A Hideous Power

I asked him if he had ,had enough. He started screaming at me. It almost looked like he was foaming at the mouth. I called out to him and told him to leave before the sheriff arrived. Of course, I knew that he couldn't leave.

I called the sheriff and he, as well as the volunteer fire department were on their way. The sheriff arrived in about eight minutes and the fire department within half an hour. When the sheriff got there Brian was still standing there with a burning bottle in his now badly burned hand.

The sheriff ordered him to drop the bottle, as he was saying that he couldn't I let the bottle drop. Unfortunately it landed on a rock and shattered. Brian was engulfed in flames but the sheriff was able to quickly put it out with the extinguisher in his squad car. Brian still had third degree burns on one arm and both legs. It wasn't life threatening but it was painful.

After they took Brian away the sheriff and fire chief came into the house and I played the video for them. They had no explanation for Brain's seemingly irrational behavior and I wasn't about to educate them.

The next morning I opened a channel to determine how Brian's common law wife was taking this. I was surprised to find that she was thankful. She had found herself in almost the same difficult place as Eleanor had been. We did what we could to help her get things together after her husband's arrest. She was grateful.

I had my lawyer work on getting a judgment against Brian so that she became the owner of the property. She has been a good neighbor and we have helped her out as we could.

As for Brian, he was convicted of attempted arson and two counts of attempted murder. The judge, who had known Brian for decades, threw the book at him. The sentences were set to run consecutively. In about thirty years he will be up for parole. In the meantime my wife and I are happily married and she still has no idea that I am other than a very lucky man who loves her.