Porter Brothers' Tragedy: The Untold Story

By Glenn Porter

The Porter brothers, Glenn and Steven, were in their twenties and had their whole lives in front of them.  They found jobs and worked at a business where the wealthy owners had two beautiful daughters. Glenn and Steven pursued these two girls with hopes of marriage. The Porters eventually quit working at the business, and everything turned against them. The two daughters labeled the Porter Brothers as runners, men who run away from the responsibility of marriage, while their rich parents put out a statewide man hunt alert for the state of Maine. The Porters were blacklisted statewide. Their story caught on like wildfire through the rest of Maine. Many people were jealous that they could become rich overnight by marrying these two wealthy daughters. There would be more than one murder attempt on the Porter brothers’ lives in order to prevent them from becoming rich. This is the Porter Brothers’ Tragedy, filled with romance, violence, and stories of torture and disappointed hopes. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685624736

Glenn Porter

As brothers, Glenn and Steven Porter rent a small house together in Maine. They have two cats, Junior and Nina. Nina is Junior’s girlfriend. The Porter Brothers’ Tragedy: The Untold Story is Glenn and Steven’s first book.

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About the Author

As brothers, Glenn and Steven Porter rent a small house together in Maine. They have two cats, Junior and Nina. Nina is Junior’s girlfriend. The Porter Brothers’ Tragedy: The Untold Story is Glenn and Steven’s first book.

Copyright Information ©

Glenn Porter and Steven Porter 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, experiences, and words are the author’s alone.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Porter, Glenn and Porter, Steven

Porter Brothers’ Tragedy

ISBN 9781685624712 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781685624729 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781685624736 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022915857

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

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I

t all started back in early May 1986. My brother, Steven, had gotten out of the air force and was unemployed. I had been laid off at a business where I worked as a building maintenance man. I had a few thousand dollars in the bank, but Steven did not have much money. Our mother was nagging us constantly for rent money. So Steven wanted to look for a job in the Watertown area, working in a department store. It wasn’t really my type of work, but Steven and I applied for a job at a department store.

While we were at the customer service desk, applying for a job, this redheaded woman came walking into the store. She stood on the other side of the customer service desk. She stopped and stood, staring at me. She went into a trance. She started talking to the manager of the store. She handed him a note. She stared at Steven and me a while longer, then she left the desk. The manager said, We are not hiring at the store at this time, but that red-haired woman told me to give you this note in case you did not get hired.

The note had the woman’s name, Annette Marchand, and her telephone number to apply for work. I called the number the next day. I talked to Mrs. Marchand about what kind of work she had to offer. She said that she owned two big boarding homes in Breslow, Maine. I agreed to work for her as a building maintenance man for $5.00 per hour. I would have my pay increased to $5.50 per hour after one month as long as everything worked out fine. She decided to have me start out working at her private home. I would be painting and planting different types of plants. There was a lot of work to be done there.

On the way to work on my first day, I noticed there was a sign at the end of Sunshine Avenue, which was where the Marchands lived. The sign said Sunshine Avenue, Sunny County Living. I thought to myself, Wow, there must be some really nice people who live on this road. I hoped things would work out good for me on this job.

Mrs. Marchand was quite nice to me. She gave me a lot of coffee breaks. While having coffee breaks with Mrs. Marchand, we became friends. She told me a lot about herself. She said that she had a dream about me the night before the day she met me at the department store. She said that she knew that she was going to meet me soon and hire me soon because all her dreams about the future always come true. She asked me if I had a girlfriend. I told her that where I came from, most of the women were as homely as cave women. All the good-looking girls were already taken and were few and far between.

She had four high school graduation pictures of her four daughters on the wall. She asked me which one of her four daughters I thought was the most attractive. She advised me that her two older daughters were already married, one of them to the past owner of Cleves Restaurant in Watertown. The other daughter was married to a lawyer named Derek Bouchard, who was the family lawyer. I told her, of her two younger daughters, I think Sally was the best-looking. Mrs. Marchand had a pinched-ass look on her face, like somebody was pinching her ass. She did not like my answer for some reason. She said that she was surprised. She thought I would’ve chosen her youngest daughter, Kerry.

Mrs. Marchand told me that she was very well connected to the police department and the court system. She said that she had two brothers-in-law who were cops. One of them looked like Mike Ditka, the football coach of the Chicago Bears. The other one was a very tall, big, strong man. She said that she had a sister who was a judge; she also said she had a brother, Sidney Morrissette, who was a very successful businessman. Sidney made a killing on selling housing complexes out in Dallas, Texas, recently. He also owned a construction business in Breslow, Maine. He was a very smart businessman.

She said that sometimes she went in on business deals with Sidney. She made a lot of money that way. Mrs. Marchand talked a lot about her daughter Kerry. Kerry was her youngest-born daughter. Mrs. Marchand and her husband decided to spoil Kerry. Kerry had lived with her parents till just recently. Kerry had a friend named Donna, who was a bad influence on Kerry. Donna told Kerry, If you are more than eighteen years old and you are not going to college, you should not be living with your parents. Kerry was twenty-one at that time. Mrs. Marchand said that she and her husband didn’t love each other and having Kerry live with them gave them somebody to love.

Kerry was on an allowance program. She did not have to work as long as she lived at her parents’ home. Kerry had never worked a day in her life. Kerry’s parents planned all their meals around what Kerry wanted to eat. They went places that Kerry wanted to go. Their whole lives revolved around making Kerry happy.

