story # 10

Before-Richard

by bob gottlieb

copyright © 1992-2012 Bob Gottlieb, all rights reserved.

His name was Before-Richard.  His full legal name was Before-Richard Johnson.  This is the name he had tied to him a couple of days after his birth, by his loving parents, to wear throughout his life with no regards for what he thought of this sobriquet.  He could have changed it, but somehow that option never appealed to him once he had reached his teens.  He had found it was a good conversation starter with the women (girls in high school hadn't liked his name, but it was odd enough to attract them), and he wanted any edge he could get with the opposite sex.  It seemed to bring out a tenderness, or tendency to want to clasp him to their breasts.  He loved that.   Most friends called him either Befo (pronounced befo) or B.R.

Through out the years he spent in school his moniker caused havoc with the teachers, particularly with the substitutes, who always figured someone was being a smart-ass.  Remember back to your 7th grade class, there was always one yo-yo in class who signed his name Dick Hurtz or Mike Hunt when a sign in sheet was passed around in a smart aleck, albeit feeble attempt to get laughs.  Every now and then there was a teacher who fell for this ancient foolishness.  Befo took a substantial amount of jive from his classmates about his parents' inability to come up with a more conventional name. Even the children whose parents had gone out of their way to give their child a distinctive though different name, for example Peace, Freedom, Rainbow Hoboken, had an easier time on the teasing end of things than did Before-Richard.

Befo's parents had only one name picked out because they were expecting only one baby, Richard if it was a boy, and Rosalind if it was a girl.  Well lo and behold the arrival of twins and two boys at that surprised them.  Since they both were adamant about the name Richard, which would they name Richard?   What were they going to do about another name?  They finally decided to take their time and look at the two boys and name the one that looked most like a 'Richard,' Richard.  When this task was accomplished, the 2nd child born got to wear the name, and then they couldn't agree on what name the other child should carry around with him.  The father, Carlton in his quiet way, was very much in favor of Thomas.  This was after some old outlaw uncle, but also part time explorer who, by rumor at least, was killed in a gunfight back in the hellion days of Texas.  The circumstances surrounding his death vary according to the source you are listening to.  There is Carlton's family's side of the story, and then the side favored by just about everyone else.  I believe his death, at its most complimentary mention, was referred to under the heading, 'delivered to his just rewards'.   Belinda, the mother, on the other hand, said the child was definitely a Wilson after her grandpa, and he did physically resemble the now dead relative who had lost the family's fortune with his ability to pick exactly the wrong women for wives.  This was of course after his first wife, Belinda's mother, had died.  Each had fleeced him for more than the one before.   This information was discarded by Belinda, who was so much a Wilson fan she was almost willing to forget all about this "Richard" trap they had worked themselves into, and call the boys Wilson and Thomas.  However both families had a Richard in them who was prominent and respectable, and eccentric enough to appeal to their sensibilities.   Hopefully the name would provide the inspiration to follow in the path marked out by the namesake for the growing child.  The name, Richard, was the route to appease both families easily.  Neither family was proud of the heritage or example set by the deceased relatives whose names Belinda and Carlton favored.  To Belinda, in a more up front way, and Carlton, in his stubborn quiet way, both of whom had ambitious plans in life, and whose families could give them a wonderful boosts towards their goals, appeasement of family animosities was important.  Their families aversion to the other relatives whose names were considered was so intense, that the name Before-Richard, weird as it was, was preferable to the possible exhumation of well-hidden family skeletons.   Believe it or not these two strong and very individual people could not come up with an alternative name; and some how the individuality of Before-Richard appealed to them.

They were deadlocked over the issue and this was extraordinary.  He was a quietly assertive person who got his way.  To say she was persuasive is to express an extreme understatement.  A comparable example would be to say that Arizona is warm in the summer.  When Belinda argued a point she could be so smoothly mesmerizing, that people would line up to buy bridges from her in Brooklyn.  She was a Prosecuting Attorney with a conviction rate that was setting records in their town.  In the cases she had prosecuted she had had a conviction rate of 42 out of 43.  This is almost perfect.  There was not a negative mark on her record, because the one case where there had been no conviction, she had 3 times had a hung jury, and the town decided not to waste more taxpayer money and gave it up.  Public sentiment and emotion was strongly felt in the case, in the favor of the defendant.   There had not been conclusive enough evidence presented to any of the juries to sway the moral conviction of the juries and allow a guilty verdict.  Then again there was enough hard evidence to convince at least several of the jurors of that he was guilty and should be punished for what he did.  Everyone knew the man was guilty as charged, however what he did was so morally right, and done to such a deserving villain, it would be impossible overcome the moral emotion and to convict him.  She would not plea bargain, for two reasons. First she didn't believe in it, and secondly the aggrieved party would not allow it.  It was in the courthouse that she and Carlton had first met.

That's correct.  He was involved in the one case that didn't result in a conviction.  He was the defendant.  He was before the court on a charge of defrauding several insurance companies and their unscrupulous local agent out of 2 million dollars.  Thus the defendant was treated by many as if he was a modern day Robin Hood.   In addition to this aspect of the case, the agent, William, had at one time in his life insulted, cheated or stolen from just about every person in that town over 10 years old.   There is very little debate about the veracity of this story.   I heard from an 80-year-old the other day who said he didn't know William, and had never been cheated by him.  Later I learned that the aged one took medication that made him forget all kind of things including his own name and where he lived.   It is inconceivable that William could pass up such an easy mark.

