Eye for an Eye

By D.B. Riley

Eye for an Eye is a compelling story about life and death. The main character, Austin Bennett, loses his wife and daughter in a tragic accident. Two lives were lost and other lives were forever changed. Austin Bennett struggles with his desire for vengeance all the while dealing with his own problems with PTSD. He soon realizes that he is not alone. There are legions of others that have suffered a loss. The characters are as real as the many issues themselves. Each are faced with the challenge of living by faith, even in the midst of tragedy. The story is as riveting as it is real. It is guaranteed to pull at your heart and encourage you to evaluate your own faith walk. This book is a must read for anyone that has suffered the loss of a loved one and could be crucial in helping them find peace and purpose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 17, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452093826

D.B. Riley

D.B. Riley is the author of two Christian fiction novels, Eye For An Eye and Abel. He is currently working on his third novel, Tobias. D.B. served as an officer in the U.S. Army and is a graduate of The Divinity School, Duke University, where he earned a Masters of Religious Education. He completed his doctoral studies in the field of Adult Education at North Carolina State University. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, in the funeral industry, as a hospital chaplain and as a metal sculptor. His life experiences combined with his own struggle with a debilitating chronic disease have allowed him to fully understand the emotions and circumstances related to suffering and loss. In 2003 he was diagnosed with a chronic disease that has stricken his mobility. With his unwavering faith in Christ and the steadfast love of his wife, he has managed to continue to fight the good fight. It has not always been easy. Having a diseased body does make for times of difficulty. D.B. has had to remind himself more than once that being created in the image of God has nothing to do with his physical body. Drawing from these experiences he continues with his writing where he develops characters, ensuing dialogue and storyline that can be painfully real and joyfully helpful. To find out more about him please visit www.DBRileybooks.com.

Book preview

Chapter One

He could not save him. No matter how hard Austin had tried, he was not able to save his brother’s life. His mother had always asked him to do one simple thing – take care of your little brother. He had failed himself, his mother and ultimately his brother. Jason died at age eleven, much too young.

The doctors said that his bone marrow was a match. But Jason’s body rejected the marrow that Austin donated. The leukemia was too far advanced. Austin watched as the cancer ate away at his little brother’s body much like the ocean waves eroded the sand castle they had built together the summer before.

Austin knew from that time on, that he would be a protector of people. A few years later, though, he failed again. His father, Bodie Bennett, the decorated fighter pilot, suffered a massive heart attack at the age of forty-seven. The numerous flight physicals and check-ups had missed what the doctor’s called a defect of the heart. The only defect that Austin was aware of was that his father had died before telling Austin he was proud of him or that he loved him. Austin knew that his father’s heart was defective, because his father was never able to speak from the heart.

After Jason died, Austin’s father said little of anything. He never spoke to Austin about the illness or death of his little brother. In fact, he never really spoke to Austin at all, unless it was to reprimand him. Austin yearned for his father’s love. All he wanted to hear was just one utterance of love. But he never did. Austin always thought that in his old age his dad would say the things that he longed to hear. But that day would never come. Bodie Bennett carried all of Austin’s hope to the grave.

After college, Austin was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. He would serve his country. He would protect America’s citizens even if they were unaware of it. After three years in the military, Austin was selected to attend Ranger School; it was during this time that he was informed that his mother had been killed in a car wreck. She and the preacher’s wife were leaving choir practice one evening; Austin’s mother, Margaret, was in the passenger seat, while laughing and talking, their car pulled in front of a dump truck. His mother was killed instantly. The preacher’s wife suffered a broken right hip and leg. Austin’s mother, and friend, was dead. He felt that he had somehow failed his family. This was a feeling that he would soon have again…

Chapter Two

For most folks in the Medford Falls community this was nothing other than just another Friday morning but for the Bennett family this day was far from ordinary. This was the day that a baby horse was going to be born. Hanna had been marking the days off on the calendar for nearly a whole year. She had begun to think that this day would never come. For an eleven year old girl, three hundred and twenty-five days seems like a life time. The veterinarian, Dr. Virginia Wesson, had stopped by the day before to check on the status of the eleven year old mare. Hanna had aptly named the mare Miss Jenny. Dr. Wesson was quite certain that Miss Jenny would deliver her foal sometime on Friday.

