A bonded board by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

Readers be advised

Warning: Contains adult content due to graphic descriptions of any or all of the following:

Battles, Language, Sexual

 

Both the cover and images in this book are not photographs or hand drawn art. They were created using AI text to graphics programs by the author.

 

A bonded board © 2026 D. A. Sanford

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author or publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

 

for permission from the author contact danielsanford@sbcglobal.net

 

Ever had a thought of what your life would have been like if there were different circumstances, different events that happened in your life? How would you react? This is a tale as seen through some of the main characters eyes. It is not a storybook, some may see themselves in it.

Which character will you feel is you?

Jimmy’s tale

Betsey Brandon lived on the same street that I lived on with my parents. She lived with hers. This is a world with traditions, protocols so to speak. You lived with your parents until you are twenty and then you can move out if you want. You did, however, move out when you got married.

That is the joining of the boards. When a child reaches the age thirteen where marriage contracts can be made, there is a thin two foot long board hung outside the home over the main door. That board has a perfect hole in the center of that board. On the left front is the first name. on the right side of the hole is the surname. When a marriage contract is made, the two boards are bonded together and the females given name joins the males name on his board. That now one bonded board is hung over the lentil of the woman’s house for all to see. They are considered married and her surname is now the males surname.

That is for all to see and respect.

Betsey and I were friends ever since my family moved to a house across the street from her. We talked all the time and grew to love each other. We were at the age when we declared that we wanted to join our boards. The meeting with the parents was not the usual happy gathering, it was more like a business contract. My parents left her house without one. Her mother was dead set against it.

We did have a plan. We still would have to wait until the age that we could live together.

Betsey being a few months younger than I was reached eighteen years of age. On that day, when her parents were not there, we took both boards applied the bonding agent.

Pressing the boards together, it was done. The holes were aligned. I wrote her name on my board on the left hand side. That board was hung over their outside door.

Betsey’s mother was in horror at the sight of the bonded boards At my house, my parents asked when and where will I build. It is tradition that the groom must build his house after the joining of the boards if he did not have somewhere other than his parent’s home. This is his commitment. Only after the house is built can he go to the brides house and claim his wife.

Again tradition. The females, daughter and mother, when the house is done, will be in the kitchen with their backs to the husband. He will announce that the house is done and he will tell the wife that he is here to escort her home. Usually she has had input on how the house is being built. The gifts for the couple are brought to the finished house the day before the claiming is going to happen.

The crowd will assemble at the new house and walk with the groom and claim his bride.

Mine is now finished. The gifts to the bride are placed by the people giving the gift in the spot they want it to be seen in. It is time to walk to her parent’s house.

I do not knock, again tradition, I just go in and enter the kitchen. At the counter are Betsey and her mother. The father is usually not around. It is the mother’s task to turn her daughter around and send her off. She is the one to give birth to her as a baby so she is the one to give birth to the daughter’s new life.

I say my lines. “Mother, I am here to retrieve my bride. Betsey come with me.”

What is supposed to happen is the mother turns her daughter around and says

“Daughter, go to your husband.” But the mother does not turn to the husband. This is her way of sending the bride off. We take the joined boards to hang over our new homes door. That does not happen. All I hear coming from Betsey is,

“I have to stay here with my mother.”

“Betsey, it is time. Come with me.”

“I have to stay here with my mother.” Is all she says without turning to face me. I do hear her sobbing.

The crowd gathered gasps when I come out and grab the bonded board then reenter the house.

“One last time, Betsey come with me!”

She remains silent.

“Betsey, is your last name the same as mine?”

She remains silent with her back to me.

“One last time, you now must turn to face me.” She does and gasps when she sees the bonded board in my hands. “Wife come with your husband!” I demand. She says

nothing and turns her back to me. They both know what should happen but are certain that I will not shame them.

Shame them? The shame is on me for thinking we had a bond. They both turn in horror when they hear the sound of me breaking the board in two. You see, the hole is there to show that the two are actually one but the lesser known reason is just for this purpose.

If a bond is not honored for whatever reason, the board will break at the hole. That broken board is nailed to the outside of the house and it can never be taken down as long as that family lives there. It is a symbol of a broken promise.

The people outside are silent. This has never happened before in the history of the town. All were expecting the couple to come out and lead the crowd to their new home.

That was not going to happen. They saw me nailing the broken pieces to the outside wall with a large gap between the two sides.

My name and surname were scratched out with my knife.

I say to the open door, “You are no longer my wife. Betsey is your only name now. You cannot call yourself by my surname or your old surname. You are forever just Betsey.

With no last name, you will never be anyone’s mate, legally. No one will save you. No one will sell to you. No one will even acknowledge your existence. This house is no longer a part of this community. This now nameless family is a scourge, a pariah. This event will be published in every village, every town, and every city in this world.”

I turn and the now somber crowd walk behind me as I go to my house. It will never become a home. All the things I had bought for her, all the gifts that were given, the crowd helped me clear all items from the house until it was just an empty building, Everything was piled up in the front yard. I put a torch to the pile.

The fire was burning well when we see Betsey come running here with her father. I know that he got involved when the crowd went silent when we left. Her father hoped that he could salvage this but when they saw the bonfire they realized that it was too late.

Looking them both straight in the eyes, I pick up the can of lamp oil, walk inside of the empty house. In a short time I emerge and one of the crowd hands me what looks like the burning remains of a table leg. I burn my hand as I toss it through the open door and that house burst in flames. All watch as the structure is engulfed, consumed by the burning of my heart.

I look at the two and just start to walk. The crowd just disperses leaving father and daughter crying.

The mother comes walking here and grabs her daughters hand to walk her back but the father slaps the hand away. He tells her that she is the cause of this shame that we will forever bear. They move out of this village.

