Author Steven Clark Bradley

Decisions - Decisions, we all have to make them. What if you had the responsibility of making a decision that would change the world we live in for ever? Would you feel the weight of the burden that you bore and hear the voices in your mind of those that it would affect? Read Part Two of Quality of Life – Supreme Judgment see how power can be wielded for good and for evil. Quality of Life is a work in progress by Thriller and Suspense Author Steven Clark Bradley. It will eventually become part four of his very powerful book, Nimrod Rising. Like that suspenseful novel, Quality of Life is as real as it gets.

Quality of Life – Supreme Judgment Part II

…Saul walked out toward the waiting limousine. He felt the cool night air enter into his lungs and it refreshed his senses. That voice and the man, whoever it was…whatever it was…if he was at all, had been almost like a fist to the gut and had knocked the wind out of him. The fresh air felt better than his first hot cup of coffee in the morning! He took a few steps toward the car and heard voices in the night air. He was sure they were real, but slightly doubted himself. He turned and looked at the guard accompanying him.

“Do you hear that?”

“What is that, Justice Saul? You mean those voices…the protesters? Yes, they’ve been out there all night. We were all a bit worried that you were still here so late with them out there and still wide awake.”

“Are they out there about tomorrow? What are they doing; carrying signs and dressed all up in black…you know painted faces and look all ominous and all?”

“No sir, they are praying.”

“Praying?”

“Yes Sir, praying for you.” said the guard while opening the limousine door for Justice Saul.

Justice Saul slid into the car and it quietly pulled out onto First Street and he could see where the voices were coming from. He had expected anger and aggressive signs. What he saw surprised him. There were no darkly-clad images in the night. Instead, he saw groups of men and women huddled together and praying for God to give Justice Laurence Saul wisdom in his ruling. The signs spoke volumes to the Justice also.

“God Guide you, Justice Saul!” “We are praying for you, Justice Saul.” “Please think about the children!” “Constitutional =The death of America! / Unconstitutional =America has a future!”

“Slow down Peter. I want to watch this for a moment.”

“Yes Sir, but it could be dangerous.”

“Dangerous? They’re praying! They’re praying for me of all things!”

“A lot of us are doing that, Sir.”

Saul opened the back window and peered outside. There was no violence and those who carried the signs while the others prayed also kept a lookout for any opposing groups of thugs that might appear at any time. Everyone knew that America was only hours away from literally changing America completely and forever; everyone including Supreme Court Justice Laurence Saul. One of the lookouts saw the Justice’s face staring out of the car window. He dropped his sign and fell to his knees with his face bowed low and placed both hands in jacket’s pockets. The protester slowly raised his face up to meet Saul’s gaze. The man’s looked directly into Saul’s eyes and smiled ominously! His face became immediately clear to Justice Saul.

“My God! That’s him! That’s him Peter!”

“Who…who is it, Sir?”

“It’s that man I met in the building!”

 

“You mean the guard, Sir?

 

“Never mind Peter! Just put it in gear and get out of here!”

 

The man pulled his hands out of his pockets. He was squeezing on a live grenade in each! He stood up on his feet! Saul’s driver, Peter saw nothing. Then the man with a disfigured face and blood-stained holes on his military fatigues took on an angry look and shouted at Saul!

 

“Enemies of Humanity all!” He then reared back and threw a grenade at Saul’s car and quickly turned and threw the other one across the street into a small group of supporters of the bill on which Saul would soon have to rule.

 

“Peter, didn’t you see that! Get the hell out of here! Before we…”

 

The grenade flew right through the window and landed in the back seat next to Saul and a blast rang out! Saul felt his skin ripping off his bones and the searing heat melted his eyes and he knew he had died! Then, everything was silent. Slowly, ever so carefully, Saul touched his eyes. They were still there! He was afraid to opened them! He called out Peter’s name. There was no answer.

 

“Peter! Peter! Are you ok? Are you alive?” No answer!

Finally, Saul forced his eyes open and looked and saw his driver, Peter sitting at the wheel waiting to be told what to do! The back glass separating Saul from the driver was closed. Saul hit the switch and it slid down.

 

“Are you ok, Peter?”

 

“Yes sir, I am fine. Are you sure you are alright, Sir. I’m beginning to worry

about you.”

 

“You have to call 911, Peter! We have to help those people!”

 

“Where, Justice Saul? Is someone hurt?”

 

“I should say so! Didn’t you hear the explosion?!”

 

“No, Sir.” Peter responded and turned around to look at Saul. Justice Saul began to scream!

The man at the wheel was the same one who had just tossed the grenades.

“But you heard them, didn’t you?” the man said as he reached back and took Saul into his grip and pulled him up to the window!

"You’re gonna hear a lot tonight and you ain’t seen nothing yet!” Saul screamed a blood-curdling scream and opened his eyes again. He saw Peter on the phone calling for help.

“Put it away, Peter.”

 

“Sir, it is my duty to…”

 

“Put it away, I’m alright, I assure you.”

  The car pulled out and the praying crowd waved at Saul. The sleeping remnant of the bill supporters, from earlier in the day, raised their middle fingers toward the prayerful group and shouted.

“Tomorrow, everything’s going to change! You’ve had your day!”

 

They began to chant, “Free Sex!” “Gay Rights” “Death Rights!” “Reproductive Rights!”

Saul’s limousine drove on, but he had heard them. He sat back and reflected on it all. He was certain, almost, that he had simply allowed himself to let his nerves shake his resolve. Saul was a true constitutionalist. Yet, the doctrine that espoused that the constitution was a living document had gained a lot of prominence in the past decade. Many cases had been decided or gone unheard by the court based on the living nature of the now tattered document. He had always believed that society needed to cleave to the document that was set in stone. That was why he had been nominated and why he had faced such an uphill battle during his confirmation hearings in the first place. Yet, beyond his ability to see it or to notice it, he had been affected by it all. The sodomy ruling, the failure of the court to rule on the Shiavo case during the Rehnquist Court’s purview had truly helped cement the living document into the social psyche. It had created precedents for future rulings that had naturally led to the case before the court that had rent Justice Saul’s amoral logic asunder!

Now here he sat, in stunned silence, trying to understand the upside and downside of something just five short years earlier would have been decided on a good night’s sleep! Yes, everything would change tomorrow, no matter how he ruled, but one thing was already sure. Judge Laurence Saul had changed already. It was as though he were in a trance until he heard the driver communicating with Secret Service.

“Trump Card is at the perimeter and requesting access.”

“Roger that Trump Card, you are clear and in the perimeter. Joining your progress as we speak.”

“My-oh-my, Peter, I don’t know if I fell asleep or just staring off in space.”

“That’s ok, Justice Saul. You’ve got a lot on your mind, but it was the latter, sir.”

“Latter?”

“Space, Sir. You were just staring into space.”

Saul just acknowledged with a small groan and a shake of his head.

The lights of Saul’s home could be seen in the distance as they illuminated the night haze of valley where it sat. It always gave off its greenish glow into the mist. Tonight, though it seemed different, somehow murkier than usual. Saul looked out the window at the trees streaming by as the car made its way down the winding path that led to his front door. It was a mystical and somewhat fearful site, considering all he had heard and seen tonight. He rather feared for his sanity. He was sure Peter, up front driving steadily and constantly looking back at his boss with worried eyes, had no doubt that Justice Saul had met his match of wills when it came to “The Individual Rights and Termination Bill” or IRAT as it had become known. Many had simply added an “E” to the end and expressed their feeling toward it.

