Just Once - Another Ending

Just Once (continuation of the Kalimaxos story. I wrote this right after I read his story, but I didn't publish it then for reasons that my old brain has forgotten. So, now here it is. Something jogged my memory.)

After Marcy's call and Leslie's trip to the bathroom, I sent Leslie home. I told her that I would consider the offer, but that I couldn't decide then. She seemed disappointed, but left.

I decided that Marcy had gone beyond anything she had any right to do, and that she had betrayed me to the utmost, especially since she didn't have the guts to tell me beforehand what she was going to do. I couldn't stop her from fucking the asshole doctor, but I could make them both pay. And that's what I set out to do.

During the next week I did the following things.

I had our house packed up completely, as if we were selling it. The movers took all of Marcy's personal things to a storage spot nearby. They took all my things that I had no immediate need for to another storage spot, farther away.

I arranged for a firm to assess the value of the remaining furniture, kitchen ware and assorted knickknacks. The I offered it all to them for 80% of their assessment. They took the deal and emptied the house.

I saw a lawyer and had divorce papers drawn up to be served upon Marcy when she returned to the U.S.

I executed a quit claim deed on the house in favor of Marcy, and had it filed at the courthouse. Then I took almost all our mutual savings to balance out the value of the house.

I cut off our mutual credit cards, and all of mine. I got a new card. Marcy had one in her name. I cut off her cell phone, which she was not really using in South America. I also closed out all our joint checking and saving accounts, and took the money. I removed Marcy as a beneficiary of any of my life, pension and military commissary accounts.

I called the kids and informed them that Marcy and I were getting a divorce, because she was in South America cheating on the marriage. They did not take that well. But they were not home, and I promised that they could see their parents when they needed to do that. I asked them not to contact Marcy while she was on her trip, and they made a solemn promise that they would not do that. I gave them my new cell phone number, but they promised not to give it to her.

I bought a camper van, outfitted with a bed, small kitchen and bath. I packed up for a trip.

I also looked very hard at Dr. Asshole. It turned out that he was a serial seducer, and had caused quite a bit of damage to several marriages.

So I got in touch with some retired friends I had from my Army career, especially intelligence. I arranged a meeting with three people at a bar in Philadelphia. They all drove. At the meeting I outlined what I wanted to happen. We made certain arrangements, and I forked over some hefty cash to one guy.

Two weeks after the meeting, and three and a half weeks after Marcy's call, Dr, Trey Cardosa was kidnapped while in route from an operating theater to his hotel, with my wife. She was left unharmed, but restrained. There was no ransom demand, or any contact whatsoever from the kidnappers.

The evening after the kidnapping Marcy tried to call my cell and found that it was no longer in service. She called Victor and Leslie's house, and spoke to Leslie. Leslie told her that our house was empty of all our belongings, and that I was nowhere around. She told Marcy that I had never touched her, despite the offer.

Marcy called the kids, and they stonewalled her. They told her that I had informed them that she was off cheating on me, and that I was not going to stand for it. They told me that she seemed really distraught, and called me a murdering bastard. When I spoke to them, I denied any knowledge of what she meant by that.

Marcy kept up her efforts with our 18 year old son, and he caved and gave her my new cell number. By that time I was in Wyoming, fishing from my new camper. I saw that the call was from Bogata, but I answered anyway.

'Hello?'

'What have you done? What did you do to Trey?'

'What are you talking about? I have moved on from you. But I did nothing to Dr. Asshole.'

'I told you he meant nothing. Why did you have to mess with him?'

'Listen carefully, I did nothing to him. What happened?'

'He was kidnapped. I was with him. These guys tied me up and beat him, and took him away. They called me a whore, but they didn't do anything. I know you set this up. He better be alive. He better be released, or I'll......'

'You'll what? I have absolutely nothing to do with Dr. Trey's situation, whatever it is. Are you still in South America? Are you headed back?'

'I'm going to complete my work here, and see if Trey returns.'

