Turning Point

"Never."

"Baby, I think you have to make a choice. Right now. Me or him. You have to have known this was coming. I will put it to you like this. I love you and want you to be my wife. I will do my very best to be the best step-father your kids could ever have. I have more money than we can spend. I have no one else."

"Yes, Benji, I will marry you. I do love you. Let me straighten this out first. I know this is his idea. I don't think the girls would have come up with this. I can't resolve this over the phone. Please give me a little time, I hate being away from you even for a few hours, I don't know if I can make it through a night with out you beside me. I will try to resolve this with the girls very quickly. I have to talk to them without him influencing them.."

"All right, take as long as you need. I don't want him sleeping in the house with you. That is the only condition I have. What I mean is I don't want you sleeping with him."

"I won't do that."

I took her in my arms and held her tight. "I have bad feelings about this, Maggie, I think this is the end of my world. I am going to take you home now."

"Now, I thought we would have tonight together."

"Now, I want you to really miss me. If you don't have a problem with tonight you can make a switch tomorrow."

"What!"

"I love you Maggie, I need you, I don't want to live without you. I'll give you a couple of days, then I'm out of here."

It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I drove her home and walked her to her door. I kissed her and said, "I love you Maggie, and I want you to know I always will. I need to tell you that no matter what happens, this has been the most wonderful and delightful two weeks of my life, I will cherish the memory of them for the rest of my life. Sleep well Dearest girl. I won't." I turned and got in my truck and drove off.

I was right, I got no sleep that night. I was not fit to be around the next day. Maggie called about six crying on the phone that she missed me. I told her to call when he was gone. Buck and Lucy came into the hanger while I was working on my plane. Lucy wanted to know what was wrong. I said nothing was wrong, Maggie and I were just having a disagreement.

"What! I don't believe that. You two having a fight! You look terrible, do you want to talk about it?"

What could it hurt? I told them the whole story. Lucy was crying. "Let me talk to her. This is not right. I see her problem but there has to be a better way."

"Tell me about it. I haven't been able to come up with one."

"Come on up to the house and have lunch with us."

"Thank you very much, Lucy. I just can't eat. I have no appetite at all."

"Come up and sit with us, we don't want you to be all alone."

"I think I will be all alone for the rest of my life no matter where I go or who I am with. I love you guys but I have plans to make and things to do. I just rerigged the trim tabs on the SNJ and I need to test it." They reluctantly drove off. I took the tow motor and pulled the plane out of the hangar. I unhooked it and climbed aboard. She fired right up. I took off and climbed out on a northerly heading and flew over Maggie's house. His car was in her driveway. The trim was adjusted correctly so I circled back and headed for the strip. I landed and left the plane outside. I did tie her down.

I went to the trailer and sat for a little while. I couldn't bring myself to enter our bedroom just now. I went to the den and got some paperwork caught up. I had a few errands to run so I took the truck in and got some papers notarized and witnessed. Drove past her house. His car was still there. Shit! I hated this. Maybe I should just leave early. No, I couldn't do that, I promised her time to straighten things out, to talk to her girls. I owed her that.

I went back to the doublewide and arranged my papers. The phone rang and I grabbed it up. There was no one there. I had answered so quickly the Caller ID didn't work. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! I paced up and down. I couldn't relax at all. I was getting more and more desperate, I didn't know what to do. I walked out to the truck and got my cell phone. I dialed her number. She answered. I said, "Can you talk?"

"No!'

"Are you alright?"

"No, we don't need the house pressure cleaned."

"Do, you need more time or do you need help?"

"Yes, this is a bad time I am busy now, call back some other time."

"911?"

"Right, good bye." I dialed 911 and gave them Maggie's address and told them it might be a hostage deal. I opened my desk drawer and got my old pistol out, then ran for my truck. I was on the road in a hurry. I speed dialed Fred and Jessie's house. Fred answered, I gave him a quick rundown and he said he would give Maggie's place a quick scout. I told him that I thought Tom enjoyed hurting people. He said he would be careful. I told Fred I would be at his house in about five minutes. I dialed Maggie's number and when she answered I said, "Unlock the back door if you can." I heard her say to call back tomorrow they were eating dinner.

I pulled in Fred's drive with my lights off. Jessie said Fred was over by the fence. I told her to watch for the deputies and to warn them that we would be behind the house. I walked over to where Fred was. He said he could hear Tom yelling every now and then. I asked him if there were an easy way over the fence. He laughed, "Sure there is a gate right back here. Come on." I saw he was carrying a shotgun.

We slipped through the gate. Then we moved to the shed. It was only a short distance to the house. I could hear Tom calling Maggie a no good rotten bitch. I guessed he wasn't getting his way. I told Fred to stay by the shed and try to cover me, and if he could help it, to not shoot me.

I moved as fast as I could to the shrubs beside the house. I heard noise at the rear of the house and flattened against the house. I heard Tom yell, "Shut the fuckin' door and lock it."

I heard Maggie calmly say "It is stuffy in here. Let's get some fresh air in here then I'll shut it and lock it."

"I'll give you five minutes." I saw flashing lights out front and Tom yelled, "Some asshole called the cops. Turn out the lights." I hurried to the door and got there just as Maggie and the girls rushed out. Tom was right behind them. He never saw me as I brought the barrel of my old colt down across his head. He dropped like a rock. He had a gun. I grabbed it and stood pointing both guns at him when he looked up. About that time a deputy came around the corner a screamed at me to drop the guns. I told him I would and held them high were he could see them. Maggie told the deputy that Tom was the bad guy. I carefully put the guns where Tom would have a hard time getting to them. A couple more cops appeared and cuffed both Tom and I. Maggie ran to me and hugged and kissed me. She said Tom had gone crazy when she refused to take him back. He was going to take Maggie and the girls back to Punta Gorda with him in the morning.

The two girls were crying. One of them asked if they could talk to me. The Deputy asked if they didn't want to talk to their father. They said no, they wanted to talk to me. He said fine just don't get too near me. I don't know if it was April or Anna who started talking. "Momma told us she loves you and wants to marry you. We hope you will do it soon. Momma is so sad. She cries all the time. Our father doesn't really love her. He just wants to boss her around. Please help her."

"Sweeties, I want nothing more from life than to make your mother happy. I know we can do it if you help me. We can do it together. Would you like that?"

"Oh! Yes. We can tell you lots of things she likes. We can help a lot."

The Deputy came over and took the cuffs off of me and they hauled Tom off to Jail. He looked at me, and screamed that he would kill me. The deputy said maybe I would have been better off if I had killed him.

I said, "No, it would be hard to win the love and trust of these girls if I had done that and I know their mother didn't want that either. This way was best."

"Mister you are right, you would have been tied up in court and facing charges, you did it right."

Maggie and I were married in a small family wedding at the Larimore Ranch. It was the turning point of my life. There were now three beautiful females in my life where there had been none. We all moved in the double wide while we looked for a piece of property to build on. We wanted to build our own dream house. Maggie and I put a lot of thought into it. The girls helped too.

I had never been loved by three females at once before. It was very nice. Nice, Hell! It was wonderful. They all wanted to please me and they all did. Maggie pleased me the most. Especially when we learned she was pregnant with a boy. Great! I needed another male around. The twins called me Pops, they argued over whose turn it was to sit in my lap. They loved to wait on me and fix my drinks in the evening. They each wanted my attention. I tried to divide it evenly. Maggie got the most though. I never even had to raise my voice to discipline either girl. My frown sent them into tears. It didn't happen often.

Maggie was the joy of my life. She was my best friend, my lover and my commander. I loved the orders she gave me when we were in our bed room with the door locked.