Like a playbill in a stage production at a high class theater, right at the beginning I'll set forth the cast of characters in this saga.
I'm Ryan Battle, 43 years old, an engineer and COO of a Russell 3000 company that makes renewable energy products and components.
Michelle Battle, 43, is my wife of twenty two years. She is a marketing account executive at a medium size firm.
Michelle and I have two kids, 19 and 20, who are away at college.
Celia Benson is my older sister, married to Henry Benson. They live within a few miles of Michelle and I. They have three kids, only the oldest of which lives nearby.
Jack Benson, 26, is Celia's oldest child. He is both a tennis professional (mostly instructing although he does play in satellite tournaments) and a salesman for a sports equipment manufacturer.
Simone Benson, 26, is Jack's wife. Simone is an elementary school teacher. Simone delivered a baby boy, Zane, about ten months before the most significant scenarios in this tale arose.
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Probably the most important character virtue to me since I became a teenager is to maintain self-control under all circumstances and in all situations. I'm not positive what experiences early in life led me to this outlook, but it became important to me when I was thirteen, and has gotten more important as I have matured. Because of this outlook I don't drink alcohol (at least not more than one beer at a time), never take drugs, and practice tai chi.
At least before the events portrayed in this chronicle I was proud of being successful in maintaining self-control even under some really challenging and adverse circumstances. Some examples where I maintained self-control can be found in athletic participation, personal relationships, and business dealings.
When I played tight end and linebacker in football there were many situations where players on the other team tried to get under my skin. Despite receiving several illegal blows in different games I never retaliated illegally since that could draw a penalty or ejection and hurt my team. I did retaliate legally, however, and while still under control said things, or made gestures, that drew, over time, a dozen penalties for, and two ejections of, my opponents.
When I came across jerks or insulting individuals in interpersonal relationships, rather than losing self-control and going off on them (either verbally or physically), I simply distanced myself from them.
When married, in circumstances where I could have easily lost self-control I maintained it despite being blatantly hit upon by three really hot women (one of whom was plasma hot and who was hard to purge from my mind).
Perhaps the closest that I came to losing self-control in an interpersonal situation was when some at least half drunk asshole at a bar insulted Michelle (before we got married). In a strong -- but under control -- voice I asked him to apologize, which he did. [I have to admit, though, that his apology may have had more to do with the look in my eye and the fact that I was six inches taller and forty pounds heavier than he was rather then my in-control request.]
In business, there were many meetings and/or dealings with suppliers and customers where things got testy, and others lost self-control. I was almost always able to diffuse the situation, or at least suspend discussions or actions until loss of control was no longer a serious concern.
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I had always liked Simone from the time that Jack first started dating her. She is cute, perky, and pleasant, and loves to tease and harmlessly flite. I've never really heard her say evil things about anyone. Simone often wears glasses -- I conjecture just because she likes to cultivate her school-marm look (she's justifiably proud of her profession), although maybe she really does need them to see well -- I've never inquired. Simone's about five fee three inches tall, and I doubt that (when not pregnant) she registers even 100 pounds when she steps onto a scale. She's much smaller than Michelle or any other woman I dated before marriage.
While Simone is cute and pleasant, I never had even the least bit of lust for her. I did really respect her drive, however, especially when she fully regained (maybe even surpassed) her figure within five months after delivering Zane. I and my family rented a couple of beach houses for ten days with Celia and her family when Zane was five months old; Simone wore a bikini like a petite fashion model during that trip, causing both Michelle and Celia to humorously complain that no one should look that good with a five month old.
My problem started about three weeks after our families got back from that beach vacation, and the local schools were in session. I was meeting with a customer in a large restaurant-bar with a dance floor on a Friday evening when Simone walked in with a few other women her age. When she passed my table she called out to me "Hey UR, fancy seeing you here." ["UR" is what Jack has called me since he could talk, and Simone has picked up on that and has called me UR ever since I met her.]
