Eve's Resolution

Chapter One

     Two hundred pound Eveena Winston Evergreen watched the yearly New Year's Eve celebration on television from her bed as the hands on the clock ticked towards midnight. As the people cheered in the New Year with screams, hugs, and kisses, Eve sat alone on her bed as she stared at the black velvet box wrapped in a black satin bow on the beside table. It was finally time for Eve to take the pill she promised Richard she would take to start off the New Year. She picked the box up and gently removed the bow and opened it. She first read the enclosed warning sheet. "Take with caution. One hundred percent lethal to some, but one hundred percent harmless to others. Take at your own risk." she sighed and took the tiny black pill from the box and rolled it between her fingers and now questioned the decision she made. "Should I or shouldn't I take it? That is the question. Either I will die or I won't. That will be the answer." she said and stared into the mirror which hung over the table.
     Eveena, also known as 'Eve' to friends and family, Winston Evergreen was one of the millions of Americans who was overweight. She was considered to be a plus size woman by American standards. She wasn't always this size. Her weight had always fluctuated from average to fat most of her life. She now had the chance to end the yo-yo dieting game and the other life changing events that brought her to this time and place in her life with the help of the little black pill. She visually saw her life pass before her eyes in the mirror as she thought about the decision she had now made.

     Eve and her younger brother Elgin, who was two years younger, were the children of award winning husband and wife chefs Patricia and Evin Winston. Eve and Elgin couldn't keep their weight

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down while growing up because their parents used them as guinea pigs for tasting their experimental food creations which ranged from being delicious to nasty. Whenever the children complained about not wanting to taste the nasty dishes their parents reminded them that if it weren't for them, trying the new foods, they wouldn't be able to fix the recipes and make them taste just right for the rest of the world. Eve liked having that type of power, being responsible for what millions of people would have to eat.
     Unfortunately she paid the price for being a food taster. She was already a fat kid and grew into even a fatter kid. Genetics played a part in it with her father teetering on being overweight. Eve and Elgin were pitied by adults and made fun of by kids at their public school in their young years. The family didn't have much money during this time because both parents only worked part-time while they attended culinary school. Once they graduated and each were working at upscale restaurants full-time they were able to afford to put Eve, who was in the fourth grade, and Elgin, who was in the second, in private school. Unfortunately the private schools were no better for them. The kids there were the same as the public school kids because they still made fun of them calling Elgin chubby and Eve fat.

     Within two years Eve had become depressed, gained more weight and her grades began to slip. Her parents looked at the situation as urgent and decided to quit their jobs and open up their own restaurant.   They took the children out of school so they could homeschool them and monitor their weight better while doing so. After getting the restaurant up and running with a noon to midnight operating schedule, each parent was able to work one day and take the next day off which allowed them to take turns homeschooling the children. This arrangement worked, which allowed the children to slim down, until Eve turned sixteen and Elgin fourteen. Eve had earned enough high school credits for the state they lived in and was legally able to receive her diploma. On the other

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hand Elgin was about to enter the ninth grade and wanted to go back to school so he could try out for the football team.
     His parents weren't too thrilled about him playing football but allowed him to go back to school with the understanding that he would be groomed to become a chef upon graduation, while Eve was groomed for a career as a chef now. Even though this wasn't what she wanted to do with her life, she went along with it because the ultimatum was go to college or become a chef. School wasn't for her so she would humor her parents until she figured out what she wanted to do for a living. Even though she was no longer depressed and had lost a little weight after being homeschooled, Eve still had to battle with her weight. Eating less sugar, salt and food left her hungry and eating more fruits and vegetables had become boring and monotonous. Her weight continued to fluctuate because of her eating too much of the foods she learned to cook and perfect over the next two years.
     During this time Elgin had made the football team and began writing the sports column for the high school newspaper. Since Eve was good with the english language, it's structure and its grammer, he got her to proofread and help him write his columns each month. This was how she learned to love different sports, especially football.
     When Elgin graduated high school Eve had become one of three assistant chefs at her parents award winning four star restaurant. Patricia and Evin allowed Elgin to go off to college and disregarded their previous agreement with him regarding his becoming a chef because he won a football scholarship after continuously leading his high school football team to several victories. Eve was a little jealous, but happy for Elgin because over the years she had become a sports enthusiast because of him.
     She was not only interested in the physical aspects of the games, but the mental state of mind the athletes went through during their training while trying to become the best. She too was now looking at sports as a career, but being behind the scenes. She really began to consider this career move when Elgin began writing sports columns for the University newspaper as well. He faxed her