Donna talked Kerry into moving out of her parents’ house. Kerry had to go to work for the first time in her life. Kerry’s parents cut her allowance back to a lot lower amount as blackmail to punish Kerry for moving out. On the day that Kerry moved out, her parents looked at each other as Kerry shut the front door of their house for the last time. They felt emptiness. Mr. and Mrs. Marchand did not love each other. The person who held their marriage together was gone. They were both in a state of shock and felt great pain. Even though they did not love each other, they held each other and cried for a long time. They could not stand the pain of Kerry moving out.

There was no love in the Marchand family as far as marriages go. But Mr. and Mrs. Marchand did love all four of their daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Marchand had an open marriage. So did their two daughters, Tonya and Candace. The Marchands taught their daughters that money is everything. You cannot count on people; they will always let you down. When that happens, you can always look at your bankbook to comfort you. Money is your best friend and is always there for you when you need it. They said there is no such thing as love. When two people get married, they will be bored with each other within the first year of marriage, probably more like the first month. They will need to have an open marriage; the sex life with your husband will become too boring. Drinking alcohol was a big part of the Marchands’ lives. Mrs. Marchand told me that her favorite TV show was Dallas and that she never missed an episode.

I used to drink booze quite often when I was a teenager and to my early twenties. I got into some fistfights with some of the toughest guys in Waldo County. I never lost a fight. I always fought clean, I never hit a man when he was down, and I never kicked anybody. I always considered kicking as something girls do. I never was a troublemaker or fought with anybody for bragging rights. I never started any fights. I just finished them.

I got into a series of fights that were unbelievable, almost as good as heavyweight championship fights. I won them all. I thought I was the great white hope at that time. My hands were lightning-quick. My opponents could not even see my punches coming, ft was a blur to them. When I hit a man who weighed 180 to 200 pounds, he would usually fly ten feet through the air. I usually only fought when I was drinking. I was voted by most of the young people in Waldo County as Bare-Fisted Champion of Waldo County—the best there ever was. I never said that myself.

There were still a couple of guys in Waldo County who were a few years older than me. When I was thirteen, I admired these guys. I watched them get into some hellish fistfights. I only fought with guys who started trouble with me. But those guys fought for prestige, ft was just a matter of time before they started trouble with me. They needed to find out once and for all who was the best in Waldo County.

My mother was an alcoholic. I lived with my parents when I was twenty-one. My mother forced me to stop drinking because she could not have any booze in the house. I told my mother, I do not want to stop drinking. What about my heavyweight fighting career? Everybody in Waldo County, as far as the young people go, will be let-down if I stop now. There was one guy I was just getting ready to fight it out with, ft was going to be one hell of a fight. This guy was about five feet eleven inches and weighed about 250 pounds, so instead of drinking beer before this fight, I was going to have to drink hard stuff.

This guy had attacked my brother Steven recently when Steven was too drunk to fight. He beat Steven really bad. Actually, there were two guys who ganged up on Steven. One of the guys involved I had already talked to. I tried to get into a fight with him. He declined to fight with me and backed down. The other guy involved most likely would not back down. I asked my mother, Don’t you want me to beat the hell out of this guy for what he did to Steven?

She said, No, you’re going to stop drinking, and your fighting career is over. You’re better off to go out on top. You already know nobody can take you. You don’t have to prove anything. You’re done fighting. She said, Sooner or later, there will be somebody who does not like you that does not dare to get into a fair fight with you. So they will probably shoot you in the back. She said, You need to stop fighting now. This is a really rough, lawless county. You’re probably going to end up dead.

So that was it. I stopped drinking. I did not have any more fights. All of Waldo County was disappointed. There were very few fights after that between other young people in Waldo County trying to make a name for themselves. They stopped fighting when I did. I was the top prize they all wanted. The other fights were just to work their way up to me. I have to admit, I never started any trouble. But when I was young and drinking, I was always glad when trouble found me. I truly enjoyed beating the shit out of people who started trouble with me, and I fought with some really tough guys. I loved the challenge of going into a fight not knowing how the fight was going to turn out.

After I stopped drinking, I started going to church to try to find some happiness. But I stopped going after a while because I could not stop smoking. I went to different Pentecostal Churches. I developed a sort of Pentecostal way of thinking. But I still would beat the shit out of a man if it were necessary. I did not believe in turning the other cheek.

When I went to work for the Marchands, I was twenty-six years old. I wanted to meet a girl someday who was really nice-looking, with a nice body and was also a really nice person. I preferred to wait till after I was married to have sex. I hardly ever swore. There was quite a difference between the Marchands’ way of thinking and mine. They swore a lot, and I didn’t. They didn’t like it that I didn’t swear enough for them.

Anyway, back to the Marchand story. Mrs. Marchand told me that Kerry’s friend Donna put peer pressure on Kerry to get a boyfriend. Kerry was a virgin. Donna told Kerry she should be ashamed of herself for being a virgin. She urged Kerry to get a boyfriend and start having sex. Kerry met a guy at scuba diving school. His name was Paul Gosline. Paul asked Kerry out for a date. She went out with him. They went to Kerry’s parents’ house, and they practiced diving in her parents’ swimming pool. Paul used sympathy to try to get Kerry to have sex with him. He told her his father had a heart attack recently and he has to take a lot of heart pills. He said his father might die. Then he broke down and cried. Kerry cried too. She held him, and they cried it out together.

