She wasn't mine anymore
... but I traded up.
It was difficult to pick up a newspaper or watch a TV news show without some famous couple getting divorced. Most celebrity marriages, it seemed, last months instead of years, and soon after their divorce one or both of them were getting married again. It also seemed that their divorces were pretty much taken in stride. There are exceptions, however where celebrity couple stay married or together for many years just like average people. I always believed that long celebrity relationships were special because they had to work harder to maintain them. But then again I could be wrong. If you were truly in love it wouldn't take much effort to maintain a relationship. I stopped reading about, or listening as the talking heads on TV described celebrities as though everyone on earth should be concerned and worried about the them and their relationships and lifestyles. Their lives meant nothing to me or anyone around me.
I had, however, occasionally wondered how I would act if my wife ever wanted a divorce. Would I explode? Cry? Beg? And what would be the cause of either of us ever wanting a divorce. As far as I knew we were happy. We did things together. We had date nights, which we both enjoyed and we both had jobs we enjoyed. Everything in our lives was damn near perfect; until I was told I was going to Korea for a year without my wife.
I was a Captain in the Army at the time. William (Bill) C. Christopher is my name. Lois Diane Christopher was my wife's name. She sold cosmetics for a nationally known company. She was doing pretty well because she had several other women whose sales Lois received a percentage of. I don't think they were considered employees of hers, but they somehow bought their cosmetics through Lois and reported all of their sales to her and she received a cut of everything they did.
They also had conventions every year and Lois never missed them. I went with her twice, but vowed I would never go again. Thousands of dedicated, screaming women in a convention center was more than I could handle.
We both knew that a short, unaccompanied tour was in the cards for me, but we always hoped against hope that I would get lost in the shuffle of bodies and be forgotten. It was not to be. I was alerted for a 13 month tour in Korea. The day I left was a sad day for both of us, as it was for all the other soldiers who had done it before me.
My initial assignment was to Headquarters, Eighth Army, as a project officer in the Operations Office. I had been there less than three months when I was moved to the staff of the Commanding General. It was a huge promotion for me. Not in rank, but in prestige.
Lois and I maintained communication. We talked almost daily about how lonely it was and how much we missed and loved each other.
One day she told me she was going to her company's convention. She hadn't missed one so I fully expected it. It was going to be in Hawaii and she bought two new bathing suits to take with her. She sent pictures of her modeling them for me, and when I saw her in them, I missed her all the more. If you're thinking "who took the pictures" I'll tell you that three of the women in her group were with her in the pictures.
I was in my office which was two doors away from the commanding general's when his secretary brought in his travel schedule for the next month. Those were always classified "Until the event" which meant simply that only those people with a need to know knew of his travel plans. After they happened, nobody cared so the classification went away.
So his schedule said that he was attending a three day conference in Hawaii then going on leave for a week before attending meetings in Washington. He was to be gone a full two weeks. I looked at the calendar on my desk and two of the days overlapped Lois's convention. I immediately put my name on the manifest of the General's plane. I was going to Hawaii.
I arrived two days before she was scheduled to get there. My plan was to surprise her, spend the convention with her, then fly back home for ten more days. I would meet the General's plane in Washington, D.C. to fly back to Korea. There was room at her hotel until the conventioneers started coming in so I asked for a room. I told them I was meeting my wife there as a surprise. They checked her reservation.
"It won't be much of a surprise, Dr. Nichols. She already has you registered."
I was taken aback. "She does?"
"Yes, sir. I can go ahead and put you in that room if you would like."
"Let me get back to you." I almost ran getting away from there. Who the hell was Dr. Nichols? I could call her and find out what was happening, but if something were going on, she would have time to change it. I felt like I was stepping into one of those romance novels where the husband sits in the lobby of the hotel waiting for his wife and her lover to appear and confronts them. Either that or he catches them in their room fucking or just starting to fuck or just finished fucking.
On the other hand, I could be overreacting and everything was perfectly innocent; and if I really believed that, I was dumber than dirt.
So I had almost two days to figure out what I was going to do. The hotel she would be in could give me a room until the ladies started checking in then I'd have to move so I might as well check in somewhere else. That was easier said than done. No hotel in Honolulu had a room. Then I remembered the military had a hotel. I found their number and called. They had a room so I took a taxi over there and checked in.
An hour later I was sitting on the beach wondering what to do. I finally went to bed at three in the morning. The next day found me shopping in the morning, but back on the beach in the afternoon.
