A new twist on an old favourite.
This, my second submission, is a fair bit shorter than my first.
Similar to my first post this is a psychological thriller with a lot of tension and a devastating but non-violent BTB scene at the end. No sex at all. It chronicles a guy that when faced with a situation with apparently no options, makes his own path.
This guy has always lived by the old Latin phrase 'Aut viam inveniam aut faciam'. If there is no road, make one. He also lives by the phrase, 'It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees'.
Eternal thanks to SW_MO_HERMIT for his wise editorial input. Having said that, any faults are mine not his but he is totally to blame for it going from 10 pages to 18.
I have read this submission several times and corrected grammar and syntax errors. If your spell checker picks up any errors, change the dictionary to English (UK) rather than English (US). Enjoy.
*****
That Sunday afternoon I drove home after a typical summer's day. I slept in that morning, went to church, then golfed with the guys. It has been like that every Sunday for the last year since the second of our kids left home. Our eldest Laura, was now 20. She moved to a nursing school out of town two years ago. Our baby Josh followed to college last year.
I looked forward to a relaxing Sunday evening with my wife of 21 years, Jenny. As I pulled into the garage, I thought again how lucky I was that even after 21 years I still got a little thrill when I thought of seeing my beautiful bride again. Her car was already in the garage. She had spent the day visiting her two long term friends, Joan and Petra. I looked forward to an evening of grilled steaks then either, a snuggle on the couch or in the bedroom if you know what I'm saying.
As I entered the front door the sight of Jenny sitting at the kitchen table with a glass and half empty bottle of wine in front of her was just unusual enough to make my highly attuned senses send faint alarms to my brain. I walked over and gave her a peck on the cheek. Being very perceptive I recognised the look in her eyes, nervous but determined.
"Sit down Dave we need to talk."
The faint alarms changed to a blaring claxon. I did as requested, then sat there expectantly forcing my emotions into the background. As a successful manager in a large underground mine I had this down pat. I had the ability to almost shut down all emotional response and put all my energy into my logic circuits. That served me well in my 25 year career. There is no room for emotion when spending two days recovering a workmate from under 200T of rockfall or doing CPR on a guy who had been thrown from his truck and fractured the base of his skull. Later the nightmares would come but while there was a job to do, emotions could take a back seat.
I waited calmly, with a neutral expression on my face and sensed my emotions getting the hell out of Dodge.
"Dave you know I love you with all my heart don't you?"
"Of course sweetie, you've told me that at least once a week for the last two decades."
"And you love me with all your heart don't you Dave?"
"Of course I do dearest, I have loved you for every single day since we met 23 years ago. Even after all this time I would take a bullet for you without a millisecond's hesitation. I loved you when you agreed to be my wife. I loved you every time you yelled at me when you had PMS. I loved you when I rubbed your growing belly both times you were pregnant to ease your pain. I loved you when I took that month off to look after you and the kids when you had Glandular Fever. Shit, I even loved you after you fell over and sprained both your wrists and I had to wipe your bum and wash you for three weeks. I love you now."
I am sure I saw her quail a little at a couple of these but she obviously had a game plan and continued on with her script.
"Dave, I have something to say and would appreciate it if you could wait till I'm finished before interrupting. Can you do that for me?"
I nodded assent and pulled out my ever present notebook and pen. I didn't want to say anything as my emotions were still retreating to their corner and I didn't trust my voice to not give away my sudden nervousness. Somewhere, sometime, a good conversation may have started with, "we need to talk" but that was probably not in this century.
"You know both Joan and Petra are married right? Well, what you probably don't know is that they both also have lovers." Laura looked into my eyes seeking a reaction. I made sure she saw nothing. I was now 90% sure I knew where this conversation was going but gave nothing away.
"Both Bill and John know about the lovers and are fine with it. Turns out that Bill is turned on by watching Joan with other guys and she actually brings her lovers to their house and Bill watches."
Throughout this monologue Jenny had been looking down at the table. With this last sentence she looked me in the face. I guess she was looking for any hint that I might be like Bill. I made sure all she saw was emptiness. Cold, unfeeling, neutrality. She looked back down at the table. I scribbled a sentence in my notebook.
"After Joan's lover leaves, she says that Bill and her have the most amazing sex they have ever had in their marriage."
Bugger, I'd just lost Bill as a friend. I respect all my friends.
