MEMOIRS of a god {In the Beginnings}

By James Buckner

Have you ever asked yourself “Why is the world this way?” and then thought “If I had the power, I would do things differently.” Take a moment to imagine...”what would I do if you were a god?” A god with near infinite power to create and destroy whatever they might consider. We cannot discount the multiple written and archaeological evidences which document unexplained and omnipotent powers given to mankind throughout our history. Mighty kings with wisdom beyond explanation; men who bring down fire from heaven, part the seas, and rise to the heavens. These accounts are common histories from many civilizations accounting the existence of gods among men. What would you do and beyond just imagining the power, would your actions truly change things?

MEMOIRS OF A god is written and told through the eyes of Deena Simmons. A young lady who finds herself married to such a man. Her husband, SD Ballister, is a successful businessman who is suddenly given all the powers of a god. Deena recounts the joys and struggles they experience while learning how to wield such power. Together they discover how simple changes to the world around us can result in unintended consequences; and, as her husband grows more confident with his powers, realize the complex interlinking of creation, destruction, love, anger and the power to effortlessly do almost anything with a simple thought.

MEMOIRS OF A god reveals that our world and human interactions are far more complicated than we might imagine. This first book in the series covers the initial trials Ballister experiences as a god, his growing reliance on the human connection to Deena, and explores how any of us might be influenced by our individual emotion and prejudices. Through Deena’s memoirs, we discover that being a god with the ability to do absolutely anything, may not be all we imagine.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Buckner
• Release date: Sep 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301471256

James Buckner

Mr. Buckner, a Tennessee native, has a BSE in Electrical Engineering and a MBA from the University of Tennessee. He is the CEO of a small business focused on global programs tied to water and energy and he is an active, commercially rated helicopter pilot who flies often. He has transitioned his love for aviation into directing aviation programs at one of the largest logistics and contingency planning companies in the world. On regular basis, his work moves him through the Middle East and Central Africa. Years of travel have exposed him to many cultures and religious beliefs. These experiences motivated him to more deeply consider the ties we have to our individual beliefs and the struggles that all people share when considering how God does or does not interact with mankind. The question addressed in his first book of the series opens the concept of what would any person do if they were a god? How would they learn? How would individual experience and beliefs affect the decisions one would make. Would they be selfish or work to better the world that we live in? The book also explores the various scenarios and possible unintended consequences resulting from individual decisions. When one truly contemplates the complexities associated with change, the results may not be as one might expect. A husband of thirty-five years, parent and grandfather, he also interlaces the series with the lessons of love, loss, happiness, and responsibility he has experienced in his life. Mr. Buckner loves to fly, experience the gifts of this world, and imagine how things could be different. In his book, he intermingles real life experience with boundless imagination to explore what would we anyone might do if they were a god.

Book preview

Preface

Have you ever asked yourself Why is the world this way? and then thought If I were king, I would do things differently. We imagine superheroes and revel in stories of mythological or extraterrestrial beings which come to save our planet from the evils of the universe. In contrast to the blatantly fictional stories, we cannot discount the multiple written and archeological evidences which document unexplained and omnipotent powers given to mankind throughout our history. Mighty kings with wisdom beyond explanation; men who bring down fire from heaven, part the seas, and rise to the heavens leaving histories from many civilizations which account the existence of gods among men.

MEMOIRS OF A god is written and told through the eyes of Deena Simmons. A young lady who through a series of circumstances eventually finds herself married to such a man. Her eventual husband, SD Ballister, is a successful businessman who is suddenly given all the powers of a god. Deena recounts the joys and struggles they experience while learning how to wield such power. Together they discover how simple changes to the world around us can result in unintended consequences; and, as her husband grows more confident with his powers, realize the complex interlinking of creation, destruction, love, anger and the power to effortlessly do almost anything with a simple thought.

MEMOIRS OF A god reveals that our world and human interactions are far more complicated than we might imagine. This first book in the series covers the initial trials Ballister experiences as a god, his growing reliance on Deena, and explores how any of us might be influenced by our individual emotion and prejudices. Through Deena’s memoirs, we discover that being a god with the ability to do absolutely anything differently, may not be all we imagine.