I never even tried to find out where they went. My parents did receive a letter for me some time later. It was almost a year of wandering before I came back home to them.

They gave me the letter. Up in the corner, where the sender’s name and address should be is just Betsey. It is addressed to me in care of my parents.

I stood by the fireplace and looked at the envelope for a while. Then I flicked it, unopened, onto the coals and watched it burn. Now is the time that I can start over. I make a board with a hole in it and have my parents hold on to it .

Now, at the near end of my life, I sit here in my home. I call it a home because there is an old bonded board over the lentil of the outside door. I am alone in this home because my wife of fifty years has gone on to the final life. Francine was a devoted wife and more over a wonderful friend. I miss her greatly but every so often, I do wonder what happened to Betsey no name.

She let her mother decide her fate. Betsey never struck me as one that could be led to that extreme.

 

Betsey’s tale

What I can remember of my neighborhood as a child was the house across the street was owned by a nice old couple. Their adult children would come over regularly. My mother’s father lived next door to them. My mother grew up in my grandfather’s home and she was friends with the family that lived in our home back then.

This was a tight knit group of families. Then my grandparents died. Both went quickly, one followed by the other. My mother had married and father had bought this house for her. Then the old couple decided to move to the town that their adult children lived in.

Then it happened. A family moved in to that house. The father was the undertaker for this area. The mother was a dreamer. They immediately painted the exterior a different color than the white with green shutters that the houses on this street were always painted. It was now a pewter with egg shell trim.

I thought it looked nice but mother abhorred the sight of the changed color. It had to be white, period. She even talked that if that family went on vacation, she would personally paint it back to white. Father always talked her out of those fits.

I did make friends with the boy they had. A free willed boy that always seemed to be moving at full speed. He looked like he always was having fun. I would watch him mostly from my second floor bedroom window.

Sometimes he would stop, look up and wave to me. Before I even realized it, I was going outside when he was there. One other thing I did notice was a scowl that my mother would have whenever she noticed them outside of that house.

One day, I was outside looking for butterflies. Not to catch them but to see if I could get them to land on my finger. I had seen the boy do it all the time. He seemed to be able to have a natural talent for that. I was concentrating on one butterfly when I heard him talk to me.

“You will never get them to land if you don’t have something to attract them.”

I see one on his finger but now is see that the finger is red in color. He comes over and has me wet my finger. He pulls out from his pocket a lint covered red candy. He rubs it on my wet finger and then tells me to carefully put the finger near the butterfly on the flower next to me.

Much to my delight, it landed on my finger and stayed for a few minutes then it flew to another flower.

“They want the sugar from the candy. If you do that enough, they will see your finger as a flower. Hi, my name is Jimmy, what’s yours?”

“Betsey.” I meekly tell him.

He holds out his hand and says that we were now friends. I felt something as I shook his hand. You see, this neighborhood was all old people. They had adult children that would visit but there was no one that was my age. Jimmy was the first one that lived on this street. There were others but my mother would not let me leave the street.

After the butterfly lesson, on warm summer days we both would walk around my yard catching butterflies on our fingers. He even gave me my first candy. A red cherry flavored small oval drop candy. I wrapped it up and kept it in my secret hiding place in my room. I would only carry it when the butterflies came out.

As we both grew, it came the time, when we became thirteen, to hang up the board with my name on it. Jimmy’s was hung a month earlier. He was so proud. Now it was my time and mine was hung outside our door. By this time, we were more than friends. After my board was hung, he said that he would love it if our boards could be bonded.

One day, his parents were at our door. I was told to go to my room. Jimmy was not here.

That is the way when parents were going to talk about bonding the boards. It was strictly forbidden for us to listen.

Not too long after they arrived, his parents left and I could hear my mother yelling at my father. All the venom that was coming out of her mouth startled me. They were not worthy of her spit. Dealers of the dead. Unfit and unclean. Need to be driven out of this neighborhood. Mother even insisted that my father buy that house so they would move.

I was heartbroken when she said that I should be confined to the house as long as that boy lived there. My father told her that was not going to happen. “Betsey is living now.

She is growing and blossoming into a young lady. I will not allow you to restrict her.”

My mother only would remind him that they both needed to agree to bonding before the age of consent. She will never agree on that boy or any boy for that matter. I was too good for any but the town green mansion people.

Now I was determined. I was at that age of defiance. I knew that, even though I was underage, they could not bond me to someone without my agreeing. That first meeting is to introduce the parents and come to an arrangement. Then the children would be introduced.

My mother tried to make arrangements with those prominent families but were given the same treatment she gave Jimmy’s parents. “Stay with those in your station.”

Any attempt would have failed because I now knew I loved Jimmy and he loved me.

Little did I know the depths she would go to to prevent me from bonding our boards.

There came my birthday. I was no longer a minor. I still lived with my parents and Jimmy did also. One day when my parents were away, Jimmy came over to my house and walked in. This was the prescribed ritual for an adult that was going to ask another adult to bond the boards.

Jimmy had his board and had taken mine down. “Betsey, you know that I love you and you love me. Would you please do me the honor and become my wife.”

I said yes and finally collected my kiss. We bonded the boards. The holes aligned perfectly and my name was written on his board. By all the laws, we were now husband and wife. We both waited for my parents to come home. My mother screamed profanities that would have made a demon from hell blush and hold its ears.

But it was done. There was nothing that she could do or so I thought.

There was no real celebration because the whole neighborhood heard my mother screaming as the bonded boards were hung on their door for all to see. Mother would not come out to greet his parents let alone the people that did come. We did not care.

We finally had our wish.

Jimmy had been working as an apprentice to the carpenter in this town. He had saved all his money and had bought an empty lot a few streets from where we lived. He now started to build what would be our home.