 
Saul had read both sides of the issue and both the dissent and the approval reasonings from his fellow colleagues. It had constantly been an illogical and hypocritical thing in his mind that they who supported the right to die at will, the right of women to terminate what Justice Laurence Saul had always regarded as human life in their wombs were always the first and the loudest to cry murder at the execution of someone who had taken the life of another without their consent.

It seemed duplicitous, to say the least. Yet, as the leaders of such groups were never wanting in their fervor to declare, those cases involved the deaths of individuals who, albeit heinous in life, had never given own consent to their own deaths. That somehow made sense to Saul, though it never had some five short years earlier. Washington tended to change a person, altered the mind due to a constant barrage of analysis of a public figure’s every move. Every word was measured, every restaurant was given a special significance and any human weakness seemed a scandal no matter how common it might seem for the common American.

 
It had taken its toll on Justice Laurence Saul, as well. Family values and morals groups had a lot of hope in Saul and though they were worried that he could pull a surprise on them, they fully expected him to rule with the dissent and declare the measure unconstitutional. Yet, the new pagans, as they were loathed to be so designated, on the left, who were far less numerous in their ranks, but who always shouted the loudest, also had reason to hope. Saul was a deeply conservative man and had always declared his adherence to family values. That is, until he, himself was faced with his own personal tragedy.

As Saul’s car continued its approach along the path towards his semi-stately manor, his mind went back to a more tender time in his life. It was a moment in the life of every person when they longed to be adult and shed the confusion of being a minor-almost-adult. In fact, he found adulthood far more befuddling, which made those days of malaise so enticing now. It was during that time that he had met her. Saul had met many young budding potential brides during his college years. It seemed harder to find a perfect mate at Harvard, and he suspected it was no less difficult at any IVY League school. It wasn’t that they were so much brighter and lofty than the “run-of-the-mill” institutions, just richer and better pruned.

Though today, there was little to distinguish the beauties in any school throughout America, in Saul’s day of cracking the books into the wee hours of the night, they were all prim and proper and one could never be too sure or too careful before bowing the knee to make promises that always seemed impossible to keep. Yet, then, at that time of valor and honor, one did keep their word and he was not about to get stuck with some lovely shining thing who’d end up being a hollow statue, a mere shell of the woman he had first met. So, he waited, but he had never stopped looking. Then, when he had lost the research volume he had checked out and had gone to the circulation desk at the Harvard Law Library to plead for mercy, he decided to just pay for the book rather than sounding like a blathering buffoon to the beautiful proper thing behind the desk. He had looked at her name tag that read Emma and then into her face. When he had told her he had to pay for the lost volume she said he should take a little more time to look for it and extended his grace period along with a smile that told him she had noticed him too. His eyes said a lot of things to Emma that day and His heart knew her right there and then, something only men could understand and which women never comprehended but had fully learned to use to its fullest advantage. From that day on, he could count only two things that had never changed one iota in his life. He had never stopped gazing into Emma’s face and he had never paid for the book.
 

From the time he had met her, asked her for that first date, bent his knee to her and extended her finger and held her in his arms on their first night of passion, he had loved Emma and had kept every promise he had made to her, except one.

Throughout Saul’s rising career, when he had one more case, one more meeting to attend or one more opinion for her to listen to, she had made almost no demands on her husband. Through his busy, always working days, doing things that he new were vital, but which meant virtually nothing to her, he had never stopped gazing into her face and Emma knew her man loved her. She had been bright, supportive and content to stay right there and raise their one daughter, Isabel or Iggie as everyone one called her because as a child she could say the “z” sound. Theirs had been one of those remnant relationships that had truly been made in heaven. It seemed that everything they touched turned to gold, until the gold had run dry.

“Cancer? Cancer!” Saul shouted in his mind. He looked around in the car to make sure he had not done so audibly. The fly in the ointment, that one stroke that destroyed my masterpiece!” he told himself. Emma had been there with him throughout his meteoric rise to power and had been his very own very best advisor and supporter. She had taken his side even when she knew he was wrong, only correcting his way in the most placid and private manners.

“She knew her man!” he concluded.

Now, here he was, face to face with the biggest decision of his life, and no less so for the nation and the one person he had never doubted one time was no where to be found. It was exactly that, Emma’s absence, Emma’s harsh, lingering, soul-numbing death that made his decision tomorrow appear so hard to arrive at. He had always believed in life. He had opposed abortion and had always felt that no one had the right to end anyone’s life, even their own. Yet, had he not been charged with the awful reality that his wife’s life was gone and there was no hope. Had he not pulled the plug that at least kept her chest rising and descending, giving a semblance of life? He did not want anyone to have to makes such decisions on their own again, because he knew full well how painful that was, but he had not regretted trying and that was the other side of the picture in his mind. He had promised to save her life. He had literally gone to the ends of the Earth to help her while he had sat there with her as she wasted away to nothing as he had seen her chest rise for the last time remaining there in suspended animation while her sight faded and as he whispered his last, “I love You” to her. It was a final conclusion he had prepared himself for physically, but for which he had utterly failed when the final devastating moment arrived.

Saul had heard Emma’s voice many times since her death. He had always put the sounds of her laugh and her voice in thin air over to a vivid imagination longing for her touch, her smell and her counsel. He had never sought it out, but she seemed to be with him every where he went. Now, he was actually seeking her advice. Who could know better what was right concerning his all-important issue? Yet, when he truly needed some mystic resolve, there was nothing. He actually felt she was completely gone from him for the first time! He was on his own. Then, the words he had heard from earlier in the evening came to him.

“You’re never alone!” he recalled. “Perhaps it was not some ogre but from…God? One never knows.” But he did know that there was no outside force that could render his ruling for him; not even Emma. The whole wretched experience had altered his life forever! The new pagans had cashed in all their chips in one human race gamble that Emma’s death would have the same affect on the country as it had on Justice Laurence Saul.

The car pulled into the circle driveway and stopped in front of the house. Peter got out and felt the drizzle in the air and heard the low growl of the gathering dark clouds above in the very early morning sky. He walked to the backdoor and opened for Justice Saul.

“Sir, is there anything else you need from me tonight?”

“Peter, I need you to try to get some sleep. I’ll need to leave for the office at around 10:00 in the morning.”

“Duly noted, Sir.”

Saul turned and walked up to the door which was held open by his housekeeper.

“Sir?” Peter called out. Saul turned slowly to look in Peter’s direction.

“Yes, Peter.”

“If I may, please remember, you are never alone.” Peter shouted

Saul felt his head slightly taken aback by the phrase but showed no surprise to his driver.

“Thank you Peter, that’s a good thought at such a moment as this.” Saul entered his house.

“We are burning the midnight oil tonight?” Saul’s butler asked an obvious question as he took the Justice’s coat.

“Sam, quite undesirably, I might add! There’s always a bigger fish. I my case it’s the people, of which you are one.”

“Quite proud to be so as well, I say.”

Saul turned to mount the stairs.

“Could send up a nightcap? No food, won’t do at all.”

“Sir, I have already sent up the warm Bordeaux. Is that adequate for such a night as this?”

“Well Sam, there’s a question. Adequate? For sure not! But much wiser indeed. Thank you Sam. It will do fine.”