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his columns from school for the next three years for her to proofread once again which she happily did because it took her away from the monotony of learning her dreaded chef duties.
     Elgin thanked her at the end of his third year of college by telling her that the English Department saw how good she was at proofreading and wanted to offer her a paying job via the University as its resident proofreader. Eve was estatic. She called the University and accepted the position without discussing it with her parents. Her mother couldn't believe that she was willing to give up a gourmet cooking career in order to accept a career making corrections. She was angry because of the time they wasted training and grooming her and now they had to find someone else to train and groom who wasn't family.
     "How could you even consider leaving us like this Eve? After all we have done for you, this is the thanks we get?"
     "Mama I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt you and daddy. Of course I'm appreciative for everything you've done for me."
     "You're damn right you're appreciative. We took on the headache of starting our own restaurant for you and Elgin without knowing the consequences to make your life easier. We sacrificed our lives for yours Eve."
     "And again I appreciate it, but isn't that what parents are suppose to do mama? Sacrifice?"
     "Of course, but a child should show appreciation with respect, truth and fairness. Not lies and selfishness."
     "I did respect you and daddy. I let you plan my life even though I didn't want you to. I did what you wanted and in my opinion you two were being selfish then and you're being selfish now. I'm sure you knew deep down that my heart wasn't in this chef career thing by my unhappy attitude towards it. You allowed me to continue because you wanted me to follow in your footsteps. You saw how happy I was when I proofread so you should let me go be a proofreader and stop trying to make me feel guilty."

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Eve said as Patricia was about to angrily say something but Evin stopped her.
     "Fine Eveena. Go. You're right. We're all being selfish and it's time that we stopped. You have your life to llive and so do we. Go with our blessings."
     "Really daddy? Are you sure about this?" Eve asked surprised.
     "He wouldn't say it or call you Eveena if he didn't mean it Eve. You know that."
     "Yeah, you're right mama. Both of you are upset with me and I'm sorry, but in the long run you'll see that this was for the best."
     "We said go Eveena. You're twenty-two yearss old. We can't make you do what we want or make you feel what we want you to feel. We'll get over it." Evin said, kissed her forehead and left the room with a sigh. Patricia rolled her eyes and left the room as well leaving Eve alone to sigh.

     Several days later Eve had settled into her position in the English Department as proofreading any and everything the University needed done. She loved her job and was happy to be reunited with Elgin. This was his senior year and the beginning of the fall semester. Elgin invited Eve to the first real football practice of the year. After practice he introduced her to his best buddy and team mate quarterback Oakland Evergreen. It was love at first sight for the both of them.
     Even though Oakland was twenty and Eve was almost twenty-three, the attraction between them knew no age. She was cute and full figured, not fat, and he was tall, cute, and kind of thick but proportioned perfectly with muscles in all the right places. The perfect football players body she thought. He invited her to dinner blowing off Elgin and the other players usual dinner together after the first practice.
     As they dated Eve realized she had begun to pick up weight with all the dinners and being happy and in love she guessed. She loved food too much so she couldn't become anorexic, but bulimic. Although nasty, bulimia was something she would do to keep the weight off and allow her

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to keep Oakland. After the two had been dating for four weeks, Eve was pulled to the side and told that faculty twenty-one and over couldn't date students. Wondering how they found out, an angry Eve told Oakland if they wanted to keep dating they would have to do it secretly. He confessed his love for her and said that he would do whatever it took to keep seeing her.