Dr. Wesson said you could mark your calendar by it and she was right. Today was the day. Over three hundred and twenty-five days had past, and now Miss Jenny, the gentle black and white mare would soon give birth. Miss Jenny was not a particularly large horse, neither was she a very athletic horse, but what she may have lacked in confirmation she more than made up for in character and gentleness. Miss Jenny and Hanna had become fast friends. Hanna was so excited about the pending birth that she could hardly contain herself. Hanna tried to convince her parents that she should just stay home from school for the day.

At breakfast Austin had promised Hanna she could sign out of school early if Miss Jenny delivered. On a small farm, the birth of anything was significant. Hanna had witnessed the birth of goats, watched baby chicks peck their way out of an eggshell, but the birth of a horse was colossal. Austin and Claire wanted their daughter to witness the cycle of birth and death in such a way that she would understand the power of both.

Sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of his farm house, Austin Bennett enjoyed an extra cup of coffee. He had decided to take the day off after meeting with the veterinarian. Dr. Wesson had been doing this for almost thirty years, Austin was confident you could bank on her prediction.

Austin promised to call Claire at work the minute he had any news. Claire had promised to sign Hanna out of school as soon as she was notified. Claire was a charge nurse on the cancer ward at Medford Falls Community Hospital. Hanna was in the sixth grade at Fonder River Elementary. The hospital and school were only about a mile from each other and then just a fifteen-minute drive to their house.

After finishing the cup of coffee, Austin continued to sit in the rocker. He enjoyed being able to take his time. With a light breeze blowing it hardly seemed like it was the last week of April. He had put on a sweatshirt because it was chilly outside. South Carolina was known for its hot and humid spring and summers. Today, though, seemed like an exception. The last two nights the temperature had fallen into the forties and the afternoon high was in the sixties.

The high wispy clouds were evidence of rain that was on the way. The forecasters were calling for rain to set in today. A low pressure system was moving through Mississippi and Alabama pulling moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and was scheduled to reach South Carolina tomorrow. The rain would last a couple of days due to a high pressure system that had moved up the Atlantic Coast and stalled along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The two systems would bump into each other allowing the rain to set in. Dr. Wesson said that inevitably the mare will pick the crummiest weather to have the baby. Austin was hoping that Miss Jenny would have the foal before the rain started.

Austin and Claire had purchased the house and twenty three acres six years ago. The house had originally been owned by Dr. Arnold Ross who had been a surgeon at Medford Falls Community Hospital. The property had a two acre pond, six stall barn and two fenced pastures. With mature trees and well established pastures, it was a sanctuary for Austin and Claire. They lovingly referred to it as the farm. From the front porch Austin could see both the pond and the pasture where Miss Jenny and the two quarter horses were.

Sitting in the rocker Austin listened to the birds fuss over seed at the feeder in Claire’s flower garden. A woodpecker tapped the bark on the large white oak that grew between the house and the barn. Two crows cackled back and forth from the tops of the old loblolly pine trees that bordered the vegetable garden. A great blue heron had landed on the far pond bank. Austin watched the bird as it slowly began its stalk for a morning meal. Watching the heron sneak along the pond bank Austin’s mind drifted back to days of service in the Army, where Austin was an infantry officer. He was both a graduate of Ranger school and Sniper school. The last five years of service he was the leader of a Special Forces Fire Team. After thirteen years of service, he had decided to accept an Honorable Discharge and try his hand at civilian life. When asked why he didn’t stay in and retire, Austin responded by saying that he got out because he wanted to spend more time with Claire and Hanna. This was the public story, but it wasn’t the whole story.