“My pleasure, Sir”

Saul turned and climbed the first three steps.

“Oh yes, I forgot to tell you…”

“Yes, Sam” Saul stated, slowly turning around. “What is it, Sam?” said Saul with exasperation and fatigue in his voice.

“You received this letter by special delivery. I took the liberty of signing for it. I hope that does not meet with your displeasure.”

“Perfectly fine, Sam. That’s what your for and you are also for friendship, so stop being so incredibly kind.” Saul said as he walked and over to his butler. “You can call Larry, like everyone used to, I have told you that.”

“Yes sir, Larry it is, Sir.” Sam affirmed.

Saul amicably snatched the letter from Sam with slight smile and fake aggravation in his movement.

“For goodness sakes, man, now that makes me Sir Larry. I kind of like the sound of that…Sir Larry, hum?”

He turned and climbed the stairs to the top. He looked at the envelope, which possessed nothing in the way of anything striking or special. It was common in every way. He turned it over and held it up to the light, as if he were forbidden from opening it. He had had it drilled into him that he could never take a chance with anything, even as passé as unexpected mail. Yet, it was not the lessons from his handlers that gave him such apprehension. It was this night; a night that was full of confusion, strange voices and deep soul searching.

Saul walked into his bedroom and tossed the envelope onto the bed. He flipped on the TV and started taking of his clothes. A shower would just have to wait till morning. The moment the TV flashed on, Saul saw his face plastered all over the screen. He flipped the channel, Fox, CNN, MSNBC virtually every channel including C-Span were covering the big ruling to take place in less than ten hours.

Saul sat down at the edge of his bed and listened to how the whole affaire was being packaged.

“Chris, there is just no denying it. If the court upholds the IRAT bill, it will take on the greatest reach of the government into the lives of the American people to date. Perhaps there will never be anything ever passed like it in the future.”

“Yes Alex, there has never been anything like it. We’re joined by conservative talk show host, Michael Nance. Michael, I’m sure I don’t need to ask so tell us, at this juncture, what you think about tomorrow’s ruling, only hours away from what I suspect you regard as the abyss.”

“I am in no mood for your nonsense or cynicism! Let’s see it for what it is! We all knew all the warnings in the world would not stop the government takeover of our health care system. Chris, we would bitch, moan and scream about that, but we could almost live with that as much as we hate the idea. But this is not a mere takeover of Americans’ healthcare needs; this is a coupe d’état! This bill has already been overturned by two Federal Courts, a Federal Appeals Court and I am sure it will be turned over by the Supreme Court tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you Michael. Now let’s…”

“Wait…just let me say my bit and I’ll get off your show. If this bill is passed, it will be cradle to the grave control of the masses. It will regulate eligibility for education, it will control a child’s health records from birth and parents will be incarcerated regularly for obesity and numerous other heretofore unimaginable offences. There will be no resuscitation orders placed on those the “Government” deems terminal…which, by the way, will now be determined based on one’s quality of life rather than potential of living a good life even with certain infirmities. The mentally ill and those without the wherewithal to maintain a healthy life will be chosen for termination!”

“You are out of your mind, Mr. Nance! There has never been any provision for such things in this bill.”

Saul was looking around on the bed for the remote to change to another channel when he heard his name in the tube.

“I am not going to try to persuade you, because the hope making you and the loud minority of the country like you to change and see the truth will be when you wake up one morning and realize that you, your family nor anyone you love is ever safe again. I am speaking to Justice Saul, if you are listening Sir, we have faith in you, but there are a lot of forces arrayed against us now in the country and they are all aimed at you. Are you prepared to let the mentally infirmed, the aged, the terminally ill and the unborn never again have a fighting chance. Are you ready to approve, as the bill mandates, that some Human Utility Board be set up that will, in a very real way, have more power than the President himself in that they will decide who will live or die and who is useful or who merits touching the benefits we have all worked for all our lives? Think about it, Sir before it’s too late. Thanks Chris for at least letting say what I think the nation needs to hear. They have been warned!”

“Wow! Michael Nance, ladies and gentlemen. We are joined now by the founder of the Liberal Progress Board, George Sorloff. Mr. Sorloff, the floor is yours I guess in the interest of fairness.”

“Chris, we are hearing the same old gloom and doom and the fear tactic that the American people have grown accustomed to and are sick of...”

Saul reached behind his back and his hand searched for the remote. He did find it, but his hand found the envelope he had received earlier in the day. His finger wrapped around it when the TV screen suddenly changed. Before his eyes, Saul could see the Supreme Court swirling stairwell with him staring up at it. He seemed to be alone, but then something seemed to appear and disappear again. It was there, no it was gone! Then it appeared and stayed! It was him, that man, the one who had the bloody face! Saul rubbed his eyes and changed the channel.

The images across the screen remained the same. Then it changed and to his abhorrence, pictures of aborted fetuses appeared. They were bloody, some in tact, others torn to pieces and in shreds. He wanted to turn his face away but the image was so shocking and searing to his soul that he was forced to sit there and watch the myriad of unborn human lives, America’s with no rights, lay there on metal tables, in trash bags and canisters with the biohazard symbol emblazoned on the side. Then the image changed to the Image of Terrie Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman who in 2005 had been ordered to die without a shred of proof that she even requested to do so. There were pictures of her smiling at her mother and father, protesters for and against her life continuing, pictures of her crying and finally images of her dead, starved and dehydrated body lying on her bed.

Random shots flashed across the screen of the infirm, the elderly and the mentally ill. The last photo that appeared on the screen was that of the most precious person in Justice Laurence Saul’s life. Tears formed in the corners of Saul’s eyes and then began to flow like a river down he tired and bewildered face.

“No! You can’t be so heartless as that! No!”

Saul heard a knock at the door.

“Judge Saul, is everything alright? Judge Saul?”

“Yes, yes ,yes! I am fine” Saul responded looking over at the door.

“Are you sure? Can I help somehow?”

“I am fine Sam, go back to sleep.” He ordered. “Old fool never sleeps!” he murmured to himself.

When Saul turned back around, he saw the talking heads on the MSNBC report back on the screen. He truly wondered if he had lost his mind. Had he fallen asleep? He looked at his watch. It was 2:43 AM. He saw the envelope in his fingers. It made his hands begin to shake slightly. Slowly, he slid his finger under the sealed flap and slid it across the envelope until it was opened. He spread the envelop open and as though it were some chemical agent, two of his fingers took hold of the one sheet of paper inside. He pulled it out rather quickly, evidently finding his nerve again and held out in front of him still folded.

“Ah! What the hell!”

He unfolded it and dropped it to the floor and stared at the words, “You are never alone!” written across it!

“What is happening to me?” he quietly but fearfully asked himself.

He turned the TV and jumped under the covers! The man who held the power of life and death over the whole nation pulled the covers over his head and lay there shaking and bewildered until his heart regained a steady rhythm and weariness was overtaken by slumber and fell asleep only seconds later. Only Supreme Court Justice Laurence Saul could decide what type of world he would wake up in.

You can read lots more from Steven Clark Bradley at these sites. You might even find some Stories That Read You! at:

• Author Steven Clark Bradley
• From The Mind Of Author Steven Clark Bradley
• Inspired Author.Com
• Inspired Author.com (Nikki Leigh's Virtual Book Tour)
• Posts On Fire
• Steven Clark Bradley - ezinearticles.com
• Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
• http://communati.com/blog/steven-clark-bradley
• Steven Clark Bradley on Blog Talk Radio
• http://www.xanga.com/StevenClarkBradley
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3SMJINWMCARRY
• Steven Clark Bradley's Underground Controversy
• StevenClarkBradley - Book Marketing Network
• StevenClarkBradley - Published Authors

All of Steven Clark Bradley's novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.

Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

You can read lots more from Steven Clark Bradley at these sites. You might even find some Stories That Read You! at:

• Author Steven Clark Bradley
• From The Mind Of Author Steven Clark Bradley
• Inspired Author.Com
• Inspired Author.com (Nikki Leigh's Virtual Book Tour)
• Posts On Fire
• Steven Clark Bradley - ezinearticles.com
• Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
• Steven Clark Bradley @ Communati.com
• Steven Clark Bradley on Blog Talk Radio
• Steven Clark Bradley' Blog @ xanga.com
• Steven Clark Bradley's Blog @ Amazon .com
• Steven Clark Bradley's Underground Controversy
• StevenClarkBradley - Book Marketing Network
• StevenClarkBradley - Published Authors

All of Steven Clark Bradley's novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.


Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

In the midst of all the rhetoric against the Bush Administration, there are still plenty of Americans who see a good man and good leader in George W. Bush. He worked hard to keep his promises to the conservative voters who had placed their trust in him during his now seven years in office. He responded to the terrorist threat and proved he is a man of resolve. He took our plight as tax payers into consideration and lowered our tax burden. He stood up for the family and refused to let America devolve into some perverted society that would have merited fire to fall from the heavens. In short, he did a first rate job in a very dangerous time.


Today, with the talking heads vying for the oath, it is easy to see that much is left to be achieved and many things linger from Bush's failures, and there are more than a few. He failed to adequately push for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. He was and is an abysmal failure in stemming the tide in the deluge of illegal immigration from our southern border. He did not succeed in ridding the nation of our addiction to Middle East oil, though the democrats and Bush's fellow republicans in congress bear the same burden as he regarding all these failures. Nevertheless, President Bush did sow together many cords that, if kept in tact, will keep America on the path of right choices and policy for a long time to come. Yet, there are many strings still hanging out in this tapestry of the fabric of American history that still need tied up.


Of course, the war in Iraq, which is in far better shape since President Bush ordered the surge, is unfortunately, far from over. The surge seems to have marked a great turning point for that nation, much to the chagrin of the liberal elite who would love to derail the war for the sake of an election in November, 2008. If this surge continues to show success, there will be a good chance of seeing another republican in the White House. This can be very feasible if it remains possible to start pulling our troops out of Iraq during the spring and summer of 2008. Images of returning American GI's will give Americans a sense of pride and a feeling that President Bush had been correct in taking a tyrant out of that nation and that his stubborn resolve is what they want to see in the next president as well. So, this election can be pulled off with good voter turnout and by America viewing its children returning home to a hero's welcome.


Yet, let not the return of our troops be considered as the end-all of a struggle that will not need to be revisited. I suspect that there are about two more wars that may need to be waged before this nation can take a breather. That fact adds tremendous weight to the importance of electing a president who possesses a steel-like determination to protect this nation from current and future threats that hover out on the political, social and religious horizons. With this in mind, it is clear that the greatest threat facing America and any new president will be how to deal with a nuclear-armed Iran. Currently, the only Muslim nation that possesses nuclear arms is the nation of Pakistan. If the world can be set on edge by the current developments inside Pakistan, an American ally, then any president will have to view Iran, bent on building itself a nuclear arsenal, as a potentially very serious threat to The United States and our allies. Iran may not pose a threat to the USA in actually launching one of their missiles at us, but that Islamic Republic could attack an ally, such as Israel, that could lead to World War III. There are also great dangers in the possibility of Iran using its surrogates or sleeper cells to smuggle such arms into our nation. Though there is a strong popular movement inside Iran for change toward democracy, it is clear that no such hope truly exists without outside assistance. At the moment, America is looking to the UN for some help in this regard, which is tantamount to killing cancer with an aspirin. I predict that this event will fester to a boiling point and the need for forces to be deployed will again be called for. Nevertheless, we will have to have a lot more help from the Iranian people than we received from the people of Iraq. Therefore, the next president will not be able to beat Bush's weapons into plowshares, as many predict, though it is unclear if any of the candidates truly realize that.


The other international hot spot in the world is North Korea. Though President Bush has signed an ill-conceived agreement with the president of this poorest of nations, Kim Jung Il has already broken the first major provision of the accord by failing to report how many bombs have been built and to what extent he has proliferated his nuclear technology around the world. North Korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world. Though that nation may not have rice enough with which to feed its people, it does have weapons with which to launch, at the very least, a region-wide war. Kim Jung Il has demonstrated his capacity to fear, though. Right after America took Iraq, The North Korean leader sent word to the Bush Administration that he intended to talk. Yet, talk is cheap and though there has been some progress in North Korea's dismantling of its nuclear program, letting this tyrant slide in his failures to meet his commitments will be costly. Bush has taken too much time to play the talk game. If North Korea fails to live up to its word, which has been proven time and time again to be the ultimate, final conclusion, such talk time will have become exhausted.


If the next president fails to act appropriately to the threats of Iran and North Korea, the world could well be shoved into WW III. This is a sobering reality that should take precedence over any other reason that motivates us in our choice of candidate to lead the nation for at least the next four years. These two nations will have to be dealt with and without delay. Part 2 and part 3 of the Axis of Evil will have to be, not only pacified, but rendered incapable of waging war against its neighbors and drawing in major forces like our own. Failure to do so will mean renewed war that will render the war in Iraq as a mere scuffle in comparison. Therefore, the next president will have no lack of problems in the future with this apparently mentally ill communist dictator who will have no loss of an appetite to flex some muscle that he indeed does have.


On the domestic front, one lose end that needs to tied up into an eternal knot is the danger of allowing gay marriage. It seems apparent that President Bush simply used this issue as a reelection point, since he has done virtually nothing about his own proposal for a constitutional amendment since he began his second term. This is the one point that I am sure will not receive the appropriate attention, by virtue of the political capital that will have to be spent to achieve it. Neither of the two of the two party nominees, from either party, will push hard to preserve the sanctity of the institution of marriage. That does not mean it is not important. In fact, if the American society allows this obtuse action to become the national norm, it will transform the waging of battles abroad for the safety of the nation into something of no value to many of us who hold to social morals that say you can do whatever you wish in private so long as it is not sanctioned and protected by those who lead us publically.


Therefore, we must fight hard for the constitutional amendment that President Bush called for during the 2004 election. It is very clear in the antics displayed by those protesting since Bush's first inauguration that this issue will be bigger than ever for the next president, especially a liberal one. The greatest failure for President Bush is that he placed a greater priority on Social Security savings accounts than following through on the moral issues he so bravely championed in his second presidential campaign. He has failed to look sufficiently at his 2004 election polling data to see that the reason that he is again in office today is because Christians placed their faith in him as a believer and moral leader. We need to insist upon not just giving these issues lip service.