     Several weeks later Oaklalnd asked Eve to marry him. She said yes and they decided to tell their parents. The University's homecoming game was coming up and Oakland looked at this as a good omen to announce their engagement. They took a flight that weekend to tell her parents first. Elgin went with them since he hadn't been home in a while. Her parents took it like she thought they would,...not well. They couldn't give her their blessing because in their opinion she was once again making the wrong life choice. Their marriage would be a joke because neither could offer the other anything substantial. In their eyes proofreading was not a career but a job, and a college football player was nothing but a jock who depended on his ball playing status to sleep with as many women as he could while playing kids games. This allowed him to live a lifestyle of immature fun and games physically, while hindering his obtaining a more mature career mentally.
     Well their way of thinking angered the already spoiled Oakland. He argued his disagreement of their narrow minded and arrogant way of thinking by telling them that, "Professional football is a business. It will ready me for a career in the business of football once I retire, unlike the chef profession. It's a never ending grind of baking, sauteing, frying, and boiling food in the heat over and over again only to become fat and die of clogged arteries in the long run. And as for your daughter Eve, proofreading will broaden her mind beyond the depths of learning different things because she could read any and everything she wanted and get paid for it. That in itself is a wise career choice." he finished as a proud Eve gleemed with satisfaction and left her parents house with Oakland without their blessing. A disappointed Elgin gave his parents his love and left too now knowing how they truly felt about his football career choice. Elgin went back to school, while Eve and Oakland went to tell his mother.

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Chapter Two

     They arrived unexpectantly at her house where she lived alone. His two older sisters had left home years earlier for college to start careers and families. Their father, who their mother Olivia still secretly loved, left home after divorcing Olivia when Oakland was ten. He didn't speak to his father and blamed him for the divorce because his mother did. She made them believe that he chose his career of traveling as a real estate developer over his family. Olivia, who sold vitamins through an internet website, was happy to see Oakland, but was surprised to see Eve with him.
     Olivia and Oakland were close and she loved him to death because he was the spitting image of his father. Since she couldn't control his father, she made it her business to control Oakland no matter what. She spoiled him and when he told her that he wanted to play football she got him to take steroids so he could get on the team and stay on the team. Because of her over caring nature he told her about important things in his life. He had told her a while back that he was dating a University employee and their relationship had become serious.
     Olivia welcomed them into her house but mentioned, "I thought the school put a stop to you two dating." Oakland looked on in surprise.
     "How did you know that the school tried to stop us from dating?"
     "Oh, I could have sworn you told me Oakland." Olivia said trying to play off her knowing.
     "No, I didn't tell you ma. How did you find this out?" he asked as Olivia stood in silence.
     An angry Eve jumped in with, "She knows because she's the one who told the school we were dating. Otherwise how would they have known? We didn't tell and neither would Elgin. No one else knew."
     "Eve's right ma, we didn't tell anybody and wondered how they found out. So you called up the school and told them?" he asked as she sighed.
     "Yes I did, but it was for your own good Oaky. Your mind should have been on your studies and football, not on some older girl who would cause you to flunk out."

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     "I can't believe you're meddling again ma. I wouldn't have flunked out. This was none of the school's business."
     "Well it was my business. You said you were serious about this girl. You never said you were serious about the other, younger girls you dated." Olivia threw in turning to look at Eve with large eyes.
     "That's true, but we're not talking about the other girls now. That was the past, Eveena is my future."
     "What do you mean your future?"
     "He means we're engaged to be married." Eve smiled with satisfaction as Olivia was taken aback.
     "She's lieing right Oaky? You're not engaged to this girl are you?" she asked tenderly in a soft voice which Eve saw affected Oaklalnd in a way that made her see that he was a mama's boy and Olivia had some influence over him. He hesitated with his answer, but nodded a yes.
     "I'm sorry ma, but I am in love with Eveena and I'm going to marry her as soon as I graduate in May."
     "Have you lost your mind boy! You can't get married now. You have your whole life ahead of you. This girl will only hold you back."
     "First of all my name is Eve and if anything I will push him forward. He will be working hard to become a professional and please me and our family someday. I want him to grow up and share himself with others, unlike you who wants to keep him all to yourself so you can control him like a little boy."
     "You hold on one minute girl! Oakland is my son and always will be. I come first in his life, not you! He can marry you, but he can divorce you too! I'm blood and don't you forget that." she spat.
     "I won't, as long as you don't forget that I'm the one he sleeps with and with a man, sex will always come first." Eve smiled devilishly.
     "That's enough! Stop it you two. I love both of you. I love you ma and I'm in love with Eve. We're going to have to find some common ground here because you two are going to be in-laws."