MEMOIRS OF A god

{In the Beginnings}

Table of Contents

Prologue

Part I

Chapter 1: The New Boss

Chapter 2: The Trip

Chapter 3: Fresh Strawberries

Chapter 4: Revelation

Chapter 5: The Making of a God

Chapter 6: Bond, James Bond

Chapter 7: Hell on Earth

Part II

Chapter 8: Morning Breath

Chapter 9: Blue Heart

Chapter 10: The Day the Sun Stood Still

Chapter 11: Pain of Truth

Chapter 12: The Round Table

Chapter 13: What’s the Plan

Chapter 14: Till Death Do Us Part

Part III

Chapter 15: Things to Do For I Do

Chapter 16: Ground Shaking Events

Chapter 17: King of the World

Chapter 18: Mr. President

Chapter 19: Kryptonite

Chapter 20: Improvisation

Part IV

Chapter 21: Silence in the Hall

Chapter 22: So She Has Spoken

Chapter 23: Time to Return

Chapter 24: Moving Rainbows

Chapter 25: Into the Storm

Chapter 26: Joyful Consequences

Chapter 27: Straight to Dessert

Prologue

I was a skeptic when it came to belief in God. I believed there was some higher power, but like most of my friends, belief in an omnipotent, loving, and all powerful God was a little hard to accept given the unrelenting twenty-four hour world-wide coverage on war, poverty, death and murder. It was hard for me to believe in a God who would let the world be such a sad and evil place. Unless we are in an election season or dealing with the latest sex scandal, the news of the day will include a healthy portion of updates on war and terrorism in the name of god. What do they fight about? Whose god is God and which interpretation of the ancient text is the correct interpretation, so that we all understand why those who pray facing north must kill those who pray facing south? How serious can a person be about religion when we actually have a Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? It seems that no matter where you live in the world or how peaceful and forgiving the doctrine you study claims as its foundation, you still stand a chance of ending up dead when you cross beliefs with the god fearing people of an opposing fanatical doctrine. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t then and I don’t now, believe in evolution and I’m not an atheist. Regardless of what I did believe, or for that matter still believe, I am now certain beyond any question there are higher infinite powers which none of us finite-minded humans will ever understand.

The history of the world talks of gods and God. I actually enjoyed a teenage fascination with the hunky Greek gods. I might venture so far as to speculate that most people have at least wondered about what it would be like to hold such powers; to control the elements or to be able to make people obey their will. What would we, what would you do if you were a god? What would you do if you knew a god? Would you find a faith, become a believer or change the belief you had? I became a believer when I met a man who was given the power of a god. Not the God, but a god. Mythology becomes reality, maybe; a still evolving dream, perhaps. Even now I’m not quite sure and neither was he while he was here. Everything I believed changed because of a man I knew who became as a god with power beyond anything modern man has ever witnessed. Even stranger is the fact that every person reading this, and every other human on this planet knew him too. He has been gone from our lives for nearly two years but none who are about to read this story will know he ever existed. He told me on the day he left back to his beginning that I was destined to write this story; the story of a man, who lived a long and full life on this earth and tried to give us all a better place to exist.

I was on a roller coaster of emotion that day. He had just told me that he loved me and was hugging, or rather restraining me because I was so angry, sad, and crying all at the same time. Once I calmed, he handed me an envelope documenting his parting thoughts. He wrote:

"Maybe there are many and there may be another; but gods, more than any human, know there is only the One. Absolute power, and possession without power to create the soul, is absolutely powerless. Power abused brings complete loneliness and desolation to the soul remaining. I challenge man to seek understanding of this simple fact and I elect to leave mankind its power of choice. I am sad for God and for this world as I leave it today. I can do better; I will try again."

He then took my hand; pulled me back into his arms and held me close for a long time. We cried. He kissed me, told me he loved me today, and would love me again through all the yesterdays. I begged him not to go. He was still holding my hand, looking into my eyes as he faded away. I was back at the beginning, standing alone in the living room of his house where we had begun the journey five years prior. Alone with the memories of the only man I’ll ever love. This is the story of a man who became a god.