The future does not look too bright for conservatives today. That can become a good thing, also. Often long-term power creates lethargy and apathy. Too much power and far too much pride has lulled conservatives to sleep and made them think that they were unshakable and full of strength. Of course that was a pipe dream. If you do not think so, ask Speaker of the House Pelosi what she thinks. The next president will have about two years to make these things happen, if at all. At the moment, no real conservative seems poised to take President Bush's place in the 2008 election. The closest thing to a conservative presidential hopeful in the Republican Party for 2008 is John McCain. He is right of center, at best, and has an eerie tendency to rely on any side from which he may find support. The great danger is that all of the candidates that the republicans and the democrats have fielded could spell the end of the America as we have know her.


Therefore, those of us who care about the social nature of the nation and the future strength of the sane world need to insist that the next president not crowd out the issues that are of supreme importance to us. Failure to correct the moral wrongs in our country shall cause the nation to incur more attacks and shall nullify any attempt to spare the nation from greater disaster. Men and women do right or wrong by virtue of their characters. It does not matter if the next president is black or white. There are good men and women from every walk of life in this country, regardless of their gender, race, religion or creed. Let us decide to only pay tribute with our vote to the man who has kept faith with America. Yet, never let us sit back and pretend that all is calm in Gotham. These next four years will determine whether America will maintain the stamina and courage to fight the good fight and to tie all loose strings together into one large tapestry that cannot be unraveled. Demand it! Expect it! Scream like crazy until you get it! Nothing less is acceptable!


Steven Clark Bradley lived abroad for over 17 years and has been to 34 countries, including Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey. He has a master's degree in liberal studies from Indiana University. He speaks French and Turkish. He has been an assistant to a Prosecutor, a University Instructor and a freelance Journalist in Ramallah, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan. Steven is the author of three novels, Nimrod Rising, Probable Cause and Stillborn, available through Borders.com, Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com and almost anywhere on the net.

You can read lots more from Steven Clark Bradley at these sites. You might even find some Stories That Read You! at:

• Author Steven Clark Bradley
• From The Mind Of Author Steven Clark Bradley
• Inspired Author.Com
• Inspired Author.com (Nikki Leigh's Virtual Book Tour)
• Posts On Fire
• Steven Clark Bradley - ezinearticles.com
• Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
• Steven Clark Bradley @ Communati.com
• Steven Clark Bradley on Blog Talk Radio
• Steven Clark Bradley' Blog @ xanga.com
• Steven Clark Bradley's Blog @ Amazon .com
• Steven Clark Bradley's Underground Controversy
• StevenClarkBradley - Book Marketing Network
• StevenClarkBradley - Published Authors

All of Steven Clark Bradley's novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.


Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

Patriot Acts by Steven Clark Bradley - Border Insecurity

It is such a driving passion to tell stories that could make one pause and reflect on where we were and where we are, to gain a better understanding of where we are going. The only problem is that when we look at where we are and perceive of where we're going, then the story always, inevitably come out shocking and ... dare I say spooky. It is never my intension to paint a bleak picture, but the truth can set us free.

These are days when we have all heard that God should damn America, that we cling to God and guns because we are bitter and fundamentally ignorant and that we live in a mean country. It all means that we are fighting a real war abroad against Islamic terrorist who wish to destroy but can only wreak havoc. At home we are in a much more chronic and lethal war that threatens to rip the conscience from America and then to fragment her to death. The not too slow and not so hidden shift in the nation’s thinking and affection for their country has been evidenced by the nation’s readiness to elect a man has no experience in foreign affairs, has had dealings and friendship with a known, confessed domestic terrorist and who has been the center of every anti-American statement that was spoken in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

I wrote Patriot Acts for the express purpose of spinning a tale with so much clarity and realistic fervor that it might cause those who read it to understand the peril of seeing a transparent danger and refusing to do what is required to kill it before it is strong enough to kill us all. Today, America faces enemies that make the world of the Cold War seem like much brighter times. The Islamic forces that have declared Jihad on America have caused the greatest threat to the life of the United States since World War II. In Patriot Acts, America finds itself under covert nuclear attack from the Islamic Republic of Iran which has linked up with American Militia groups, which have set aside their political and religious differences to carry out the widest and most deadly attack on America in the nation’s history. The only person who can effectively retaliate against their aggression is Fisher Harrison, the best trained Special Ops killer the military has. The only problem is that he is in a federal prison, framed for a murder he did not commit, framed by his former boss, the President of the United States of America. You will take an amazing journey that will take you from Alaska to the Midwest and to the heart of the nation of Iran itself as two enemies unite to save the nation, while two enemies are unified to bring the country down. You will be amazed how possible this story is and may be shocked by how close to home and to reality that it could be! The main question is whether America is willing to do what may be necessary in order to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America. You will read about actions that are not acts of terror, not acts of vengeance but in reality, Patriot Acts, many of the same decisions the next President shall surely be compelled to take.

Now, I hope you will read this excerpt from Patriot Acts, which will be the last excerpt that will be published prior to Patriot Acts being released. I think you will see the result of allowing a ticking bomb of apathy and ignorance.

Patriot Acts by Steven Clark Bradley - Border Insecurity

April 14, 2009 7:20 PM

The City of Nogales is there and back again in the shear uniqueness of being a split city that spans the southern border of Arizona. Unlike Kansas City though that lived, worked and slept in two states, Nogales shared the borders of two countries, The United States and Mexico. The last time anyone had checked, the city comprised 20,878 people, 5,985 households, and 4,937 families residing in this mostly Spanish-speaking city. This place was cherished and even had its own folklore. It was said that in this crossroads of the Sonoran Borderland, Nogales, Arizona possessed a goddess for the journey through life and for the places which one encounters along the way. The name of this goddess was Hecate, the guardian of the crossroads, an ancient and powerful female deity who possessed the power to see in three directions at once. Apparently, she had been helping many people find uncountable ways of entering the United States because of her ability to see in so many directions, but not so much here in this city.

 

This city was not known as one of the major crossover points through which illegal aliens from Mexico came into the United States never to return to their country teaming with poor, bewildered people and corruption. This city was legit! Mexicans knew they could cross over into the States and buy goods, which were either scarce or nonexistent in their own country. As a result, officials looked the other way, most of the time, because the trade that went on in this desert city was far more important than the size of the city and its dry and resentful environment would indicate. Cars and those on foot crossed over and into the western state and returned filled with goods that were far too lucrative to let such an insignificant thing like National Security stand in the way! Consequently, the security presence was small and only slightly vigilant. In fact, security was so underrated that the safety measures at the United States Border Control Station had even been outsourced to Mexican officials who checked the vehicles that crossed into the coveted giant neighbor to the North.

~~~

Fifty-five miles north, two very tired men ducked their heads and climbed out of a private Jet that had landed on a dirt runway that didn’t exist officially on any map. They jumped into an awaiting small Ford Escort and in three minutes they were making tacks and headed south, cruising down Arizona 19 while also in minutes, the private jet was airborne again. The destination was this small but well-known city/town town of Nogales.

