" The Surprise"

Lisa sat there looking at her computer screen; Ed whom she had been hoping to talk to wasn’t there. She thought to herself that’s just not like him for usually he was always in the chat room waiting on Lisa when he knew she would be around to talk. She continued to wait, still he did not show and she began to wonder and the wonder turned to concern. You see for the nearly four months they had been talking together Ed had never missed a chance to be there to talk with her. A sinking feeling suddenly came over Lisa. For she just remembered something Ed had told her not long ago, if ever I’m not here to talk with you then I’m in the hospital …or worse. Now Lisa was more then just concerned, she was becoming very worried. But what could she do, for they lived so far apart, and besides the computer she really had no other way of getting in touch with him. Well she thought to herself I’ll talk with some other friends for a while and maybe he will show up in a bit.

Meanwhile some 1245 miles away Ed was just reaching the head of the line and handing his boarding pass to the flight attendant. Upon entering the plane Ed found a window seat and settled in, eagerly awaiting the start of this trip. As a matter of fact butterflies were starting to form in his stomach as he thought about what he was about to experience.

Right after what seemed like a very smooth takeoff Ed reclined his seat back, and with a smile on his face thought about Lisa. He hoped that she wouldn’t be worried when he failed to show up to talk with her today. But soon he thought to himself soon. He began to think back to four months ago when he first met Lisa, actually quite by accident after he stumbled into this chat room, while goofing off on his computer. He remembered them striking up this conversation, him being rather shy, while Lisa though being somewhat shy was more out spoken than he was. Soon it wasn’t long before they were meeting on that chat room to talk almost every day. And before they knew it even though they had never met face to face before, a very strong and bonding friendship was formed. The more they talk the stronger that friendship became. Which made Ed a very happy person, for now he felt his life which had fallen into kind of a dull and boring emptiness, now had some meaning. For she had become someone he could confide in, which was not an easy thing for Ed to do. Also Lisa was someone he could be there for, but the thing Ed liked the most in a way, she was someone he could get and send gifts to.

It was about a month after their friendship had formed when they started trading e-mails and occasionally talked on the phone. This was when Ed found out how much she enjoyed receiving surprises and gifts. He could sense the intense excitement in her voice whenever he told her he had gotten her something, and the excitement was very evident whenever she would receive one of the gifts he had sent her. This excitement is what made Ed feel good and was all the repayment he ever wanted for all the gifts he had gotten Lisa. These gifts always started out to be surprises, but Ed was never able to keep it from her, usually with a little, actually very little prodding he would give in and tell her what she was getting.

This is what gave Ed the idea to do what he was doing now. This was one SURPRISE that was going to be a SURPRISE. You see ED was from a small town in Nebraska while Lisa lived in a fairly large city in Washington State on the west coast of the country. They had often talked about meeting in person, although they never knew just when or how that would take place because of the distance between them. It was a couple of days ago when Ed finally decided he would fly to Washington and surprise her, this would be the finest surprise he could ever give her.

It had been over three hours and still Lisa had not heard from Ed. She so hoped that the worst of her thoughts could not be true. Surely nothing bad had happened to Ed and that he had gotten tied up doing something and could not contact her. She would wait a while and then check to see if he had come on line yet.

The plane had just landed and Ed was feeling the excitement and anticipation of what was about to happen flowing through him. For he was finally going to meet this sweet, intelligent articulate young lady with whom he had been conversing with the past four months. No they were not romantically inclined feelings for you see Ed was twice the age of Lisa. They were very good very special friends and they were finally going to meet after all this time.

After retrieving his luggage Ed hailed a cab, and from a crumpled piece of paper that he had written her address, told the cabbie where he wanted to go. After arriving in front of Lisa’s house Ed paid the fare and sent the cab on its way. So there he was standing in front of her house, his heart pounding with nervous excitement. It was then he got his cell phone out and dialed Lisa’s number. Lisa heard her cell phone start to ring and answered it; to her astonishment it was ED. Where were you and why didn’t you show up to talk to me today Lisa wanted to know. Ed standing outside said he was sorry for not showing up but that he was busy working on a surprise for her. Well that peaked her curiosity and with some excitement showing in her voice, asked him what kind of surprise could it be, that would keep him from talking to her. Ed answered her that it was a very special surprise, and that if she would go to the door, he believed someone should be showing up to deliver it to her. With some bewilderment Lisa did as he asked her to do, and as she opened the front door Lisa did get the surprise of her life, for there standing in front of her house, cell phone in hand was Ed. She thought he truly had given her the surprise of her life.