All the while, my mother would constantly tell me that he will never be my husband. I will never live with him. She will burn down this house after she poisoned me and my father. She worked on me to the point that I knew she would do it.

While Jimmy was building the house, I, per tradition would go to the site and give my input on the build. That way it is our home not just a house. We both put into the home.

It came the morning of the day. My mother was quiet but always had the bottle of poison on the counter. This morning she said that if I went with him, she would use it on my father and burn the house down.

“If you do not refuse to go with him, you will live the rest of your life knowing that you killed us! You need to stay with me!”

She was stone cold serious. The devil was in her eyes. She took me into the kitchen and had me stand next to her with our backs to the door. She had a large butchering knife in her hand as if she was cutting this evening’s stew meat.

I can hear the crowd approaching. Now the door is opened and Jimmy says what I wanted to hear but dreaded what I must do.

“Mother, I am here to retrieve my bride. Betsey come with me.” Jimmy proudly announces.

I choak as I tell him that I need to stay with my mother. He is beside himself and I can tell by his voice that he is shaken. He asks me again with the same response. Now there is anger in him. His footsteps tell me what he is doing.

The cheering crowd goes silent when he comes out the door alone, grabs the bonded board and comes back inside.

His voice is now loud enough to make sure that the people outside hear him. He now demands that I come to him. I stay with my back to him. All the while, mother is whispering that he would not dare to humiliate our family.

We both turn at the sound of the board being broken over his knee. All I can see is the reason those holes are in the boards. There before my eyes was the broken bond board. Broken at the holes. A fractured promise, a broken bond.

He pulls out his knife and scratches his given name off the left side of the broken board and then the surname off the right side. He pronounces that our family now has no last name. My father now was with us from his ritual position in another room.

Jimmy told us that we would have no help forever and this disgrace would be posted worldwide. We would have no sanctuary. It was then I saw my mother smile an evil grin.

She truly killed this family with her threats.

Jimmy used spikes to hammer those two pieces outside for all to see. This had never happened in this town as far as anyone could remember. They followed Jimmy away towards his house on the other street.

My father now started to get so angry at my mother that he was turning red as he yelled at her. “You planned this all along. You know that you killed us!” He went on and on while she still had that grin. Then she fell to the floor because he slapped that smile off her face with the force to knock some sense into her but it did not.

My father grabbed me and we started to run towards the house. He still may have a chance to salvage this. All the while mother is running after us trying to stop him.

We come to the house only to find all the furnishings in a pile in the front yard burning.

We could see all the furniture, all the linen, all the pictures, everything including those

things that would not burn in that bonfire. Even those things that were given as gifts were burning.

None of those who gave those gifts wanted those now cursed items in their homes.

As my father tries to say something, Jimmy picks up a gallon can of lamp oil and walks into the house. He comes out without the can. I know what this means but still I want to shout out not to do it but know that it is too late.

Someone hands him what looks like a burning table leg. He looks directly in my eyes with the stare of how could you betray me like this. I see that he has grasped the leg so he was holding embers. You could smell a hint of flesh being singed.

He turns and throws the leg into the building. I saw all my hopes and dreams go up in flames. He watched for a few minutes and then walked away. My mother tried to grab my arm but this time, my father slapped that hand away and marched me back to the house.

I could only tell that he was totally pissed at the both of us. He knew that tomorrow, when he went to his store at the green, no one would be coming. No one would buy from him. They would now travel to another store in the next town to buy their goods.

Our lives were ruined. There in the kitchen, he saw that knife, he saw the poison. He grabbed the knife and looked for a moment that he was going to kill the both of us.

Mother told him to go ahead and kill us but she would die with the satisfaction that that bastard was not husband to our daughter. Father dropped the knife then told her that death was too easy on her. What he said then caused horror in mother’s eyes.

“You do not realize the fact that if I killed you both now, your bodies would not be taken care of. That unfit man’s father is a prominent figure in his profession. You shamed his son. All the money and emotion he put into that house was wasted by your petty action.

You, my once daughter, I disown you both.”

My father walked out the door and we never saw him again. Mother tried and sold that house. She had to take the only offer she got but it was far less than what it was worth.

That offer was from the people across the street. We both knew that it was just to get rid of the trash. The reminder of the unforgivable action that occurred that day.

We got an apartment in the city with a made up name and papers we were able to find.

I wrote to Jimmy one time to explain what had happened on that day in the hopes that he would at least forgive me. I knew, deep down, that he would never read it. I still sent it anyways.

One day, I came back to the apartment and found that mother had hung herself. She left me a letter but it still blamed Jimmy and his family for ruining her plans to live on the green. She was buried in a paupers grave. Only a numbered marker over it.

I still, every night, have that dream of that day in the kitchen. Try as I may, I have no voice and cannot move even though I scream at myself to move. The night terror is why I now live in a house with an old man who treats me nice but not a wonderful home with that boy who taught me to have a butterfly land on my finger.

 

Jimmy’s father’s tale

I had graduated mortician’s college by the time I was twenty five. I got into that line of work simply because that was my first real job. I had made it through high school, did not care for it but I went. My father was friends with the undertaker in our town. They were old friends from childhood.

That friend needed someone to help so my father marched me over and I was hired on the spot.

I had hunted so I was no stranger to the blood and the dead but that was animals.

When my father brought me there, even I was surprised at my reaction. There on the table was an old man. He was someone that I had seen walking around our town.

There he was dead and lying naked on the table. I was asked to just watch the process.

I watched and instead of the reaction they thought I would have, I began asking questions. I found myself fascinated with the process of taking someone that was dead and making them look like they were just sleeping.

That is why I was hired.

He sponsored my college tuition and then my official apprenticeship. I soon had my license. I worked for him until I was in my thirties.