Mrs. Marchand told me that she and her husband were sixty years old. She would like her husband to semi-retire from running the boarding homes and maybe within two years completely retire. She said that when she hired me, she had planned on me being the assistant manager of the boarding homes and eventually be the manager of these two boarding homes.

Mrs. Marchand told me that she and her husband did not love each other. She would like to take her nest egg that her parents had given her when they died and move to Dallas, Texas. The winters are warmer in Texas. There were not very many people in Texas who knew her private business. She had a few relatives out there. She would like to move to Texas with some younger man, maybe around twenty-five, who would provide her with better sex than her husband did. She said she and her husband had discussed divorce many times. She had offered to let him have the two boarding homes and this private home, plus all the money in their joint savings account that they had accumulated during their married life, plus let him keep his car. Her nest egg was worth more than all these things combined.

Vern did not know how much money their nest egg was worth. He tried to get her to tell him every day how much money it was. Her husband, Vern, thought the nest egg was worth more than what he could get out of the divorce. He wanted all that she had offered plus part of her nest egg. She did not want to give him any of his nest egg. It was her parents’ money that had been handed down from one generation to the next. Vern had married her for her money. They never did love each other. She said Vern never would’ve amounted to anything if he had not married her. He never worked much during their married life. He came from a poor family. He was a very lazy person.

My brother Steven had recently got two part-time jobs in Watertown. He worked one job at a restaurant as a breakfast cook. He had another job at a supermarket stocking shelves. He was doing very well on both jobs. He was treated quite well by the managers of both stores.

Mrs. Marchand asked me how my brother Steven was doing and if he had found a job yet. I told her about his two part-time jobs. She said her nephew was the assistant manager of the supermarket where my brother worked. She also said that she was very good friends with the owner and manager of the restaurant where Steven worked. She knew many people who worked and ate at that restaurant. She ate there quite often herself.

Steven had worked at these two part-time jobs for about three months. Things were going very well on both jobs. But after Mrs. Marchand found out where Steven was working, things went bad quickly. In the next few days, the assistant manager at the supermarket started treating Steven really bad. Steven worked stocking shelves. All the other shelf Stockers moved like slugs while working. Steven had been working a pretty good pace stocking shelves. The assistant manager told Steven that he was going to have to start working at a faster pace while stocking the shelves. He gave Steven a brief example of how fast he wanted Steven’s hands to be moving. He moved his hands as fast as he possibly could move them. He told Steven he expected Steven to work that pace all day long. Steven was being singled out and harassed by the assistant manager while all the other stocking clerks worked like slugs.

Mrs. Marchand had put her nephew up to treating Steven badly so Steven would quit that job. She wanted Steven work for her. Meanwhile, when Steven went to his next shift at the restaurant in Watertown, the owner of the business told Steven his cooking was great. The customers were very satisfied with his cooking. The waitresses were very happy because they were getting big tips on Steven’s cooking. He said he wanted to increase Steven’s hours from twenty hours per week up to full-time forty hours per week starting Monday morning. Steven went to work at the supermarket Saturday. He told the manager about his hours being increased at the restaurant. He offered to give the supermarket a two-week notice to quit. The manager said that would not be necessary.

Monday morning, Steven went to work at the restaurant in Watertown. He went to the time clock to punch in. He looked at his work schedule for that week. He saw that his hours had been cut to ten hours per week. Steven talked to the kitchen manager about his hours being cut. He told Steven, Your cooking is not good enough. You will get no raise or have your hours increased. If you don’t like it, you can quit. So this was a small taste of what it was like being screwed over by the Marchands and what superrich people would do to get their own way. That explained why the manager of the supermarket did not accept Steven’s two-week notice to quit. He did not want Steven to come back there to work. We believe he knew that Steven was going to get screwed over at the restaurant Monday morning.

We knew Mrs. Marchand had forced Steven to work for her at the boarding homes. But we did not quite know why. I told Steven about Kerry Marchand. I told Steven that maybe Mrs. Marchand forced him to work at the boarding homes so he could meet Kerry. Maybe Mrs. Marchand wanted Steven to marry Kerry. I said I was not quite sure what the hell was going on there. But I hope that Mrs. Marchand did not force Steven to work for her with the idea that she divorces her husband and get Steven to run off to Dallas, Texas, with her. Steven would never go along with that. I told Steven that if the Marchands liked to play games, they came to the right guy. I just loved playing games. We would play this game long enough to find out what Mrs. Marchand’s intentions were. If she tried to get Steven to have sex with her, we would both quit our jobs at the boarding homes. We would go back to poverty-stricken Waldo County to try to find a job. We haven’t got anything to lose. We would play this game out with these rich people.

Steven hoped to meet Kerry Marchand and possibly someday date her. Steven had about the same dating experience I had, which was he had never had a girlfriend in his life. He thought it would be nice to have Kerry as his beautiful girlfriend and maybe even get married to her. I told Steven I was more interested in Sally Marchand. Maybe we could end up double-dating these girls.

I told Mrs. Marchand the next day that Steven was ready to start working for her now, and I asked when he could start working at the boarding homes. She said immediately, and she had a great big smile on her face. So we realized it was game on. But we did not quite understand what the game was. We hoped that Mrs. Marchand wanted to marry off her two daughters, Sally and Kerry, to Steven and me and we all lived happily ever after.