~~~

Sixty miles south another vehicle, loaded with office furniture and briefcases, was headed North on Mexico 15. The two highways converged on the US side of the border that ran through the middle of Nogales.

~~~

 

April 14, 2009 7:35 PM

“So where the hell is he?” President Tate demanded to know.

“He is the chief of staff and has a few things to do around here!”

The door to the Oval Office opened and Jamie O’Rourke walked in.

“Where have you been all day?”

“Mr. President, don’t you remember the Lincoln Day dinner you couldn’t bear to attend and sent me to?”

“Up in, where was it, Nome, Alaska?”

“Yes sir. Weather was pretty good and love those blubber burgers!”

“We’ve got a problem Jamie.”

“Am I supposed to be shocked? All we ever do is deal with problems.”

“Why did I ever want this job?” Tate whined shaking his head.

“One, I don’t think you mean that and two, if I thought you did I’d resign right now and three, you like the retirement benefits?”

“Yea, they’re good, but I’ll probably get assassinated before I benefit from any of those perks.”

Jamie didn’t even look up when those words were uttered.

“Anyway, Jamie, back to our problem. I just got word that Harrison escaped!”

“More like stolen, I heard.” Jamie added.

“You know about this already?”

“Where was I all day Mr. President? News didn’t have to travel too far even in the frozen tundra! I was told that some kind of Paramilitary strike took place and he was hauled off with one of our agents who you placed at the prison to keep watch over that black sheep. Seems Fisher knew nothing about it. Anyway, I guess you do have a problem there, but we’ve got bigger problems than your fear of death or of hiding your skeletons.”

“Jamie, sometimes I wonder about your allegiance to me?”

“Allegiance to you? You should have no worries about that at all. I am in allegiance to the United States of America! I would think you’d have it no other way and that is why I serve you, and it is why I am up before most terrorists are and why I have gone to such lengths to keep you here and make sure you get a round two. But the nation always comes first for me. So, Mr. President, get your mind off of this guy you locked away for life. I think you should sit down and let me tell you what is happening right now as we speak and why we cannot stop it unless we act immediately.

~~~

“Atash, do you know what to say?”

“Of course, ‘Pesos, Pesos’!”

“This is not a joke! The resemblance we have to Mexicans may be passable but there’s that thing called Spanish.”

“Jalil, you worry too much! En Shallah, everything will go well, and anyway we will probably have to say nothing with this in my hand.”

The Muslim driver of a van carrying office supplies across the border waved a large stack of $100.00 bills. Their cargo demanded that they spread the wealth before they spread some death.

“This is a breakthrough for Jihad! For once, we won’t be doing the damage. Could we have ever hoped that there would be such a well organized effort by Americans themselves to destroy their own nation and serve Allah in the process?”

“Allah is great!”

~~~

“What?” President Tate shouted in utter horror!

“Yes sir, we have very valid and verifiable reports that somewhere along our border with Mexico a large number of tactical nukes are being transported into the United States.”

“When did these reports come in?”

“When I walked into my office, a field agent was faxing these reports to me and they were coming over the machine as entered my office.”

Jamie bent down and picked up his file off of a stack of documents he had brought into Tate’s office for signing. When he bent down he grunted loudly and rubbed his chest.

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t you die on me. All heart attacks, strokes or any kind of illness are temporarily forbidden!”

“I’m fine, just strained my back, I guess. Mr. President, we need to seal the border!”

“Oh, well, I’ll get on that right away! Are you crazy? That’s more than 2000 miles between San Diego and Brownsville! We’d have to pull troops out of every country they currently operate in to do that and…”

“Not so, Mr. President. We can activate several militia groups and use them to do what they do best.”

“What would that be, killing illegals and then we’ll have the Alamo all over again!”

“Chris…Mr. President, these guys will either be our enemies or they will join our enemies! You called the Minutemen vigilantes! You refuse to enlist the help of those who love the nation and now you’re afraid of Mexico? Whose border is it anyway and what are you going to do about this?”

“Do you have Intel on where the nukes could be coming in?”

“Yes sir! Somewhere along a two-thousand mile line!”

~~~

“Stop it Atash!”

“Stop what?”

“Sweating! You look too terrified! What if the Sheik had ordered you to lay it down? Allah will prevail and make a way!”

“Yea, you mean, what is it they call them…Dead Presidents?”

“I have them in hand! We will use US dollars, US mercenaries and US laws to give them Jihad terror!” Jalil declared.

Even Atash livened up as they pulled up to the gate.

Just over the border from the Mexican side of Nogales or just at the border on the US side, depending on how one viewed it, was a place that even bore the name, ‘Borders’ and it wasn’t a bookstore. Americans who wished to venture into the same area from which so many people wished to escape frequented this place. This large store had just about everything and in Pesos or in dollars. This was certainly the best place to get goods from the States that could not be got in Mexico and taken back across without any harassment or impediment. The store was not an amazing thing in any real unique way. It made a lot of money for its owner and it was its owner that was the special commodity. The proprietor was not Mexican, Indian or American or Irania. He was Korean.

Lee Kun Hee or his self-imposed American name, Henry was an unassuming man, a specialty amongst Asian people, but the Koreans had seemed to make a science out of practicing humility and piety. Henry had been there for many years and his bank account was far bigger than even his well-placed store could provide. It was about to become a good deal bigger too. Henry had come to America in the early 1990’s as a refugee from North Korea. He bore the marks of the brutal regime in Pyongyang. No one knew and he had almost made himself forget that he had received the marks and scars across his back and chest quite willingly. They had made his story so much more believable! How else could a red-blooded spy from the North Korean Communist government implant himself in this country? It had worked too!

Like a bridge between insanity and mayhem, two vehicles were steadily converging on Henry’s store. From the south and headed north, two Iranian Jihadists pulled up to the gate that, if opened to them, would change the face of the American Republic forever.

~~~

Jalil looked at the posted officials at the border crossing. He could not believe that the man who would be dealing with him and his fellow terrorist was not American at all but a Mexican national, which made the payoff game even easier and sweeter all the way along. Jalil pulled out two forged Mexican passports and phony shipment documents, which read ‘Office furnishings’. The similarities of their faces to the typical Mexican and the various dark-skinned Muslim radical was uncanny! They looked so much alike! Jalil handed the passports to the Mexican guard. The guard doubted their honesty and demanded all their verification. Jalil pulled out a very thick wad of US dollars and the passports were immediately stamped and the van pulled into the center of destiny!

~~~

The Ford Escort with Wyoming plates headed south down Arizona 19 and had just past the sign that read, Nogales, Arizona. That told them that they had almost completed half of their voyage. The other half would be an immediate return back to where they had started.

“Len! Len wake up you sorry ass!”

“What? Where are we?”

“Where are we? We are at Armageddon’s door my brother. The posse has arrived!”

Len Garret rubbed his eyes and turned a bottle of Scotch up to his lips.

“This stuff’s about the only thing that wakes me up anymore. Pull around back Frank.”

“In back? Don’t that look out of the ordinary?”

“Well, we ain’t far from it, so just do what I told ya, ok?”

“Yavool, Mein Fuehrer!”

Garret’s cohort drove to the back of the large wooden structure and both Garret and his driver saw the large van marked ‘Nogales office furniture’. They parked and walked inside.

“Mr. Lee, what we have is a cavalcade of diversity! Three nationalities, all hating the same place, all seeking the same thing!” Len shouted!

“Mr. Garret! How are you? Got your fax! Is there something I can interest you in today, sir?”

“Ah, yes, I need a load of briefcases and I’m on a tight schedule. I have a feeling my business is going to explode soon!”