Captain Austin Bennett had been deployed to several combat zones. He had served in South America, and been involved in combat in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan. Austin was a good leader and a good soldier. The Army considered him to be the best of the best. That being the case, the twelve-man Special Forces Fire Team was inserted into a number of hot zones to complete missions that did not make the evening news. All of the business he conducted was classified and confidential.

For reasons unbeknown to him, Austin had begun to have difficulty with dealing with the blood that was on his hands. In his line of work there was no room for second guessing. Doing so would put him and his Fire Team members at risk. He had seen this happen with other Special Forces soldiers, but never thought it would happen to him. He figured the birth of Hanna had much to do with it. Having a daughter really put things into a different perspective for him. His little angel, Hanna, caused him to really re-evaluate everything about himself and his position and purpose in the world. He now felt compelled to protect her and Claire and perhaps leave the business of protecting the American public to someone else.

Austin had nine clean kills as a sniper and three times that as a Fire Team leader. He quit counting at thirty-eight. Counting meant that you had to remember, and he was tying to forget. He had previously thought about the killing as just part of the job – although an ugly part. It was, he figured, a necessary evil. If he did not do it then somebody else would. Freedom came at a cost. The sum paid was not in silver or gold, it was paid with lead and blood. For years he was okay with the cost that had to be paid, but now he was beginning to have some difficulty with all of it. The Army did not want to lose someone with Austin’s skill set. He was offered an instructors position at Fort Bragg, but he declined. He had decided that it was time to focus on his family full-time.

Now that he was out of the Army he did not have to shoot at anybody or worry about being shot at. There was no more killing to be done by his hands. No more blood to be spilled. He did not have to smell the stench of death. He figured that the past was the past. He reckoned that when he signed his discharge paper work that he would leave all of the gory combat memories behind. He was wrong. The memories of the shots fired and the faces of those killed now ricocheted back and forth through his mind. He had tried to compartmentalize those memories, but it did not work. He could not put the memories into little boxes and just file them away. Every once in a while the demons would creep out and stomp about in his mind. All it took was one thing to set them into motion. It could be a sight, sound, smell or any otherwise ordinary thing to cause his memory bank to rupture. This morning it was the sight of the heron patiently stalking and waiting for its prey.

Claire had encouraged Austin to talk about the many things that he held secret in his own mind. Austin told her that it wasn’t that simple. The missions that he had completed and the blood on his hands had silently grown into demons that haunted his own mind. He felt that talking about them would only give them more room to stomp about.

Claire suggested that Austin go and talk to the pastor of their church. Austin trusted and admired Reverend Ben Thomas as a clergyman and friend, but he did not think that he had either the experience or the stomach to help with the demons. Austin could not imagine how Reverend Thomas would react to the stories about how he accumulated such blood stained hands. Claire told Austin that if he did not feel comfortable with talking to Reverend Thomas then he should find somebody else.

He knew that Claire loved him and was only trying to help. He also knew that until he agreed to talk to somebody, she would not let up. So as any husband with an ounce of common sense would do, he made an appointment to see someone. The end result was that Austin was diagnosed with PTSD. It came as no surprise to him; he knew all along what it would be. With the line of work that he had been in it was pretty much a given that he would eventually have some sort of disorder. He was prescribed a pill to take twice a day and encouraged to see a therapist twice a month. Austin did not see how a small white pill would erase all of the blood on his hands. And he could not imagine how a therapist, who had never worn a uniform or seen combat, could help him in safely letting the demons out. He agreed to meet Claire halfway; he would take the pill twice a day, but would forgo the talk therapy.

As the heron plucked a fish from the water, Austin was compelled by the splash to pull his thoughts back to the moment. As he watched the heron he noticed that a Canadian goose was swimming in the pond. He and Claire were just talking about the geese the day before. For the last three years a pair of geese had nested on the pond. But today he only saw one goose. It swam around the pond and eventually took rest at the foot of one of the large cypress trees that grew out of the water. At the base of the tree there was a grassy mound that had proved to be a successful nesting site for the geese.

