Owen, Kyle and Sam were all from the same small, wealthy, conservative town, Derekville.
The type of town, where everyone knows everyone.
The townfolk might occasionally forget your name, but they will always remember the secrets you are trying to hide.
Owen, Kyle and Sam were all doing fine, not great, but fine.
That’s more than could be expected considering what happened a few years ago.
__
Owen, Kyle and Sam grew up together.
They were in the same classes in kindergarten, elementary school, high school and college.
They were always the smartest, always raising hell and always dedicated to “their heritage.”
They shared the same likes and dislikes, until graduate school where Sam decided to pursue a law degree and Owen and Kyle preferred business.
Sam’s father was the local Sheriff. So, this diversion was not unanticipated.
___
Sam went off to be a lawyer. While Owen and Kyle graduated with distinction and went off to New York City.
They had dreams of making it rich.
And in most places, you could say they succeeded.
This was New York City in the early 2000s.
They made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
And they spent it all.
On rent, clothes, going out and things they didn’t talk about.
Despite all the work, all the money, living the good life - they were broke.
They would return to Derekville for holidays.
They were almost celebrities…the small-town kids that had made it in the Big Apple.
__
Whenever Owen and Kyle returned to Derekville all they could see were opportunities.
They were spending $10,000 per month on their apartment in New York City.
They were spending thousands each month, just going out to clubs.
They could own some of the biggest houses in Derekville and not just go to all of the clubs, but join the most-exclusive country club for less than they had been spending in New York City.
They decided to move home.
__
It all started well.
Owen, Kyle and Sam were back together again.
Owen and Kyle were managing money for some of the most-prominent families in town, albeit much smaller accounts than they anticipated, and Sam was about to be named district attorney.
Owen and Kyle bought nice houses, nice cars and both joined the country club (it was a bit more than either could afford, but they rationalized it as a business expense).
They were doing fine, but not as well as they hoped.
They were managing money from families all across town, but just a fraction of their overall wealth.
A financial pat on the head.
They envisioned better, they wanted better.
Then, they received the call.
___
Collateralized debt obligations.
That’s what the voice one the other end of the line said.
Owen and Kyle were on a conference call with Joe, one of their buddies from their former firm in New York.
The phrase was foreign to Owen and Kyle.
Joe promised subprime mortgage-backed securities offered an opportunity for great returns.
The concept seemed a bit shaky to Owen and Kyle.
With their new client growth a bit stagnant, one of the issues of operating in a small town, they agreed to consider it.
Then, came the card game.
__
Mary and Stan had known each other since they were in diapers and they had been together since everyone in town could remember.
Sam was their only son, but he made friends quickly.
Soon, Mary and Stan were the “neighborhood parents.”
Having cookouts, holding car washes for sports teams and, despite Stan being in law enforcement, most of the kids in town had their first beer at his house.
Tonight was the somewhat-regular card game with Sam, Stan, Owen and Kyle. Mary made more food than they could ever eat, especially with the beers and cigars the boys were having.
It was the typical night and the typical card game, until Sam asked Owen and Kyle about work.
Owen mentioned the high-return opportunity Joe suggested earlier in the day. He intentionally omitted the high risk-element.
Stan had served many years as Sheriff. That was his official title. In a town like Derekville, with so many families, with so much money, his real job was attempting to limit revenge when any family felt wronged.
He was a few years from retirement and, while well off, Stan felt he deserved a bit more than his pension offered for keeping the peace.
After a few questions to Owen, Stan asked what he was really thinking, “if I invested the police pension fund with you how much could you increase it?”
As Owen paused, Kyle firmly stated. “We could triple it before you retire.”
Owen might have been surprised or disagreed.
Regardless, he said nothing.
___
It had been a tumultuous few years since that poker game.
Kyle and Owen had lost almost everything.
Then, came the day.
Kyle, at the country club where his monthly dues were in arrears, had a chat with Cynthia Burmbauch and Jeffrey Wilbaum. They were both members, as their families had been for decades. They also owned an office next to Owen and Kyle, for their interior-design firm.
The highschool sweethearts were about to be married and Kyle suggested as a married couple, he might be able to save them some money, if he could review their finances.
They agreed.
