He had found it unexpectedly while looking for something in the bedroom when he had tried to open a drawer which had become stuck halfway open.
"Not again!" he angrily mused under his breath.
He had tugged at the drawer at first gently but when it did not budge he planted a foot securely against the chest of drawers and then pulled at the stuck drawer with all his might. It resisted his show of bravado for a few seconds before giving way in a hurry causing him to stumble backwards in surprise.
"There I showed you!" he exclaimed pumping up both his arms as if he was a body builder in a show before finally realizing that he was alone.
He had bathed in the glory of his show of strength for a few seconds and was about to slide the drawer back into its designated slot when he saw it. A small plain looking cream colored envelope taped to the bottom of the drawer.
Curiosity got the better of him and he carefully peeled back the tape to release the envelope which dropped softly into his hand. Ray Barone raised the envelope to his ear giving it a gentle shake as that alone would divulge its contents to him.
He used his index finger to carefully prise the flap open before turning the envelope upside down. A object fell out clattering with a dull metallic noise on to the top of the chest of drawers rolling along the polished wooden surface only to stop just before falling of the edge.
The object glinted in the sunlight his eyes taking a few seconds to recover before he reached out and carefully picked it up. It was only when held the object in his hands that he finally recognized it as a DVD. He flipped the disc over to the non metallic side only to discover that it was blank other than the number 1 and a date written in black ink on its surface.
Holding it between the index finger and thumb of his right hand he lifted the DVD to his eye level allowing the disc to spin slowly on its axis. The light flashed off its reflective surface directly into his eyes as it spun before with a gentle shrug of his shoulders he promptly slid it back into the envelope. He had placed it back on the top of the chest of drawers before he turned and walked out of the bedroom.
It was only just over thirty seconds later when he rushed back into the bedroom and slid the DVD free from the envelope yet again. He held it flat in the palm of his hand as he debated in his mind whether of not to view its contents.
Why can't he watch it he thought to himself? He was all alone in the house as Debra had taken the kids to her mothers for the weekend. All he had to do was watch it and then put it back exactly where found it and no one would know otherwise.
For some reason his fingers trembled nervously as he loaded the DVD into the player. He watched the tray snap shut with a dull thud switching the television on before lounging back onto the couch with his finger poised just above the play button on the remote. However it was well over two minutes later that he finally found the courage to press down on the play button.
The screen instantly lit up showing a dull mass of gray specks as if the disc was blank and he was just about to press stop on the remote control when an image appeared. The image showed two bottles of champagne on what to him looked like a kitchen table.
It took a quite a number of sideways glances into the kitchen for him to finally work out that the table on the video and the one in the kitchen was one and the same. For around thirty seconds the video showed the same image of the two bottles before suddenly the image jerked around as the camera was carried in rather rough house fashion into the living room. He wasn't sure but he thought he could make out another two pair of legs other than the person who held the camera as the video did not pan above the waist.
"Isn't she ready yet?"
The voice on the video bounced around in his head for a few moments before it finally twigged in his mind that it belonged to Gianni.
"I don't know."
The voice of the person holding the camera was unmistakable as he replied in rather a breathless fashion with the sound of his heavy exertions and breathing blaring from the speakers of the television. Robert.
"But you know how chicks are," Robert added, "they like to take their time to keep us waiting."
"Chicks?" Gianni questioned.
"Woman folk," Robert meekly answered, "girls?"
"Hey whatever you call'em,"Gianni replied, "I just want to get this party started!"
"I don't remember this." Ray stared blankly at the television screen as the camera finally lifted from below the waistline level to briefly show Gianni's rugged face before the camera jerkily turned around to show Robert talking directly into the camera.
"And what a party it will-"
"Hey here she comes!" Gianni's voice cut him off suddenly as his face disappeared in a hurry from the screen. There followed around five seconds of video that jumped around violently and went out of focus a number of times as the camera was hurriedly carried to the foot of the stairs.
The next five seconds was a clear shot of the landing at the bottom of the stairs before it slowly panned up the stair case.
"May I introduce the new president of the local PTA!" Roberts voice came out loud and crisp out of the speakers as if he was actually standing in the room next to Ray. The camera continued its upward journey when a series of loud wolf whistles heralded her arrival.
There walking down the stairs with a confident swagger and a pleased as punch smile on her face was his wife Debra. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw that she had on the same tight fitting low cut red top, black mini like skirt and knee high boots that she had worn in protest a couple of years ago when he had told her the 'little' white fib about the members of the PTA calling her outfit "trampy."