Everyone in the room started laughing, including the two Iranians who were seated in the room next to the main shop. They would not see each other’s faces! The whole thing took only ten minutes to transact and the Ford Escort was headed north again to where they had left only hours before and where they had left two new members of the Brotherhood of Patriots still waiting for their orders; ten minutes, a far longer period of time than it would take to destroy America’s resolve, her economy and her very existence as a nation.

~~~

The lights were burning late at the Pentagon and in the White House this night. In countless homes in virtually every state in the union, men and women were filling their suitcases, kissing their wives, husbands and babies goodbye and heading to a myriad of locations by air, rail and road. As passenger planes and military chopper filled the skies, while trains rolled on rail and cars roared down highways filled with GI’s all headed southward and trying to stop one lowly and unsuspecting car that was already headed north unimpeded like a mobile weapon of mass destruction singing, “Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound!”

Here are a few other sites where you can read more of Steven Clark Bradley's material:

Steven Clark Bradley's Stories That Read You!
Steven Clark Bradley's Underground Controversy
Steven Clark bradley inspiredauthor.com/promotion
Steven Clark Bradley - Published Authors.com
Steven Clark Bradley at Blog Talk Radio.com
Steven Clark bradley at Communati.com
Steven Clark Bradley at Inspired Author.com
Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
Author Steven Clark Bradley

All of Steven Clark Bradley's novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.

Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

It is easy to judge those of our fellow men and women who live on the street as dirty, evil or simply as losers while they peddle their unspeakable wares, in the dead of night. The Earth is replete with examples of young girls who today live in circumstances that seem unthinkable to us and unimaginable. Many of these women set out on a journey to places like Hollywood to “Make it big” to “Become a star!” only to find themselves to be the victims of broken promises, veins full of narcotics and in bed with someone they have never met before and never will again. The stories are many and the reasons are just as numerous even as their original motivations seemed to have merited their journey into the ultimately lonely and often fatal situations which led many into drug addiction, prostitution, prison and even suicide.

In “Stillborn! – Baby’s Lost” Susan Chacon’s reasons also were real and profound. She set out to escape some personal dangers that would eventually only lead her into a final and disastrous ones.

Read this excerpt from Steven Clark Bradley’s novel, Stillborn, and you’ll see how a life without hope, support or mercy can lead a hopeless woman to make some terrible choices. So many women today are trapped in circumstances exactly like Susan Chacon. Perhaps, after you read this passage, the next time you see such people in their self-imposed prisons, you’ll feel more sorrow than judgment. Perhaps it will make you appreciate anew, just how important a loving family can be.

Stillborn! - Baby’s Lost

“Doctor, I’ve got a lot of blood here. I think we’re losing her!”

Susan Chacon, simply put, was bleeding to death. It was no big deal for her. Her whole life had been hemorrhaging since she was thirteen anyway. It was the perfect ending to a very imperfect life. She was completely unconscious to the outside world, but in her mind, which was traveling deeper and deeper into the tunnel of malaise and death, she was seeing her life play back in vivid detail. It was all taking her back to the day that led to the very present one in which she had given away two new lives to the heartless world while her own was being not too slowly snatched away from her. Susan could see her sweet daddy, then her mother hugging her brother, her brother staring down at her. She heard weeping and pitiful cries, heard her brother’s hideous diabolical laugh and then felt an image begin to play right before her dimming eyes.

~~~

        “Doctor, we need an I.V. started here, potassium is bottoming out! I’m losing her pulse!”

~~~

Susan Chacon was so confoundedly indifferent. She was a unique one; a lusciously beautiful girl, that is. Susan had a thing about her. She could take a heart, admire it for a time with passion and then cast it aside as unlikely to be of use to her in the future until right now as she was throwing away her own life so cruelly.

She lay stretched out on the emergency room bed, just a shell with a slightly beating heart. She had lost her will to fight. The blood she had lost in the delivery of her second child, where she had been left for dead, had also left her depressed and empty; with the feeling that there was nothing left to fight for. Yet, as she drew closer and closer to the end of the tunnel she could see the images flashing past her mind’s eyes! It all played like a sad ‘somebody done somebody wrong’ song that just would not end.

Throughout her life until thirteen years of age, she had been with lots of friends and had remained untouched and alive in the outside world. In her world, many of her girl friends had already ridden themselves of the lock to their garden, but not Susan. She had been around those who partied and caroused in a very Mexican secular, Catholic sort of way and had remained chaste at every level. For Susan Chacon, it was not outside with her friends that threatened to rob her of her innocence but rather at home where her future risked being ripped from her.

Susan had told her mother about her brother’s behavior, but mama just explained it away as though big brother was just being over protective and instead accused Susan of having impure thoughts. She had even begun to question herself. In her heart, she knew though, that she was right and had never given her brother any reason to act in such a vile way! It had pushed her away from both of them, but she had her daddy!

        Susan knew she dare not say a word to her father about her brother’s actions or apparent intentions. She knew her daddy would beat him, perhaps even kill him for having contemplated the awful-awful with his little sister. It was only the protective hand of her father that had allowed her to live in the same house with her brother and his adoring mother. Even Susan knew how much she had developed the capacity for alienation towards the ones she lived with and just accepted herself as having to live constantly in a survival mode. The nights were peaceful though for Susan. Her father was there and he loved her! He had always had a special affinity with her and he had made her strive to be a good girl, a good student and a good catholic. He was proud of her and she drew all her courage from his existence!

Then her world fell apart! “Papa!”

~~~

In the emergency room where Susan Chacon laid lifeless and still a nurse began to yell.

 

                “She’s flat lining! I’ve got no pulse here!”

           In the inner recesses of her mind, Susan was watching, repeated before her dimming eyes, the worst day of her life! Susan Chacon could see it all over again in her dying brain as she had seen it more than 15 years before! She had never gotten over having found her father that way.

“I need some adrenaline over here STAT!” the doctor ordered back in the emergency room.

“Try the paddles first!”

“Clear!”

The force of the electricity made Susan’s body leap into the air and caused the image she was seeing become momentarily hazy and broken.

~~~

~~~

“We got nothing here, Doctor!”

The doctor looked down at Susan’s lifeless body as the heart monitor produced a flat green line across its screen and a low constant hum. He wondered if it was worth putting her through the adrenaline.

~~~

Susan had only had her daddy for the first 13 years of her life. The doctors had tried unsuccessfully to revive him, but it was useless. Susan could see the doctor arrive at her house and saw him turn over her daddy’s body. She saw a large bruised area on his back in the heart area where the blood had pooled. It was not fair! God had turned His sight from her. There was an evil spirit on her or she had not said the proper amount of ‘Hail Marie’s to protect her family from the curse of the evil eye? All she knew was that she had not kissed her daddy enough the night before. Had she hugged him? She was sure she had, but wanted to again, and now he was gone and she was alone. She ran right out of the house and saw her brother standing at the door. She knew he did not care! She knew he had not physically killed her daddy but she inwardly blamed him for it all! She stared at him with hatred for a few seconds and then ran away, running, which was something she would be characterized by for the rest of her life. Her race into binging on a little fooling around and forgetting that there was a real world that would only leave her exactly bitter, defiant, alone and overpowered and perhaps now, dead!

