PHOENIX ARISES RISES FROM THE ASHES OF A MARRIAGE
This story is about a family's love thrown away and then found by them again. There is no sex in this story.
The story is a complete work of fiction and not based on any real persons, events or organisations.
*****
PART 1 -- MARRIAGE BLAST OFF
As I watched the space shuttle blast off from the launch pad with my wife on board headed to the ISS, or International Space Station, it should have been a really proud moment. Instead I knew I was watching my marriage blast off in flames into outer space. Looking back with hindsight, I could see that the seeds of destruction had been unknowingly sown long ago.
My wife Sally and I (Andy) had met at university in the library where we literally ran into each other while on our phones messaging and not paying attention. I was studying engineering and she medical science.
She was a gorgeous vivacious blond and I had been smitten on first sight.
I persuaded her, with some difficulty, to go with me for a coffee. She told me she had recently parted with her boyfriend. He sounded like a 'jock' type, those arrogant smarmy pricks whom I loathe. She said she usually dated those sort of guys because they were fun, but she realized now they were all assholes and she had enough of them. She was now looking for someone different.
I was an introvert and definitely not a jock type or the life of the party like her previous boyfriends, or probably her for that matter. But she seemed interested in me. After meeting a few time for coffee and lunch, she told me that I was the good solid dependable settling down material she was looking for.
To cut a long story short we started dating and got serious. It didn't stop her love for partying where I had to endure the company of a lot of her asshole friends. I also soon realized she was strong willed, selfish, and liked getting her own way. However, I subconsciously pushed these concerns aside as she was so fantastic in bed. She had a huge sexual appetite and liked a lot of variety. I was floating around in permanent sexual heaven. In hindsight it was a big mistake to let lust over-ride my commonsense.
We married a year after graduation.
Both of us had good jobs which were reasonably well paid, me as a software engineer with a large firm and her at a university research institute. We soon bought a house in a nice area of Sydney which was more expensive than I wanted, but she was insistent and as usual got her way.
She was very ambitious at work and keen to climb the professional ladder quickly. Her career plans were interrupted when she became unexpectedly pregnant. We had a gorgeous daughter Amy nine months later. Motherhood did not slow her down as she returned to work after three months leaving baby during the day with either me or the grandparents. Emma came along unplanned as well two years later.
Along the way over the next 12 years in between having and raising kids and rising in the corporate ladder, Sally also did her doctorate on the effect of prolonged weightless on the human body, under a grant from the Pan American Space Agency.
In truth, I did most of the child raising as Sally was always either working, studying or away at conferences. I was fortunate that I could a lot of my work from my home. Needless to say, our once fantastic sex life had long ago dwindled away. I was lucky to get a mercy fuck once a week during which she seemed bored and just waiting for it to be over.
The crunch came when Sally came home from work one day beaming and said, "guess what ... I have been offered a job in Houston for 1 year working on a weightlessness research experiment which will be deployed on the International Space station. I start there in four weeks." She had obviously accepted the offer without even asking me.
I wanted to stay in Sydney and look after the girls to avoid disruption to their lives, but after many arguments, I caved in as usual and agreed to go there for a year with her and bring the girls, who were by then 14 and 12.
My employer was pretty good offering to let me do work remotely, but at a lower salary. So we uprooted the family and moved to America and found a house to rent in Houston. It wasn't so bad though I missed my home and life in Sydney.
She was working very hard on her project with late nights and weekends and often away from home at meeting in various places. As she had done back in Sydney, she missed the key events like school concerts, birthdays, school presentation nights, etc. Hell, she wasn't even aware she was missing them most of the time. When at home she was always too tired to spend quality time with me or the girls. She did try at times to keep up a relationship with her girls, but she had been an absent mum for most of their lives and was sort of fading into irrelevance for them...and for me.
The girls and I, on the other hand, had become very close, me being both the mum and dad.
Just before her planned time in Houston was due to end, I got a call from her at the Cape where she was presenting the ISS research experiment she had designed to the senior people at the Agency. She was breathless with excitement. "Guess what, they loved my research program and they have decided they want a specialist to do the actual experiments in space. THEY HAVE CHOSEN ME TO DO IT. I am going to be an astronaut." Of course my and our girl's wants and needs were of little concern to her when making the decision.
The rest of the call was a bit of a blur.
I debated taking the girls back to Sydney then and there, but they would become even more estranged from their mum. I was desperately trying to hold our marriage together as well.
The upshot was we would not be going home but staying in Houston for her to start 'fast track' astronaut training. About a year of training followed by an 11 month mission on the ISS, followed by another six to twelve months to finalize the research back in Houston. Then hopefully go home. That was the plan anyway.
Once training started she became part of the elite astronaut social circle in Houston, with plenty of parties and BBQs during their free time. Most of her colleagues were decent people, though they were all very driven and talked about little except their missions. I I got exceptionally board at these gatherings and usually just chatted to the spouses at these social events about children stuff. Eventually I avoided them where possible using girls sport, music practice etc. as an excuse. A smaller group of her colleagues, however, were typical of her old hard partying jock crowd and she was in the thick of them. I particularly disliked her upcoming mission commander, a guy also coincidentally called Andy, same name as me funnily enough. He always had a smirk on his face when I was around, He paid a lot of attention to Sally and was far too touchy feely with her for my liking. I spoke to Sally about it a few times but she attacked me viciously calling me disrespectful, a silly juvenile, untrusting, jealous, etc. etc. I was not a happy camper and for the first time I began to suspect my wife was up to no good. I found out that this other Andy was married with kids but they lived in LA.
The astronaut training year moved slowly and, as usual, she was more absent than at home spending a lot of time working late and weekends, or away training at other locations. Finally training was at and end and the mission was imminent.
