The Caller

Author's Note: Once again I want to thank Techsan for taking time from his busy schedule to edit this story for me. Please provide feedback. It is the only payback we authors get for our efforts. Thanks.

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It had to be a hoax. An ill conceived, mean spirited practical joke but who would do such a thing. Who would chance destroying a good marriage just for a laugh? Those are the thoughts I was left with after that first phone call.

This all began six months ago as I was sitting in my office at Apex Office Integrators waiting for my two o'clock conference call on a Wednesday afternoon. I am a project executive for Apex and I have responsibility for three or more network integration projects at any one time. This meant I spent a lot of time on the phone on conference calls to get updates on my projects or to deal with problems and put fires out. It was only 1:30 PM so I was surfing the Internet looking at a digital camera I wanted to purchase when my phone rang. I reached over and picked it up without taking my eyes off the computer screen.

"Hello, Apex Office Integrators, Mike Fulton speaking."

"You are Mike Fulton?" asked the female caller.

"Yes. How can I help you?"

"I don't think you can help me but I hope I can help you," she said.

"Help me? How?"

"Is your wife's name Brenda?"

"Yes."

"Does she have a good friend named Kara?" she asked.

"Yes," I said suspiciously, "what is this about?"

"I just wanted to warn you that if you don't act soon your wife is going to have an affair."

"What? Who is this? Is this some kind of a joke because it isn't funny," I said.

Her statement came from so far out of left field that I didn't know how to react to it. Should I just laugh at her or get angry. Or maybe I should just hang up on her.

"I can't tell you who I am. I just wanted to give you a chance to prevent this before it happens."

I knew my wife and I knew she would never cheat on me so this call had to be some kind of a joke but who would perpetrate such a cruel joke. If I believed what this woman was telling me I would be extremely hurt and angry. Why would anyone want to put me through that? I wondered if the caller knew it was a joke or was she just doing something she was asked or told to do by someone else? As much as I wanted to slam the phone down, I decided to wait and play along at least for a while to try and find out who was behind this hoax.

"Why do you think my wife is going to have an affair?" I asked as calmly as possible.

"I heard them talking about it."

"You heard who talking about what?" I asked.

"Your wife and her friends Kara and Francis, I think. They go to a place called Vinny's for lunch every Wednesday and sit at the same table, right inside the door in front of the windows. I also go there for lunch on Wednesdays and I have been sitting at the table next to them. Eating by myself is boring so I tend to listen in on other people's conversations for entertainment," she said.

Kara was Brenda's best friend and they had been friends since college. We all went to the same college and I met them both at the same party. Kara had been dating her husband John for more than a year when I started dating Brenda. We have been close friends ever since. Francis was a name I didn't recognize. I didn't ever remember hearing Brenda mention anyone named Francis.

"And you heard my wife planning to have an affair?" I asked.

"Not exactly. Let me explain. Your wife's friend, Kara, has been telling your wife, about the affairs she has had over the last couple of years and how exciting they are. She has also been trying to talk Brenda into having an affair. She has been telling your wife that not only would the affair be exciting but it would also make sex with you more interesting.

"So far your wife has been reluctant but over the last few weeks I have noticed that her objections to Kara's suggestions have gotten less forceful and she has even begun to ask questions and generally show more interest in the subject than she did at first. I just think that you need to do something to stop this before it goes too far," she said.

"Why do you care? I mean, why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"I just don't want to see someone ruin their marriage because she took bad advice from a friend," the caller said.

"You say that Brenda is showing more interest lately? How long have you been listening in on their conversations?"

I was starting to see holes in her story but I didn't want to shut her off yet. I still needed to try and find out who was playing me this way.

"It's been six or seven weeks now. What are you going to do about it?" she asked.

There it was, the hook. I wasn't ready to cut her off but I wasn't about to bite either.

"I don't know. I need to find out more about what's going on before I do anything. Can I call you if I need to?" I asked.

"No. I'll call you if I think we need to talk again."

I knew she would never give me her number but I had to try. I felt that my only options were to either ignore the whole thing or act as if I might believe what she was telling me in hopes of finding out whom the caller was and why someone would be fucking with me this way.

"Okay, you'll call me," I said. "Please do."

I set the phone down and sat for a minute while I tried to make sense of the call. I knew what the caller had told me was bull shit. Brenda would never cheat on me. In the thirteen years we had been together, two years of dating and eleven years of marriage, Brenda has always been a loyal and devoted wife. She has never given me any reason to doubt her love for me and it seems she is always finding new ways to demonstrate just how much she loves me. For my part I can honestly say that I have been just as loyal and devoted to her.

There are two more reasons I couldn't believe that Brenda would cheat on me. Kevin and Michele, our children. Kevin is six years old and Michele is eight. I know that Brenda would never do anything that would hurt our kids so I knew this whole thing had to be bogus.

I had to put the call out of my head and get on the two o'clock conference call. Problems brought to light during the conference call kept me busy the rest of the afternoon, which helped me put the strange call out of my mind while I was at work but it was right back in the forefront of my thoughts as I drove home that evening.