During that time, I had met and bonded my board to a wonderful woman. She did not care about the profession I was in. I was renting a house so I was able to go to her mother and tell her that I was here to take my wife to our home.

Her parents were very happy to welcome me as their son in law. They both saw that I was already well off, in true love and could take very good care of their daughter. We were in our late twenties when our son, Jimmy, was born. It was a wonderful day.

Even, as a toddler, we could tell that he was a special child. He loved the outdoors and would chase the butterflies. Everything fascinated him. Even the time he caught a small frog and showed his mother it.

You need to know, she did not like those kinds of things. Jimmy knew that they did not come into the house but when he showed her that frog, she hid her true feelings. She told him that he was a mighty hunter but he needed to release his catch.

“That frog may have a family that is wondering where he went. Why don’t you show me where you caught it and we will send him home to his family.”

She said it In such a way that Jimmy was proud as he led his mother to the small pond.

They both watched as the frog hopped out of his hands and swam over to a rock that had a few frogs on.

“See,” she told him, “He is back with his family.” Jimmy looked at the frog and then to his mother and said something that stuck with him. He told her that family was the most important thing in this world. He then hugged her.

I stifled the laugh at the look she was making. She never said a word as those hands, still wet from the frog, wrapped around her legs. She led Jimmy into the house, had him wash his hands and gave him a cherry drop candy.

After he left, she ran up the stairs and came back down in a different dress. The remainder of the day, I could see her just have a quick shiver. I knew that it was from the thought of that frog. She is a very devoted mother.

I became one of the top in my profession. My mentor was only in his early fifties when he came to me and told me that it was time to spread my wings. He knew a funeral home owner in another town that wanted to retire. I could get that business for a good price.

He and I went to that one and it was a well established business that served the surrounding area. I bought the business. My family looked around that town and found an older couple that their house was for sale. They wanted to move closer to their children.

My wife fell in love with the colonial. The only thing was the color. All these houses were the same. White with green shutters. We hired a painter and she chose gray with white trim. She corrected me numerous times. It was pewter with egg shell for the trim. What the hell do I know, I’m full blooded male. To me it looked gray with white trim.

The funny thing was that the woman across the street was either looking out her window or standing outside with a scowl on her face. When they were close to finishing, we were moving in. She came over and told us, almost like it was a demand, that this neighborhood was white houses with green trim.

“You need to return it to the proper colors.”

I politely said that these were the colors that my wife liked so it was going to stay these colors. “Maybe in the future she will want to change it but I will make sure that it is not pink.” I said it as a joke but I could see her physically step back almost in horror at the thought. She ran back to her house and we could hear the door slam.

I hoped that we could smooth this over so we just waved whenever we saw her looking out her window. She would always respond by closing her drapes. I actually had a speaking relationship with her husband. Our son however had already noticed their daughter.

He would play in the yard. Now he had found the secret on having the butterflies land on his finger. It was seen, by us, that he would wet his finger and rub his candy on his finger. He would hold it still by the flower the butterfly was on. It would land on that finger.

My wife would mutter that at least it was not a frog.

His actions did not go unnoticed across the street. They had a daughter that seemed just a few months younger than him at best. He would wave to her. Soon he had shown her his trick. She was now able to have a butterfly land on her finger.

Her mother did not say anything to my son about it. I was told by her father that he has forbidden her mother from saying anything to Betsey because they were friends. “Jimmy is her first and only friend. This neighborhood has been only us old folk. The other families have only adult children that would visit.”

We could see a change come over Jimmy and Betsey. I do think that her parents saw it also. When Jimmy became thirteen. We went over to their house and were invited in.

We sat in a very formal parlor. I did not say anything but it reminded me of my viewing rooms at the funeral home.

“Our son and your daughter have grown together and we would like to start to discuss the bonding of the boards.”

That was all I got out. She started spitting venom at us. How we were a disruption in this neighborhood. We were raggies, low life’s that should go back to our own filth.

It did not take a genius to see that this was going nowhere. We got up and thanked them. Then we left.

The two, Jimmy and Betsey, knew but that did not stop them. They still were together and we found out later that they had a plan. Jimmy had become an apprentice to a carpenter and saved every penny he earned. We caught on with what he was doing. As his graduation gift, to that age of consent, we bought him a large plot of land a few streets over from our house.

One day when her parents were away, we saw him go over to her house with his board and the bonding agent. He took her board and went inside. He did not come out with the exception to hang up the bonded board outside.

People had started to gather when they saw the bonded board. That is usual. When her parents returned, they saw the crowd, she saw the board with Betsey written on Jimmy’s board. She became a raving lunatic. The cursing was heard two towns over but there was not a thing she could do about it.

They both no longer needed anyone’s consent.

Jimmy started the construction of their house. Betsey had her input as all fledgling wives do when a new house was being constructed. If they had rented, they could have moved in then but a new construction was the norm. The wife could not live with her husband until he came to get her.

The house was finished. I must say that it was impressive. I’m sure that his mother would like to live there but that was theirs.

The gifts were placed by the gathered. Now was the time to fetch his wife. Jimmy was in the forefront. His mother and I were behind him. Then almost all the town were following. This was a solemn but joyous event.

Jimmy went into the house. It was quite a long time before we heard a very angry Jimmy yelling. Then he came out of the house. He grabbed the bonded board then went back. This time we heard him yell “Wife come with your husband!”

Then we heard something that never should be heard. We heard the sound of that board being broken.

He came out and nailed the two pieces far apart then pronounced, through the open door that she was no longer his wife. He stripped her and her family of any last name.

There were a few more words said in his anger. We now quietly marched back to his now building. It was not a house, not a home but just four walls with a roof.

