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, white button-down shirt and black slacks.
John
was a tall stocky boy with straight un-kept hair and always wore boots. John’s
feet were small for his size and the bottoms of his boots 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, where you could
buy a variety of items for your home and garden.
While
Billy’s father was a partner in the local bank called Smith and Barnes Branch
Bank of NY. Both Billy and John’s fathers were well-liked and both were 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 got his Ph.D. in Agriculture he came back, home to began his career but he
was not sure if he wanted to teach at the local university or plant his feet in
the soil of farming.
Mean
while his best friend whom he had not seen or heard from in years were working
for one of the top law firms in NY.
Billy
now went by the name of William James Smith III Attorney at Law.
John
was working with large farms helping them get grants from the government. Billy
hated what he called second-class citizens and did everything against 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 called William James Smith
III Attorney at Law, sitting on the opposing side.
Before
that day ended John and Billy would become mortal enemies. The harder John
fought for to get the bill passed for the farmers the more Billy fought to
block the bill that John was trying to pass. Billy was acting as if he never
knew 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 the fence of life. How could
someone that 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.