During the summer of ‘86, I was working in the Marchands’ garage, doing some painting. A small green car pulled into the driveway. I was standing on a ladder. When I saw how beautiful the girl was when she got out of the car, I almost fell off the ladder because I got too involved looking at her body. She walked up to me with a great big smile on her face. She asked me if I knew if her mother was home. I had a hard time talking for a second. I was pretty choked up. I eventually told her Yes, she is home. She told me that she was Mrs. Marchand’s daughter Sally. I went into a trance, admiring how beautiful she was. She was beautiful enough to be a model. She was the most beautiful girl that I had ever met. I was looking at her rear end when she was entering the house. She looked back at me and caught me. She had a great big smile on her face. When she left the house to go home, she walked by me again. She had a great big smile on her face. She smiled all the way to her car. I thought to myself, Holy smokes. She is beautiful. What a body perfect. I wondered if I could have any chance of getting married to her.

I had gone to trade school in Northern Maine, when I was eighteen years old. I took auto body as my major. About 90 percent of the students on campus were French. The most beautiful girl on campus with a body that would not quit was Joyce Levesque. I was sitting in the TV room at the college dorm. There was a guy talking about Joyce and her fiancé. This guy was best friends with Joyce’s fiancé. He said when the fiancé kissed Joyce, if he got carried away and tried to get fresh with her, Joyce would start crying and slap his hands. She told him to stop and ran away crying. Joyce did not believe in letting guys get fresh or have sex with her until after she was married. Joyce was French and Catholic. I thought all nice Catholic girls are that way. I thought the Catholic religion did not believe in premarital sex. I thought that Sally Marchand, being French and Catholic, probably thought the same way herself. I was thinking about the difference in religion. I was not Catholic. I had no intention of turning Catholic, ft would be like selling my soul joining some religion I did not believe in. I hoped that if I did get married to Sally, the Marchands would not expect me to turn Catholic.

The next coffee break I had with Mrs. Marchand, I asked her if Sally had a boyfriend. She said no. She had a guy that she went out with as a friend from time to time. I did not really like her having a male friend, but there was nothing I could do about it at that time.

After the first month of working for Mrs. Marchand at her home, she told me that it was time for me to start working at her two boarding homes. I would be making repairs as needed and doing a lot of painting. She said her husband would be helping me make repairs from time to time. I was pretty nervous about it. I didn’t know any of the people who worked there. But I made friends quick and fit in at the boarding homes. I became very good friends with the head cook, Lucy Lasselle. I talked to her quite often. She was married and was around forty. She told me that her husband owned his own landfill company. He sold gravel, loam, etc. He made good money, but he did not satisfy her sexually because he had a bad back. He couldn’t put much into having sex.

I thought to myself, You’re a really nice-looking woman. I am twenty-six years old, and my sex drive is extremely high. But there is no way in hell that I am going to have sex with a married woman. I was not trying to be better than anybody else. I was just trying to keep my ass out of hell for committing adultery.

There was another cook, Shelly Corson, who worked at the boarding home. I got along pretty good with her as a friend. She was married and around thirty. Her husband was physically disabled. She had the same problem that Lucy had.

There was an evening cook named Mary Ann. She was Mr. Marchand’s girlfriend. She and Mr. Marchand had sex daily up in a bed on the third floor of the boarding home. There were no tenants on the third floor. She was trying to get Mr. Marchand to leave his wife and marry her. She was after his money. She was playing a game that she could not win. Mr. Marchand was a user. He had no intentions of leaving his wife for Mary Ann. She did not come from money, and that was Mr. Marchand’s true love. Mary Ann had other men flirting with her. There was one married man who came in to visit his father quite often at the boarding home. He always went overboard flirting with her. She flirted back. I found it sickening. Mary Ann was a gold-digging whore. Being Vern’s girlfriend, she felt that she could treat people like she owned the boarding homes. She started giving people orders. There was nothing you could do about it. Vern would back her up. I did not like her at all. Mrs. Marchand liked me a lot as a person. She was the one who hired me. Mrs. Marchand told her husband what to do. She had the final word on everything because he married her for her money. I didn’t pay much attention to Mary Ann. I took my orders from Mrs. Marchand.

There was another woman named Maybel, who worked the late afternoon shift. She was a pretty good woman. She was in her sixties. I got along pretty good with her.

There was one tenant at the boarding home named Bernadette Gilbert. She was about seventy. She had the highest sex drive of any woman I ever met. All she wanted to talk about was sex.

The Marchands owned another boarding home on Clearview Street, ft was a big building but not quite or big as the one on Montgomery Street. The two buildings were located not very far apart, maybe one hundred feet. Clearview was located behind the big boarding home.

There was a man named Moe Gordon, who lived at Clearview. He had a high-paying job when he was younger. He got into an accident and split his head open. He sued for one hell of a settlement. Moe was a multimillionaire. When Moe wanted something, he always got it. He had a steady flow of girlfriends that he had sex with. They tried to use him to get money out of him. Moe was nobody’s fool. He would send them packing if they started asking for too much. Moe could have been part owner of the Clearview Boarding Home if he wanted to. But he declined it. Moe liked to keep Clearview in top-notch condition. He had a whole new metal roof and all new siding put on Clearview but had no legal claim to the building. The Marchands used Moe. They let him pay for all these major renovations and never paid him back or chipped in. Most people tried to use Moe for his money. But I never had any love of money. I just liked Moe for himself. I became pretty good friends with Moe.

