the house and see the kids?"

"Quite frankly, I have no idea if the cops would be waiting for me wherever we would agree to meet. I am sure someone has decided that I am to blame for all of you and your family's misfortunes these past few years."

"Tim, no one is looking for you. The state police came in and investigated along with the arson investigator and they could not find enough evidence to point the finger at any one person. Yes, I suppose they believe that you might have been responsible as no one else left town at the same time of the fires but there are a lot of people here locally that don't like my dad and his business practices. All I heard for weeks and months afterward was whispers of what else should have happened to dad. Did you know the fire department booted him off and blackballed him? He can't even serve on the board of trustees anymore."

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Actually I could care less. The only thing I want is to visit my kids periodically. The rest of you can all go jump off a cliff somewhere and we will all be better off."

"Are you still in town? Can I see you?"

"What, and be arrested for kidnapping my own children, the children the court said I could visit at any time without warning or reservation?"

She looked a little chastened by that comment. "I thought it would force you to sit and talk to me. I would never press charges against you."