I introduced Simone to my customer, she introduced me to her three friends -- all elementary school teachers -- and we chatted for a while before they went back toward the dance floor. During our chat I determined that Jack was taking Zane with him while going to register for a satellite tournament about an hour's drive away, which tournament was coming up in a few weeks.
After they left my customer -- eyes wide open -- said, "That's a mega-cute niece you've got there Ryan."
I thought for a moment, a little surprised by his wide eyes, and then replied, "Yes, you're right." A flashback of Simone in a polka-dotted bikini at the beach disturbingly flashed into my brain, but it was only fleeting. Then we resumed our business discussions.
My customer left about 9 o'clock. I went to the washroom and was paying the bill when I noticed a young guy holding Simone's arm and moving toward the exit. She had a glassy look on her face. I signed the credit card slip and then intercepted them. Looking at Simone with my peripheral vision I confronted the guy, who was about my size. "Say dude, it looks like this woman is a little out of it."
He seemed like he wanted to give some smart-alec retort, but then apparently decided to play it cool. "Yeah, my girlfriend had too much to drink and I need to get her home."
"Your girlfriend, huh? What's her name?" I asked.
"Susan -- what business is it of yours," he snapped.
"I guess it's not," I said as I took a step pretending to move out of his way. Just as I hoped he let his guard down an instant and I lost self-control for the first time in my adult life.
I swung my right elbow at his nose. I was spot on. His nose clearly broke and blood spewed out. On the backswing my elbow hit him in his right temple and he collapsed like a deflated balloon. When he let go of Simone she almost hit the floor herself, but I grabbed her before she did. Through glazed eyes she slurred, "Hi UR; what's up?"
I yelled for a bartender who had been warily watching us to call 911 for both the police and two ambulances, which she immediately did.
A waiter came over to us. I implored him to find Simone's table and asked him to get her girlfriends over to us to help me with Simone. He ran off and returned with two of them a few minutes later.
In my discussions with Simone's friends I determined that the knocked-out asshole had been hitting on Simone for a while, and she constantly shot him down. I surmised that when she went on the dance floor he spiked her drink, and then when her friends were away from the table started leading her toward the front door.
I almost lost self-control again when the cops and EMTs arrived because they wanted to treat the asshole first. Apparently the cops concluded that it wasn't worth fighting with me about it, and talked the EMTs into taking Simone first. One of her girlfriends rode with her in the ambulance since the cops insisted that they interview me -- I had no problem with that since they let me call Celia, Jack, and Michelle before they did. A cop also rode in the second ambulance with the asshole, handcuffed to his gurney in view of my initial report backed up by her friends, and Simone's condition.
The cops took me to the station and interviewed me for about an hour -- more than twenty times longer than the length of my confrontation with the asshole. They released me as soon as someone from the hospital called and told them that Simone had been drugged with a date rape chemical.
Simone was released from the hospital the next day, with a prognosis that she would not have any lasting effects from being drugged. The family was beyond pleased with my intervention, and when I told Michelle that I was embarrassed that I lost self-control and should have just held onto Simone and not disabled the asshole she only laughed. "You're weird," she chuckled. "You did the right thing now don't think for even a minute longer that you didn't; I, and the entire family, are so proud of you. In fact, you're going to get the best blowjob of your life tonight."
I smiled at that. "OK," I chuckled.
Sunday, Jack, Simone, Zane and Celia came over to our house. Jack was almost tearing up when he thanked me; Celia was tearing up. Simone squeezed her little body against mine, while she lightly sobbed, for a good two minutes. I didn't like my body's reaction to her hug; I hoped that she hadn't noticed what was going on at my crotch, but I wondered how she could not have.
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That incident started an agonizing time for me. That night when I made love to Michelle all I could think of was making love to someone else -- something that had never really happened to me before. More disturbing was who that someone else was -- Simone.
I started to think about Simone at random times during the day, and dreamt of her every night. The dreams weren't G or PG rated; they were X-rated (I guess NC-17 now days).