Custer's Last Stand

Custer's Last Stand

Sometimes there's no way out.

This is a very dark one. There isn't really any graphic sex in it. If you're looking for a happy ending or stroke piece, this isn't it.

Main Characters:

George A. Custer, AKA "GA," husband age 37, father of four grammar school-aged children.

Elizabeth B. Custer, AKA "Lizzie" age 35, married to GA for 13 years and a stay-at- home mom.

Boston Custer, age 40, GA's older brother, and close confidante.

Fredrik Benteen, Captain of Detective Division Billings Police Dept.

James Calhoun, Lieutenant Detective Division Billings Police Dept.

Algernon Smith, CSI Technician, Billings PD.

Isabel Reno, TV reporter

William Cook, TV news anchor

STORY:

George Armstrong Custer, known to all as GA, was sitting quietly, slumped against the low stone wall of the Seventh Cavalry Memorial on Last Stand Hill. He glanced at his watch. It won't be long now. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He loved to gaze out across the grounds in the fading sunlight as often as he could. Sometimes the ghosts would talk to him.

He was alone, had the Park rangers taken a better look at him as they waved goodbye for the night, they might have stayed with him. He was a deeply troubled man, and the pain was clearly etched on his face and reflected in his posture. Most had known GA for years, some since he was a small boy when his father, who volunteered at the park, would bring him. GA was a fixture at the memorial. He even had a key to the gate that his father had bequeathed him. The rangers all pretended it didn't exist, and as they departed, they spoke a familiar refrain. "Don't forget to lock up GA! Good night."

It was GA's father, who introduced him to Little Big Horn National Monument. George, like his father, had been, was a professor of history at Montana State University, Billings. It was only an hour or so away from the battlefield. GA's father had passed away suddenly a few years ago, leaving his older brother Boston as his only relative. George idolized him his whole life. Boston was always GA's confidante, but even he couldn't help GA with his current problem. He was too embarrassed to talk about it with him, and as far as he knew, Boston was unaware of the turmoil over the past year in GA's life.

GA's father loved General Custer. He claimed that they were descendants of the 7^th Cavalry commander. GA researched this claim extensively over the years and could find no hereditary connection, but he never told his father. It would have crushed him.

When GA was very young, he was enthralled by the stories his father told of the glorious 7^th Cavalry and their heroic deeds.

In truth, there is no glory in battle. There never was a time that there was. Sometimes it is necessary but never glorious. Anyone who speaks of the glory in battle has never been in one. There is only pain and death, accompanied by the horrors it attends, and finally, the nightmares for the survivors. The one saving grace for the members of Custer's command was, that none had lived to experience the nightmares. Those were left for the survivors of Reno and Benteen's battalions.

As GA aged, he immersed himself in the true history of what most Anglos knew as Custer's Last Stand. By the time he was a teen, GA was well versed in the politics surrounding the period and the logistics of the battle itself. For a while, like most individuals with more than a passing interest in it, he was caught up in the what ifs, and the endless twenty-twenty hind-sight opportunities that surrounded Custer's actions.

He eventually outgrew that. He became weary of arguing with friends and family members who only had the movie history of Custer to base their opinions on. Custer was neither a genius nor a fool. He was what most cavalry officers were back then and still are to this day. He was aggressive and took risks. Cavalry officers are taught to control the battlefield. If the enemy has the initiative, take it away by any means, and then fight until the fight is done. Why? Because the cavalry is usually outnumbered and relies on what now everyone refers to as, "shock and awe."

Control the Battlefield. Until recently, that was just a phrase GA used when having intellectual conversations among a group of individuals who never had to put it to use. GA now clearly understood its importance.

But by the time GA had finished school and began teaching at the college, he was much more interested in an aspect of the battle that few whites considered. If the native leaders, like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, and the others, had the benefit of hindsight would they still have chosen to stand and fight at Little Bighorn?

It was a hollow victory for the Plains Indians. The battle of The Greasy Grass, as it was called by the Native American combatants, was a victory on the field, but it hastened their demise, as was inevitable. The Indian leaders must have known what lay ahead for them. Shortly after the battle they fled to Canada and only returned to surrender. Less than five years later, their day was done. Those years were filled with death, starvation, and other horrors, that are well documented and haven't improved all that much for them almost a hundred and fifty years later.

Surely the chiefs would have chosen alternatives had they been able to see the ruin that lay ahead for their people; wouldn't they have? If any of them did, there was no record of their regrets. Did they really believe they could defeat the white man as they had the Spaniards over three hundred years before? Or did they just have no choice? GA believed that life always offered choices. What if the Northern Plains tribes had just left for Canada early that summer when they knew the army was approaching? If they had gone there and waited for the same five year period, would the next several generations of there people's lives been any different?

GA spent countless hours researching that question from the Native American perspective. There wasn't much written about the history of the approximately three thousand years they roamed the Great Plains. GA corresponded with experts and historians from around the world, trying to find that answer. He became obsessed with it to the point of distraction. After several years, he had drawn conclusions but didn't have a definitive answer. GA believed the Sioux and Cheyenne had reached the determination that some things are worth dying for, no matter the cost. GA had no better argument.

