The Lady and Colonel

By Dr. Viktoria A. Strunk

The Lady and Colonel are two modern-day southerners whose idyllic lives are changed with the building of a new correctional facility in their hometown. These two carefree individuals have to contend with police brutality, serial killers, and porcine indigestion. While the story deals with some rather indelicate issues, the thematic glue reminds the reader that any obstacle can be overcome by sheer determination and grit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499038620

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Coosa County

A labama is known for its genteel Southern ways. People still say sir and ma’am, drink tea so sweet that it makes a northern person’s teeth ache, and they keep family secrets… well, in the family. Generations of family members hold on to land as if it were as dear as the grandmother or grandfather who willed it to them. Coosa County was no different than any other county in Alabama, and Rockbridge no different than any other town. The population of Rockbridge was 381 folks and a couple of redbone hounds that were skeleton thin and nobody’s pets, but now the ever-growing population of the National Correctional Facility, deemed as the largest medium-to-high security prison in the state, had to be added to the census figures. The state had chosen this area because of the expanse of land that had come up for sale after Rolly Parker’s bad real estate investment had left him severely in debt and desperate for quick cash. The residents of the town were not pleased to be getting new neighbors for the first time in over 200 years. And, the two individuals more perturbed than the rest were Colonel Willis and his Lady, the correctional facility’s nearest neighbors. The Colonel and his Lady owned a 250 acre sprawling plantation that had been handed down from generation to generation since the Civil War. The Colonel really wasn’t a colonel, but his great, great, great grandfather had been one, and well, the title stuck. He and his Lady had been very happy living the good life in a three story home that had, like the land, been handed down, and they would happily give it to whichever of their heathen would seem the obvious choice.

The property was really the most beautiful in Rockbridge. The land’s soil was rich in abundant nutrients, and a person could literally grow anything there. The land was gently rolling with a creek that ran through the northwest corner. The trees that grew tall and strong were a gorgeous backdrop to the plantation’s setting. The Colonel was an avid hunter and kept pheasant and grouse on the property. The Lady, however, preferred a more vibrant bird, and there were semi-tame peacocks and peahens that meandered aimlessly through the yard. The only reminder to the closest neighbors that the birds were there was the occasional scream made by these majestic birds that sounded, for lack of better explanation, just like a woman screaming as if she were being murdered.

The Willis clan, though not wealthy by today’s standards, was able to afford such a living that required the services of a cook, nanny, gardener, and a stable boy. The Lady’s sole occupation was to make sure these eccentric individuals took care of their beautiful home while the Colonel was away on one of his many business adventures. It was, indeed, a carefree life until the correctional facility opened and the nefarious Warden Vinnie DeLuca took over. But, that is another story and must be told in due time.

CHAPTER 2

Sister Stephania

W hen the Colonel was away on one of his long journeys, his Lady would find that she longed for company and would often invite her young friend, Stephania, to stay with her and the children. Stephania was, in contrast, everything the Lady was not. Stephania lived in the city, adored her apartment, and was in constant entertainment with various gentleman callers. Her favorite male suitor was a man named Terrelle, a tall plumber who liked to joke about not being like other plumbers because he tried not to have his crack show while he was bending down fixing pipe in rich women’s kitchens. The only bad side to this relationship was that he was a raging alcoholic and would spend weeks without contacting her. Once they were back in bed, they would swear their undying love for each other until his next more noticeable escapade. Then, Stephania would play hard to get with him for several weeks until he kissed and made up, so to speak.

Stephania had adorned her body with various permanent artworks, and the thought of her many detailed tattoos, would send the two ladies into gales of laughter because Stephania’s dead grandmother would roll over in her grave in Little Rockbridge Cemetery at the thought of a lady being tattooed. Sister Steph, as she was known to the Willis clan, worked as a server in a sport’s bar in Mobile and was constantly being harangued by male customers. Granted, the required uniform was a white tank top and a pair of short-shorts, and this garnered much unwanted attention.

Sister Steph admitted to the Lady that there were times when she really didn’t mind the hands that always seemed to find their way to her private area when she was delivering strong brew to the tables of unruly patrons. Steph also freely admitted that when The Lady told her of the long nights of lovemaking with the Colonel that she was living vicariously through them. Sometimes she was so excited by the retelling of their sexual experiences that she would keep one hand between her thighs during the ride back into the city, silently enjoying the feeling of friction. Steph was a beautiful woman with long flowing black hair that draped down just above her waist. She never wore her hair pulled back, though, because she had a terrible scar on the side of her temple that otherwise marred her perfect complexion.

When Sister Steph was about three years old, she had been on