Moe had a tremendous knowledge on baseball. He loved the Red Sox, and so did I. Mr. Marchand loved them too. All three of us watched every single Red Sox game for the season on TV. I spent a lot of time at Clearview, painting, making repairs, etc. Mr. Marchand used to come over at 9:00 a.m. coffee break. The three of us used to talk sports. Moe had never been to Fenway Park. So he asked us how we would like free tickets to see the Red Sox. Let’s take a trip to Boston. Mr. Marchand would supply the luxury car and drive. So we took a trip to Boston.

The year 1986 was a very big year to the Red Sox. They had a great chance to win the World Series. Roger Clemens was a rookie that year. He won twenty-four games that season. He was completely awesome, blowing batters away with his high fastball. We went to Boston in September. The pennant race was at a red-hot pace. The fans were hungry for a world championship. They were crazed for another winning game to get one step closer to the playoffs. They played the Minnesota Twins that day. Minnesota had one hell of a good team. Moe and Mr. Marchand drank beer during the game and got a pretty good buzz on. The score was tied. Late in the game, the Red Sox had a close play at home plate. They tried to score the go-ahead run. I jumped up and stood on a piece of cement to see better. When the runner slid into home plate, I swung my arms as hard as I could, making a safe signal.

One of my hands hit Mr. Marchand in the mouth extremely hard. I looked over to Mr. Marchand. I asked him if he was all right. He said, Don’t worry about that. Was the Red Sox runner safe at home?

I said yes. Later he said that it was a good thing he was drinking at the game, or that blow to his mouth could’ve really hurt. The excitement level at Fenway that year was electric. I felt electrified. The electricity at the ball park was so thick you couldn’t cut it with a knife.

Moe drank quite heavy on the ride back to Maine. He was singing 1950s love songs in the backseat all the way home. He had a good time. We all had a good time and were pretty good friends.

There was a woman named Rosita that worked at Clearview as a cook. She was Mr. Marchand’s old girlfriend before Mary Ann. Rosita had recently been dating Moe. It was pretty much Moe would have sex with Rosita, then he would buy her things. But she was only one of Moe’s girlfriends. Moe had about ten to twelve girlfriends going at the same time. Moe had a beautiful wife when he was younger. He went out on her and got caught. She divorced him. She got married to another man over the years. Moe tried to give her money. She would not accept it. Moe had two sons. He tried to give money to his two sons. They would not accept the money. Moe’s ex-wife’s two sons would not talk to him. They blamed him for the divorce. Moe told me that all he thought about every day was having his ex-wife get divorced and remarry him. She was the only woman he ever loved. All the other women that he has had sex with meant nothing to him. Moe used to drink beer every day in his bedroom in the late afternoon. He would stare at a picture of his ex-wife and sing 1950s love songs.

The Marchands tortured their daughter Kerry to move back home. They cut her weekly allowance down to almost nothing. Kerry had to go half on the rent with her friend Donna and pay the electric bill. She also had to buy food. They tried to encourage her to move back into their house rent-free, with no responsibility for bills or buying food. They would restore her allowance back to what it was before she moved out. Kerry wanted an allowance increase larger than what it originally was. The parents gave in and gave Kerry a major allowance raise. The parents did punish Kerry for moving out on them. They made Kerry continue to work at a business in Watertown as a secretary and know the hell of having to work. They told Kerry that she could put the money she earned into the bank and start her own nest egg. They said that at some point in the future, they may let her quit her job and let her relax. She could sleep in every morning until at least eleven.

In September of’86, Kerry moved back into her parents’ house. Kerry had stopped living with her friend Donna. She had moved into her sister Sally’s condo temporarily. Mr. Marchand had me go to Sally’s condo to help him move some of Kerry’s heavy furniture, like a dresser, a big bed, etc., from Sally’s condo back to his house. While we were at Sally’s condo, Sally came home. She was very glad to see me. She was very nice to me. She never stopped smiling the whole time she talked to me. It was obvious she was interested in me and found me to be attractive.

Not too long after Kerry’s moving day, I was back working at the Marchands’ private home. Kerry came home from work. Mr. Marchand, his wife, and I were having a coffee break together in the kitchen. Kerry sat down at the kitchen table. Her parents began to talk about Kerry. Kerry sat in the chair, twirling her hair with her fingers. She did not say anything. Her parents said, You know, Glenn, we will be retiring soon. They planned on giving both of their boarding homes and their private home to Kerry when they retired. They were going to move to a warmer climate. They wanted to see what my reaction to this would be. They were hoping I would say something to get a date with Kerry. Kerry was nice-enough looking, but I was more attracted to her sister Sally. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have love of money and couldn’t be bought. Mr. and Mrs. Marchand became very hurt and offended. Kerry looked quite depressed, so I left the room. I went back to work outside.

So anyway, things were pretty quiet for a while. Steven was asking me why there had been no action with the Marchand sisters lately. I told him, Who knows? They are business minded. They always move slow. Maybe the action will pick up soon.

It was just before Christmas 1986. Mr. Marchand told me there would be a Christmas party for the tenants. The party would be held at the Saint Mark’s School. It was mandatory for all employees to attend this party to help take care of the tenants. He told me that his daughter Sally would also be attending this party. I felt like I had a lightbulb go on in my brain. I figured he must be telling me about Sally because Sally wanted to see me at the party. At first I was excited. But after a couple of days thinking about it, I got nervous. I am an extremely shy person around girls that I find attractive. I never had a girlfriend in my life.