Lois was due to arrive early afternoon so I dressed in what I thought was appropriate for what I had planned and went to her hotel. The hoodie I bought the day before was pulled up over my head and my sunglasses were so big, they covered not only my eyes, but practically my whole face. When I got to the hotel front desk, I took my sunglasses off and pulled my hoodie back just enough so the clerk could see me, but if there were any cameras on, they would not be able to positively identify me: at least that's what I hoped.
"My sister is coming in for the convention. Could you tell me her room number, please?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but all the people here for the convention who are staying with us have already been pre-registered and their keys are at the registration desk at the convention center next door."
"Thank you." I put my glasses back on and pulled my hoodie up. There were likely to be fewer cameras in the convention center, but I kept my hoodie and glasses in place anyway. I stood in a long line and asked the lady at the registration desk the same question. She looked in her files. She's in room 1286 and it looks like she and her husband just checked in."
"Thank you." I said and walked away. There was a big bulletin board on the wall across the room and it had a big banner across the top "Find Your Group" is what it said. I went to it and found Lois's group. She was scheduled to be in some sort of advanced skin color class in two hours. It gave the room number of the class. I found the classroom along a long corridor with benches lining both walls. A constant stream of women were up and down that corridor and I never heard such chatter. A dead person couldn't sleep there.
About ten minutes before her class was scheduled to start, I saw her coming with two other ladies. I had my glasses on and my hoodie up, but the only thing she was focused on was the discussion she was having with the ladies.
So she was there. Now to find out if Dr. Nichols, whoever the hell that was, was with her. I went back to the hotel and sat in the lobby, not knowing my next step. I watched as two security guards walked around and finally went through an unmarked door. A few minutes later one of them came out in civilian clothes and I had an idea. I walked into that room and looked around. There was an office of sorts with nobody in it. There were two doors leading out of that office. One marked Male the other Female. I went into the male room. I heard the shower running and looked around. On a bench in front of a row of lockers was a guard uniform. I picked it up, searched the pockets and found several key cards on a chain. I put them in my pocket and left, making sure my hoodie and glasses were in place.
I left the hotel and walked until I felt it safe enough to look at the key cards. I looked around me and there were cameras all over the place. I went into a wild Hawaiian shirt store and straight into their men's room before taking off my glasses. Sure enough, one of the key cards had MASTER written on it. I smiled.
I assumed that once the guard discovered his cards missing, every camera in the hotel was going to be on continuously, so I'd have to be more careful. I put my glasses back on and went shopping. I found a blond wig and went back to my hotel where I dressed in slacks and sport shirt with my blond wig and sunglasses.
I headed back to the convention center and checked to see where her group was. She was still in class so I headed up to her room. I knocked and said Hotel security. I did it twice. No response, so I went in. Her suitcase and carryon were there. I knew they were hers because my handwriting was on the luggage tags. The other suitcase and carryon had a different name. Dr. Richard C. Nichols. The bed looked as if there had been a riot on it so I assumed they had taken time for a quickie before heading out. His clothes were scattered about as were hers, but then hers always were. He must have been either at the pool or the beach because his wallet and everything else you would expect to find in a man's pockets were on the bathroom counter.
It didn't take me long to gather up everything they had, stuff it all in to one suitcase or the other until there was nothing else to stuff. Even her makeup case fit. They must not have had much packed because I never needed either carryon. I put a pair of her panties and a pair of his shorts on the bed. I put his wallet in my pocket, adjusted my wig, put on my glasses and left. All the way down the hall, in the elevator, thorough the lobby, and out to the taxi stand I kept my head down.
The first taxi driver in line loaded the two suitcases in his trunk as I sat in the back seat. "Airport, please."
He took me there, I paid him and took the two suitcases and stood outside. I stood there and cancelled all of Lois's credit cards; even her business one. They didn't ask a single question just agreed to cancel it. I also cancelled her phone. All effective immediately. Then I cancelled all of Dr. Nichol's cards and phone. I took the next taxi back to my hotel. I called the Air Force Base to see if there were any flights going back to CONUS (Continental United States). There were occasionally empty seats so members of the military and their families could hop a ride for nothing. There was one leaving for McDill Air Force Base in Florida very early the next morning. I booked myself on it.
When it got dark, I took the two suitcases down the three flights of steps, out the back door where there were no cameras, because I had checked, tossed them in the dumpster and returned to my room to nap and get ready for my flight to McDill.
The flight was long with no inflight service except sharing the crew's coffee and the snacks they carried for their own use. I had some cheese crackers and a couple of candy bars, but they weren't interested.