When I left my office I fully intended to tell Brenda about the call but as I thought about it on the way home I decided that was not the best course of action. I didn't want to worry Brenda unnecessarily. I would tell her all about it as soon as I figured out who was behind the joke or hoax or whatever it was.

All that evening I kept considering and reconsidering whether I should tell Brenda about the call. As it turned out it wouldn't have mattered what I decided as the opportunity to talk to Brenda that night didn't present itself. Kevin and Michele kept me busy helping them with their homework and when they finally went off to bed I got a call from one of my project manager in California. While I was talking to him Brenda came into my office and kissed me on the cheek and then whispered that she was tired and was going up to bed. By the time I got off the phone Brenda was already asleep.

*****

Thursday was a busy day for me and I pushed all thoughts about the previous days phone call out of my head. Early in the day I wondered if I would get another call but by lunchtime I had forgotten about that and there was no call that afternoon.

I half expected a call on Friday but when it didn't happen I just pushed the call and the associated annoyance out of my head. Once I had been able to put the call out of my mind it just faded into the background and I didn't think about it again until the following Wednesday.

*****

Wednesday morning went very well and it looked like the afternoon would also go by quietly. That afternoon Jake Peterson was in my office. Jake is the project executive with responsibility for the Northeast. We were discussing some common problems we were seeing in our projects and trying to see if there was a common solution when my phone rang.

"Mike Fulton here," is answered.

"Hi Mike, it's me again," came the now familiar voice.

"Can you hang on a minute please," I said. "I have someone in my office."

"Sure."

"Jake, I have to take this call, do you mind," I said.

"No problem," Jake said as he got up and headed for the door. Just before he stepped out he turned and said, "That your girlfriend?" then he laughed as he closed the door behind him.

"I'm back."

"You didn't do anything, did you?" The voice asked.

"What?"

"You didn't do anything to stop your wife, did you?"

The question caught me off guard and it took me a moment to come up with an answer.

"I haven't quite decided how to handle this," I said. "Is there something else I should know?"

"Did you forget that today was Wednesday?"

I said, "No," but the significance of it being Wednesday didn't come to me immediately.

"Right, you remember that today is Wednesday but you forgot that your wife was having lunch with her friends again today," the voice said.

My stomach muscles tighten involuntarily when she said that. Trying to remain calm I asked, "So, did you listen in on their conversation today?"

"Yes, and I am telling you that you had better decide what you are going to do soon or it may be too late," she said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Today it wasn't Kara that brought up the subject of having a fling, it was your wife."

That was not possible. I knew she would never do that. I was angry again. How was I going to get to the bottom of this if this unless I could find out who my caller was?

"What did Brenda say?"

"Your wife asked Kara if she had been out on one of her secret dates in the last week."

"That doesn't mean that Brenda is looking to have an affair," I said.

"No, it doesn't but when Kara said that she had been out last night your wife told her she wanted to hear all of the sordid details," she said.

I didn't know how to respond to that. I was trying to play the role of the suspicious husband when all I really wanted to do was find out who I was talking to. I tried to think of what I would say if I believed what I was being told by this woman.

"I'm sorry, I am just having a hard time believing what you are telling me," I said.

"I know this is difficult for you but you have to believe what I am telling you or you may have a big mess to deal with later on."

"Can we meet to talk about this?" I asked hopefully.

"No. I will call you," she said. "You better fix this soon."

The caller hung up on me before I could say anything else.

I was too angry to get much work done after the call so I went home early.

*****

Wednesdays are Brenda's late nights. By late I don't mean late at night. On Wednesdays Brenda picks Michele and Kevin up at school. She drops Kevin off at her mother's house and takes Michele to her Brownie meeting. Brenda is an assistant leader for the troop so she stays for the meetings. After the meeting she picks Kevin up and the three of them get home around six o'clock.

On that Wednesday I got home at 3:30 PM and went into my study. I got a pad of paper and started to analyze the problem. Being a project executive I am responsible for making sure my projects stay on track. Anytime a problem crops up on a project the first thing I do is get pad and pencil and start to break the problem down and analyze it until I know the cause and the fix. It is really the only way I knew to deal with problems so that is the way I chose to deal with this new problem.

I started by summarizing what the caller had told me. "Kara is bragging about affairs she has been having. She is trying to talk Brenda into having an affair. Brenda hasn't agreed but has been showing some interest. These conversations have taken place over six or seven weeks."

Next I made a list of the reasons I thought the story was bogus.

1.Brenda would never cheat on me. 2.I have known Kara as long as I have known Brenda and I don't believe she would cheat on her husband John. 3.I knew that Brenda and Kara used to get together for lunch once a week but Brenda hadn't said anything about their lunches in so long that it was doubtful that they were still meeting weekly. 4.The caller mentioned a third person named Francis. Brenda had never mentioned anyone named Francis. 5.The caller said that she sat at the table next to the three of them six or seven weeks in a row. I found that very hard to believe. The idea that three women would always have the same table and that my caller managed to get the table next to theirs every week didn't sound believable to me. 6.Brenda is a very observant person. She would notice if the same person kept sitting next to them and she would also notice if that person seemed to be listening to their conversations. If she thought someone was listening to them, Brenda would have put an end to that, either by changing where they sat or going to a different restaurant for lunch.