We, his parents, stood outside while Jimmy and the crowd brought out everything that was in the building. Right down to the drapes, rugs and everything. Even the dishes and glasses were in that pile. Jimmy poured some lamp oil from the gallon can on the pile and lit it.

That pile was well engulfed in flames when the crowd saw Jimmy just giving a very hateful stare towards the road. We saw Betsey’s father pulling his daughter to the house. I believe that it was to try to resolve the problem, but seeing the hate that Jimmy was radiating, seeing the bonfire of the possessions, her father knew that their life was over.

They watched as Jimmy took the gallon of lamp oil inside the house then came out without it. He was handed a burning piece of wood then tossed it into the building. In a matter of minutes, the entire structure was engulfed in flames.

Jimmy then walked back to our house. We went with him but I noticed that Betsey’s mother was now here and she had such an evil smirk on her face. It was the look of someone that finally put us in the place where she believed we belonged.

Betsey’s father left that day and was never seen again. Jimmy told us that he was going on a trip to try to retrieve his lost years. He told his mother that he would write her every week and not to worry. He was going to hunt frogs.

He left and true to his word, we regularly got letters from him. We could see that they had gone from somber formal letters to describing the sights in great detail. By the time he wrote that he was on his way back, they were very cheerful letters.

It was around two months after Jimmy left on his journey that we bought Betsey’s house. They both had to leave the town to find somewhere that they could just blend in.

No longer that haughty woman, her mother took our offer for the house. I was the only one to offer anything for it. I offered what the land was worth without the house. They were given a few weeks to clear out the house but I hired a crew that day to come the following day. For two weeks, they heard people laughing. The house was now a blazing pink with purple trim.

I had the building raised after they left.

Around the sixth month of Jimmy’s travels, we received a letter from Betsey addressed to Jimmy. When he came home, he just tossed it into the fireplace and it burned up. He smiled a relaxed smile as if that was his last memory being burned up.

His mother and I could see that this really was the fact that he had come to grips with what happened. He had decided to live but we knew that he would never forget.

He had found a woman named Francine a while later and they were married. They lived above the store they owned until they finished their new home on a piece of land he owned. It was a new style of homes that is sweeping the nation. They built a wonderful ranch house.

 

Betsey’s father’s tale.

What the heck happened to my family?

I married a sweet mild woman. We were both in our twenties when our boards were bonded and hung on her parents’ house door. I made a very good living as the owner of a general store. We lived above the store for a while until a house that she always wanted went up for sale on the same street where she grew up on.

It was a wonderful life but I did see some things in her personality. They would not be considered flaws. More like ambitions, a desire to be in a higher station than we are in.

The best way to put it is someone that feels she is royalty but just cannot find the ladder there. She cannot see that she does not live at one of the center green mansions and never will.

We had a daughter and all she would talk about is that Betsey will be the one. She will have her board bonded with a man from one of the best green families. Hind sight, this was the start of her obsession. The one thing is that I forbade her from drilling that into our daughter.

Anytime one of the center people had a bonding and it came time for them to come to claim the wife, she would make sure that she was at the house that they were going to live in and place an expensive gift in a prominent position. Always dragging us to the celebration. Always being ignored.

She did not give up. The outside of our home always reflected the landscaping that the center families had. The couple across the street welcomed her when she helped trim their bushes and planted some flowers. They were alone. Their children were married and lived elsewhere. She was almost a surrogate daughter to them.

There came a time that they announce that they had sold their home and were moving to be near their children. She smiled and told them that she would make sure that the new owners would keep the house the way they had it.

She was in shock when the painting crew showed up. Instead of the white that the house always had, the crew started to paint the base color. She looked out the window and ran out screaming at them. Telling them that they cannot paint the house pewter.

“This house must remain white!”

The crew just continued as the foreman came down and explained that these are the colors the owners picked. She would not stand for it. When the new owners came, she was right there explaining that they chose the wrong color.

The husband was very polite when he told her that his wife picked the colors. He looked at the progress and told my wife that he actually liked how it looked. She called the constabulary and complained. She was told that there is no law that defines what colors you could paint your house.

Now the wife started to rearrange the flower garden and other things my wife had done.

I finally told her that it is their house and they can do what they want to it.

It was then that I first saw a look of pure hate. It was like the devil had come to roost.

“You need to go to the town hall and insist that there needs to be laws made to preserve the historic appearance of this town.” Needless to say, I told her to stop it.

They had one child, a boy that seemed to be a very bright boy. Jimmy was always finding ways to interact with nature. His best trick is one that I wish I could do. That gentle boy could get butterflies to land on his finger. The look he had while the butterfly was on his finger was this side of angelic. This did not escape Betsey’s eyes.

I could tell that she was fascinated. I forbade my wife from interfering.

They grew together, I really saw our daughter becoming like him and becoming liking him. When they came of age to display Betsey’s board, Jimmy’s parents came to start the process of forming a bond between the two.

They were let in and shown to the formal parlor. They started to present the proposal because they now were openly in love with each other. That is all the father could get out when my wife started to spit vial profanity about she would never allow them to bond. Ever. They were told in no uncertain terms that they needed to leave the street and just disappear.

Jimmy’s father and mother just stood as her trash mouth kept running. They walked out the door.

Our daughter had to have heard but she also had some of the traits that her mother had. Those two formulated a plan.

My wife started to make the circuit of the green. She was trying to get bonds with them.

She totally disregarded the fact that some already had the bonded boards displayed.

Each house told her that she had no chance. They told her exactly what she told Jimmy’s parents, “Mind your own station and go back there.

You see, her rampage against Jimmy’s parents had made it throughout this town. The only option she now has is Jimmy and that is not sitting well. The mood in our house is now the same as a festering wound. Foul.

We went out one day, just to get her to relax. That day is when she blamed me on being in on the shock she got when we came home.

