fred and mary had been happily married for 30 years
until fred got laid off at the automobile manufacturing factory
when the plant relocated to mexico for cheaper labor.
fred was in his fifties and had no other marketable skills
than assembling parts of cars coming off the assembly line
no one could pay him anything near the money had made
at the automobile manufacturing factory
mary went to work at a large retail discount store
to help with the finances and get away from fred
who had become so depressed and miserable
that their marriage was beginning to fall apart
the manager of the store took an interest in pretty mary
paying her lavish compliments that mary began to like
soon she was in an affair with him and felt some guilt
but not enough to stop seeing him in seedy motels
a mentally broken fred found out about the affair
when a friend called him and told him about it
while mary was at work flirting with her boss
fred grabbed his AR-15 rifle and jumped in his car
he drove 80 miles an hour to the discount store
he passed a patrol car that raced after him
he forgot about killing mary and her boss
drove off a bridge into a lake’s deep waters
when the police and the divers brought his car
out of the dark waters they didn’t find fred in it
they dragged the lake and found his drowned corpse
now people claim they see his ghost at the lake
mary suffered some misfortune after that
her affair with her boss was found out
by the companies corporate headquarters
they fired mary and her boss and they broke up
seven weeks later mary’s boss died unexpectedly
after he had a terrifying nightmare of fred
during a fitful night of difficult sleep
he woke up and died of a massive heart attack
that same night mary had a nightmare of fred
he was as terrifying as demon in it
in the morning when mary woke up
she died of a massive heart attack too
bob boyd