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     "Not if I can help it." Olivia said.
     "So what are you saying ma? You don't want to work with me here?"
     "Of course I do, when you're thirty or so years old and with someone else. We can talk marriage then."
     "So you won't give us your blessing because he isn't thirty and because of me?" Eve asked as Olivia nodded and smiled.
     "Fine. Your mother is against us and so are my parents. So what do we do Oakland?" Eve asked as he sighed, kissed her cheek and hugged her.
     "I have no idea, yet." he smiled.

     That night they found themselves in a twenty-four hour wedding chapel in Las Vegas. They married, consumated the marriage all night and into the morning. It was now Sunday. They ate brunch and then gambled into the evening. They caught a red eye flight back to the University. They kept their marriage to themselves.

     A few weeks passed and it was time for the University's homecoming game. As everyone readied for it, Eve was told by the school's Dean that she had been watched and they knew she was still dating the student they told her to stop dating. They gave her the choice of either being fired from her job or Oakland being expelled from school. She chose for them to fire her which meant she could no longer have the half priced dorm that came with the job. They told her she could stay in the dorm until the homecoming festivities were over which would then end the semester for the holiday vacation. She decided to wait until the homecoming game was over before she told anyone about her being fired.

     The homecoming football game was finally played and the whole University seemed to be in attendance. Elgin and Oakland were playing a really good game and their team was winning until Elgin was intercepted near the end zone roughly by the other team's defense which landed him on the ground hard resulting in a cracked knee, a broken hip, dislocated shoulder, and a sprung lower back.

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     Oakland, the coaches, team mates and others ran over to Elgin devastated as Eve ran down from the stands. The paramedics arrived and Oakland wanted to go with Elgin, but Eve and the players talked him into staying and finishing this important game. He stayed while Eve went to the hospital with Elgin. Their team won the game that evening, but it was a solemn victory. Elgin was told he could never play football or any other sport that put pressure on his hip or knee again.
     While Oakland was visiting Elgin in the hospital a few days later, a NFL sports scout came to visit. He told them that he was so impressed with their game the other night that he wanted to offer Oakland a place on a professional team as a rookie. As for Elgin he could only offer a place on a major sports magazine as a sportswriter since he had experience and couldn't play football physically anymore. The offers would become effective once they both graduated college. They both accepted.
     Because of Elgin's expected slow healing process, he was forced to abandon his studies at the University only to finish them back at home with his parents. Oakland couldn't believe his luck and couldn't wait to tell his mother and Eve. He told his mother first then Eve who had news of her own. She had decided to go back home and help out at her parents restaurant once again because his mother told the University they were still dating which caused her to lose her job and her dorm. He told her he was sorry and would fix everything, which he did.
     While on his Christmas break from school he told his mother that he and Eve married in Vegas and since she caused Eve to lose her job and dorm, he was going to sell the car Olivia bought him for his seventeenth birthday and use the money to pay for an apartment for the two of them to live in until he began training that summer after graduation. Of course he knew his mother wouldn't allow him to sell the antique sports car so she offered to pay the rent until one of them started working.
     He then talked to the sports scout and asked him if he could get Eve a proofreading job at the

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sports magazine that Elgin would be writing for. The scout promised to see what he could do. Eve was so happy that they got the better of his mother that she didn't realize that she had missed her period last month and now this month's period was late. After a check up she found out that she was pregnant. After the doctor noticed damage to her esophagus, she confessed that she was bulimic. He warned her to stop or she may cause a miscarriage, have a stillborn baby, or even lose some organs. This scared her and she decided to take advantage of the pregnancy by eating what she wanted and wouldn't worry about it. She told Oakland and his mother and then her family about the pregnancy and her secret marriage in Vegas.