A couple of days later, I went into Mr. Marchand’s office. I told him I would not be going to the party. I was painting in the room next to his office. I went back to that room to paint. I left the door to the room open to let the paint thinner fomes out of the room. I was thinking to myself while I was painting that Sally would probably be very upset when she found out I wouldn’t be going to the party. She was probably hoping to see me at the party. For some strange reason, I broke into a great big smile, thinking about Sally being upset over me.

The little woman Ethyl was a cleaning lady. Ethyl was a company woman and a Marchand snitch. Ethyl walked by the room I was painting in. She saw me painting. She ran into Mr. Marchand’s office and told him, Glenn is painting in the room next to your office. Glenn has a really big smile on his face.

Mr. Marchand told Ethyl that about five minutes ago, I informed him that I would not be going to the tenants’ Christmas party. Ethyl said, Glenn is not depressed that he will not be going to the party. He is standing in the next room with a big smile on his face. Glenn must be playing some kind of a game with you and your family.

Mr. Marchand said, Oh boy, oh boy. He thanked Ethyl for the information. Mr. Marchand thought I decided not to go the party because I wanted to upset his daughter Sally by not showing up and spending time with her. He thought I went into the next room and was laughing about it. So this was the point in the story where the action really picked up and became constant, nonstop action for a lot of years.

I changed my mind at the last second and decided to go to the tenants’ party. Steven and I went to Mrs. Marchand’s house to pick up Christmas presents for the tenants. I drove my 1964 Chevy pickup to the Marchands’ house. The truck was red and had ‘60 series tires on the rear. The truck was in mint condition. As we went into the Marchands’ house, Kerry was sitting in the living room with her boyfriend Paul Gosline. Steven was dressed up in the best clothes that he owned. He had a red sports jacket on and a green-and-white scarf around his neck. Steven stood looking at Kerry with a great big smile on his face. He looked as innocent as a teddy bear. Kerry looked at Steven. She broke into a great big smile herself. Paul saw this. His mouth fell open with a state of shock on his face. So Steven teddy-beared Kerry.

Mrs. Marchand told Steven to drive her luxury car over to the Saint Mark’s School and drop the presents off then go back to the boarding home and start shuttling the tenants from the boarding home to the school in her car. Steven dropped the presents off. I waited for Steven over at the boarding home. I wanted Steven to give me a firsthand report on what Sally was doing and if she was at the party. I was thinking about getting the guts up to go to the party. I thought about sitting and talking to Sally at the party. When Steven came back to the boarding home, he told me that Sally had brought some guy with her to the party. He was sitting and talking with her. I told Steven, It is probably that Danny Gagne friend of hers. I said, What if Sally has been having sex with Danny Gagne before she met me?

Steven said, I don’t think you have too much to worry about. He acts like a homosexual.

I said, You never know. Danny might be at least a bisexual and has been having sex with Sally.

Steven said he doubted it. I was really pissed off. I got into my ’64 Chevy that I could get unbelievable rubber with. I stopped in front of the boarding home. I wound the motor up for everything it was worth. I popped the clutch and burned about two hundred feet of rubber with it. I drove eighty to one hundred miles per hour all the way home. I jumped into my bed, and I cried. I wanted to get married to a beautiful virgin. I thought maybe Danny Gagne had been having sex with Sally and the dream was over. But I was wrong. We were just getting started. Steven said that when he came home later that night, Danny Gagne acted as much like a girl as Sally did. He crossed his legs like a woman, and he talked like a homosexual. Sally got up from her chair to walk around the room. She talked to the tenants. Danny Gagne paid no attention to Sally at all. Any other guy would be looking at Sally’s ass if they were normal and on a date with Sally. Danny Gagne had no sexual interest in Sally at all. Sally introduced him to everybody at the party as a friend.

I had brought Sally a Christmas present, a cassette tape of Olivia Newton John’s Greatest Hits Volume 2. Sally looked a lot like Olivia and was just as good-looking. I had my own copy of this tape, and I had been listening to it. I had planned to give Sally this tape when I got the guts up to take it to her.

Mrs. Marchand told me that I would start training to be the assistant manager real soon. I told my father about this, thinking he would be happy for me. I told him how beautiful Sally was and I hoped to get married to her. My father’s face turned beet red with jealousy. He did not want me to have a higher-paying job than he had and have a beautiful wife. So every night for the next two weeks, he would ask me if I had started training for the assistant manager’s job yet. I said no each night. After two weeks, he told me, These people must be playing games with you. They are stringing you along, making you think you will get a raise after you start the office job. He did not believe I would ever have that job. He asked me if I had seen this Sally lately. I said no. So he ran his smart mouth to me. If you like this girl so much, why don’t you call her up and ask her if you can come up and talk to her?

I said it would be a lot easier if I could drink a few beers then call her up. He said, Your mother will allow any drinking in this house. If you are going to be doing any drinking, it will not be here. He kept smart-mouthing me so much that I called Sally up while I was pissed off. I asked her if I could go up and visit her for a little while. She said yes. I put some pretty good clothes on. I drove my truck one hundred miles per hour all the way to Breslow. I was so excited. Sally lived in a condo in Breslow. When I pulled into the yard, I could see her sitting in a rocking chair. She was rocking in the chair extremely fast. She looked very nervous. I knocked on the door. I could hear her talking to herself behind the door, saying, It’s okay. We are only going to talk. She let me in. We went into the living room and talked. Sally said, I thought that Jackson was quite a ways from here. How did you get here so fast?