Austin was curious about why the goose was alone. He thought that he heard Claire say that geese, and maybe doves and swans, mated for life. She had been referring to her bird book each time she saw a new visitor at her feeders. She wanted to learn all she could about the birds that were local to their property. The geese were no exception: she read all she could about them.

Austin watched the goose swim about and wondered if the other goose was just late in making the trip or perhaps it had died or been killed; maybe it was lost. In the past, the geese always flew in together. They were loud. Honking back and forth it was easy to tell that the geese had arrived. But today, this goose was silent. There was no honking. What if this goose was now without a mate? What would it do? Austin remembered that he told Claire that he must be part goose because he would be her mate for life. He chuckled when he said it, but she knew he was serious. What would Austin do if he was without Claire? He could not imagine the notion of being alone. He watched the goose preen its feathers and he felt almost sick to his stomach. Poor Hanna would not have the pleasure of watching the goslings swim about this year. He did not know why he was thinking the worse case scenario for the goose. Who knows, he thought, the other goose is probably just fine.

Remembering that the mare was expected to foal, Austin stepped off the porch and made his way to the barn. The barn was composed of wood planking that had faded from tan to a weathered gray. With three stalls and a tack room on each side, the barn had a drive through middle with a hay loft and tack room above. Claire and Austin thought they needed to keep the mare in a stall, but Dr. Wesson told them it was best to let her have full-run of the pasture. She said, Miss Jenny will probably wonder off to the far corner or on the back side of the barn to deliver her foal. Just keep an eye out and call me if you need to. Otherwise, I will stop by sometime over the weekend.

The two quarter horses, Jack and Rex, met Austin at the barn. Being only four years old, the two horses were not only curious, but rambunctious. A passerby would easily confuse one horse for the other. They were both chestnut in color with a white blaze on their faces. Jack had two white stockings; one on each foreleg, whereas Rex had stockings on all four feet. Rex’s mane fell to the right and Jack’s fell to the left. Both Jack and Rex lifted their heads above the five-foot high wooden fence and sought Austin’s attention.

Austin and Claire had purchased the two horses just after they were weaned from their mothers. Jack and Rex were half brothers. They had different mothers but the same father. They were born a week apart. Each horse had been trained to be well mannered when under saddle. Austin and Claire used the horses for trail riding. Claire only rode the horses occasionally, while Austin on the other hand really enjoyed taking care of and riding the horses. Of the two, Austin seemed to favor Rex more than Jack. Jack was too laid back. He did not want to do anything but walk, and you had to spur him on just to do that. On many afternoons, Austin would ride Rex around the property bare back and use a lead rope tied to a halter. Jack ignored the fact that Austin and Rex were gone. He would spend the alone time lying down in the pasture sleeping. The only time Jack seemed to get excited was when it is time to be fed.

Austin noticed that Miss Jenny was in the far corner of the pasture standing under the shade of an oak tree. As of yet, there was no sign of birth. A light mist began to fall. The wispy clouds had given way to heavy clouds with white tops and flat grey bottoms.

While at the barn, Austin decided to brush Jack and Rex. One at a time, he brought the horses out and tied them to the stall fence as he brushed them. The two young quarter horses seemed to enjoy the attention just as much, if not more, than Austin did. Austin always took the extra time to brush the horses completely and check them for cuts and other injuries. Jack and Rex pushed, pulled, and kicked one another as they wrestled and played. Although they were just having fun, once in a while one horse would get injured.