     The next few months flew by and it was finally May. Eve was six months along and diagnosed with toxemia due to high blood pressure because of all the food she was eating. Oakland and Elgin graduated college. Oakland went off to football training camp while a better, but still healing Elgin started his sportswriting job by working from home on his computer. Eve was also given a job at the magazine as a proofreader which she too did from home since she had to have bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy. A few more months passed and as Eve was giving birth, with Oakland and Olivia there along with his two sisters, her father Evin was being rushed to the hospital after suffering a stroke. Bad food choices, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and a stressful lifestyle contributed to this.
     Eve gave birth to a twelve pound baby boy as her father layed brain dead in the hospital. Although Elgin and her mother were happy about the baby, the mood was still solemn. Eve wanted to go and see her father, but her doctor told her to wait a few weeks. Two weeks later she left the baby with Olivia and flew to see her father in the hospital as Oakland went back to football training. Eve's mother Patricia was glad to see her and told her since Oakland was away she needed to come back home and help out at the restaurant until her father was able to work again. She told her

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she had a newborn to care for and a proofreading job to get back to. Her mother accused her once again of being selfish and told her to leave. Elgin told her to stay and promised his mother that he would help out at the restaurant since he was able to stand a little longer now and his football career was over.
     A few weeks passed and Eve missed her baby. She was ready to go back home since she and her mother were no longer speaking and her father's condition remained the same. She thanked Elgin and said goodbye to him and her father. She flew back home only to get phoney sympathy from Olivia and snide remarks about her excess weight gain from her pregnancy. Fed up with Olivia, Eve thanked her for watching baby Oen (oh-in) and told her to leave since they didn't like each other. Olivia argued there was no rush because her daughter was house-sitting for her and it was clear that Eve knew nothing about caring for a baby.
     They argued back and forth until Eve threatened to call the police to make her leave. Olivia reluctantly agreed to leave and even had a flight out when Elgin called. He told Eve after careful consideration, talks with medical experts, and a stipulation in Evin's Will stating that he never wanted to be kept alive by machines, he was taken off life support. Eve called Oakland, told him, packed up and left with baby Oen this time.
     One week later the funeral was held and Oakland and Olivia attended. Afterwards, back at Patricia's house, mourners continued to offer their condolences as they ate and reminisced about Evin's life. Eve also noticed how within the past week Olivia had wormed her way into becoming her mother's ally by helping with funeral arrangements and both women agreeing what a disappointment Eve had become. Overhearing this was like a knife being pushed into Eve's back. She couldn't believe that her own mother had now become her enemy too.

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Chapter Three

     Within the next three years Olivia rented out her house and moved to the small suburb Eve and Oakland were living in. To keep an eye on them she rented a small cottage three blocks away from their new four bedroom house with a pool they bought with the money Oakland was now making. He was now a genuine professional football player in the NFL with a multi-million dollar contract. This was what they all wanted to happen, but the price Eve was paying to have it all was overbearing. Although Eve encountered stand-offishness and coldness from her mother Patricia, who opted to stay with Olivia the few times she flew in to visit, she showed her grandson Oen plenty of affecion.
     Eve argued with Olivia non-stop about her interfering in her and Oakland's lives while she barely spoke to her own mother except when it came to conversations on selfishness. They both ganged up on Eve about her weight which had become a problem because she couldn't lose the extra weight from the pregnancy nor the twenty extra pounds she put on due to stress since she wasn't bulimic anymore.
     Although she loved Oen, who they were now calling O for short, and her work from home proofreading career, she was depressed. Oakland was staying away from home more. When he wasn't on the road traveling and playing football games he was away from home playing games with friends. Unfortunately the games he was playing wasn't football and the friends weren't male either. This was when Eve found out he was cheating. Along with the steriods, he had gotten into taking just enough drugs here and there to satisfy himself and not get caught by officials.
     Of course Eve's mother and Olivia blamed Oakland's drug use and messing around on Eve's weight gain. Eve argued with all of them about this and during one of their arguments he told them that once when he was high he agreed to a dare to help lose a game on purpose for money. Once alone he told Eve he was out of control and cried telling her he was sorry and promised to never do drugs, steriods, throw games, or cheat ever again. She forgave him and promised to try and get