Kyle thought he might be able to reduce some of their costs by a few thousand dollars and get some investment business.
That’s when he went down a rabbit hole that would change Cynthia and Jeffrey’s lives and lead to tragedy.
—
As partners in business, if Cynthia and Jeffrey shifted their compensation, now that they’re getting married, they could save tens of thousands in taxes.
If they sold their houses and cars, they could buy a better car and a bigger house.
That bigger house could also have a business space; replacing their rental office.
The local credit union, considered bourgeoisie by most residents of Derekville, offered a newlywed rate for mortgages and car loans that could save them thousands.
Finally, there was an obscure bylaw at the country club, where if two members married one another their initiation fees would be refunded: an usual dowry. This bylaw was enacted by the club’s founders, whose children married one another, at a time when the initiation fee was $5,000.
When Cynthia and Jeffrey joined, the initiation fee had ballooned to $100,000.
Kyle couldn’t believe the total figure he was saving them.
It was a life-changing amount.
___
Kyle placed a coffee on Owen’s desk.
Then he dropped a stack of papers, and with a bit of a flourish said, “tell me if I’m wrong.”
Owen reviewed the documents and Kyle was right. The savings for Cynthia and Jeffrey could be immense and the fee for the work would get them through the next few months.
It was good news, but the presentation was a bit dramatic.
Owen said, “You’re right. Good job.”
Kyle responded, “Then, why don’t we do it?”
___
I’m not a faggot is rarely a good place to start, but when it’s followed by I’m not a faggot either, where do you start?
Cynthia and Jeffrey’s situation was almost identical to Kyle and Owen’s.
Which is why Kyle suggested they should marry.
Owen pointed out Kyle wasn’t dating anyone and he wasn’t nearly ready to marry Julie, the diner waitress he’d been dating.
That’s when Kyle explained he meant they should marry each other.
Same-sex marriage had just been legalized.
They had lived with each other before.
They could do the same work, with the same costs and go from having a fine life to the great life they’d always imagined.
A better house.
A better car.
No more worrying about paying the bills.
That’s when they traded f-bombs.
___
Date who you want, do what you want, work the same hours and have more money because of a piece of paper.
Kyle wasn’t a lawyer, like Sam, but Owen comprehended a well-made case.
It did not happen overnight, but it did happen.
There were plenty of awkward moments.
The county clerk’s office.
The local credit union.
The country club.
Oh, the country club.
It took awhile, but once it was done Owen and Kyle were closer to the life they’d imagined than ever before.
Then came the consequences.
___
Shirley was the prettiest girl in town and everyone knew it. Her single mom, Agnes, was, no better way to put it, poor. Everyone knew it. She’d worked at the local diner since she was 12-years old. Shirley started at about the same age.
When Owen returned to town he started dating Shirley.
With their “gay marriage” Owen and Kyle had received “side-eyes” from the townies, but nothing worse than the CDO debacle.
What Owen did not anticipate was Shirley.
Or more clearly, Shirley’s anger.
Not just for being the town joke.
She heard the comments, “Shirley’s daughter is dating one of the queer guys.”
Owen was supposed to be the vehicle for her family leaving poverty.
Now, it seemed, that concept was a joke and Shirley was not laughing.
___
The police were no friends of Kyle and Owen, yet they still thought it a bit silly when Shirley called them about an adultery complaint.
But you don’t mess with the best waitress in Derekville. You show up, you are polite and you leave.
Except on this night, with a chance to arrest Owen, they did so. Petty revenge for something that had impacted them all.
There was no expectation it would result in more than a fine and certainly not a death.
___
The poker game.
Because of the poker game and Kyle’s quick response, Sheriff Stan invested the police pension fund in CDO’s.
CDO’s crumbled shortly thereafter.
For a short time, there was a backlash against Kyle and Owen.
Then, most investors in town realized this was not a Kyle and Owen issue.
This wasn’t a Derekville issue.
This was a national issue.
___
The collapse of the CDO’s could have ruined Kyle and Owen.
Since they had limited investments from local families, they created much less harm than other much more established firms.
Those firms lost clients and created enemies.
Kyle and Owen did not.
In fact, they ended up getting a few new clients.
They did make two significant enemies, the Derekville Police Department and their lifelong friend.
