Alden Williams's family moved to Asbury when he was but two years old so for all intents and purposes he was a native of this White Mountains town. He never quite fit in with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood, however, constantly getting into fights with them, always getting into scrapes at school. Everyone knew that Williams had a mean streak. If there was a terrified cat tearing through town, Williams would be the prime suspect. If a local youth was beaten up, his lunch money stolen, all heads turned in Alden Williams's direction.
His brutality continued in high school sports. During four years of varsity football, Williams sent three opposing players to the hospital, ending their football careers for good and leaving one with a permanent disability. In baseball, he slid into second base hard, slashing the Woodsville Engineers' second baseman with his spikes, an injury requiring thirty-five stitches. In basketball, he led the league all four years in flagrant and technical fouls.
While a senior at Asbury High School, Williams met a young college student, Maura Simons, who spoke at the fringe church his parents attended. She represented a militia group that espoused a virulent anti-government stance, handing out brochures that claimed God hated homosexuals, abortionists, and other sinners that the United States' 'socialist' government protected and promoted.
They were immediately attracted to each other, Williams to Maura's beauty, maturity, and intelligence, Maura to Williams's brutal savageness. By the end of the school year, she had initiated him into the world's idea of manhood as well as the world of radical politics. They spent the summer travelling the northeast, attending meetings of ultra right wing organizations. Williams and Maura would spend the night wherever they could-on the floor of a roach-infested apartment, in the back of a van bearing 'gun rights' bumper stickers, or under the stars in a public park.
Their romance was short-lived as Maura headed out west to join a group building an armed camp in the Rockies, preparing to defend against an expected assault from the federal government. Williams stayed on back in Asbury, exhibiting his prowess as he beat up those who disagreed with him, and joined the town's police department, slowly working his way up the ladder.
Now he was chief, one of the most powerful men in Asbury, and he was determined to use that position to gain even more power for himself.
Copyright 2005 by Bill Dolack