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along better with his mother and hers, be more attentive to him and lose some weight so she could gain control of her life as well. This was when Eve began her roller coaster ride of yo-yo fad dieting over the next five years. High protein low carb diets, liquid diets, herbal tea diets, fasting, designer low caloric diets with prepared foods, diet pills, weight training and exercising gyms, and exercise videos. None of them had staying power. She tried to go back to being bulimic but throwing up her food now repulsed her and forcing herself to do it sent her to the hospital when she gagged and burst a blood vessel in her neck. A doctor referred her to a clinic that specialized in eating disorders.
     She went and met the director who introduced her to Ms. Carson, a program coordinator for the secretive, "Pioneer Program". It was a research program that worked on experimental drugs that would someday allow overweight people to lose weight permanently by working with the mind. The volunteers they used would be the first to try these experimental drugs at their own risk with the hope that they would work and then could be marketed to the public. Since the program was experimental and government funded, legal documents had to be signed by all volunteers which relinquished clinic responsibility for any illness or fatalities resulting from the drugs. They were asked not to discuss the program either.
     A desperate Eve signed and agreed to everything. Ms. Carson thanked her for coming on board and made her an appointment to have a check-up and discuss the various experimental options of drug programs she could join. Eve left the office with a new outlook on her life because at thirty-one not only was she a successful proofreader for a major sports magazine, she now had an opportunity to gain control of her body, soul, and mind.

     Over the next five years Eve saw little O go from eight years old to thirteen and ready to enter high schhool and unfortunately he had no real interest in football or sports, which angered Oakland. He wanted O to follow in his footsteps and swore that he would get O to become a football player or he'd die trying.

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     Eve's mother Patricia still hadn't gotten over her father Evin's death and during these years she became more and more depressed. Elgin talked her into seeing a psychiatrist while he was being wooed by television execs, who liked his sports column, to co-anchor a new sports magazine show. He accepted the position and since no one wanted to or could run the restaurant at this time Patricia gave Elgin permission to sell it as she realized her dream of a family run restaurant was over.
     This was when Eve found out that her mother and Olivia had been working together to break up her and Oakland's marriage because Patricia wanted her working in the restaurant while Olivia wanted Oakland to be free from a wife so she could once again gain control of his life. Eve wasn't surprised, but saddened by this news.
     During these years Eve thought Oakland was cheating again because he had become moody and less affectionate, especially in the bedroom. It bothered Eve, but she tried not to show it because as usual she was overweight and would rather wait until she was slim and sexy to satisfy him sexually again. Sometimes it was easy not to show her feelings when she was preoccupied with the Pioneer Program. The mind altering experimental drugs she tried did allow her to lose several pounds while she actually began to enjoy food slowly instead of stuffing her face during a bulimic frenzy. She just wasn't worried about food and this was what the program was about, eating to live, not living to eat.
     Unfortunately she saw the complications that could arise with life threatening experimental drugs. A fellow volunteer died from a heart attack after taking a stimulant laced with the drug daronex. It affected his nerves in a negative way. It scared Eve a little, but she looked at it as just a casualty of the war on obesity. Luckily for Eve she was one of the rare few who seemed to be immune to the side effects of the drugs which made her a prime candidate for newer and stronger

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experimental drugs. However when she wasn't preoccupied, she wondered why Oakland was putting large lump sums of cash into their joint bank account off and on. When she questioned him about it he claimed it was back money owed after renegotiating an earlier contract.
     It was a lie she knew, but didn't feel like questioning him further because she didn't want to argue. He stopped putting the money in, but by the end of these five years rumors began to spread about a sports gambling ring that was going around getting players to throw games for money. These rumors were a topic of discussion on Elgin's sports show, but once the discussion was over his co-anchor congratulated him on his engagement to their producer Darrah. While it looked like Elgin's life and career was truly beginning, it was the beginning of the end of Oakland's life and career.

