I stand corrected on a gross error in chapter one that definitely should have been caught in proof reading. Hutch's football position in college was a fullback, not a linebacker. I have watched enough football in my life to have known the difference.
To the other comments - Truth is always stranger than fiction. Yes, Hutch could have nipped it in the bud. However, he knew his wife well enough to wait. The results have proven to be much more desirable. Basic Behavior Science tells us that values control attitudes and behaviors. What Ken did to Lorna and was trying to do to Kathy, was what men have been doing to women since the beginning of recorded history. He first managed to instill a temporary change of values. He would have made those changes permanent had he been allowed to continue.
Two AM Sunday morning - Third week.
A slight hangover beginning to set in and guilt rampaging through her heart and mind, Lorna slipped on a full length, quilted robe with matching booties. She then stumbled into the master bath for some Alka-Seltzer. Feeling much better, she went into one of the bedrooms that faced the front yard. Noting that there were two police cars, she was able to count three police officers and two media vans across the street. Now quite sober and very wide awake, she descended the stairs, thinking, "Don't those media people have better things to do then pester us?"
In the kitchen, Lorna started the thirty cup coffee maker. While it did its thing, she went into the cupboard and found a cake mix aptly called "coffee cake." Reading the instructions, she determined that her conviction air oven would have the cake finished about the time the coffee was ready. With the cake in the oven, she drew out two pump canisters and a picnic basket.
Two canisters of coffee in one hand and the picnic basket full of cake, cups, cream and sugar, in the other hand, Lorna walked down the drive way to join the officers, not noticing her son, Randy's car parked on the far side of the garages. He had arrived from West Point after Lorna and Ken had gone up to the master bedroom and before the changing of the police guard. So, the current shift of officers were unaware of exactly whose car it was parked by the garages. She approached the group of officers, noticing one was female, and announced, "Lady and gentlemen? I bring coffee and goodies." She glanced across the street and breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed no activity among the media vans.
Once they all had a cup of coffee and a piece of cake in hand, Steve Jenkins, the corporal in charge, asked, "How's it going, Missus Hutchinson?"
Recognizing him, Lorna answered with, "Oh Steve, you can call me Lorna. Ah, to answer your question, like shit, Steve, like shit... Over the last few weeks I have said and done all the wrong things at the wrong time and for the totally wrong reasons. I'm afraid that I have managed to make a mess of our twenty five year marriage. I don't think I even know who I am, for sure, anymore. Ah, I've made such a mess of things, I don't even know where to start to fix it."
Steve stepped a little closer to Lorna and said in a gentle but authoritarian tone, "Lorna? I've known you and Hutch for quite a few years, now and it's not hard to tell that you two belong together. So, I'd be willing to bet that if you'll eat a little crow and step to the center, well, I'll just bet that he'd eat some, too and meet you there."
Lorna took a big draw on her coffee, then said, "Yeah Steve, I think you are right about that. I'll give what you said some serious thought." It was becoming very clear to her that filing for divorce was a rash, ill-conceived decision. She changed the subject, going on to talk to the officers about their wives, girl friend and boy friend. Then about three am she left the remaining coffee with the officers and went back to bed in the guest bedroom. She had taken the first step back to Hutch by getting the focus off of herself. However, for Lorna, the very worst of it all was yet to come in that new and dawning week.
Later on Sunday morning - Third week
About eight thirty that morning, after a couple of hours of sleep and a long shower, Lorna made her way down the stairs toward the kitchen to make some coffee and start breakfast. The first thing she noticed when entering the kitchen was that someone had already made the coffee. She looked toward the breakfast nook in the bay windows of the house's turret and found someone she would rather not face right then, her second child. "Randy!?! What are you doing here???"
Dressed in his cadet uniform, Randy stood up and said in the same posture and tone as his father, "I talked to dad, then Kathy and did not like what I heard. So, I came home to see for myself. Tim couldn't get away, or he would be here, also. What's going on mom? What the hell made you want to file for divorce?"
"You.., ah...You just don't understand, Randy..ah..." stammered Lorna.
"Mahm!! I am not a little boy anymore. I am in my third year at West Point, carrying a three point eight grade average and now a cadet captain. I have finished my first season on the Army varsity football team. I have lived for the last two and a half years or so under a strict code of conduct. I had parents who instilled a value system in us so I could be what I am today and what I intend to be in the future. Mahm? I think I understand, So, tell me, why the divorce?!?"
"Oh Randy. It seems Like I was a single parent so often, Your dad missed Kathy's last open house, she ah, had a lot to see there. He ah..."
"Mahm? There is no doubt in my mind that you were the better parent in a lot of ways, even dad admits that. You were always there at our open houses and other events. But, when we needed him, he was always there for us. Who taught Tim and I how to throw a block, catch a pass or make a tackle? Who taught all three of us how to drive? Then took the time to be there with us when we took our driving test?"
Knowing that she did not have the patience or internal fortitude to teach anyone how to drive and beginning to fold, Lorna said meekly, "But, but, I just felt like I was doing it all by myself. I ah..."