A Plains Indian warrior had a simple ethos. It was drilled into them in every aspect of the life from their birth. The highest honor a warrior could achieve was to die in battle. A warrior's first responsibility was always to their family and village. It was their sworn duty to protect them with their life. The US Military was well aware of this and their doctrine for combating the Indian Wars was based on it. If they attacked the village, the warriors would be on the defensive and the army would have the battlefield initiative. It worked until that fateful day when it led to the 7^th' Cavalry's destruction.

Some things are worth dying for. Like the Plains Indians he had grown to admire so much, he was out of choices. That's why he was sitting there as the dusk faded into the night in this unseasonably warm fall evening. He stared intently out across the gently sloping plain heavy with sage and other tall grasses. The battlefield was crisscrossed with coulees and ravines that helped defeat Custer. Part of GA hoped the ghosts might present him with alternatives. None were forthcoming.

His gaze settled down into the valley of what was known as the Deep Ravine. That is where it all ended for the 7^th on June 25, 1876. After the defensive position they had assumed on what later was known as Last Stand Hill, collapsed and were overrun, about twenty-five to thirty surviving troopers tried to escape to the river by running down the ravine. They were on foot because their horses were dead or run off by women of the tribes.

They never even got close; they were cut down methodically in a couple of minutes. Contrary to popular culture, that was the only evidence on the entire battlefield that combat discipline had broken down among the troopers.

There may have actually been some truth to the Errol Flynn movie version of the battle (They Died with Their Boots On). According to legends told by the Native Americans, there was a final overwhelming charge by the warriors led by Crazy Horse that killed Custer and most of his officers.

The intricacies of the battle, its ramifications, and its impact on American history meant nothing to GA now. What preoccupied his thoughts was how the various troopers reacted at the moment they knew they would not live through the day. Modern forensics completed on the battlefield, and oral histories provided by the Indian combatants, gave him insight.

It told him that some had panicked and run, a few curled into the fetal position and begged for mercy or cried like babies. Others killed themselves rather than fall into their ruthless enemy's hands. There was even a story told of a single trooper who was able to mount one of the few living horses remaining on the battlefield and break through the Indian lines. He was chased by several mounted warriors. The warriors were just getting ready to give up and let him go so they could return to the battle, when the soldier drew his sidearm and shot himself in the head. Others stood their ground and fought to the death, or having run out of ammunition, waited with seeming indifference for death to come. Or was it resignation? Some would say the calm wasn't a conscious act on the individual's part; rather it was the soul coming to grips with their host's mortal end.

Were those the individuals whose ghosts inhabited the battlefield? A few park rangers swore that early in the morning as the rising sun was trying to burn off the heavy mist that frequently covered the national cemetery named in Custer's honor, they would spy ghostly apparitions. They claimed they could see them sitting peacefully against the headstones of the dead or wandering the battlefield aimlessly.

The cemetery was GA's favorite place. Few knew that Major Marcus Reno was buried there; the highest-ranking officer of the 7^th to be so. Many thought he didn't deserve the honor. Others believed it was appropriate if for no other reason than it was Major Reno's actions that fateful day that allowed any member of Custer's Division to survive.

How would GA react at the moment of truth? Would he like a Sioux warrior, do his duty to his family, or try to run and hide. Or worse yet, submit. No one ever truly knew the answer to that question until it was too late for anyone to learn the lesson from.

In any case, George Armstrong Custer, aged thirty-seven and a professor of history, at this point had at least one thing in common with his namesake. As each stood on this spot over one hundred and forty years apart, they both knew they wouldn't survive the day. GA would protect his family, like an Indian warrior. But he would command the battlefield like a mounted cavalry officer. The timing was crucial.

GA checked his watch again. It was time. Actually he was a few minutes behind schedule, but he could make that up on the road. His destiny lay at home but he had a couple of stops to make first. He took a deep breath, and with tears of sorrow in his eyes, surveyed his beloved battlefield one last time.

On his one-hour drive to his final circumstance, GA had time to reflect on the events that occurred about a year ago that brought him to this point.

*********

GA couldn't believe the words he heard coming out of his wife Elizabeth's mouth. His mind refused to accept what she was saying because it was incomprehensible.

"Wait, what, please say that again, I don't think I understood you." There was a loud rushing noise inside his head.

Lizzie gave a big sigh and shook her head. "The girls said this would probably happen." She snapped. "Listen sweetie I know this is hard for you, but please just follow along with me. I have been a good mother to our four children and a great wife to you for 13 years. But candidly, I grew bored sitting at home now that the kids are all in school. So, anyway I have taken a lover. Well.... actually several lovers over the past couple of years."

"You've got to be joking me?" Choked out a deeply shocked and disturbed GA.

"Listen carefully to me GA, I am very serious and, we need to talk calmly about how our life will be going forward...."

"Ok, but I think you've lost your mind. If this isn't some sick joke you are playing on me and you really have been cheating on me for years, why tell me now? Why not just continue to slut around behind my back?" He was pacing back and forth; clenching his fists repeatedly with so much pent-up anger inside him he was unaware that he had left his chair.