I told her I sped a little bit. We talked about things like how I liked working at the boarding home and if her parents were treating me good. She asked me if I had a girlfriend. I said, No, over where I came from, the average woman looks like a cavewoman. All the good-looking ones are already taken.

Sally said, I’m surprised. Most guys would want to have a girlfriend. They would go out with some girl less attractive to get them by.

I said, I do not want use anybody. I don’t want to go out with a girl unless I find her to be attractive.

She asked me if I ever thought about marriage. I could not control myself. I had a big smile on my face. She broke into a big smile too. I said yes. I did not stay very long after that. I got nervous. I needed to smoke a cigarette. I didn’t want to smoke in her condo. As I got ready to leave, I handed her the Olivia tape for a Christmas present. I had wrapped it in little snowmen Christmas paper. I stared at the little snowman, thinking Sally would probably like them. I handed the cassette tape to her. She started to shake uncontrollably from head to toe. Her whole body was shaking. I thought she wanted me to kiss her. I was too shy to kiss her without drinking any booze. I could not get the guts up to kiss her. I walked toward the door. She asked me to stay. She said we could have tea and talk. I was so nervous I had to leave.

I have a lot of guts when it comes to fighting a man or being in a life-threatening situation like chasing down trespassers during hunting season and being in a possible gunfight. But when it comes to attractive girls, it’s a different story. I do not have a shy bone in my body when I am drinking. But my mother would not allow it.

I went over to Mr. Marchand’s house that night after I left Sally’s condo. There had been a lot of tension between us the last two weeks. We had been friends before I showed interest in Sally. I wanted to become friends with him again. He and his wife were not home. Kerry and Paul were there alone. They answered the door together. Their clothes were all messed up. Paul’s hair was all screwed up. I figured I probably interrupted them when they were making out or having sex. Kerry told me her parents were not home, so I left.

Monday morning I went to work. I went into Mr. Marchand’s office to get my work orders for the day. He said that he was aware that I was at his house Saturday night and asked to talk to him. I said yes. He said, Do you own a .22 pistol?

I said, No, but my mother owns two of them. Do you want to borrow one or something?

He said he found a .22 bullet in his kitchen. So he gave me my orders, and I left the room. I guess he thought maybe I came to his house to shoot him for interfering in my interest in Sally. Anyway, the Marchands were completely wrong about me again as usual. About three days later, Mr. Marchand told me that he thought he found out where the .22 bullet came from. Kerry and Paul ordered pizza that night. When the pizza guy made change, he dropped something on the floor. Paul thought it might have been a piece of change. He did not pay attention what he dropped.

I was working for Mrs. Marchand one day. She told me that she did not like Kerry’s friend Paul at all. He came to their home for Thanksgiving. He tracked mud from his work boots all the way across her freshly washed kitchen floor, all the way through the dining room, and all the way to her carpeted living room to where he sat in a big stuffed chair. When she saw what he had done, she blew her top. Her Thanksgiving had been ruined. He didn’t even help her clean up the mess. He sat in the chair with a bored look on his face, like it is women’s works to clean the house. She said she would never allow Kerry to marry Paul. He did not come from money. She thought he was just after the family’s money. If he would have conducted himself differently, she might have considered letting Kerry marry Paul. But it was too late for him now.

Steven was trying to find out more about Kerry. He wanted to find out how serious her relationship with Paul was and whether she was having sex with Paul or not. If her relationship with Paul was serious, he was not going to interfere and ask Kerry out for a date. Steven called Mrs. Marchand. He asked her what kind of a girl Kerry was. She said that Kerry was very timid. Kerry had a friend named Paul that she went out with. Mrs. Marchand said she did not like Paul at all. She told Steven of the muddy-boots Thanksgiving story. She said Kerry and Paul met at a scuba diving class. She said Kerry was a very nice girl and was very timid. So the way that Steven took it, if Kerry was having sex with Paul, how could she still be shy and timid? Steven assumed, seeing Mrs. Marchand called Paul a friend of Kerry and Kerry was still very shy and timid, that Paul must not be having sex with Kerry.

Steven called Kerry at the business where she worked as a secretary. Steven asked her how her relationship with Paul was going. Kerry said she met Paul at scuba diving classes. He was nice to her. He talked to her a lot at classes. They became friends. They started eating together in restaurants. Then they started going out together frequently. Steven asked her, Do you love this guy?

Kerry said, What’s love got to do with anything?

Steven said, If you have been dating him for six months and do not love him by now, you’re never going to.

Kerry had a fit and hung the phone up.

A few days later, Steven called Kerry again at her job. He said, It’s nice to hear your little baby talking voice again.

Kerry said, Yes.

Steven said, Has your father thrown the garbage out yet?

Kerry said, What do you mean?

Steven said, What I mean is, the next time Paul comes to your parents’ house to see you, has your father grabbed Paul by the cuff of his shirt and also grabbed him by his belt on the seat of his pants and throw Paul’s ass out the front door and tell Paul to never come back again?

Kerry had a fit. She said, You make me so mad. She hung up on Steven.

I went to work Monday morning at the boarding home. Mr. Marchand told me that he had spotted some garbage at his private home this weekend. He just wanted to let me know he had thrown the garbage out.