___
If a single resident missed Stan’s funeral, you could not tell.
In a town like Derekville, with almost no violent crime, there were whispers.
Why would a Sheriff, a few years from retirement, be out on a call?
Why would it get violent?
There were fewer people at Mary’s funeral a few weeks later.
There was no conspiracy there.
She died of a broken heart.
____
“You cheated on me!”
Kyle thought it was funny.
Owen did as well.
Why was he in jail?
Owen asked, “What is the bail going to cost and what will be the fine?”
They both knew the situation was absurd.
What neither realized was how their business and “marriage” had impacted people.
Their friends thought the latter was funny.
There were others in town that found neither funny.
They wanted to inflict pain, as much as possible.
Those people included the prosecutor and the judge on the case.
___
Sam hadn’t talked to Kyle and Owen since his father’s death.
He knew they were not to blame for his parent’s death.
But he did blame them, for both.
Sam wasn’t much for revenge, although he was not beyond it.
Walking into Judge Murdaugh’s chambers made all lawyers a bit queasy.
The longest-serving judge in the state had a way of making the most-established esquire feel as if they were back in the first days of their internship.
Sam intended to ask for a maximum fine for Owen. He hoped for a compromise.
“Pardon me your honor,” was all he could say to Judge Murdaugh’s response.
“You heard me, I would pursue a punishment to the fullest extent of the law.”
___
“Prison time?” were the only words Kyle could muster.
“That’s what Sam’s pushing for.” said Owen.
“That’s not going to happen. No one would go for that,” said Kyle.
There were two issues:
Owen did commit adultery.
Judge Murdaugh hated “the gays.”
He’d been vocal in his opposition of the state passing the legalization of same-sex marriages.
It took time for the inevitable to set in for Kyle and Owen.
About as long as it took for the case to be adjudicated.
Which made it a bit less of a shock when Murdaugh proudly declared 6 months in prison as Owen’s sentence.
___
That was it.
Owen went to prison for “cheating” on his “husband.”
Not the future he envisioned.
The prison was also not what he envisioned.
He was sent to a “country club” prison.
The food wasn’t worse than college.
The grounds were nice and he got to spend plenty of time outside.
His cell was a decent-sized room, granted with two beds.
He had a roommate.
Even his roommate wasn’t what he expected. He could have been a stand-in for Tyson Beckford.
He wasn’t Tyson. He was Charlie.
___
Back in Derekville, about two hours from the prison, life was going surprisingly well for Kyle.
Regardless of their beliefs, most of the town thought what happened to Owen was wrong.
They provided Kyle personal, and more importantly, financial support.
The credit union, car dealership and even the country club provided a moratorium on payments until Owen was out of prison.
Kyle even landed a few new clients.
He called them sympathy clients, but only used the term with himself and Owen.
He would visit Owen occasionally, but a four-hour round-trip drive made the visits rare.
So, he mostly used the term by himself, as he tossed in bed trying to get some sleep.
How did he end up back in Derekville, with a husband in prison?
There were business and country-club acquaintances, but no friends.
He and Sam hadn’t talked for years. Most everyone in town was married or “old.”
Just wait until Owen gets back.
Things will get better.
That was his mantra for trying to sleep.
___
It’s a conversation you think you would have on day one or shortly thereafter.
Owen and Charlie had been cordial for a few weeks, but it had never come up.
Neither one of them could tell you who asked it.
It was Charlie.
During their nightly after-lights-out chit-chat sessions.
Owen explained he was in prison for adultery.
They both laughed.
As Charlie had a way of doing, he asked the question that changed things.
“Why are you laughing?”
“First of all, two men getting married is ridiculous,” Owen continued. “Plus, everyone knows I’m not a faggot.”
Sometimes silence in the dark seems to make noise.
Finally, Owen asked, “why are you in here?”
Charlie responded, “I killed my husband’s lover.”
The noise continued until they both fell asleep.
___
The “why are you in here” conversation changed the dynamic between Owen and Charlie.
The nightly after-lights-out chit-chat sessions took on much deeper topics.
Homosexuality, does God exist, what are you before you are born and what happens when you die?
Owen had not thought of many of these topics.
He liked it though, like an itch you scratch until it hurts.