Part I

Chapter 1: The New Boss

It had been almost a decade since the first time I laid eyes on him in 2000. There was something about him from the very first time we met and I was instantly attracted to him. Partially because I respected him as my boss, but more because he was one of those men who just commanded respect when he walked into the room. He was my textbook example of a commanding leader. It is difficult for me to put it into words, but he was what I had always pictured as a manly man. He possessed a strong personality, towered to six-one in height with mesmerizing dark brown eyes. His hair was cut almost military style; an always very neat high and tight cut which highlighted a hint of silver graying hair on his temples making his hair slightly glimmer in the sunlight. He liked being outdoors which gave him a year round naturally tan complexion. The tan wasn’t one of those preppy or beach boys looking tans, but instead complimented his appearance making him look healthy with just a hint of the rugged outdoorsman. He was born in 1965 and had just turned thirty-five when we first met. Back then he was addicted to the gym and committed to working out no less than four days a week regardless of where he traveled. He was lean, broad shouldered and fixated on staying plus or minus five pounds to a firm and healthy 210 pounds of solid muscle. When he would hug me, it felt like the safest place on earth. He was a full ten inches taller than me and my petite frame fit comfortably in his grasp with my head resting just in the center of his chest. He was a man in every sense of the word. His personality was decisive, confident and not afraid; in the time that I knew him I never saw him back down. To this day I still don’t know all the details of his life as a young man, but of the things he would tell me about, the scar on the back of his left hand came from a knife fight; the small scar on his forehead and just inside his hairline was the result of where some guy he had previously beaten up in a fight came back weeks later and sucker punched him with a pair of brass knuckles. The guy hit him across the head and then ran off into the night from which he had come. In the years after his wife died and we became lovers, I asked about a quarter-sized scar he had on the left cheek of his firmly rounded backside. He would only smile and tell me that one came as I quickly left a gun fight with my knife in hand. From the time I first saw him, there would never be anyone else who could measure up to or pull my attention away from him. I was only 20, still finishing college, still a virgin with no serious man in my life.

It was during 2003, three years after coming to our company when he took over as CEO and I became his personal assistant. Before he became the CEO, his executive office was admittedly a little narcissistic. I recall on one wall hung a picture of him karate chopping through a stack of concrete blocks about three feet thick. Standing behind him in the picture was a wall full of trophies. He said the picture was a great business development and conversation starter. When anyone asked about it, he told a story of how as a child he was a skinny nerd. He came from a poor family and went to a new school nearly every year. Because he was so small, he suffered constant bullying and would walk nearly two miles from his home to one school so he didn’t get beaten up on the bus. When he was nine years old, his mother put him into a Kung Fu class she found near his home so he could learn to fight back. I can’t remember the names and couldn’t pronounce them if I did, but he had black belts in more than one kind of martial art and had been some kind of international heavy weight champion fighter in his late twenties. His passion when I first met him was being a helicopter pilot. His office was filled with little model helicopters and pictures of him flying various places. He was a fanatic about flying helicopters, so much in fact that one of the first things he did when taking over the company was install a helipad for his personal aircraft. He grew up in Appalachian Mountains and the Tennessee Valley and would often reminisce about hunting with his father, scuba diving, camping and being blessed with a life which had allowed him to somehow follow his dreams. He seemed to have done everything and been everywhere. In the time before the incident, I loved to just listen to him talk about the things he had done and places he had been. When he was just a man, I still remember him as the best looking, toughest, most manly man I’d ever met.