~~~

~~~

         Susan started to hear the voices of the nurse and the doctor and the hum of the heart monitor, but she would not let herself be relieved of her sorrow and remorse long enough to rejoin the land of the living. She blamed herself for the evil that had befallen her family. She knew when men lusted after her. She always responded with a prayer her daddy had taught her, now prayer seemed totally worthless!

         She blamed herself for it all! This was not the life she had expected. Her daddy was supposed to see his grandchildren one day! Now, she had given away both of his grandchildren! He would hate her and oh how she loved him! She wished he were there now to give her a reason to let her heart beat again! He needed to be there to give herself away to her husband one day! How would she know if she found the right man or not? She knew that if her daddy gave her away one day to any man that he would definitely be the right man. Now, how would she know? She decided that she did not need a man! She had also decided to kill her brother if he so much as looked at her with the lustful eyes she had learned to recognize! Now, the only man in her life was her 17-year-old brother who wished to revile her and steal her innocence away. She knew what would be her fate and she knew what she planned to be his final outcome! Her life could be worth something if she would give it to a worthy cause. His fate was a reason to be! Yet, right now, with her babies gone, her life a disaster, she was glad her daddy could not see her and feel the shame she felt!

        Three months and five days into the loss of her daddy Susan saw fate take its next stride and saw her life go tumbling down with a knife in her right hand slamming downward again and again! She saw herself drop the knife that was stained with blood not so different from her own and fleeing, running, crying, living in fear and finally swimming across some river into a land of supposed safety. Then she heard a voice speaking to her. She knew that voice.

~~~

“Doctor, stop, we have a slight pulse!”

“I’m Officer Wallace Findings. I was at the scene where she was found. Is she dying?”

“Do you know her?” the doctor asked.

“Well, not well…yes, I know her.”

“She is closer to death than to life but she is trying to come back. We just got a slight pulse. I don’t want to do the adrenaline if I do not need to because she has lost so much blood it could cause her heart to explode, so try to talk her back, Officer.”

        The sound of Officer Findings’ voice got Susan’s fleeting mind’s attention. It felt soft and warm and like he really cared, an emotion she had experienced little. She knew he was good and that he too had suffered a loss that he had not even known of yet.

~~~

Susan felt suddenly at peace. Findings’ voice gave her a strange feeling of safety. She wanted to see him and again she saw herself swimming; taking long and hard strokes to get to the other side. In her mind, she could see a figure waving to her and calling out to her.

“Susan! Susan, come on back! Don’t give up! I am here for you…!”

As she got closer to the other side she began to make out the image as the face of the father of her babies, the last man she had deceived, a man who deserved to know everything! In the world, circled around her body in the emergency room the doctor, the nurses and one sad and lonely police officer looked down at Susan as she fought her way back to life. The heart monitor recorded increased heart rhythm with periodic breaks in the rhythm.

~~~

In the wealthy neighborhood of Palisades Park, Illinois a young couple pulled their car up to the door of their emotionally empty house. What they were bringing home today would fill the big house in a way it had never been since they had wed. A woman is helped out of the passenger seat with an infant in her arms. Little Jeffery was her baby; their child and he would never know the wiser! They would see to that!

~~~

Every time Susan’s heart would skip a beat she could feel someone pulling on her legs to draw her back to the land of the dying and she would kick it away. She could see herself looking back at one of the distress points in her journey back to life. When she turned her head she saw her brother, grimacing and tugging at her, screaming that he would avenge his death and pay her back for her actions against him! Behind him was a trail of men who had abused her and next to her brother was that evil doctor, the man who had left her for dead in that filthy place and the one who had lied to her and who had stolen away her babies! At the other side of her brother was Richie, her pimp. He was not smiling, not crying, not doing anything; sort of just along for the ride as he had always been! The scene made her swim faster and harder with deeper and longer strokes!

~~~

“Susan! That’s it!” Officer Findings pleaded with her as he watched the heart monitor. He could see her heart picking up its pace!

“Her heart is good, just had too much stress on it from the loss of blood and God only knows what she was seeing in her state!” the doctor wondered.

“Saw what? What do you mean?”

“She seemed to be reliving something because there were tears in her eyes and she just gave up at some point and the heart stopped!”

Findings thought about that for a second and began to cheer her forward again.

~~~

“Mr. Policeman! Help me! Please help me!” She could see Findings at the shore with his arms outstretched ready to take her to safety. Then she saw another man behind him and her heart began to race again and the rhythm started to become erratic again.

~~~

 Findings saw the monitor recording the irregular heart activity. He turned and saw one of his fellow officers there.

           
           “Doc, what are you doing here? You ain’t getting this one!”

           
            “I am a doctor you know. I wanted to tell you that the second baby has died. Oh, I heard she was dying, sorry. Guess I heard wrong. She gonna make it?” the officer asked.

    “Are you out of your mind, Wall?”

~~~

The Forensic specialist and Findings’ best friend left the area around Susan’s bed. Susan looked forward again and saw that the other officer was gone and started to again swim toward Wallace Findings.

~~~

“That’s it! Come on! You’re gonna make it!” Finally, she reached the shore in her tunnel vision and took hold of Wallace Findings’ open hand. Suddenly a light began to shine so brightly that she was forced to open her eyes! She saw several hazy figures looking over her. After blinking several times and regaining her reality she could see the doctor and the emergency room staff and there was Findings; the one she had returned for. She was sure she would have never come back had he not showed up. She moved her eyes around and in the distance saw Doc, Findings’ friend. Her brow began to perspire and she began to shake in fear.

Findings followed her eyes and realized that she was looking at his friend Doc.

        Doc looked perplexed and shrugged his shoulders and turned around and left the room. Susan calmed down opened her eyes and looked directly into Findings’ face.

“Oh, Officer I came back for you! I am sorry! Please forgive me!”

“Forgive you for what? Now you rest ok? We can talk about everything later. Right now you listen to these good people! You made them earn their money today!”

“Please do not leave me! Please…”

“I promise Susan, I am right here, just let them get you stabilized and I am right at your side!” The doctors were busy putting medications through her I.V., but Susan knew that her life was far from safe. She had come back to finally do one good thing before she died. She had no idea how vicious it would all become in the land of Babylon!

                A car pulled up behind an orphanage called the Queen of Peace. The driver stopped the car and the administrative sister rushed out. The man in the passenger seat opened the back door and pulled out 

an incubation chamber. He reached it out to the catholic sister. She stared at him and felt that strange feeling of guilt she had already so wonderfully learned to ignore.

“We will burn in hell for this!” she declared to the man before taking the chamber that held a newly-born little boy. The man looked at her unbelievably.

“Got bad feet does he? When he’s old enough we will put him to good use. The man gave the infant chamber to the nun and spoke angrily to her.

 

             "You are right, you know!” he smiled at her. “You really will burn in hell!”

The woman snatched the baby away and turned in anger and walked quickly towards the door. The man screamed back at her.

The nun turned around at the door and stared back at the man then entered the orphanage. The man got in the car and it sped away. The nun took the infant to a crib in a room with a huge cross on the wall. It cast a shadow like a dagger being thrust into the child’s heart, this child with no name, no future and so much like a child who was lost, alone, stillborn!

Here are a few other sites where you can read more of Steven Clark Bradley's material:

Steven Clark Bradley's Stories That Read You!
Steven Clark Bradley's Underground Controversy
Steven Clark bradley inspiredauthor.com/promotion
Steven Clark Bradley - Published Authors.com
Steven Clark Bradley at Blog Talk Radio.com
Steven Clark bradley at Communati.com
Steven Clark Bradley at Inspired Author.com
Steven Clark Bradley - Nimrod Rising
Author Steven Clark Bradley

All of Steven Clark Bradley's novels are widely available all over the net. Here are a few links to help you read these exciting stories now.

Amazon.com
booksamillion.com
powells.com
bordersstores.com
barnesandnoble.com
copperfields.com

 

 

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