Again another glance at me. My continued impassive expression was obviously making her as nervous as a Butcher's thumb. She continued with her prepared speech.
"John didn't take it as well as Bill when Petra told him about her lover but he stayed with her after a hissy fit. He refuses to allow Petra's lover in the house so they go to a motel. Her lover is married apparently. She usually goes home before midnight. John also refuses to make love to her the nights she comes home but any other night he does. He insists her lover must always use a condom. Petra says that she and John are having twice as much sex as they have had in years and it is much better than it was before she took her lover. She says she has learned things from her lover that she brings back to John and she feels closer to him now than she ever has in the past."
Bugger again. There goes John.
"Both Petra and Joan's lovers are younger than they are. Both say that having young lovers makes them feel incredibly sexy and desirable. Joan is onto her fifth guy and says that she gets an incredible high from going to bars and picking up young men to take home. She always has several guys hitting on her and gets to choose which one she wants. Of course most of them aren't comfortable going back to her place and having sex with her in front of Bill. In those cases she goes back to their place for the night for some solo time. If they want a repeat she tells them the next time has to be at her place. They either agree to her conditions or she dumps them. You know how gorgeous she is so they usually go along with her program."
At this point I was now 99% sure where this was all heading so I excused myself to go to the fridge to get a beer then went to the toilet. I calmed myself, pushing the last of my emotions into their dark corner and ratcheted my logic circuits into overdrive. I quickly thought of two or three plans on how to go forwards. All had one thing in common. Evidence. I had to get evidence and I had to get it fast. I spent two minutes learning how to use the voice recorder on my phone, turned it on and slipped it into my top pocket before returning to the kitchen.
After retaking my seat, I broke my silence for the first time. "Why are you telling me all this Jennifer?"
She never once looked at me as I allowed her to launch into another monologue. "Well Dave, honey, I'm 47 now and have been a housewife for 21 years. I'm starting to lose my looks and every day I see more wrinkles. I want to prove I am still attractive to men. I NEED to prove I still have it."
At this point she hesitated for what seemed an eternity. If ever a marriage hung on one sentence, this was it.
"I have told you how Bill and John took it..." She looked at me worriedly and asked, "How are you going to take it? Will you want to watch like Bill or will I have to go elsewhere?"
Bugger, I'm not as good as I thought I was. My emotions launched out of their corner and started beating logic back. Rage was clearly winning by a full length. I said nothing while I beat them back. My ensuing silence lasted long enough to be very uncomfortable for Jenny. She was searching my face but I have no idea what she saw. Like most people she dealt with the uncomfortable silence by filling it herself.
"I am going to take a lover Dave. I love you to death and would never do anything to jeopardise our future but I have to do this. I want to grow old with you but I have to feel like I can still attract other men before I am totally old and wrinkly. Sex with you is still fantastic and I can't wait for it to get better afterwards. I don't know how long this phase will last but rest assured it won't last forever unless we both want it to. I sincerely hope you can see I need to do this and will support me but if you don't, I know you love me enough to let me do this without it damaging our future. I have total faith in your love. I would never cheat on you so that's why we are having this conversation. You've always said that my happiness is the most important thing in your life, now you get to show me you meant it. I have to do this Dave."
Obviously having finished her rant and desperately looking for some reaction she paused. Her nervous demeanour gave lie to her faith that I would always forgive her.
I mumbled that I had to think, went into my study and locked the door. Once alone I briefly let my emotions out of their corner. Once again rage won the contest and I allowed it to punch the shit out of a couch cushion till my wrist was sore. I then slumped into my chair while sorrow had its turn.
It took a long time to get everything but logic corralled back into their corner and then I thought everything through. Obviously Jenny was having some sort of breakdown or had been brainwashed. This was so far from her normal behaviour that those were the only reasons I could come up with for this totally atypical behaviour.
Well over an hour later I was still confused but had come to terms with some certainties. The main one was that she was dead wrong about my love being strong enough to forgive her everything. The first time she slept with another guy we were finished, forever. I was too old and comfortable to start another relationship. That left only one possibility for me. She had to call off this stupid and terminal idea. Once this decision was made my plan became obvious. I wrote some notes in my book so I wouldn't forget anything.
I spent 10 minutes copying my voice recorder file to my computer to make sure it worked, turned it back to record then returned to the kitchen. Jennifer was on the phone but hung straight up and sat back at the kitchen table. The wine bottle was now empty.
I sat down opposite her.