He was fine with the pain, until one day when Kyle visited.
His visits had become infrequent.
His message took one of Charlie’s questions out of the realm of the hypothetical.
Sandra, Owen’s mom, had passed.
He could have gotten a release for the funeral.
The son, in prison for cheating on his husband.
Wherever she was, heaven or just 6-feet under, his attendance at her funeral would not honor her.
Kyle sent flowers.
___
Finally,
It was over.
Owen returned to Derekville.
No one had really missed him, except for Kyle.
It all had been less traumatic for Kyle than expected.
In fact, people had been very nice to him, as if he’d been a victim.
The business and his bank account had grown since Owen went away.
It was time to get back to “normal.”
___
Kyle expected Owen to return home and contribute to the business as he had before.
For Owen, nothing felt quite right.
The house, the country club, the car, the business and even the friendship with Kyle.
It was something he needed to talk through.
He wanted an after-lights-out chit-chat session.
___
Kyle noticed it early on.
Owen showing up late to work or not at all.
It was a long drive to the prison.
Owen missed the talks, he wanted the talks.
Kyle missed his best friend.
It was going to come to a head.
Owen was in a fog as a result of the fronts of prison and reality merging.
Kyle decided he had a clear path to everything he’d ever wanted.
__
“Divorce?”
Just a few years before, a concept Kyle and Owen would have found silly.
Now, it was serious.
Kyle offered a 70%-30% split.
He was a “husband” that kept the home and business afloat, while Owen was in prison for adultery.
For many people, that might seem reasonable.
For Owen, it was brain breaking.
Kindergarten, elementary school, high school and college.
NYC, moving back to Derekville, marriage and prison.
They had been in it together.
Now 30%?
Of course he fought it.
And in his last case before retirement, Judge Murdaugh ruled 100% in Kyle’s favor.
___
The only vindication for Owen was Charlie was getting out of prison.
They both agreed, when Charlie was out, they’d go.
To where?
They didn’t know.
There was no wrong answer, except for a town like Derekville.
___
On the day Charlie was released, he was ready to leave.
Owen was as well.
Except, most of his belongings were still at the “the house.”
Kyle had until the end of the month to send them to Owen.
It seemed reasonable when Charlie said, “let’s just get your stuff and leave.”
___
Kyle was at the country club.
Owen still had a key.
They kept most of the lights off as Owen grabbed what he considered essential.
He was surprised how many of his possessions he just didn’t care about anymore.
Charlie and Owen loaded the car and went back into the house.
Owen left the key and took one last look.
Charlie saw sadness in his eyes.
What he didn’t know was the sadness was not due to Owen leaving his lifelong friend, dream house and business. It was because it didn’t bother him that he was doing so.
Regardless, Charlie leaned in and kissed Owen.
___
Owen expected this at some point.
There was stubble.
It was a bit awkward.
He didn’t like it.
Then it got loud.
Then it got wet.
Then it stopped.
Owen took a step back and opened his eyes.
___
All Kyle saw were the silhouettes of two men standing in his house.
So, he shot at them.
No one could blame him.
One of the silhouettes dropped.
One of the silhouettes charged him.
Then it got loud again.
Then there was silence.
___
Kyle’s lawyers were clear.
They believed they could get the charges for killing Charlie dismissed.
Breaking and entering by a convicted murderer.
Killing Owen, those charges were a bit more complex.
Kyle had the house, the car, the country club and the successful business.
Now he was going to lose it all.
He was going to prison for a long time.
Unless.
___
The judge assigned to Kyle’s case was, by Derekville standards, very liberal.
A direction the town had been shifting towards.
The new district attorney, replacing Sam who had gone into private practice, was rather liberal as well.
With the right jury, could all this be rationalized?
A gay man comes home to find his husband, who had already been convicted of adultery, kissing another man.
In what was a combination of self defense and a crime of passion, he shoots them both.
Kyle only heard gay man.
He would have a decision to make.
___
The town courthouse had never been more full.
Everyone settled in.
Charlie’s case had been dismissed.
There was only one case, one thing, one question left.
The judge finally asked, “how do you plead?”
Kyle’s lungs filled with a lifetime of memories.
He replied…
___
Guilty.
###