There on our door’s lentil was Jimmy’s board with Betsey’s name on it. The holes were perfectly inline. Betsey’s board was the back one and was the one that still was being used to fix the bonded boards to the lentil.

Jimmy and Betsey were sitting together, holding hands and Jimmy told us that they now were bonded. My wife started to tell them that it is not valid they could not be bonded. It was Betsey that told her mother that they were both of age and have made their decision. Both got up and they went across the street to tell his parents.

Now the devil came out and stayed. “They will never be together. She will never go with him even if I need to kill one or both. I will see us married into the green families even if it kills us all.” Then and there I realized that she had become unhinged. I may need to have her committed.

She did settle down and seemed to accept what was now in stone. I had set her down and explained to her that splitting them up now would result in this family being in ruin.

That we would have to leave this town.

She seemed to get it. She told me that I would not hear her utter a word. After that she seemed absolutely for it. Whenever Betsey would go over to the house Jimmy was building, she would assure me that she was in control.

Then came the day. Their house was complete and I needed to go to another room. I did see Betsey as I went to the other end of the house. She seemed to not be excited.

She seemed actually depressed. I chalked it up to nerves of finally leaving her home. I went to the other side of the house.

You see, tradition was that the mother gave birth to the daughter. On this day she gives birth to a wife at the kitchen counter by turning her to the man and telling her to go with her husband.

There was something wrong. I hear Jimmy yelling. I do not hear the cheering of the crowd as they leave. I hear nails being hammered outside. I come running to the kitchen. My wife has a very evil smile ear to ear. Betsey is crying her eyes out. I am yelling at my wife to tell me just what happened.

She, still smiling, told me that she told me that she was in control. Betsey told me that she had been told that she would kill Jimmy then kill me.

The crowd had left the street but there may still be time to salvage this. I grab Betsey and go out the door. My wife is now laughing hysterically as she points to the broken

bonded boards that are nailed to our house for all to see. I left her laughing and we started to run to the house Jimmy built.

There in the front yard was a bonfire of all the possessions of the house. I could hear the glass in the fire starting to break. It was too late. My wife had caught up to us and again was laughing as we saw Jimmy go in the house with lamp oil then he tossed a torch in. The house went up as he gave the three of us the angriest, hurt look. Then he walked back to his parents’ house.

My wife tried to grab Betsey to take her home but she still had that grin. I told her that she has ruined us.

“Well I did stop that bastard from marrying our daughter.”

All I could do is shake my head. I let go of Betsey and went to my store. I knew that we would never have anyone shop here again. Loading some essentials into a back pack. I wrote a sign that said to take what you wanted. Out of business.

I left the town as fast as I could. As I walked, I now decided that I was going to assume a new identity. While traveling, I made sure that I would visit the grave yards. I would look for a stone that had family members on it. It had to be an old grave. I found one that was almost two hundred years old. That was my new name.

Then I found a village that I would be able to give general descriptions of. I grew up far in the country side away from that village. I lost my family and now just wander. Now in a city, I was able to get work at a store. They found that I had a gift for it.

I did find someone but she and I are just good friends. Maybe sometime in the far future we may bond but I have to get over my mistrust.

 

Betsey’s mother’s tale

I was right, I was right and I would do it again if I could. Those bastards were not from the green. That is where I was always destined to be. They ruined my chance to get there.

Even though I now live with my daughter in this apartment in the city, there are now better opportunities for me to achieve my real position. All I need to do is make a board for Betsey. I’ll go to the mayor’s house in the night and bond her board to their son’s board.

That is all I need. Then I will show those ignorant people in that green that I am now better than they are.

Betsey came up behind her mother, slipped the rope around her neck then hoisted her up. She was surprised at how long it took for her mother to stop moving. Now she tied the rope to the radiator pipes, put the kitchen chair like her mother kicked the chair out from under her.

Betsey had written a note that said that she was so sorry for what she had done and could not live any longer.

You see, she had finally had it with her mother. The constant rant about how Jimmy ruined her dreams. The bastard should rot in hell. She would tell Betsey that she should be thankful that she was saved. Betsey knew deep down that she herself was the biggest reason that they were in an apartment, single with no last name when she could have had a wonderful life. If only she had told her she did not care and went with Jimmy.

She still was deeply in love with him but knew of the unforgivable pain both she and her mother caused. That is why mother was just a dangling corpse. She actually said to that dead mother that she at least could move on somewhere.

This was now done and Betsey left for work. She came back at the end of her shift, screamed and called the police. It was ruled that she had committed suicide just after Betsey left for work. This was determined after they asked if she knew what her mother meant by the note.

In tears Betsey related what her mother forced her to do. How she threatened to kill her father and bonded mate if she even tried to go with him. How her father left them and they were driven out of the town.

It seems that they understood but they did have the look of disgust that she did not defy her mother.

They took the body because Betsey did not have the money to bury her. She did not even go to see her mother buried in that pauper’s grave. She did not even care to find out the number of the grave she was in.

Betsey left the city and wandered. Eventually she met an old man who had lost his wife.

She became his live in housekeeper.

 

Jimmy’s epilogue

Jimmy had been home for a few weeks. He knew that he had to get a job and start over.

This was now his new life. That was what the years journey was for. The carpenter job was no longer available. He understood that.

He decided that he needed some new clothes. People that may hire him may not want him due to the fact that all his clothes were, shall we say, well worn. He went to the center to buy some.

When he got there, the store was closed. He had forgotten that it was Betsey’s father’s store. As he was staring at the closed store. A man from the green came over. “Aren’t you Jimmy? When did you get back from your journey?”

This man never said those words. “It was terrible what they did to you.” Or something along that line. He casually told me that it was decided that the store would remain closed until I returned. It was mine if I wanted it as recompense.

