Chapter 1, The Dark Cloud of Friendship for Workshop

Chapter 1

Billy and John had been best friends since grade school. Everywhere you saw Billy, you saw John.

Billy was a tall, lanky boy with straight yellow hair. Billy wore a size twelve dress shoe, a white button-down shirt, and black slacks.

John was a tall, stocky boy with straight, unkept hair, and he always wore boots. John's feet were small for his size, and the bottoms of his shoes were covered with dead bugs. If John ever saw a bug, he would follow it. Smash! It was dead!

For twelve years, the boys rode their bicycles to school. In the summer, both boys worked as lifeguards. John saved a small red-haired, freckled-faced girl from drowning. 

John's father owned the local hardware store.

Jones and Jones Hardware had been in the family for many generations, offering a variety of home and garden items. 

While Billy's father was a partner in the local bank called Smith and Barnes Branch Bank of NY. Both Billy's and John's fathers were well-liked and very active in the community. 

After graduation, Billy went away to Harvard to study law, and John went to Cornell to study Agriculture. 

Cornell is one of two private land-grant universities.

After John earned his Ph.D. in Agriculture, he returned home to begin his career, but he was not sure whether he wanted to teach at the local university or put down roots in farming.

Meanwhile, his best friend, whom he had not seen or heard from in years, was working for one of the top law firms in New York.

Billy now goes by the name of William James Smith III, Attorney at Law. 

John worked with large farms, helping them secure government grants. Billy hated what he called 'second-class citizens' and did everything he could to harm them. The Blue Collar workers, he called them!

John had gone to Washington, D.C., to get a bill passed to help the farmers.

While debating his bill in the Senate, John saw Billy, now known as William James Smith III, Attorney at Law, sitting on the other side.

 Before that day ended, John and Billy would become mortal enemies. The harder John fought to get the bill passed for the farmers, the more Billy fought to block it. Billy acted as if he didn't know John and made John look like an ass in front of his peers.

John wanted to take a gun and blow Billy's brains out right there on the Senate floor.

The debate went on for several days, bickering back and forth; finally, the farm bill passed the Senate. However, Billy and John became mortal enemies.

It was like they were living on opposite sides of life's fence. How could someone whom you had grown up with and spent endless days playing together have changed?

How could this be? When did they change?

At the end of the debate, a dark void, emptiness, had fallen over both men. A dark cloud followed both men as they left Washington, D.C.