Everyone, including his parents from the day he was born had disliked William.  He had put his mother and those around her through a horrible 9 months while she carried him.  She had wretched morning sickness from day one.  The incessant kicking, punching, and twisting that tormented the protecting womb.  Then there was the 19 and one half hours of agonizing labor that ended only with him ripping her apart when he was finally forcibly ejected by a fed up and protesting womb.  He came out of his mother yowling, and has never shut his mouth.  His parents decided to breast feed him in an effort to establish a strong bond with the young lad. When he nursed he tried to rip his mother's nipples from her breasts, and her breasts from her body.  When he was not crying he was sick.  Food raced through him, and as if to show it disliked its interior environment it came sprinting out of him with great force.  He talked early and talked constantly to everyone's annoyance.  He had that annoying habit of talking just slightly too loud for comfort.  In addition he felt, that is if he felt anything at all, that what he had to say was more important than the utterances of anyone else.  In other words he would talk over, through, or around anyone else that tried to get a word in edgewise.  His mind never could separate the difference between truth and lies.  All that mattered was serving William first and foremost.  His father ran away when he was 5 years old.  He left a note that read.

"Dear MarySue;

I am very sorry to be leaving you like this, but I figure this way at least one of us will get to experience some happiness in this life.  If I stay around any longer I will either murder William, then I die in the chair or get life in prison, instead of a medal for saving mankind; or I might commit suicide, or just go stark raving mad and do something completely insane???  This way I, at least, get to be alive and relatively happy when I can forget that I fathered a child such as this.

Your loving and committed husband in all ways,

Daniel

PS. I love you! I really do."

You can ask around anywhere and you will get all kinds of stories about how obnoxious and deceitful William was to one and all.  It seemed the more misery he could cause the happier he was.  He was also a scary little twerp.  He only stood about 5 foot 4 inches and just maybe pushed the scale to read 120 lb. fully dressed and holding his soaking wet dog (who wouldn't stay with him except for the fact that he was always tied up).  The interior linemen on the high school football team were scared of him physically.  There was something about him that gave you no clue as to what he was about to do.  He could be pleasantly talking to someone, bend down pick up a rock and fling it at a bird on a fence.  When he hit the bird and it fell he would just laugh pick up the bird and throw it at a person passing by if he was so moved.  He would go out of his way to step on flowers and harmless insects.  No one ever picked on him because he was so dangerously unpredictable.  He had very weird eyes that never seemed to be focused on you.  However they were always looking at you and you never knew what to expect from him.

Carlton, who grew up a year ahead of William in the same town was almost the opposite in manner.  He was not remembered by many people because he was quiet and kept to himself.  He helped his family with their corner candy store and newsstand.  He was not a joiner in school but was a quiet studious boy who won a scholarship to an Ivy League college.  He finished his BA and Masters in Public Relations in only 5 years. He appeared back in the town quietly after a year or two of traveling in this country and Europe.  He set up a small; just himself and an all purpose assistant, solid little public relations business.  It had slowly taken over the small market in the 3 years in-between start up and before the trial put all business on hold.

Carlton took the time, approximately 9 months, and the energy to construct a con so ingenious and devious that paranoid William fell into it to the tune of $2,000,000.  Approximately half of the money belonged to the insurance companies, another reason for lack of sympathy on the part of the jury.  The rest was money he had accumulated in his dealings.  William, who never even trusted his mother with his cigarette money, handed this money over to Carlton with absolutely no security.  This money is still missing.  Carlton is no richer for this deed.  His lawyers were court appointed Public Defenders.  The only suggestions about where the extra money might be are pure speculation.  Though there are a number of small charities that provide for people who are needy, that have enjoyed a tremendous growth of anonymous contributions.  The time frame of the contributions and the time frame of money missing do overlap.  Possibly if someone would take the time and add up the contributions they might come close to that figure involved in the scam.   No one seemed interested in making these calculations.

About 6 months after the last mistrial some people started noticing that Carlton and Belinda were seen together in public at social events and restaurants.  No eyebrows were raised, even William's mother MarySue smiled with them.  William took his loss poorly and blamed what happened on his kindergarten teacher, his lack of a father, the public school system, and just about everything and everyone else he could think of.  The only person or thing untouched by this blame was himself.  Approximately 8 months after proceedings were dropped he screamed at the top of his lungs in the frozen food section of the super market.  He went storming out got in his car and drove away, never to return.  Rumor has it he drove straight through to a big city on the opposite coast and was living there, until he was killed in a car accident.  There was a small wedding for Carlton and Belinda on the second anniversary of the end of the 3rd mistrial.  Then, two years to the day after all proceedings ended was the birth of Richard and Before-Richard.  An interesting start to a life perhaps more pronounced affected by the flying fickle finger of fate than most.   Maybe it is just more obvious in this case.   Who knows how the boys will turn out?  Who knows if Belinda and Carlton's marriage will last?  Who knows what will happen to William?  But there you have the start and finish, or temporary finish, of this story.  Maybe we should check back in ten years or so, write if you're interested in an update.

 

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