     A few years later and twenty pounds lighter Eve felt stronger mentally, thanks to the drugs, now at thirty-eight. Unfortunately she saw thirty-six year old Oakland become nervous, paranoid, and angry about becoming too old to play football while he fought with O about his reluctance to play football and why he reluctantly played basketball then quit the team after only one year. O told him that he tried it out of his love for Oakland, but love wasn't enough to make him do something that he really didn't want to do. When asked what did he want to do, O answered learn astronomy and travel through space. Astronomy and working for NASA's space program at the Johnson Space Center in Texas was his destiny.
     "Astronomer, rocket scientist, astronaut and space shuttle pilot. The sky's the limit." O cleverly tried to joke as a not so amused Oakland hit him square in the jaw.
     "Space is an unrealistic dream that is a dangerous waste of time because it can never be explained or conquered", Oakland said. "Now playing a kick butt game of football, where you can conquer another team, is any normal red blooded American boy's dream. So, if you don't play football O, I can no longer call you my son." Oakland finished. That was the last words spoken between the two of them because O went ahead with his plans and ignored Oakland's ultimatum.

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Eve couldn't believe this and tried to remedy the problem between her husband and her sixteen year old son. She didn't want the two of them to become estranged for the same reason she and her mother did. Oakland and O resented her for not taking either of their sides and the rift in the family began.

     Over the next two years Eve lost another forty pounds from the various drugs taken at the clinic. This was the first rime she had lost weight and kept it off. The clinic was so thrilled with her progress that they agreed upon her being one of two rare volunteers introduced to the super handsome and super fine scientist Dr. Richard Black, who specialized in mind altering drugs that worked on the body's pituitary and thyroid glands, because of their overwhelming resistance to the programs's drugs. They were going to be offered the chance to try his new pill that was so remarkable that he guaranteed that it was one hundred percent effective in promoting permanent weight loss because of it's guarantee life or death side effect.
     The male volunteer accepted to try the pill, but Eve offered to think about it. Desperately wanting Eve to take the pill too to see what the outcome would be, Richard felt that he needed to sleep with Eve in order to coax her into accepting the offer to take the pill. So when he flirted with her, Eve flirted back as she took advantage of the situation to get back at Oakland and began an affair with the good doctor. During this time she saw yet another volunteer lose her battle by having a drug affect her mind so intrusively that she suffered a seizure and had to be hospitalized in a mental institution.
     Eve's spirits were lifted after this tragedy when Elgin married his producer Darrah at a seaside wedding chapel. Then a few weeks later O graduated high school, without Oaklalnd attending the ceremony, and went off to college with Eve's blessing and the money she saved for his college tuition. Oakland had refused to fund a non-sports related college education.
     By the end of the year Eve overheard a conversation between Oakland and his mother regarding his actual involvement in the illegal gambling ring and he was way over his head and didn't know

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how to get out or what to do. Eve almost felt sorry for him until he ended the conversation with, "I'm still trying to end this four year extra-marital affair ma but it's going to be harder than I thought." he said as an angry Eve decided that this was the last straw. She wrote an anonymous letter to Elgin's sports show and to a sports columnist she had befriended over the years. It exposed Oaklalnd as being involved in the illegal gambling ring and losing games on purpose for money.
     Once Elgin found out about the letter he tried to call Oakland to warn him the the story was about to come out and ask him if it were true. Each time he called, Eve intercepted the call and erased the messages Elgin would leave untill she received her proofreading galley pages which had the story her columnist friend had written about Oakland. She confronted him with it a couple of nights later acting surprised knowing that she purposely held off showing him the story only minutes before the magazine's midnight deadline so he wouldn't be able to stop it from going to press. Elgin was finally able to get through that night and told him that an anoynomous letter was floating around and evidence had arisen that backed up the allegation which Oakland admitted to being true to his old friend Elgin.
     Later after a failed attempt to stop the story and not being able to figure out who leaked it, an angry and panicked Oakland was pressured by Olivia into believing that Eve leaked the story because she must have heard their conversation several nights ago. When Oakland accused Eve of this, she denied it with a smile. He called her a liar and told her that she didn't know what she had done to him. She knew exactly what she had done to him, she had ruined his career she laughed to herself as she watched him make a few phone calls. He then began to pack a duffle bag as she asked him where was he going. Without answering her he gave her a look that she would never forget then he left. She believed that he went to his mother's cottage so they could put a spin on what he had done. For some reason, she went to bed feeling a little guilty.