As Austin was putting Rex back in the pasture the barn phone rang. With his hands still grimy with dirt and sweat, he answered the phone. It was Claire checking to see if there was any news yet. Austin assured her that he would call her when there was. After he hung the phone up, he smiled at how excited Claire was. Austin realized that he, too, was very excited about the notion of a horse being born on the farm. With Claire working on the cancer ward, she had seen her share of death. Austin had seen more than his own share of killing. The idea of a new life meant a lot to each of them. Neither Austin nor Claire’s excitement could match how excited Hanna was. Aside from marking the calendar each day she had read about how to take care of a foal. Austin and Claire had promised Hanna that the foal would be her horse – her responsibility. Hanna was more excited than any Christmas she could remember.

Chapter Three

As promised, Austin called Claire at the hospital. At twelve-thirty Miss Jenny gave birth to a beautiful little foal in the far corner of the pasture. The foal was all legs. It stood on its own, stumbled to find its footing and then found the mother’s milk.

Congratulations, you are a Grandmother, Austin said.

Oh honey, that is great news. Is everybody okay? How is Miss Jenny doing? Claire asked.

Everybody is just fine, honey. I’ll see you in a few minutes.

Austin could tell by his wife’s voice that she was excited. In fact, he didn’t know who would be more excited, Claire or Hanna. Either way, Austin, too, was happy, but for reasons he could not readily explain. For Claire, the animals on the farm were a great relief from the stress and agony of the cancer ward. She had been a nurse for many years now and could not imagine being anything else. All the same, their farm had become her sanctuary with its gentle pace of night and day, and birth and death.

While waiting for Claire and Hanna to arrive, Austin enjoyed another cup of coffee. He had put Miss Jenny and the new foal in a stall by themselves. The two quarter horses stood with their necks craning to get a glimpse of the baby horse. They knew far better than to mess with Miss Jenny. All she had to do is lay her ears back and gesture in their direction then they would take leave from their station. Although she was not a dominant horse by nature, she had learned that a motherly bite on the haunch, or a swift kick was sometimes needed to keep the two young geldings in line.

Austin had called the university to remind them that he was off today, but would remain on-call for the weekend. He really enjoyed the job that he was entrusted to do. He had been the director of campus security for nearly five years, and he taught one course per semester in the Department of History. The farm offered him a sense of peace that he had never before known.

While serving active duty in the Army as a combat officer, peace was never to be found. In his line of work he was always on guard, on point, or on the move. Early on the Army deemed him a fast-burner. He was good, if not excellent, at everything he did. As a result, he and others like him were culled out for special training and special duty assignments. At some point and time Austin realized that he was shooting real bullets at real people for causes which he did not understand. Each mission he led was just another op-order. The killing that he did was just part and parcel of those op-orders. Although his mission was not always to kill it seemed that killing was evermore becoming part of each mission. Killing from afar, with a rocket, mortar, or heavy artillery was sterile and easy to do. Killing up close with a handgun, knife or hands was anything but sterile. His unit operated in the realm of close combat. Therefore the blood, groans, and the smell of death were very real. He had stopped counting because counting required you to remember, and he was now hoping to forget. The farm with its slow and natural cadence seemed to offer a healing of the horrid conflict that lived in his memory.

When Claire signed Hanna out of school, Hanna’s eyes were as big as goose eggs. Hanna bombarded her mother with a flurry of questions. Claire responded by saying, We’ll simply have to wait until we get home and see for ourselves. With excitement and determination, Claire turned the Subaru toward home.

With Claire being a nurse, and Austin having been a Special Forces officer for thirteen years, they had both seen more than their share of suffering and death. When shopping for cars, they had agreed that safety would be the top priority. The Subaru Outback station wagon more than fit the bill. It was nimble, fast, and held a five star safety rating. According to the literature the driver and the passengers were, in effect, protected by both airbags and a steel cage.

Chapter Four

The obstetrician said that it was not all that uncommon. One out of ten thousand women were diagnosed with the condition. Not to worry though, surgery had proven to be effective in rectifying the condition. Endometriosis was the diagnosis. It was a fancy word for the heart breaking news that Claire and Austin were not going to be parents. Both had been tested and they were indeed fertile