"Mother?!? When I was fourteen I sat out there in the living room and listened to the Army recruiter talk to and you and Tim about West Point. I decided then that the Point was where I wanted to go to school and an Army officer was what I wanted to become. The next day, I rode my bike to dad's office. What? Five or six miles, at that time? His secretary told me that he was in a very critical deposition, but she would let him know that I was in the office. He followed her out of the room and ask me how I got there. I told him that I rode my bike. He said it must be very important to me and led me into his office. I told him what I wanted to do in life. So, he made a call and put it on speaker phone. It was the commander of the State's National Guard, himself a West Point grad. Dad was there with me all the way in preparing my winning application. Over thirty thousand people applied for about twelve hundred openings at the Point that year. Dad's still there for me and Tim. You know very well that dad was instrumental in clearing the way for Tim to get into the Harvard MBA program. His influence put Kathy into Harvard Law. And mother? You know he's always been there for you when it made a difference."
Before Lorna could respond, Kathy strolled into the kitchen area, She was wearing her string bikini with a pool shirt, unbuttoned. "Good morning mom. How's breakfast coming? Do I have time for a swim?" Then she noticed her brother, "Randy?!? How long have you been here?"
Now standing with hands on his hips, Randy answered his sister, "I arrived about one this morning." Then turning his attention back to Lorna, "Mother?? Dad's gone a few of days and you are allowing your daughter to dress like that?!? Her bikini doesn't cover a damn thing! Kathy? Why don't you just do without? Skinny dip like most sluts?"
"Randall?!? Do not talk about your sister like that!!" Lorna exclaimed, realizing that it was Ken that talked her into letting Kathy buy the bikini at Victoria's Secret the previous morning.
Before anything else could be said by any of the three, Ken strolled in and whined, "Ya got anything for a rotten hangover?"
The breakfast nook being raised six or eight inches made the broad shouldered, six foot three Army linebacker look like a giant to the one hundred fifty pound, five foot eleven, Ken. A couple of drinks and a puffed ego allowed Ken to step between Randy's father and mother at the school district's party. However, today he had a huge hangover and his ego was damaged again by failing to complete his conquest of Lorna. He was in no condition the face any kind of confrontation, especially from the giant West Point cadet glaring down at him.
After looking Ken over , Randy said, "So mother? Is this who you have been fucking? Now in your marital bed??"
"Randall!!" Lorna screamed "We don't use language like that around here and you know it!! And, especially when we have guests..."
"Mother!!" Randy responded, raising his voice slightly, "Sluts fuck and get fucked. I am simply using the proper terms for the situation. Kind of robbing the cradle, aren't you?" He looked over Ken, again, "You've spent the last twenty five years feasting on steak. Now, you've chosen to settle for a fast food burger. That's a slut as far as I am concerned."
Kathy shot back, "Randy! Don't talk about our mother like that!!!"
Randy glared at his sister, and his mother. Then in the tone of a pissed off Army officer, "It is a historical fact that she is our mother. However, only sluts fuck other men in their marital bed. And, you dear sister are certainly dressed like one. Our code of conduct prevents me from hanging around sluts. So, I'll gather my gear and head back to the Point." He then stepped out of the nook and exited to go to his room.
Lorna placed her elbows on the breakfast bar, buried her face in her hands and began to sob. Ken turned to Kathy and said, "I think I should go. Could you run me home?" He checked his pocket and realized that he had his wallet and keys. He looked toward Lorna, "Ah Lorna? I'll call ya in a couple of days." No response from the sobbing woman. Her son had brought it all home to roost. Randy's comments had hit Lorna's ego like a torpedo. His actions pierced her like a arrow deep into her heart.
Kathy grabbed her purse, slipped on some sandals and a full length coat. Then said to Ken, "OK, come on. You can come back and get your things later." She realized that the best thing she could do at the time was to get Ken out of their home.
A few minutes later Lorna began to recover some of her composure. She realized that she was alone in the house, so she changed into a one piece swim suit and did what she usually did in case of stress overload, swim laps.
Monday morning - Third week
Lorna rose early after a lonely, sleepless night. The highlight of her night was to take a jug of coffee and donuts down to the two officers at about two in the morning. Dragging herself into the shower, she mentally reviewed her schedule for the day. A team had been working on the revamping of a major portion of the elementary curriculum and she was to present their proposal to Paul Allen at eight am. So, she wanted to get in a little early to review the proposal before presenting it. Such an important day needed to be started early, so she left the house before Kathy was out of bed.
Sitting in the superintendent's office, Lorna watched as he read her presentation. Paul closed the booklet and looked at her, "Lorna? I can't present this to the Board tonight. It has some problems. It is better that I give it back to you now, than to have the Board throw it back at both of us. I'll tell you what I'll do, here. I'll itemize my concerns and get it back to you this afternoon. Then you will have two weeks to revise your proposal. Ah, Lorna? I realize that things are strained in your personal life right now. However, I had hoped that you could separate work from problems at home. Ah, this presentation tells me that very possibly, you haven't. What's going on with you and Ken Burns?"
Lorna sat up straight in her chair, "That's over, Paul. I let things go much further than they should have. But as of yesterday, it's over. I do not know what I am going to do about the divorce. However, I will keep you posted. And Paul, I will try to keep home problems at home and work problems at work."
"OK Lorna, I appreciate that. I'll get this presentation back to you as soon as I can."