An incessant ringing jarred Ed back to the present time and out of the most wonderful dream he had been having. For the ringing was the alarm he had set to wake him if he dosed off, so he would not be late talking to Lisa. With a large smile on his face, he contemplated what he had just experienced, and he thought to himself, this was just a dream, but soon it will be……………REALITY!!!!

The following is a piece i wrote about rwo months ago. You will note some similarities between this and the auto-bio i posted. However this one delves in a little more personal view of myself. Slowly but surely you will come to know me better as i lay more and more of my life before the world. Remember these stories are written by a pure amature...me. "J_E_G"

KNOCKING THE WALL DOWN

I once promised myself I’d try my hand at writing. However I could never seem to find the right thing to write about. So sitting here I decided to write about something or someone I know the most about, me. Before you turn and run thinking this is just going to be an egotistical self praising story, wait and read more and you will see that is not the way this story will turn out at all. To tell you the truth I’m writing this as much for my benefit as well as to get a start at writing. How to start this story? I guess by going into a little about myself as I am now. I am and have been for a long time a very shy person. Those who have been the closest to me throughout my life may know what I went through and how I came to be who I am. But I doubt it though, for throughout my life, as you will see as this story goes on, that one of my best attributes I had was the art of acting. This will become much clearer as my story goes on. First of all I grew up in a loving home well sort of anyhow. I am the oldest out of eight children in my family, and we always seemed to have our fair share of squabbles. By virtue of my father being in the army we grew up constantly on the move. We lived in a new place every three years until I reached the age of eighteen. This had its good points as well as its bad points. The good point was that we got to travel a lot and see places throughout the world that most people wouldn’t have a chance to see. The bad point about this was you never had a chance to feel settled in, and you didn’t dare get close to any friends because you knew you would have to be leaving soon. So on to the part of this story that deals with me and how I became the way I was. I am only going to be giving an overview to keep this as a short story. For as long as I can remember my father drank. Basically he was a good person, whom I know now did the best he could do. He was a hard worker but when he drank he could become very verbally mean. It would be late at night when he would come home and the arguments between him and my mom would start. I used to pray I could be in a deep sleep by the time he got home. I even started sleeping with a radio turned on hoping to drown out the arguments. And no matter what you said or did you were never right. So I just got so I wouldn’t say or do anything around him. Thus the wall started going up. This is where the acting came to be a part of my life. I was keeping all of this locked away inside of me, when I was around others it was as if nothing was wrong. And thus another layer of the wall goes up. To go along with what I had gone through in my earlier life, it seemed that as I got older I actually would get kind of scared if things started going good for me. Not that I had anything against things going good for me, but it just seemed like it would be short lived before life would sneak up and smack me up-side the head with a brick. Or so it felt like it at the time. One example of this, and I guess this is when this aspect started in my life, happened my senior year in high school. I met a girl; a very wonderful girl whom you could say was my first love. We were living in Germany at the time. We had a marvelous year together, which I thought would go on from there. However when I graduated from high school I had to move back to the states. I had high hopes we would still end up together. We kept in touch through letters, but eventually drifted apart. This pattern kept on even in my college years. And one more time a few years after I got out of college. As before I met a girl, again whom I thought would be the one for me. We actually lived together for five years, of which turned out to be five years in hell for me. Guess I was blind, or overly hopeful that it would work for us. I won’t go into the five years in hell, except to say she cared for a bottle more than me and that’s a whole other story in itself. And so the finale layer of the wall had gone up. I didn’t want to let anyone into my life, nor did I want to leave my feelings out to be stomped on anymore. So I lived in my own little world safe from being hurt. Or so it seemed anyhow. For I soon learned that by doing that it isn’t long before you become a lonely person. And at times that can hurt as bad as when someone else hurts you. I am happy to say that I have learned to put all that behind me. With the help of a certain support group, and some special friends I was able to break the wall down I had built around myself. I now know that life is for chance taking. So now I know I can let people into my life and let the good times just happen without the expectation of impending doom. Therefore I now can let the good times happen without looking over my shoulder waiting for something bad to happen. Oh I know there will be bad times happen, and that we have to take the bad with the good. I now can enjoy life and the good times more fully. Life is just so much nicer without carrying the weight of that wall around with me anymore. So there you have it a little understanding into my life and why I might seem shy at times. I am still a little shy but no longer scared of the good times life has to give us.