'Well, have a good time. Maybe you can double up with Penny and her boyfriend until Trey comes back.'

'You jerk. He's not coming back, is he? You had him killed. She was sobbing and could hardly speak.'

'Fuck you, Marcy. That's a dangerous place you're in and Trey seems to have been a victim. Maybe you should come back to the States, be safe. I don't want to see you hurt.'

'I'll bet.'

'Really. I wouldn't want our kids to lose a mother. BUT Marcy, as for me, please never be in touch. You betrayed our marriage and didn't have the guts to talk to me about it. You sneaked off, bitch.'

'You cheated first.'

'No. Maybe I got a blow job, but that's all, and just once. You cheated when I was overseas, and I know it. And you've been cheating with Dr. Asshole for some time now. Right? Do you deny it?'

'I'm a free person. I can have sex with who I want. You left me with the kids and no one to help.'

'Whatever, just don't come across as if I started this and you're justified. You fucked us up all by yourself.'

'Doesn't make any difference now, though, does it? You killed Trey. You fucked up bastard. Someday I'll get back at you for this.'

'Dream on. You don't even know where I am. Don't call again.'

I hung up.

I really didn't feel good about the whole thing, but I didn't feel guilty about Trey. If you fuck someone's wife, you need to expect trouble. And if you fuck someone's wife you need to consider who that someone is, and what he could do to you. Trey didn't think it through. He didn't investigate to see who I was. So, he suffered. Too bad.

I got out my fishing pole and walked toward the river.

About three months after the kidnapping, Dr. Asshole was dropped off at a Bogata police station. He was emaciated, and uncommunicative. It took a day for them to understand who he was. When they did, they had him shipped back to the States.

I understand that he has not recovered from his ordeal, nor resumed medical practice. He's been institutionalized at a mental health facility. If he makes sufficient progress, he may be able to have supervised leave.

I didn't see Marcy until our boy graduated from college four years later. The divorce went through with little difficulty. I think Marcy was afraid to buck, and anyway I was fair.

She told the kids that I had Trey kidnapped, but they just thought she was paranoid. We split holidays. I had gotten an apartment in San Diego. Marcy stayed back east.

I began to date about six months after our phone call from hell. I met some nice women, and the single or divorced ones of a certain age needed sex. I provided that. I found a woman named Anne that I liked a lot. She was 42 y/o, divorced with two twin daughters who were seniors in HS. We became exclusive after they left for college. I moved into her house. We'd take trips in the camper. She liked to fish. We were very compatible. One night after sex I asked her to marry me. She accepted. We had a small ceremony with just kids and other family.

At the reception I asked my kids about their mother. They told me that she had sold the house after the divorce, and moved into an apartment near the hospital. She kept working. She didn't have any steady male friends, but dated.

I brought Anne to the graduation, just after our marriage. Marcy came by herself. I spoke to her briefly. She had gained some weight, and looked haggard. I hoped she would find someone, but I thought maybe that wasn't in the cards.

We were polite to each other, but there was no real emotion on my part. It was the last time I ever saw her. She got lung cancer three years later. She died in a matter of months after her diagnosis. She never smoked in her life and neither did I.

She had a memorial service. I didn't attend.

I don't know whether she really thought that she and I could just go back to being married after she came back from her trip. As soon as I spoke to her in the hotel room, I knew I would never be able to continue the marriage. I hated her. I also felt sorry for her. But at that moment when she answered the phone in his hotel room, I lost all love for her.

I think she just was tired of me. She had had a certain freedom when I was in the military, and posted overseas. She seems to have used that freedom to have sex with other men. But when I was home all the time, she couldn't do that. I think she believed that by openly sleeping with Dr. Asshole, she could have her affairs and me too. Losing the marriage was a risk she was willing to take. A gamble, perhaps. She lost.

As for Dr. Asshole, no regrets. Even if he was a fine surgeon, his other life more than negated the good he did in medicine. At least in my view which, in the end, was what counted.

End.