Wife finds love with black man while husband is gone and the unexpected occurs..
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The old farm house sat on top of a hill secluded from the nearest road about a half mile away. The old winding dirt driveway was lined with mature oak trees that were planted more than one hundred and fifty years ago.
It had been a farm a long time ago and now it was home to George and his wife Lisa. They had moved to the old house two years ago when they won a huge lottery. George took an early retirement from his job after twenty years and never looked back.
He considered himself lucky at forty-five and married to such a beautiful woman like Lisa. Lisa was only thirty-two and George met her straight out of college. She worked at the insurance company he was working at when they met. It was love at first sight and that was nine years ago.
The old house was huge and once belonged to a plantation owner in its time. There were several other building around the home, including barns and another house that at one time were the building that housed the slaves. The nearest neighbors were more than two miles away.
George had that old building had been converted and totally modernized for use as the caretakers home. Ironically it was the home of their only employee named Jeb. Jeb was a middle aged single black man that came to work for them soon after they moved into the house.
Jeb was a very special man. He not only was built big and strong but was strong as a horse. Jeb was handy doing most anything but lacked any kind of former education. His family was poor and he grew up working on a farm picking fruit when he was young.
Jeb had been very grateful to the Stone’s. George admired Jeb very much and treated him like his older brother. Lisa had taken time with Jeb and taught him how to read. It was only at a second grade level but Jeb was a proud man and appreciated everything the Stone’s did for him.
It was a typical sunny day at the plantation house and when a car would pull up the long tree-lined driveway, everyone would hear the sound of the engine and tires as it made its way back toward the house.
“Mrs. Stone. We have company! Someone is here in a big black car.”
“Thank you. Jeb. Did you see who was driving?”
“No Mam . . . The windows were dark and I couldn’t get a look inside for nothing!”
Lisa stood in the doorway watching three men walking up toward the house. She turned to Jeb.
“Jeb. Can you go and get Mr. Stone and tell him we have guests?”
“Yes. Mam. I’ll go fetch him right now for you. Yes Mam. I’ll go get him.”
Lisa smiled at Jeb as he hurried out the back door to get George who was working in one of the barns out back.
Lisa smiled as they men walked up onto the front porch.
“Hello. Are you Mrs. George Stone?”
“Yes. I’m George’s wife, Lisa Stone. How can I help you?”
“Uh. Mrs. Stone. We would like to speak to your husband if we may?”
“Yes. Please come in and sit down. I have someone getting George right now. He’s in the barn working. Is there something that I can help you with?”
“No. This is a matter we have to discuss with your husband.”
Jeb walked into the room followed by George who was looking nervously at the men wondering what was going on. They were all dressed in black suits and appeared as if they were there to speak about something important.
“Mr. Stone?”
“Yes. How can I help you?”
One of the men stood and pulled out a badge and flashed it at George. He was from the CIA.
“Uh. Mr. Stone. Is there somewhere we, can talk with you and your wife?”
The man was starring at Jeb as he asked that question.
“Yes. Please wait a moment. Um. Jeb. I started working on changing that oil in the tractor engine. Can you go out and make sure its finished draining for me while we talk to these men?”
“Yes. Mr. Stone. I’ll do that right now.”
George motioned to the men to follow him and Lisa out into the dinning room where they all sat down. One of the men opened a brief case and began taking out papers and photographs and laying them on the table.
“Mr. Stone. Do you recognize any of these men?”
George glanced at the phonographs and sorted out the people he knew.
“I recognize these two men but the others I don’t know.”
Lisa had a worried expression on her face and looked at George. “Honey. What’s this all about? Who are these men in the pictures?”
George glanced at the man who took out the photographs and looked at his wife. “Honey. These men were from the middle east who bought from our firm when I worked in our nuclear department a few years ago.”
“George. What’s this got to do with you now? What do they want?”
The man who opened the brief case shuffled a few papers around and looked at Lisa as he replied.