Here is a little something i came up with while sitting kinda bored on a sunday morning.




Was sitting here wondering what to do, so I decided to write a little more. But what to write about is usually where I hit a wall. However I did finally decide to see if I could write a short autobiography of myself. Sort of a my life in one page or less project. So here goes.

I was born the oldest of eight children, in a small town in the middle of Kansas called Junction City. However, with the exception of short visits I would not return to my birthplace to live for the next eighteen years. For you see my father was in the military and thus we were subject to moving to different military bases constantly. As a matter of fact we never spent more then three years at any one place the entire time I was growing up. A lifestyle that can have its advantages, but still not one I would highly recommend. Looking back I can now see how destabilizing such a lifestyle can be. The reason I say that is you really have no way of making and keeping any friends. That plus you never really learn how to settle into one place. Add to that all a person gets see usually is one way of life, that being the military lifestyle. Children growing up in the military lifestyle can sometimes be totally unprepared for life in the real world. The only real advantage I can see coming from this lifestyle is that you do get the chance to travel and see places that most others wouldn’t have a chance to. By the time I graduated from high school I had lived in many of the states in the USA, plus several other countries. Some of the countries I lived in were Okinawa, Japan and Germany. As a matter of fact the high school I graduated from was Stuttgart American High School located in Ludwigsberg, Germany.

Upon graduating high school I moved back to Junction City, Kansas that would eventually become the place I would settle down in. After graduating high school I decided to wait and work a year before attending college. When I went back to school I started at a small junior college for two years although I did not graduate. After that I attended Kansas State University, a major college located near my hometown. I spent three more years there before finally graduating with a degree in political science. This takes me back to what I was talking about earlier. I really did not know what all was out here in the real world, nor did I truly know what I wanted to do. For while I was in college I opted to go through ROTC where I graduated with an officer’s commission in the army. I believe I did this because it was something I was familiar with from growing up around the military. I spent six years in the National Guard as an officer, until things took a nasty turn and I ended up resigning my commission. Another story I might get into later.

After college I flouted around to different jobs before finally finding the job I have today which is driving a truck in a rock quarry. So I guess I could be considered one those college educated fools so to speak. In other words a person with a college education who didn’t really know what he wanted to do and end up working in a rock quarry.

Well that brings me up to the present day. So there you have my life condensed into a nutshell. Who knows maybe one day I will expand on this further, but for now that’s it.

GRAVE WITHIN A GRAVE


Detective Amos Jones sat at his desk looking over the latest missing persons report he had just received. On his desk were five more reports exactly the same as the one he held in his hands. Each report contained the same, a beautiful widow mid 30’s to mid 40’s, each well to do, and worst of all each had disappeared without a trace. And now he held a sixth report of a missing woman in his hands. This is what perplexed the detective even more. In fourteen years on the force there had never been a case where the person had disappeared so completely, it was as if they had fallen off the face of the earth itself. They had been investigating these cases for the past three months, and still no clues, no signs of foul play, but worst of all no signs of the person who was missing. No one could disappear this completely, he thought, without leaving some sort of trace somewhere. Little did detective Jones know there would soon be a seventh.

