CHAPTER TWO
Beau Camp was married to Martha, his high school sweetheart as some called her; his second true love. His first true love though was Stella O'Rourke, the odd little girl he knew in grade school; the one who could talk to animals and believed in fairies and such things.
Standing five feet ten inches, Beau was slender of build with a slight potbelly. Weak, sickly and of pale skin was how many townsfolk saw him; yet he had a strange inner strength which wasn't apparent to most except Miss Stella. Sporting a thin mustache, short sandy colored hair; yet with a noticeable small bald spot on the back of his elongated head. Nose was large and protruding making his bony chin look even smaller than it actually was. Eyes oval, like an owl's and set close together. Teardrop moles dotted around his neckline with one lone mole protruding low on his left earlobe. His penchant for wearing blue suspenders didn't help improve his disheveled appearance to say the least; always wearing a plain light green striped tie which never seemed appropriate with the dark-blue jacket, matching slacks and worn brown penny loafers.
Beau's forceful mother Maude, a tall horse of a woman didn't take well to Stella, nor to her mother Abigail, the gypsy fortune teller as she called her; may she rest in peace. Mother Maude did everything in her power, which was considerable to make sure Stella and Beau did not become too involved with each other; passionately or otherwise.
Maude took a liking to Martha who was basically a carbon copy of herself; heavy-handed, smug, and an ace at using guilt to get her way. Both women wore their dyed hair tightly pulled back into a bun giving them the outward show of upper-class snobs; wearing the same newer styled, over-the-knees long dresses with black low-heeled pointy-toed shoes. Some facial powder and no lipstick except on formal occasions; yet the powder only seemed to accentuate the peach fuzz around their upper lips and chin areas.
Poor Beau didn't have much of a say in things; just went along with whatever he was told by these two overbearing women who dominated his lowly existence.
They decided when it was time to marry, what house to buy and what line of work Beau should take up. Beau was to follow in his father's footsteps and work in the life insurance business; even though he dreamed of being a farmer. The outdoors and fresh air made him feel alive, yet he was weak natured and easily bullied so insurance became his livelihood.
His father, Marvin Camp--of which Beau was a carbon copy right down to the blue suspenders--was a quiet, unassuming man who did what his wife compellingly suggested. Not much of a role model for young Beau; the two hardly had much to say to each other as Beau was a mama's boy through and through. If his father did disapprove, he did not show it for fear of his wife's fury, for she made no bones about her son coming first in her eyes.
After the death of his father--who some townsfolk said died young just to get away from his appalling wife--Beau took over the running of the insurance business; with the supervision of his mother and wife of course.
When his mother passed away four years later, he was devastated; for he hated her for controlling his life, yet truly loved her more than he realized. The loss threw him into a profound depression from which his wife checked him into a sanitarium over in Millersburg, but Beau did not stay the full time before declaring himself cured. His brief time there caused a mental change within him that wasn't apparent on the surface; at least not at first, yet it would soon rear its horrific head.