Fallen Stones Read Free

as well as to find out as much as possible about his own family heritage, Washburn learned the Livingstons had been quite wealthy, having owned much land in the area as well as several coal companies. They had apparently purchased the land and built the house in the early 1900’s.
    Washburn had also learned his grandparents were not the first settlers to build on the property. Houses of one sort or another had existed on the land for several hundred years. However, at the time his grandparents bought the land, most of the outbuildings as well as the main farmhouse had ceased to exist; perhaps burned in fires or destroyed by other forces of nature. As a result, his grandparents hand started with a clean slate, so to speak, and built everything from the ground up.
    Emerson Washburn’s mother had never told either he or his younger brother Nathan about their grandparents, and neither of them had much interest in such things as either children or as young men. Washburn knew his grandparents had both died fairly young, in their early thirties, and he always felt that prior to their deaths they may have done something unspeakable because none of their living decedents ever spoke their names or even acknowledged they ever once existed.
    On several occasions as a young boy, Washburn would catch his mother or father discussing something in hushed voices, wearing looks of disapproval. He might hear the occasional snippet of a phrase or the occasional word such as, “mother”, “father” or even words like “tragic” and “horrendous” and he knew they were speaking about his mother’s parents. His mother always got a look of anger, or perhaps hatred whenever they spoke this way, as if to suggest she despised her mother.
    This often served to confuse young Washburn as he had also heard that his grandparents had died when his mother was only about two years old. He couldn’t comprehend how she could have such hatred for someone she never really knew and certainly could not recall.  
    Washburn’s young imagination often went wild with ideas trying to determine what his grandparents may have done to warrant such a family shunning. As soon as his parents would see him trying to eavesdrop, they would immediately cease their conversation and order him to go outside and play with his brother. They had no intention of allowing him to learn the mysterious family secret.
    Then years later, after Washburn had grown to be a man and had found his way into a life of crime, he often wondered if he had chosen the lifestyle because of some genetic predisposition. He often wondered what sort of evil his grandparents had perpetrated, which was so vile as to have their very names banished from all family discussions? As a child he often thought he would give anything to learn the horrible family secret, but now that he did know everything, he wished to God he did not.
    Growing up he often thought about what he heard adults refer to as “bad blood”.  Later when he had broken all ties with his immediate family, having been branded a “black sheep”, he became more certain than ever that he had chosen a life of crime because he had been born for it. Whatever “bad blood” had coursed through his grandparents veins must obviously run through his own.
    Since then he had spent many years building his criminal empire, dealing in virtually every known vice modern man could desire, from stolen goods to drugs to prostitution. Although his activities were considered evil in the eyes of society, they felt perfectly right and normal to him. For Washburn, it was as if the idea of right and wrong had no meaning. His parents had tried to instill in both himself and Nathan what society considered proper values. The concepts seemed to stick when it came to Nathan, but Washburn couldn’t quite come to grips with them.
    As he lie soaking in the tub, Washburn recalled the life-changing event