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     Twenty-four hours after the story went public Oakland Evergreen was shot and killed while boarding a plane in an attempt to leave the country. This was when Eve and everyone else found out that Oaklalnd had participated in losing games on purpose for money as well as gambling on games that he knew were fixed for players to lose but he was found out by the FBI. In order for him not to go to jail he agreed to work undercover on a sting operation as a spy for the FBI to help catch the heads of the gambling ring four years ago. At the same time he spied on the FBI for the gambling ring to keep them posted on what the FBI was doing. He was trying to cover his back from both sides because he didn't trust either side.
     In a sick kind of way, he liked being a double spy and liked the money he was accumulating. This was why he strung the sting along slowly, not giving either side more information than the other needed. This was why he had become moody, a little crazy and selfish. He wasn't ending a female extra-marital affair, he was trying to end his affair with the FBI and the gambling ring which he referred to as his extra-marital affair. Once Oakland's gambling involvement became public he knew both sides would be after him once they found out that he was spying for both sides on both sides. Even though an investigation was launched, it was never proven which side killed him.
     Although Oakland had done wrong, a devastated Eve was racked with guilt and finally confessed that she leaked the story. Olivia, Elgin, and O blamed her for Oakland's death. While Olivia suffered a mild heart attack and had to be hospitalized, Eve's mother on the other hand saw it as opportunity to open another restaurant and run it as a mother and daughter team. Eve declined. She was so torn and grief strickened that her confusion on life itself was clouded. Being responsible for someone's death was too much for her to bear.
     Over the next several months a guilt ridden Eve gained thirty pounds due to stress and not taking the clinic drugs. This was when she remembered the old saying, 'an eye for an eye'. Dr. Richard Black's little black pill was looking good to her right about now. After not being sure if she

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wanted to take the pill and play God with her life before, she was sure now. True, it was in her hands to physically take the pill, but it was her mind and body that would decide her life's fate once the pill was inside of her. It would definately be the beginning of the end. It would either be the beginning of a brand new life where she would become slim and stay slim while trying to regain control of her guilt ridden life, or it would be the end of a guilt ridden and out of control life. It was hard to believe that Dr. Richard Black's ten years in the making little black pills, which were extreme hallucinogens that tricked glands into quickly jumpstarting the metabolism into working nonstop permanently, could be lethal, yet so harmless at the same time.
     Eve called Richard and told him that she was sorry that their relationship had dwindled because of everything that had happened. She now wanted a new start and was ready to take the pill. He was thrilled that she was going to be a part of the experiment and told her that the other male volunteer was set to take his pill at midnight on New Year's Eve. Eve resolved to take hers then too as she thought, "What a perfect start to a perfect end."
     On New Year's Eve Eve checked into the private clinic as an overnight patient so she could be observed once she took the pill. Eve rolled the pill between her fingers a little after midnight on New Year's, popped it into her mouth and swallowed it. She layed back in bed and continued to watch the New Year's festivities for the next hour until she felt a sharp pain in her head and blacked out.

     Three years later O graduated college and was ready to delve into a career in space. As he walked up to the podium and accepted his degree, he yelled a tear filled, "Thank you" to Eve. Elgin videotaped the moment and then turned the camera on his wife Darrah and their one year old daughter Evee, named after Eve, Patricia, Oakland's two sisters and their families, Olivia, and Oakland's father Louis Evergreen. When Olivia suffered her mild heart attack he came to town to comfort her and attend his son Oakland's funeral.

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     He now was at the graduation to see his grandson graduate college. He attended Eve's funeral three years ago after she died from a severe brain hemorrhage due to an ongoing excessive use of diet pills, so they all were told on New Year's day by the community hospital's neurosurgen. He had been paid off by the clinic's lawyers to keep quiet about the truth and her affiliation with the experimental clinic. Although the male volunteer survived and has so far kept his weight off, Dr. Black is still doing more extensive research on his little black pill.
     Eveena 'Eve' Winston Evergreen was a pioneer who lived a life that she hated and wanted to forget, but little did she know was that doing what she did only made her life unforgettable.


                                                                        The End

DJPM

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