In This Life

by Leo Sullivan

  Freddy continued to shake his head in disbelief. “You helped kill my father!” he shouted at her. He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “This just doesn’t make any sense… They send you to a nuthouse for all these years--”

  “That’s how we planned it.” She reached out and caressed Weiffenbach’s cheek. It was apparent that the drugs had ravaged his mother’s mind and body beyond repair. “Freddy, this man loves me and I love him.” Her voice pleaded for his forgiveness. “And look at all the money we have.” She pointed to the table. “I sold them nasty pictures of the Senator to that reporter--” Weiffenbach tried to silence her with a wave of his hand.

  “You!” Freddy erupted.

  “Jon coached me on what to do…”

  “Shut up! Shut up!” Weiffenbach snapped at her.

  Freddy now recognized the man’s scheme. “Mama, you’re not yourself. This man is using you! From day one, he has been destroying you with drugs. Don’t you remember, you said you felt something sting your arm just when you found my father dead…they injected you with drugs. And you were one of only a few patients at that hospital with a private doctor. He had to be injecting you with drugs to kill you slowly, to make it look like a natural death.” Freddy spoke all the words that the voices in his mind had been whispering to him since the incident in the dumpster.

  Weiffenbach chuckled mockingly. “Boy, you got a helluva imagination.

  “Do I? I remember seeing you in the restaurant the day I gave Dr. Utomo the documents. You had on a disguise. You kilt him!”

  “No,” Weiffenbach objected. “You killed him when you brought him into all this mess. I simply drove the dagger through his heart,” he said coldly as he sat down. “You see, when you stole the documents, my foolish but rich uncle came to me for help. That was a bad mistake on his part, because you had already exposed him to just how vulnerable he was, not to mention how perverted he was. Actually, all your mother and I did was exploit his weaknesses, and it worked out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. And now, you just strolled your ass right into my hands. So, where’s the jewelry, kid?”

  “Fuck you!” Freddy shouted. His mother looked at him in shock.

  “Now that’s no way to talk in front of your mother. She and I plan to marry soon.”

  “Marry? What about Marilyn Fox--”

  “Marilyn! Where is she?” Weiffenbach asked with intense interest.

  “Who’s Marilyn?” Freddy’s mother asked in a distant voice.

  “Dats one of his other black bitches,” Freddy responded disdainfully.

  “He’s lying,” the detective interjected, glowering at Freddy to be quiet.

  “Mama, this white man don’t care about you or me. He’s already tried to kill me!” Confused, his mother turned and looked at Weiffenbach.

  Freddy wondered if maybe he was finally getting through to her. Yet he could see that the effects of the overpowering drugs had left her dissolute, trapped in a mental fog from which she would never find her way. She barely comprehended his words.

  But some of what he was saying apparently leaked through to her. She began to remember the cold nights when her lover and friend would use his badge to enter the asylum and make love to her, comforting her and assuring her that he loved her, and that he would take care of her. They would be partners for life, he said, but he just need her help first to see the plans through so they could be together forever. And she had loved him as if he were the only man in the world for her. The truth was, in some ways he was. However, now the words of her own flesh and blood rang true in her foggy mind and her fragile hold on sanity was shattered. She cried out in anguish, shaking violently, wailing in despair.

  “Handcuff him!” Weiffenbach ordered her.

  She cringed away, sobbing, “Nooo.”

  “Fuck dat crackah! Why don’t you try and handcuff me yo’ self!” Freddy snapped at him, standing and boldly taking a step toward the cop.

  “Make another move and I’ll put a hole in your chest,” Weiffenbach threatened.

  The two men defiantly stared at each other as Freddy’s mother cried hysterically.

  “So, all this is over some fucking land?” Freddy asked sarcastically.

  “No,” Weiffenbach corrected. “It’s over money… millions of dollars. And now you’re the only thing that stands in the way.” The detective pulled back the hammer on his gun and took aim at Freddy.

  Freddy’s mother leapt up and threw herself on Weiffenbach, knocking him backwards. As he pushed her aside, he fired, but missed.

  At that moment, the front door seemed to explode from its frame, wood splinters flying throughout the room. “F-B-I,” someone shouted. Weiffenbach turned and fired as Freddy dove and knocked his mother to the floor.