At work he was professional and I would best describe his character as that of a southern gentleman…with a threshold. Once I began working directly for him as his personal assistant, it wasn’t long until I learned he was not afraid to get aggressive. My new office was just outside his and I was privy to many high level discussions. As his assistant, he instantly began to pull me into meetings and the very day I took office, I was taken into one of his closed door executive meetings. My awakening to his aggressive alter ego came during that first meeting. It was my first time sitting in on an executive meeting with other senior managers in the company. The discussion was stressful, dealing with the topic of restructuring and leaning out our operations. As the new boss, he was basically telling the management team there was going to be some belt tightening which meant jobs were going to be cut. As the discussion continued, the Vice President of Operations, Mr. Walter Turney, a man with the reputation in our plant as an overbearing bully of a boss, got mad about something our new young CEO had said. I think everyone in the room was surprised when Turney started getting a little loud, and then looking directly at the boss said is this the way you plan to make all the damn decisions in this company? This became my, and everyone else in the room’s single moment of enlightenment regarding our new executive’s temperament. I learned that when aggressively challenged, the boss behaved like one of those silverback gorillas I’d seen on the National Geographic channel. It seemed that before Mr. Turney could inhale after his question, the boss had come to his feet and was around the table at Turney’s chair. His muscular 210 pounds looked more like 300 as he spread wide like a posing body builder. He had on a short sleeved golf shirt and I could see the ripples of muscle in his forearms and biceps as he shadowed over Mr. Turney. At first I thought he was going to hit him, but instead he had put one hand on the table and the other on the back of Turney’s chair. He looked like a boxer staring down an opponent just before a fight. It was scary, but at the same time kind of sexy to me. I thought he was about to kill the guy and apparently everyone else did too because there was absolute silence in the room. Like me, everyone was in shock at how quickly he moved from his chair to Turney’s and no one was quite sure what was about to happen. We all knew he was a fighter. The look on the boss’s face was eerily unemotional but direct. His face was less than a foot from Turney’s and he was staring directly down into his eyes when he began talking to him in a monotone, almost whispered voice which was as frightening as anything I’d ever heard. We are professionals here Mr. Turney. I won’t accept anything less than a professional and courteous tone from anyone who works here including every senior manager; especially in meetings we hold in this company. We don’t raise our voices and we don’t curse one another. I will not now or ever tolerate it in any company which I own. He had raised his voice and stretched out with special emphasis the I in the I own. He then finished with Do we have an understanding on this or is this your last day with my company Mr. Turney? You could see that Turney was contemplating how to react. It was a real Alpha male event and Turney broke from the boss’s stare and looked down toward the table when he said in an ever so passive voice no sir, we don’t have a problem and it won’t happen again. As the boss walked back to his chair, he looked at me and said I apologize for the unprofessional conduct of Mr. Turney, especially in front of a lady. Mr. Turney followed suit immediately with an I’m sorry ma’am, it won’t happen again. Mr. Turney had been there since I started at the company, he was a good boss but old fashioned and that was the first time I had ever heard of him apologizing to anyone. I was a little embarrassed and a little aroused to have become part of the episode when the boss apologized to me. The boss took back his chair and started right back up with the meeting as if nothing had ever happened. From that day forward, everyone in the company knew our new CEO was the man and if conditions were just right, he would go from passive to scary aggressive in an instant…I witnessed it more than once.

The boss’s name was Samuel David Ballister. I think his mom was one of those southern Bible belt moms and gave him that name hoping it would somehow mandate he become a perfect person or religious zealot when he grew up. It didn’t exactly roll off the tongue and I often wondered if that is the reason he was bullied as a kid. Nonetheless, he seemed proud of his name. His business card read Samuel D. Ballister and our company was renamed to SD-Ballister, Inc. He made sure everyone knew he owned the company. Not only the company name changed, but everything from his well-pressed and monogrammed shirts to our company marketing material and logo soon bore the initials SDB; even his helicopter was repainted highlighting the new logo and initials. Mr. Ballister was sir to everyone in the company and most of those who met with him from around the world. From the time he promoted me I felt special, though. I was told to just call him Ballister, without the Mr.

Ballister moved quickly through our corporate ranks and somehow managed to outright acquire our privately held company within the first three years he was there. He was hired as our Chief Operating Officer in 2000 but everyone knew he was the chosen one to take over from our ready to retire company president Old man Ferguson. It was only a year before Ferguson retired and Ballister became the company president. I had been at the company only a couple of years when Ballister was hired. I began working there as a freshman as part of a co-op program. I was shy and somewhat of a nerd myself, focused on career and studies instead of men. I had always been attracted to older men and once Ballister arrived, he became the model of the man I wanted to marry. My friends had come to believe I simply wasn’t interested in men. Truth was I had never really considered myself beautiful, or even attractive. I had such a fear of rejection that it paralyzed me when it came to relationships. Oddly enough, I spent a lot of time creating a checklist for my dream guy. I was looking for that manly man – much like the leading male characters in the historical romance novels I was constantly reading. I quickly became very interested in the new man who checked off all my pick your mate boxes. Ignoring the fact he was nearly fifteen years my elder, there was only one real problem back then; he was married and very faithful to his wife. A shame really, you want a man that will be faithful to his woman, admire a man who is faithful to his wife, but wish such a man would just slip once, leave that relationship, and somehow resume a until death do you part dedication to you. Ballister was clearly dedicated to his wife and I had to simply admire from afar and dream of how it might be between us. With him as my model man and me working so close to him every day, I wasn’t in a hurry or even interested in finding someone else. Work with Ballister, eat, and dream about Ballister, look forward to seeing Ballister at work again… this was primarily my sad little life.