"Honey, please sit back down. And stop the name-calling. It's unbecoming of you. There are several reasons actually. The first one is because I was just trying out the lifestyle to see if it was something I liked, and obviously I do. And, I intend on doing a lot more of it. So, that would make it harder to keep you in the dark. Besides, I know you don't believe it right now, but I do love you and we are going to be married until death does us part. If you accept this then nothing, and I mean nothing, in our life has to change."

Lizzie had been instructed by the ladies in no uncertain terms, that she should not even hint at the true outcome of her plan. Her ultimate goal was to turn him into a complete submissive. Move her boyfriends freely in and out of the house, and for both families including their children to know fully what was going on.

Interesting how that is the only part of her vows she remembers, GA thought to himself.

"But, if you fight me on this, I will take everything from you. I will get the house; you will get to pay for it. I will get the kids; you will get to pay me very generous child support for a very long time. And, I promise you I will make it as difficult as I possibly can for you to see your children. I will work diligently to eventually turn them against you by convincing them our divorce was your fault. I will also get substantial alimony from you for many years. Oh yeah, and I will get to keep my gentlemen friends, only I will be able to just bring them into what used to be your house and your bed."

GA just sat sputtering, staring at whomever this woman was, unable to form cogent thoughts. He was more shocked than he had ever been in his life.

"And GA, it will be your fault if we divorce because it is so unnecessary. I have had five different lovers in this period, and have you noticed anything different? You know you haven't, I am still the same loving wife and mother I have always been. So yes, you are going to allow me this pleasure without disrupting our family." Elizabeth B. Custer said this smugly, as she sat with her arms folded across her chest. She had her legs crossed at the knees and she was bouncing her foot up and down as if she were impatiently waiting for a petulant child to comply.

"Now, the kids are gone for the night. I need you to go upstairs, take off your clothes, and make love to me. That's why I need you. My other men are just big dicked human dildos to me....." She was being sincere but never got to finish her thoughts. As she had expected, she saw GA leap to his feet. He stared piercingly at her, and for the briefest moment, she saw an evil menacing look flash across his face before he wordlessly stormed out of the house. He slammed the front door behind him so hard their wedding picture fell off the wall and crashed to the ground. It shattered the glass in the frame that left a jagged tear across their innocent brightly smiling faces.

Lizzie wasn't overly concerned about his reaction. The girls had prepped her on what she could expect as an initial reaction from him. Their advice was to let him go and stew on it for a few days. The husband always did that before they realized they had no alternative and returned. The ladies' further advice was when the wayward husband did come back, which was usually within three or four days, they should stand firm but be caring and attentive. It was a time to show the cuckold husband their love.

If the wife really wanted to take it further into a female-led relationship it should be done gradually. Wait until the husband accepted each step until she got the relationship where she wanted it. She could then take her rightful place as head of the household. She would be able to not only teach her daughters how to be the dominant partner but educate her sons that it was their proper place to be submissive to their wives.

She did feel bad about using the children, but her friends told her that without using them as weapons, she would never be able to control her husband and lead the life she desired. She sighed, but it had to be done. Besides, once GA got used to the changes, his life would be better also.

Later that evening, Lizzie asked her friends about the scary look he gave her during her planned Zoom call after her husband stormed out. She had to smile to herself. When the ladies first suggested the call, she countered by saying, "how am I going to do that if he doesn't leave?" They had laughed good-naturedly at her ignorance and set up the call anyway. The ladies said that was normal and just a typical male response to conflict. She guessed they were right. They had been right about everything so far.

Two of the ladies who had the most obstinate husbands said they got the same look, but both were now full-time compliant submissives. They even helped their wives get dressed for their lovers. Talk like this always got Lizzie wet as she could barely contain her excitement at the thought of her future life.

Lizzie spent a few pleasant moments thinking back to how she went from a typical suburban middle-class wife to her current position of power. If it wasn't for a chance meeting, one day with the three ladies that had become her close confidants and mentors; she wondered if she would have spent the rest of her life in ignorant subservience.

On that fateful day, she had left the 3 older children with her mother. She was tired and needed a break. She enjoyed being a full-time mom, but it was taking its toll on her. Her life seemed so routine and bland. And, it didn't appear there was any end to it in sight. Lizzie loved her husband, but lately she sometimes wondered if he truly appreciated how hard things were for her. So, to decompress, she was taking a leisurely stroll with the baby through her favorite park.

When she sat down at a table for a moment to help the baby with her bottle, three ladies approached her. They all had young ones in strollers too. They seemed very worldly and self-confident to Lizzie as they spoke about their families. They all agreed that they should meet at the park every week, or ditch the kids and go drink margarita's at Pablo's Hole in the Wall, nearby. They had a good laugh and all agreed it was a great idea.

It was at one of the meetings at Pablo's that her seduction had started. Lizzie had noticed during their meetings that they all spoke lovingly of their families, including their husbands, but she got the sense from them that they treated their husbands almost as one of their children. When they were all well lubed from finishing their second Cadillac Margarita, Lizzie asked them about her perception. They all laughed uproariously. They then methodically initiated Lizzie into how life should work.