  More shots rang out and Weiffenbach was hit, grunting in pain, yet continuing to fire wildly at the agents in the doorway. He stumbled back, doubled over, and crashed into a table, overturning the heater and piles of cash, which instantly caught fire. The flames quickly spread to a curtain and climbed the wall.

  “Now see what you’ve done, you fucking bastard,” he screamed as he fired at Freddy, again missing.

  Within moments the ceiling was aflame with a sheet of fire that drove agents back, the smoke quickly becoming too dense for vision to penetrate. Freddy reached over from where he was lying on the floor and drug his unconscious mother into his arms, sheltering her with his own body. Weiffenbach was raving, his pants burning and blood gushing from a bullet hole in his chest.

  “You’ve ruined everything,” he cried, as a large section of ceiling, along with its support beam, crashed down onto him, pinning him in a fiery hell, his life ending with a scream of agony.

  Outside, the authorities watched helplessly as the house was consumed by flames. The dark smoke billowed from the windows and door, carrying with it the screams of the dying.

  Marilyn Fox sat in the back of an FBI car crying despondently as she watched the house burn and began to collapse. She knew that Freddy was inside.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Everything had finally become too much for Marilyn. She began to panic. In the beginning, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She had been attracted by the money and the extravagant gifts, but then the pressure began to mount and she found herself caught up in a deadly drama of deceit and murder.

  Billy Dawson, her father, and avaricious, yet pathetic thug… and the manipulative Jon Weiffenbach, a suave and handsome lover… she had finally seen through their ruthless ways. They would stop at nothing to get what they wanted, even the murder of Freddy Thugstin, the man that she had fallen in love with, and still loved, but a love that could never be.

  In fear for her life, she panicked, realizing she was in way too deep. The late-night pillow-talk of Weiffenbach had revealed to her more than she wanted to know, and she knew it was only a matter of time before the process of elimination would point its accusing finger at her. So she went to the police and told them everything.

  Once she disclosed the name of the Senator and his failed attempts to kill or kidnap Freddy, the local authorities turned her over to the FBI. They immediately placed her in protective custody and granted her immunity in exchange for her testimony before a secret federal grand jury. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois filed murder indictments against both Senator Bob Williams and his nephew Jon Weiffenbach, but as fate would have it, they both died only days apart before either could be arrested.

  ******

  Freddy couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. The fiery tongues of the raging inferno licked at his face, singeing his hair, as he held his mother’s lifeless body in his arms. He tried giving her mouth-to-mouth, but she was gone.

  “Mama…mama,” he cried in anguish as he coughed up his last breath. Lured into a semi-conscious sleep, he closed his eyes and gave up.

  But then he saw a path formed of light and Sasha standing there, beckoning him. He stood and took
a step toward her as if in a dream, and something propelled him through the burning window, perhaps an explosion.

  He landed in a heap, his pants aflame. A member of the crew of firefighters that had just arrived ran forward and doused his burning clothes, pulling him to safety.

  Freddy opened his eyes to a mass of people hurrying around him. An oxygen mask was pressed to his face and a gold badge was shoved before his eyes.

  “Freddy Thugstin, I’m Special Agent Morgan Davis.”

  Freddy stared with vacant eyes at a young blonde man who looked no older than he. The harsh winter sun shined in his face as he squinted up at the agent. “My mama…did you get her out?”

  Agent Davis looked at the ground. “I’m sorry…they couldn’t reach her…”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  As Brenda Jones drove the wind played in her hair and she looked at Freddy with someone else’s eyes. His infant son rested in his lap. Freddy twirled the wedding band on his finger as he reflected on the events of the past few months.

  According to the terms of the government, Freddy returned the jewelry and no charges were filed against him. To everyone’s surprise, the Egyptian government rewarded him with a handsome sum, of which the government promptly collected its share of taxes. What they did not know was that Freddy kept the small fortune in gold coins. Like his father had always said, what you don’t know won’t hurt you. As for the land, it remained in probate, the question of his inheritance still unanswered.

  On his eighteenth birthday, he was awarded custody of his son on the condition that he get married first. So he married the beautiful Brenda Jones, the nurse from the hospital, and they immediately started on a cross-country trip.