When Ballister first started working here, I was working in Human Resources as an intern. I actually coordinated his interview scheduling for the HR Manager. The day he came to interview, hearing his voice for the first time just outside of my office made me flush. I don’t know why, it was just a deep voice with a hint of his southern accent, but I had to peek out to see the body attached to the voice. I was drawn to it like the innocent virgin being hypnotized by a vampire; captivating me and all the other young girls with his mysterious voice, tantalizing smell (he always had a hint of cologne, not overpowering, but subtly sensual) and then gazing at us with those deep dark hypnotic, bottomless brown eyes. It’s a common story plot for the guy to be speechless at the sight of a beautiful woman, but Ballister had a similar effect on most of the women he met. That first day, I was drawn to the hallway straining to not look like a man hound and to professionally manage myself before the interview. My heart was pounding in my chest so hard I could hear it in my breathing. I clearly recall struggling to remember my name as he extended his hand to introduce himself. Hello, I am Samuel D. Ballister. I understand you will be my handler for the day’s interviews. I only heard handler and my mind had already slipped into oh this guy is hot and I would really like to handle him. Lost in thought, I said nothing. …and your name is? He said smiling down at me.

Deena, Deena Simmons I bashfully said as I could feel my face turning red in embarrassment at my silent lusting and my momentary stupor when he spoke to me. I look back and now know he specifically chose the words and was toying with my mind from the first encounter…my handler for the day. He may have been faithful to his wife, but he was a master in the art of the subtle flirt.

In the days following his interview, I took full advantage of my position to gain access to his personal information. He had an engineering degree from Georgia Tech and had gotten his MBA from Harvard. He had been a senior manager, mostly of technology companies, almost immediately after he graduated Harvard. He had quickly moved into executive management with one of the large global defense companies. He spoke French and his resume listed work in Europe, Asia and Africa. After he was interviewed by Mr. Ferguson and the other owners of the company, I was the one who typed up his initial offer. I couldn’t believe the salary and benefit package they were offering. I wondered if he had used the vampire trance technique on the owners as well because his salary was well above Mr. Ferguson’s and I’d never seen a bonus package so large. It was tied directly to the company’s profits and revenue and even then it was a lot of money. I’m sure looking back, all of his credentials and posted accomplishments were a contributing factor to my early infatuation. I was young, had never been in a serious relationship, and never met a man with such a powerful and intriguing background. He was my man of mystery and the more I learned, the more I wanted him. Most of the men I knew were those met in college who just wanted my body; or at work, were stereotypical co-workers who flirted with me and were either geeked out, immature engineers or old perverts. When it came to Ballister though, let’s just say I purposed to be professionally coquettish. I found myself picking out clothes that highlighted my physical assets and I would always seek Ballister out to make sure he was the benefactor of the look. I never missed an opportunity for simply taking something into his office or upon hearing him in the halls, to suddenly have the need to grab a file and run an errand. He was always kind and polite and seemed to purposely stop what he was doing to look up and make eye contact with me. I knew then how out of my league he was and now recognize how he often played upon my naivety. He would walk up close to my side and look over my shoulder to talk about a file or something; never touching me, but close enough that I could smell him and feel his breath on my neck as he talked. He always smelled good! It would make me weak in the knees and leave me with the raised pulse, sexually aroused warmth in my stomach. In my job as the HR Coordinator, I was charged with educating staff on work place professionalism and sexual harassment. Somehow, Ballister had mastered the art of being totally professional while I, never feeling sexually harassed, always felt sexually aroused. I can look back now and realize he recognized the crush I had on him and he was playing me all along.

I didn’t however realize at the time he was using my infatuation as a periscope into the organization. Whatever he asked, I gladly provided. Not saying that HR staffers are any more curious than others, but we do seem to keep up on what goes on in the company and current on the absolute best quality information regarding what goes on behind closed office doors…HR gets the absolute best gossip! So when he would innocently ask about a particular person or impression of the staff on actions he took, I always had the raw material and the rest of the story.

