DOWN THE WELL

"Where is Bonnie"? Mon Asked, walking into the restaurant where Bonnie worked. Mon was a nickname given to Money K Wright. His father gave him this name so He would always be a hard worker and saver of money. The head cashier at the restaurant told Mon, Bonnie had left and she did not know where she was. Mon became distraught and jumped in his old pickup and hurried home hopeful he would find her waiting for him there.

Thad the black handyman and his wife Missy had not seen Bonnie either, and Mon began walking around in circles thinking to himself about her promising to be ready for him when he was no longer married, and now he could not find her. " I know she is waiting somewhere and I will find her," Mon vowed to himself.

Mon's wife had just died and the funeral was only a few hours past. His wife Sadie had been an only child like Mon, and the two had married 25 years ago. They were raised close to each other and their parents had more or less imposed the marriage on them when they were 18. The union had joined the property of the two families, creating quite an estate; the only one at the end of a mile long road. They had grown to love each other (to a point) over the years, but Mon had gone nuts over a blonde hired Blue eyed beauty at the New Truck Stop and Restaurant.

Mon had never felt this way about a woman before, and could hardly contain himself when around her. Her name was Bonnie, the Head waitress at the restaurant, and she loved to play the video poker machines when she wasn't on duty. Mon bankrolled her at the machines and if she lost would usually make her a present of several dollars, some times a couple of hundred so she wouldn't feel so bad.

Mon drooled over her from the time she first came to work. She had a boy friend, and they were planning on getting married as soon as they could get enough money in the bank to not start off married life in debt. Mon knew about the boy friend but thought he might be able to buy Her love. Therefore he was always buying her gifts and giving her money. Once he wrote Her a check for five thousand dollars for a birthday gift. He also gave her a new car because her old one was worn out. She took the gifts, because she and her boyfriend decided to get as much from the old man as possible.

On the pretense that he wanted her approval on the finished project, Mon got Bonnie to meet him down by a lake to see a project He had built. There he asked her for some sexual favors and she made it very clear that she would have nothing to do with married men. " As long as you have a wife I will not have anything to do with you other than be your friend,” Bonnie insisted. Mon took this to mean that if he had no wife she would marry him.

Thad the handyman overheard the conversation and threatened Mon with going to Sadie with the information so Mon agreed to give Thad some money to keep him quiet. Thad had his wife keep a careful record of these meetings and hid the record in a safe place so they could use it on Mon when they needed his help or a favor should anything happen to Sadie. They planned great things should anything happen to Sadie. Mon decided that the best thing that could happen would be for Sadie to have an accident so he could collect a lot of money on her insurance. First, he tried sawing the top stair step almost in two but Sadie caught on the stair rail and only broke her leg. Mon decided the best way to get rid of her was to uncover an old abandoned water well in the back yard and camouflage it so she might fall in and then he would put the metal cover over the well and just let her be until after a day or two, then find her after it was too late. After about two weeks of trying (unsuccessfully) to get Sadie to fall in the well, he overheard some truck drivers in the video poker room mention a "Hit Man" in the "City". He engaged the drivers in enough conversation to find out how to locate this man. For ten thousand dollars the "Hit Man" furnished Mon with some tasteless poison he could put in Sadie's coffee and food to gradually kill her. No doctor would be able to detect the poison even with a close physical examination. There would be no autopsy because their two children were not close to Mon and Sadie because the way they treated them as youngsters. Mon decided since Thad knew about Bonnie he would get his help in getting rid of Sadie. Sadie always looked down on the two blacks and mistreated them so Mon felt they would help. He was right, but for payment, Thad insisted on being included in Mon's will leaving Thad half of his property, the house Thad and Missy lived in, plus ten thousand dollars cash

The poison finally took its toll. Mon decided to save on the funeral expenses by hauling the body to the funeral home to be cremated. Cremation would certainly destroy all evidence of the poison in Sadie's body. Thad drove the truck, and hit a hole in the road jarring Sadie back to life. Mon chewed Thad out, and told him he would drive next time. A week later Sadie passed away again. This time she did not wake up on the trip to town. After the funeral, Mon raced to the restaurant to get Bonnie. But Bonnie was long gone. When she and her boy friend heard about the death of Mon's wife, they decided their cash register was about as full as it was going to get. They hit the road and did not tell anyone where they were going.

Mon lost his cool, jumped in his pickup and headed home. He raced around the house weeping for Bonnie and fell into the abandoned well he had so carefully prepared for Sadie. The handyman and His wife knew what happened, but pretended that Mon had gone somewhere, When people asked about Mon they would just say, "we reckon he is looking for his darling Bonnie". Eventually, when Mon and Sadie's children asked about their father, Thad offered to buy their half of the property. The children were happy to take the money and get back to their own homes.

Life went on. Bonnie and her new husband had a fine family, good life, and a lovely home purchased largely using the "Diggings" money they had gotten from Mon. Thad and Missy grew old on their new land, and old Mon just lay at the bottom of the well for eternity.