  It was finally over, he thought as he gazed out the window at the passing scenery, leaving the past behind, his future bright. But in his heart he knew he would never be the same. There was too much hurt, too much pain.

  “Fred-dee… Fred-dee,” Brenda crooned with a familiar voice. He turned to look at her in astonishment.

  She held out her hand, the wedding ring from Marilyn on her finger.

  “Where’d you get that ring?” he asked, confused. It was the ring that Sasha had taken to her grave.

  I told you, in this life, I would never leave you, ol’ Peanut head.” She reached out and pinched him.

  “Ouuch! Sasha?”

  Epilogue

  Years later Freddy Thugstin and his wife Brenda bought a home in, Sarasota Florida with the small fortune that he stole from Senator Bob Williams. With the persuasion of Brenda, Freddy started attending church religiously. Soon after, it was discovered that the handsome, charismatic Thugstin had a calling for the church. He had been blessed with the Evangelical fervor of a preacher, and not just that he was a "seer" as the old folks would say. Like a prophet in some instances he possessed the ability to tell some parishers their future and fate, as well as their dark dreary past, things that nobody could have known about. Soon people started coming from other cities to hear him preach. Freddy saved his money and with the help of influential friends and donations, he was able to secure a huge loan from the bank, which he used to purchase a mega church. The First Methodist of Christ is what he named the church.

  The Reverend Freddy Thugstin became rich and famous. He traveled, did some sermons in packed, thirty thousand seat, coliseums that were aired on TV to millions of viewers around the world. Suddenly, the rumors began to run rampant, rumors of infidelity, extra marital affairs, lavish spending on women, and partying. Then the bombshell struck; three young women came forward claiming that Reverend Thugstin fathered their children, all were members of First Methodist of Christ. Soon the media caught wind of the scandal and the papers were filled with tales of the Reverend's illicit love affairs. However, over a period of time, Reverend Thugstin managed to squash the scandals with the help of lawyers and millions of the church's money. Each of the three women received lavished homes and large, six figure, sums of money annually for their silence.

  Even though the rumors ran rampant, the First Lady, Brenda Thugstin, stood steadfastly by her husband.

  Life Thugstin, by the age of fifteen, loved his father immensely, even though his father rarely showed him and love or affection. Not to mention he always made up excuses not to come to his son's games or to spend quality, father-and-son, time with him. However, unlike his stepmother Brenda, Life had his suspicions. As a child he heard the rumors and saw the children at the church that uncannily resembled him and his father.

  One day after service, Life realized that he left his bible in his father's office. As he hurried down the hallway toward the office, he thought that he heard a woman crying, screaming, and praising the Lord. He opened the door and walked in. What he saw terrified him and would forever be indelibly etched into his young mind. Sister Marilyn Fox, a dear friend of the family and his beloved god-mother, was bent over the desk. Her face was rigid with pain as his father stood behind her, pants down to his ankles, as he pounded away vigorously inside of her. His face and clothes were drenched in perspiration.

  "Good Lawd-Jesus! Marilyn you got some good pussy!" the Reverend exclaimed, between lustful grunts.

  "Dad!" Life yelled.

  His father looked up at him in shock and watched as his son walked out of the room.

  Life's love for his father turn into hate. He became rebellious, determined to never step foot in a church again. He ran away from home, started hanging out with the wrong crowd, and dropped out of school. Also he began smoking weed and selling drugs. He often got in trouble, resulting in him being in and out of juvenile facilities. His step-mother was baffled as to how could her son, a straight 'A' honor role student, could go so wayward, causing his father to disown him.

  In his early twenties, Life's life of crime eventually led him to prison for sales of cocaine to an informant. After serving a three year bid, he got out and soon found himself in trouble again.

  Desperate and on the run from the law, Life met a beautiful sista, Hope Evans. She was a college student born and raised in Miami's notorious "Pork and Beans" projects. This encounter led .to a liaison of passionate sex, but with a vast differences, they soon parted ways.

  Years later, Hope and Life met again, only this time it's on opposite sides of a courtroom. Life is now one of the biggest Kingpins in the United States, on trial fighting for his life. And Hope Evans is now a U.S. District Prosecutor. She has a deep dark secret. The infamous Kingpin Life is the father of her child.

  This is the epic saga of "Life" the sequel, the next

  generation.

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