It was not so bad. Winter wound down into a cool spring that eased its way into a hot summer with light breezes, heavy thunderstorms, and lush green lawns. The farmers were hopeful for a big harvest come fall. Billy spent the hot months working in their own little backyard garden, their first one, and he found that he enjoyed farming on a much smaller scale. The children, now totaling three with the addition of a baby girl named Donna, kept both he and Marie busy, too.

Marie was ecstatic. The past three years had been rough on her and the kids with Billy traveling every other week only to come home beaten, sore, and tired. He spent days sleeping and often took long hot baths up to two or three times a day. The baths, Doctor Hereford told him, would help with the pain. They did not. When he returne...

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