“Your husband was involved with a sting operation for the government about five years ago where we sent a bunch of these fellows to prison for trying to aid terrorists. We have good reason to belief that they traced down your husband and anyone involved at his former employer and have sent out a hit squad.”
“Oh my God! George! What do we do? Why are you people here? My husband no longer works for any of those people now? Why don’t you just leave us alone?”
“Uh. Mrs. Stone. I wish it was that easy but you see. We come here to warn your husband and to protect you both from becoming victims.”
Lisa put her hands over her mouth and looked at George. George held out his hand to try and comfort Lisa. The men spent the next hour explaining all of the circumstances and finally told them what they would have to do.
The man explained that George would have to take another identity and move to a secret location in South America. George and Lisa, just sat listening and the next proposal put the icing on the cake.
“Mr. And Mrs. Stone, I’m afraid to tell you this but we are going to have to change your marital status. We are going to change your marriage records to appear as if you have been divorced for three years.”
Lisa freaked out. “No. We can’t do this! This is wrong! Why can’t you protect us the way things are now?”
George tried to calm her down. “Honey. Let’s listen to what they have to say.”
The man began explaining what they had to do next.
“We’re going to have these papers drawn up today and get them into the system by this afternoon.”
Lisa began to cry and held George’s hand as they listened.
“We’re going to completely change your husband’s identity and have it appear as if he died soon after your divorce in an auto accident. We understand you have taken a man in at your home?”
George replied. “Yes. That’s Jeb. He adopted us as his family and works here at the farm as a hired hand.”
“So. He is someone that you can trust and you say he is like a part of your family?”
“Yes. Jeb doesn’t have any family of his own any longer and my wife and we are very close to him since he came to live with us.”
George laughed as he tried to ease the tense situation. “Jeb is like having a big guard dog at the house. He’s big and strong and keeps a very close eye on what goes on around here.”
The man looked at George and turned to the other two men before he replied to George’s last remark. “Good. We have an idea that we would like to implement that will help us protect your wife, should these men find out where you were living.”
George waited as the man hesitated before telling him the idea.
“We feel that if we had a record of your wife remarrying that these men wouldn’t even bother staying around here should they come this far.”
Lisa was nervous. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that we could have a mock ceremony and have a legal document that your wife would be married to your hired hand.”
Lisa started to panic as she shook her head back and forth in disagreement. “No. We can’t do this. Everything that you told us here to tell us, we’re not doing.”
George took hold of Lisa’s hand. “Honey. Calm down. These men are only trying to help and protect us. It’s only for a short time on paper. Let’s listen to them.”
Lisa was crying as George tried to calm her down. George looked at the man saying. “Tell me how long would we have to do this for?”
“We think we can capture these men soon but we might have to keep you hidden for a year or more.”
George hugged Lisa as the men began getting the forms signed. She was too upset to even read what she was signing. When the last copy was signed, the man placed them inside his brief case and looked at Lisa who was still crying as Jeb walked into the room.
“Mrs. Stone. Are you all right?”
Lisa tried to smile at Jeb as he walked up behind the couple and looked over at the three men.
“Jeb. I’m OK. Thank you for asking.”
George looked at the man and asked. “When do I have to go into hiding?”
“You’re going to have to come with us right now. We have to get everything into the computer system as fast as we can so we don’t have much time.”
Lisa started crying and yelling.
“No. George. You can’t leave now. Tell them you can’t leave today. Do something. Tell them you can’t leave today. Please!”
Lisa was hysterical as George tried to calm her down. They finally got her settled down enough so George could gather as many of his personal things as he could and got them packed. Jeb was confused as he watched George and Lisa kissing and hugging and saying goodbye.
Lisa stood on the porch and waived at her husband until the car drove out of sight. She walked back into the house with Jeb and sat down crying at the dinning room table.
“What’s wrong? Mrs. Stone. Why did those men take Mr. Stone away in that car? Did he do something wrong?”
Lisa tried to stop crying long enough to answer. “It’s all right. Jeb. I’ll explain everything to you later. I’m too upset to talk right now.”