Steven decided this would be a good time to call Kerry again. So he did. Steven said, It’s nice to hear your sweet voice again. When do you want to start going steady?

She let out a big sigh and hung up.

Kerry’s officer uncle Goucher came to the boarding home a few days later. He served a legal warning on Steven to forbid Steven from having any type of contact by telephone, letters, etc., for the next six months with Kerry. If Steven went past the legal warning, contacting Kerry, he would be having a count summons put on him shortly after.

I was working at the boarding home one day. A blizzard snowstorm came up. I could not drive the forty miles back to Jackson. So I had a choice of spending the night on the third floor of the boarding home. I would have to sleep in the same bed that Mr. Marchand and Mary Ann had sex in daily or spend the night at my grandmother’s. My grandmother lived in Watertown. I had not seen her for a year and a half or so. I went to my grandmother’s and asked her if I could spend the night. She said I could. Granny was really pissed off at me. Steven had been living with her for a few months. My mother had kicked Steven out of her house because she caught Steven drinking whiskey in her living room. My father drove Steven to Granny’s apartment. He told Steven, Do not ask to move back home. You broke the rules and drank alcohol under your mother’s roof.

While living with Granny, Steven would drive Granny around shopping for food and lug her groceries into the house. He would take her to doctors’ appointments, etc. I talked my parents into letting Steven move back in. I talked Steven into moving back home. Granny chewed my ass out for being a troublemaker and talking Steven into moving out. She had a good thing going having Steven drive her around. She did not care that Steven could not hunt or fish while living in Watertown. Granny was more wrapped up in her own happiness. I was wound up out of my mind, crazy over Sally Marchand. I talked to Granny about Sally, how beautiful she was, and I thought she was a virgin, also how the Marchands wanted me to be assistant manager and run the boarding homes for them.

Granny said, If they own two boarding homes that big, then they must be rich.

I said, They probably are, but I am not after their family’s money. I just want Sally. She is the most beautiful girl I have ever met. I told Granny about Kerry and that Steven liked her. He hoped to start going out with Kerry and maybe even marry her. Granny asked me exactly where these two boarding homes were located. I told her. After I talked to Granny for a while about Sally and Kerry, Granny said that she was a poor person. I shouldn’t be there telling her about those two rich girls that Steven and I had a chance with. She said, If you two boys ever get married to these girls, don’t ever bring them over here. I have no interest in meeting them. She said, Don’t bother to come here unless you want to give me some kind of presents. It really sucked Granny had to be that way.

Granny rode a public transportation bus around Watertown and Breslow. She paid close attention to what tenants got on and off the bus at Marchands’ boarding homes. After a few days, Granny sat beside Bernadette Gilbert on the bus. Bernadette was Mr. Marchand’s top agent and spy. She watched everything that Steven and I did. She filed reports daily to Mr. Marchand. Granny asked Bernadette if she knew Glenn Porter. She said yes. Granny told Bernadette that I was lazy and didn’t do much to help my father around the house. Steven did all the hard work to help our father out. She said that I had told her that he hoped to marry Mr. Marchand’s daughter Sally Marchand and run the boarding homes. Granny said, If I was Mr. Marchand, I would not let Glenn marry my daughter. Granny said that Mr. Marchand should find some way to fire me and get rid of me as soon as possible.

Bernadette said, It is hard to believe Glenn is not a good worker. He works very hard around the boarding homes.

Granny said, Glenn is putting on a good show. Glenn will show his true colors and show the Marchands how lazy he is after he gets married to Sally, if that happens.

Bernadette got off the bus and walked as fast as she could to get into the boarding home. She wanted to report to Mr. Marchand. Bernadette looked back at the bus. Granny had a great big smile on her face.

A couple of days later, Mr. Marchand told me in his office that one of my relatives had said some very bad things to Bernadette about me. He said he didn’t believe everything that he heard. He said, This is a terrible thing when your own grandmother tries to ruin your life. That is the way it is when there is money involved. He told me to get used to it. It probably wouldn’t be the last time.

Just for the record, what Granny told Bernadette was a bunch of shit. I worked my ass off helping my parents out. Granny was just trying to screw me over because she did not want me to be rich. She blamed me for talking Steven into moving back to Jackson. She was stuck with nobody to cart her around in a car and lug her groceries for her. So Granny decided what she told Bernadette would be my punishment for talking Steven into moving out.

The next day, I was talking to Bernadette. She told me everything that Granny had said to her. She said that Mr. Marchand did not believe what my grandmother said. He thinks your grandmother is jealous because you might come into some money.

I did not sleep very well after my first interview with Sally at her condo. I was too excited about Sally’s question if I ever thought about marriage. I figured she wanted to get married to me. I averaged four hours’ sleep per night for two weeks. I was about half dead from exhaustion. I had to work eight hours per day at the boarding home. I had to force myself to go back to Sally’s condo for a second interview. My shyness problem was terrible. I had to tell myself that I would drive to the end of her road and possibly go see her. If I chickened out, I would just keep going and go to work for her parents. I had to see her to try to find some mental peace and make some progress toward getting her to be my girlfriend.

When I got to the end of her driveway, I grit my teeth together and forced myself to go to her condo. I pulled into her driveway, thinking, No guts, no glory, no girlfriend. If I wanted a girlfriend and possibly wife, I was going to have to be the pursuer. I knocked on her door at 7:50 a.m. and woke her up. She was pretty crabby about being woken up. She had taken a day off