That was the only time he even gave a hint to the incident.

I thought it over for a minute then told him that I did need work. The man smiled and handed me the keys and the paperwork that stated that I was the owner. We opened the door and took a look.

“It does need a good dusting.” I remark then I open all the windows. The man helped me to look for the items that were no longer sellable. That was all of the produce. Mice had gotten into the grain but all the canned and bottled food was still good. The bottled food we did open one of each and did the man thing. We sniffed and then took a taste.

Neither of us died so it was deemed as sellable.

He told me that he did have the contact book and would help him order new. Funny thing is that the cash was still in the till. He said that the father left a note saying that he left all but some things that he would need for on the road.

“He has never returned.”

Seeing the door opened and people in the store, the towns folk started to come in to investigate. As soon as they saw me, they started to dust and sweep. Soon the store was ready to open.

I heard some banging going on outside. It was the carpenter that I used to work for. He was standing on the front porch roof nailing a new sign that had General Store, with my name as proprietor. Standing in the doorway were my parents.

They simply walked in, picked up a jar of honey and walked over to the counter. My father hit the bell on the counter. I came over and he put down the amount that was on the jar. I opened the till and put the money in.

I was stunned as others did the same with different items. Almost all told me that it was about time that I opened my door. They hated to give their patronage to the other town. I told them that it would be a short while until we were back to a full inventory.

Taking a clip board and a blank paper, I put it on the counter then said “Please feel free to write down what you would like to see me stock.”

They liked that idea because the store used to only have what the previous owner would buy. They never mentioned his name.

I thanked everyone for their support and their welcome back.

Everything on that list was now in stock. I did one thing more. I found that the warehouse was using baskets on wheels to fill my order. I added ten of those carts for my store.

The people were besides themselves when they saw the store rearranged so that they could push that cart and choose the item themselves. I had a list of my inventory that I would mark each item bought. This was so I could tell what I sold more of, also what just sat. Those that sat, I would reduce the price to a point that it would sell.

All were now happy shopping here. The man who first greeted me was actually the new mayor. He comes in everyday to see how I am doing. We have become great friends. It was on one of those visits that he brought his daughter with him.

She is very pretty and has a pleasant air about her. The mayor asked if I would close the store early and come to his home. He wanted to talk. He left his daughter here to show me the way. I waited on the last customer and then closed up. That one had a smile on her face when she noticed the daughter waiting for me.

Her name is Francine. We took our time as we walked to one of the center green homes. We went inside and she led me to the parlor where her father and mother were.

They had me sit down, then he spoke.

“I would like you to consider Francine as a wife. Of course not right away. We would like you to hire her to help in the store. This way you both could get to know each other. To

see if you can get along. She is a headstrong woman. She will speak her mind so you may have your hands full.”

Stopping him there I ask a simple question. “Why would you accept someone that does not live on the green now?”

His wife knows where this question comes from. “I must explain something. I will use generic terms but you will know why. You have made no pretense about who you are.

You present yourself as you really are. What is not accepted is a conniver, a schemer, someone that is trying to gain status as an ego booster. As something that they could flaunt. Rub someone else’s nose in an I told you that I am better than anyone else. Bow to my greatness type. That happens occasionally.”

The mayor said that it happened in the recent past.

I look at them both. “I thank you for that clarification. I now know. Could we bring your daughter here?”

They call Francine here and she sits with us.

“Francine, your parents have asked me to hire you in my store. How do you feel about that?”

I am told that she would like that so I ask why?

“I like to do things but there is not too much that I am allowed to do here. If I clean, I am taking work from the maid. Make my bed, cook, and every other thing is stepping on someone’s lively hood. So I sit and read. Even the gardening is taken care of.

When I saw that you opened the store, I asked my father if it would be acceptable for me to ask you if I could work there. I am good with numbers. I am willing to learn and I do love talking with people.”

She looks like she is on a stumbling point but has decided to say what she wants to say.

“I do have a tendency to be bold. I do not put up with seeing someone being taken advantage of or using intimidation to get their way.”

Francine seems to have run out of steam and is ready to be told that she is unacceptable. I look at her and know what I need to ask. This will make or break what I feel I want to do but.

“Have you based this answer on what happened to me?”

Her parents gasped at the way I asked it so I clarified it by saying, “My bonded wife rejected me when I came to get her. I broke the bonded board. I burned down the building that was going to be our home. Do you have intimate knowledge of what transpired between that wife and her mother?”

I knew what she said was going to be the truth with the look she was giving. She had no hesitation, not trying to make up something seemingly innocent to make me believe a falsehood.

She got up, asked me to stand and then got right into my face. She stared directly into my eyes, “I know what happened to you. I actually went to the burnt wreckage. I saw the broken bond nailed to the house. I heard the gossip but I have not dug into what actually transpired in that house. No one with the exception of you three know what was said. Only you would know. What I told you is my feelings. I now give you permission to ask anyone about me. Ask them if I am a gossip? Do I tell only the truth? If you have one testimony that I am false, do not hesitate to tell me that I am just saying what I feel you want to here. You strike me as a person that knows truth from lies, test me, ask around.” She sits back down.

Now I tell her to stand before me. She does, “You’re hired. You start tomorrow. Be there a half an hour before opening.” I say goodbye and walk home. I let my parents know what happened.

Mother has a smile that I haven’t seen in a very long time.

Francine is waiting for me in the morning. We take that time to let her see how I have been running it. When she saw the pile of receipts in a basket under the counter she gets a look. “These should be recorded every day so you can predict what you will need rather than just looking at what is on the floor.”

She looks at the floor. Now I am shot a look that I have only seen my mother make. I do remember the frog. She goes over and gets the broom. I am told to get one and start sweeping towards the front door. I find myself saying yes mam.