Willie Kragdon sat in an overstuffed chair with a wicked smile on his face, waiting for Lily to finish getting ready for what she thought would just be another date. Tonight he would for the seventh time commit what he thought to be the perfect crime. He would end up with a cool million dollars of her four million dollar bank account, for after carefully thinking it out he had determined it best to never completely wipe out their bank account and there would be less of a chance someone would come looking for a person out to con the lady. His plan was based on drawing as little attention to himself as possible. Then she would also disappear without a trace, leaving no witness as to what he had accomplished. And this was the part of the plan for the perfect crime that he thought was so brilliant. She would disappear in such a way that no one would know exactly how or where to even begin looking for her. After all the police had not even come close to finding the other six. He knew tonight was the night, for he had driven past the area he would use and had seen the spot all prepared and waiting for him. It was perfect he thought to himself.

Willie rose to greet her as she entered the room, looking very radiant and beautiful as she had from the first fateful day he had met her. So off they went to dinner, though Lily had no clue this would be the last meal she would ever partake of. They had dinner at a very lush and posh restaurant, of which he paid for using the money he had conned out of the previous six women he had been with. The meal went well, so Lily thought; with the two of them talking, laughing and making plans for a future that would never come to be. As they were leaving the restaurant Wille suggested they go for a romantic drive into the country. Lily happily agreed to this.

Driving along they came upon a wooded area, when Willie suggested they go for a walk and look at the stars. Feeling that would be incredibly romantic Lily readily agreed to go for a walk. He pulled over and parked, then went around to help her out of the car. Putting his arm around her they started off toward the trees. Of course Willie had been here before, it was the perfect spot for what he had planned, no one to see or hear what was about to happen. He had no gun or knife, for those would be too messy and he did not want to leave any possible signs of foul play. They walked along idly talking and Willie could feel surges of anticipation welling deep within him. After they had walk a little deeper into the trees Willie suddenly reached up with his right hand and grabbed a handful of Lily’s hair. Jerking back violently so that her neck was stretched and totally exposed he brought his left hand crashing down upon her throat with such force that her windpipe was completely crushed. He let her go and she fell to the ground gasping for air yet unable to breath. He stood there watching, with that same wicked smile on his face he had had before, watching as the life slowly faded out of her body. After about a minute, although it seemed like an eternity to Willie, he looked down and she lie at his feet dead. Willie looked at her and thought to himself that the first part of his plan had worked perfectly as he knew it would for he had done this before. Now he thought for the best part of his plan. To dispose of her body in such a manner that no one would ever know to or even dare to look for her.

Picking her up he carried her to the car and placed her in the trunk. Then he drove to the near a cemetery. He had been by here earlier in the day and knew that everything was ready for him. This is where he would implement the last part of his plan, or as Willie referred to it the perfect crime. Turning off the headlights, he drove carefully in through a back gate he had discovered when he checked the place out earlier. He found a dark spot and parked the car. Getting out of the car he walked over and retrieved the ladder and shovel he had left there earlier that day. He then walked over to the freshly dug grave, placing the ladder into the hole he climbed down in with the shovel and started to dig the grave even deeper. After about ten minutes of digging he figured he had the hole deep enough for what he needed and climbed back up out of the grave. Setting the shovel down he went back over to the car and got Lily’s body out of the trunk. Carrying her over he climbed back down into the grave. Upon reaching the bottom he placed her body into the hole he had just dug, then began placing the dirt on top of the body being careful to be sure it was completely covered. He then climbed back out of the grave and put the ladder back where he had gotten it. Walking back to the car he thought to himself that was it, the last stage of his perfect crime. For he knew the workers would be there first thing in the morning to place the cement vault into the grave making it ready for the funeral that would take place later that afternoon. Thus creating the grave within a grave. For when the funeral was complete and the lid place on the vault, and the grave filled with dirt his plan would be complete. For who would think to look for a person buried in a grave beneath a grave. Thus completing his perfect crime…..again.

Two weeks later detective Jones was sitting at his desk when someone walked up and handed him a piece of paper. After looking at it for a bit he exclaimed to himself, not another of these goddamned missing persons reports. What the hell were they going to do now, for they had not even come close to solving the other six cases…..