Well, we're slowly making our way through the story.  As I mentioned with Chapter 1, all comments, good or bad, from what I've written so far to where the story should go, are welcome.

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Chapter 7

Lee was glad to be back on the farm.  Every time he drove up after a long absence he couldn't help but remember the first time he'd come.  That time he'd been angry and this was the last place on earth he wanted to be.  His parents had insisted on him spending the summer here as a condition of their financial support in college.  He'd been determined to not be changed in any way by his summer visit.  Determination hadn't been enough.

He'd found Ben Meadows to be a very strong-willed, no-nonsense, hard-driving, iron-fisted person.  Despite Lee's protesting Ben made him get up at the crack of dawn every day and despite Lee's cries of pain Ben would make him work until evening.  His only saving grace had been Joan.  She was nothing but sweetness and compassion.  Several times she'd cornered Lee alone and told him to just hang in, that Ben wasn't as bad as Lee thought.  Was she totally blind?  Had she been brainwashed by the guy?  Ben didn't deserve Joan as his wife, Lee thought.  How had they ever ended up together?

Slowly though he'd begun to see past the exterior for himself.  It was mostly small things.  How Ben treated people, especially his wife and daughter, or how he'd take off for a few hours to help others, even when there was a lot that needed to be done on his own farm.  Lee had difficulty resolving the two very diverse sides of Ben.  The side he'd first met who seemed hard and cold and the side that he began to see more and more of that was a man who almost couldn't do enough for others.

The breakthrough came just a few days later when Lee woke up feeling sick.  Joan and Pam were out of town for a couple of days and Lee fully expected Ben to tell him to work anyway.  He was surprised when it was Ben who became his caretaker.  Completely forgetting about any work, Ben made Lee get back in bed, took his temp, made some juice for him, and drove him to the hospital when the doctor said he couldn't come out to the farm.  Ben stayed with him at the hospital and Lee was even more surprised when Ben refused to go back to the farm even when Lee protested and reminded him of the consequences of the day's chores not getting done.

"You're more important than a farm." Ben had replied.  "I should be here."

Later that night, as friends of the Meadows stopped by to see how both Lee and Ben were doing he'd learned of the depth of Ben's caring.  News traveled fast that Ben had taken Lee to the hospital and by ten in the morning all of the chores had been completed by friends.  That night Lee heard story after story about things Ben had done for others and then he heard of the hardships Ben had endured.  The last person on earth he thought he'd ever feel any sorrow for was Ben Meadows.

Lee parked his car beside the house and before he could get the door open heard Chuck Wells yell from out back.

"Hey Chuck." Lee yelled back.  "Where's Ben?"

"He's comin', just puttin' Betsy away."  Chuck said as he shook Lee's hand.  "Now, tell me about all this stuff with you trying to legalize drugs and prostitution." Chuck continued in his jump-right-in way.  Chuck's tone told Lee all he needed to know about Chuck's thoughts on the issues.

"I'm not trying to legalize anything." Lee replied.  "You can relax, the world is still safe." He grinned.

Walking to the house Lee could smell the familiar smell of a ham in the smoker.  He looked over in that direction and the combination of the smell and seeing the smoke leaking out from all sides of a piece of corrugated tin made Lee hungrier than he'd been in a long time.  It wasn't a very fancy smoker, just a hole in the ground with a row of cinder blocks around it and a piece of old tin roof to lay across the top.  What it produced though was better than anything Lee'd ever had.  

The first time he'd witnessed chef Ben at work scared him to death.  Early in the morning Ben built a fire in the pit and another beside it.  All the hams Lee had ever seen before had been pink or light brown.  This thing that Ben grabbed from the hamhouse was dark brown and green.  Lee was sure anyone who ate it would die.  Ben put the ham in the smoker and pulled the tin over the top.  He kept the fire next to the smoker going and about once an hour or so he'd shovel some coals from the fire into the pit.  Lee had to admit that what he smelled that night at dinner was exceptionally good, but he couldn't bring himself to eat any.  He did the same the next week and it wasn't until the 3rd week that he built up the nerve to try eating what only hours earlier had been green with mold.  He never looked back and nobody ever died.

As Lee and Chuck stepped onto the front porch of the house Ben came out and gave Lee a bear hug that nearly broke his back, once again reminding Lee that he'd never want to get in a fight with this man.  

"I'm hungry." Lee said.

"I know." Ben smiled.

After the three men had eaten more than they should, and the sun was beginning to go down, and they were relaxed in rockers on the front porch, Ben dove in.  The first topic was Lee's latest marijuana client.  Though he made it clear to Ben and Chuck that he thought smoking marijuana was really dumb, he also told them his beliefs that unless someone else was being harmed as a result of his client smoking it, there might not only be a good civil rights argument, but that it might actually be better for society to consider legalizing it.  Neither one of them bought his arguments and he could feel the fabric of a cherished friendship beginning to tear.  They discussed it for about an hour with Lee making no real progress.  He did learn though that Ben had smoked some on several occasions when he was younger - a piece of information that came as a significant surprise to Lee.  

Lee felt a little better when the subject got to Amy.  On this subject he was more in agreement with his older and wiser companions.

"Well, first and foremost." Chuck jumped in, "it's simply wrong... it's immoral."

Lee looked at Chuck waiting for more but at least for now, that was it from Chuck.

"Let's think through the various consequences of it." Ben said in his typical reasoned way.  When he stood up and began motioning with his hands he reminded Lee of some great orator speaking in front of the leaders of the world.   "Besides what Chuck said, the first thing that comes to my mind is that it's degrading to the women involved...  Second is the issue of how much disease it spreads, third is the negative impact on marriages, fourth is the crime it causes, particularly for neighborhoods where hookers are walking the streets." Ben paused to see if he could think of any more and then looked at his companions to see what else they might offer up.

"It's degrading to all women." Chuck chimed in.  "It makes them nothing more than sex objects and just makes men think of them that way.

"OK, let's take 'em one at a time." Ben said.  "Let's start with the crime it causes.  Who wants hookers walking back and forth on the sidewalk in front of their home or business?"

"Nobody." Chuck replied.

"I'm sure Amy has told you that her solution would be to have specific areas of the city where they could work the streets." Ben said. "Kind of like the red light districts in Europe.  But I can assure you that even if you set up specific areas you'll still have women working corners outside the red light area and you'll still have some of the same crime problems you do now."

...Continued in 7b