We meet at the door and sweep on to the porch. I am told that I needed to sweep the porch clean. She goes back inside and is wiping the windows. I think that I am supposed to hear those sounds of disappointment that I am hearing. There a few remarks of a pig sty being cleaner.

I remark loud enough that it is clean in there but someone took me away early yesterday for some unknown reason. I find that she really has a pleasant laugh.

Her parents came over and her mother was overjoyed to see her diving right into her work. Francine looked at them and told them that the store is not open yet. “Come back during store hours.”

I’m impressed and a little bewildered. Who exactly owns the store?

That day I knew that she was right for the job. Customers, especially the women were commenting on how clean the store looked. That was not just that day. That turned out to be the morning ritual. I was told that cleaning in the night lets dirt settle all night.

“Cleaning in the morning makes more sense.” She informed me.

After a few months I found that I like her being here. She is refreshing. Not timid at all, we have had some serious differences but she will listen to my side and I will listen to hers. A lot of times there would be very loud discussions.

It was almost entertainment for the town. They all knew that we were not having arguments. Just lively discussions.

Finaly one day, both sets of parents interrupt us during an inventory problem. I was saying that the clothes needed the extra light in front of the window to appreciate the colors. She was telling me that they would fade. I said that they would not fade because they would sell quicker if the colors were highlighted.

We both stopped when our mothers both said “Enough.”

Only then we saw what each had. Her mother slammed a board on the counter then applied a bonding agent covering her given and surname. My mother put the board she was carrying and placed it on top so the holes lined up perfectly. The top board had my name and surname but it also has Francine’s name with mine.

Both fathers took that and hung it outside.

My father said that I now lived on the second floor of my store.

Her mother takes Francine to the counter and turns her and her daughters back towards me. My mother now tells me to say what I needed to say. Those words are ingrained in the back of my mind as a knife cutting me deeply. I hear them all the time but now I hear them coming out of my mouth.

“Mother, I have come for my wife.”

She turns her daughter to me and tells her to go to her husband. With that we hear the crowd start to cheer. The store is now filled and both of us are just stopped. Our brains are not processing what just happened.

Her mother just tells her , “All you do is talk about what a fulfilling day you had. How wonderful it is to be able to talk, argue and sometimes even win.”

My mother tells me approximately the same but adds, “You have said many times that you can’t see yourself without her here.”

I now realize something profound. I ask everyone to please be quiet. Taking her hand,

“Francine I have said just that. Over this short time I have realized that I could not see my life without you in it. Will you be my wife?”

She tells me that she has wanted that for quite a while but “Can we build a new house.

Living here will be okay for a while but I do not want to live here forever. This is our work place, not a home. You still own that land. It has been cleaned and has gone to seed. I want our home to be there. That land needs a happy ending.”

It was official. She had ordered a book on new designs. She showed me the one she wanted. It was a new style called a ranch house. One floor but it was long and roomy.

The design had plenty of bedrooms. I took that as a hint.

She has passed and is buried next to her parents. I have the plot next to her. Our son now owns the store. Our two daughters married their best friends. Funny how things work.

I think back to that woman. She so desperately wanted to be connected to the green families. If she had just left us alone, I would have run the store with possibly the same results. Our three could have been her grandchildren.

Our son is married to the most prominent family in this town and they run the store.

They live in one of the mansions on the green that they bought. Our two daughters, one is married to the mayor and the other is living in the capitol with her husband. He is the lieutenant governor of this country.

I sometimes see Betsey and her mother in my mind just standing there looking at what the could have had. I do feel sorry for them. I do wonder what happened to them. Each night I ask my wife to see if she could find them and at least tell them what became of me. I still hear myself shout “Betsey, it is time. Come with me.” Then I hear the board break over her tears. I always say to myself, if only she was a little more like Francine.

Then I do think that Francine was a better fit for me. She would have told her mother to shove it and left with me if that situation had occurred.

Francine supported me throughout our life together. She would not let me get away with something she thought was not in our best interest. Hind sight makes me doubt that Betsey would have challenged me. I think that she always saw me as that boy, with the lint covered candy, who showed her how to get a butterfly to land on her finger.

The Lord had this outcome planned from the beginning. As I go to sleep, I tell Francine that it will not be long compared to eternity before we are together again. I fall asleep and dream of her coming into the store the first time. I have a smile as I wake up to see her smiling face. She just says, “Good morning my darling.”

Author’s note:

This one is told from the main characters perspective. I had a few girlfriends as I grew up. Some for a few days or weeks. One for quite a while but that also did not pan out.

We went our separate ways.

I will say that a girl named Betsey did live across the street from where my parents moved us to. Both houses were mirror colonials. Her mother’s father owned the corner house where her mother grew up .

We moved into the house across from Betsey and her mother. Her father was not living there. I never asked. I had a deep interest in her and she seemed the same. Being seventeen and just got my first used car, I made a bet with her. If a certain team won the World Series, she would agree to go out on a date with me. She agreed.

Next thing I know, they moved out within a month and I never heard from Betsey again.

By the way, my team did win the World Series that year. I was broken and spent a few years dealing with that teenager major world shattering event.

At my lowest, my sister had me drive her to a Memorial Day parade. I was ambushed by two young girls and Rae became a fifty year companion, a lover and a friend.

My wife passed and I, like Jimmy, reflect on what would it have been like with that other woman. I always come to the same conclusion, I married the one that I was destined to.

I get very mad at her for leaving.

Even though I know that she would have not if it was her choice but there it is. I now have made it my second thing that I will say to her after I tell her that I am home that I am sorry for my anger towards her for leaving.

I still miss her deeply but as Jimmy put it, these years alone will be nothing compared with eternity with her and my sons.

D.A.Sanford