Everyone was surprised when he when he took over the company. There was a lot of speculation as to whether he kindly bought out the Ferguson’s, who started the company in the 1940’s, or if he leveraged some closely held secret and forced the sale. Whatever it was, he acquired total ownership of the company and transitioned to CEO after being company president only for the short term. Although he had yet to turn forty, most saw the transition as a really good thing for the company, recognizing him as an entrepreneur who had been leading us to growth and new technologies. Our sales were the best they had ever been and we were hiring new people every week. He was smart, shrewd really, but at the same time a very caring man who seemed truly concerned with the people who worked for him. He was considered a religious person and Ballister pushed the limits on what was considered to be politically correct in our work place. It was no secret that he regularly attended church. He was known to be true to the southern Bible belt mentality, no work on Sundays or Wednesday nights. He was rumored to be some kind of deacon or pastor or something. He kept his private life private and I never asked. He did lead like a Christian at work and was intolerant of things like cursing and drinking. I heard him loud and angry at times, but never once did he use foul or inappropriate language. Our production plant had a house cleaning with all inappropriate calendars and posters removed from the plant. While I was still in Human Resources, I recall just after he took over as president having to process a termination he had personally mandated. Apparently when he had been on our production floor, he witnessed one of the workers shouting God damn you at some other employee. When Ballister walked by and heard the argument, he fired the guy on the spot and I heard he went gorilla on the VP of Manufacturing for tolerating such language on the manufacturing floor. It caused quite a stir in the company at the time, and given that we were in an employ-at-will state and he could fire anyone anytime, everyone knew after the incident this was a hot spot for him and the trash talk throughout the plant quickly quieted. Most agreed it made our company a little nicer place to work; it truly did become a more professional place altogether. He also directed that we resume placing a Christmas tree in the front lobby and having a family Christmas party once he gained control of the company. The HR Manager immediately suggested the event name be changed to a holiday party so we didn’t offend our diverse workforce.

I was in my office and the HR Manager was just across the hall in his with Mr. Ballister when I overheard Ballister tell my boss I’m not embarrassed to tell everyone who I am and what I believe and no one is being forced to participate in the event. We, as good people and a good company, will work to support the needs of our employees. I respect their beliefs and all I’m asking is they respect mine. It’s my company; I want a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree or decoration, a Christmas tree in the lobby and a Christmas party for our employees. I think he was nearing gorilla phase when he went on to say Believe what you will, but if you or anyone else want something different than a Christmas party, go buy your own company. Mr. Ballister came out of the office with my boss close behind after the discussion and it was funny to see my boss give me what I can only describe as a he’s a butthole look as he passed by my desk headed out behind the boss, shoulders down, head hung, looking like a scolded child. My boss was a flirty jerk and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself to see him all yes sir Mr. Ballister walking out of our offices.

Then in 2007 things changed. Ballister’s wife died. It was a very sudden thing and not talked about much at work. Everyone loved Mr. Ballister and it was very obvious to all how much it impacted him. No one really knew Mrs. Ballister; she came to the Christmas party and we would see her on rare occasion meet him for lunch or something, but she was not part of the business. Regardless, the entire company seemed to seriously mourn her loss as if she was one of our own. She had ovarian cancer and by the time it was discovered, it was too late. He was gone often during those months and visibly worn down in the weeks before she passed. It doesn’t speak well of me, and I admit my selfishness in occasionally thinking of the possibilities for he and I after she got sick. I didn’t know the lady, but I was jealous of her just because she was his wife. I’m ashamed of it now, but even then I was in love with him. I wanted to go and comfort him and try to make it better for him. He, on the other hand, was removed and distant at work from everyone there including me. The flirt was gone and it actually made me even more jealous that her sickness was taking away the Ballister I knew. When she finally passed, I knew he was very sad, but I felt I could comfort him knowing he had just become a widower without anyone else in his life to be there for him. I shamefully hid ulterior motives; I didn’t bring on her cancer and I was sorry for his loss and her suffering, but now the man of my dreams was available and I was not about to miss the chance to be the next Mrs. Ballister. He would have never left his wife. They married when they were both only eighteen thus had been married for nearly twenty-five years. He was definitely the until death do you part kind of man, but I had my mind set on landing him should something like this ever happen.

I suppose I should have expected he would be a changed person after her death. At first, he was withdrawn and head down into his role as our CEO. He didn’t come to me for comfort, but I didn’t see that he was going to anyone else either. He seemed a little less considerate of others, angry at times and seemed to go gorilla quicker than he had before. Over the years while he was CEO, I met his wife only a couple of times at company events and then only once out of the office when I ran into them at a shopping mall. She seemed to be a nice lady, but they didn’t give the impression of being matched couple. You hear that people began to look like each other after they have been married a long time, but he and his wife were opposites. She looked simple with plain hair, minimal jewelry and retail store clothing. Perhaps it was their religion, but even at the Christmas parties, Mrs. Ballister would be nicely dressed but not the magazine cover, arm candy wife of a Harvard graduated and handsome corporate CEO one would expect. Ballister was nearly always in a suit and tie at work and even at casual company events, he looked so GQ all of the