Next I made a list of all the explanations for the call that I could come up with.

1.Practical joke by one of my friends. 2.Practical joke by one of Brenda's friends 3.Nasty trick by one of my enemies 4.Nasty trick by one of Brenda's enemies 5.Nasty trick by old girlfriend of mine 6.Nasty trick by old boyfriend of Brenda's 7.Some guy has a crush on Brenda and wants to break us up 8.Some girl has a crush on me and wants to break us up 9.As an after thought to numbers 7 an 8 it could be a woman with a crush on Brenda or a man with a crush on me (just trying to cover all of the bases). 10.We are just a random target for someone's idea of a good joke 11.We are the target of a reality TV show that plays mean jokes on people to capture their reactions for a television program (This was really reaching but I was running out of ideas) There were seven or eight other items on the list that were as equally absurd as the TV reality program that I no longer remember. The last item on the list was, 'The caller was telling the truth and Brenda is contemplating having an affair.'

I spent the next hour considering each possibility and reordering the list, moving the most unlikely possibilities to the bottom of the list thus moving the most likely to the top. I quickly ruled out a practical joke by either my friends or Brenda's. None of our friends were into practical jokes and none would ever do anything so mean spirited. Nasty tricks by enemies didn't compute either. I didn't have anyone I would consider an enemy. I knew there are people that may not like me but I have never treated anyone so badly that they would do something like this to me. I was equally sure that Brenda didn't have any such enemies. Old girlfriends? I had two girlfriends before I met Brenda and neither of those relationships ended badly. I only knew of one boyfriend of Brenda's but they had stopped dating more than a year before I met Brenda. A gay or lesbian crush was not a possibility either as far as I was concerned.

I went through the list four times making sure I considered every possible factor. When I was done the TV reality show made the top of the list followed by the caller was telling the truth and Brenda is contemplating having an affair.

I wasn't happy with the result and didn't believe them to be correct. I knew that there was no TV reality show. It just wasn't plausible, but then none of the other possibilities had been plausible either. That brought me back to the basic problem. The caller was either telling the truth or she wasn't. If she was lying, why did she do it and who else was involved. If she was telling the truth, which I still did not believe, my marriage was in big trouble.

In order to determine where the truth lay I was going to have to ask Brenda some questions. I was going to have to do that in such a way that it would not make Brenda suspicious. If she were innocent, as I believed, she would be hurt to think that I might possibly not trust her. On the other hand, if the caller was telling the truth and Brenda became suspicious about me questioning her she might figure out that I knew something. If that happened I would never find out the truth. It might stop Brenda from having an affair but I would never know if she had actually considered having one or not. I had to get information from Brenda a little at a time in order to avoid making her suspicious.

When I heard the garage door opening I destroyed my notes and walked out to the kitchen to greet my kids and my wife when they came into the house. As soon as the kitchen door opened Kevin ran over to me and slapped my thigh and said, "Hi dad. Can I go watch TV?"

"Yes."

"Dad, look what I made at Brownies tonight," Michele yelled as she ran over to show me the pinecones she had glued small candles to. "They're for starting fires in the fireplace. You light the candle and then the pinecone catches on fire. Isn't that a good idea?"

"That's a great idea sweetie. We can use these this winter when we use the fireplace," I said.

Michele's face lit up to show that she was happy with my response and then she ran off to join her brother in front of the television.

Forty-five minutes later the four of us were at the dinner table eating spaghetti.

"How was your day?" Brenda asked me.

"Pretty much the same as any other day. My projects have been running pretty smoothly for the last few months so I haven't had any fires to put out," I said.

"If you need to start a fire you can use one of my pinecones dad," Michele said as she giggled."

"I'll do that Shell. Next time I want to set fire to one of my projects I'll use one of your pinecones."

Michele laughed and scoped up some spaghetti on her fork.

I turned to Brenda and said, "Have you seen Kara lately?"

"I had lunch with her today," she replied. "Why?"

"Really? I didn't know you were still doing that," I said.

"We still have lunch together every Wednesday, but why did you ask if I had seen her?"

"It's just that you haven't mentioned her in a long time and we haven't been out with Kara and John in nearly a year. I was just thinking that we should go out to dinner with them sometime soon," I said.

"You want to do it this weekend? I'll call Kara and ask her," Brenda said.

"Why don't you? It would be nice to see the two of them again."

I had established that Brenda and Kara were still meeting for lunch every week so I decided to risk digging a little deeper.

"So, you still meet for lunch every week. Where do you go?"

"We go to Vinny's. It's a little Italian restaurant in a shopping center over on Apian Way."

I knew where the shopping center was. It had a large super market, a drug store, several small specialty stories, a coffee shop and a Domino's Pizza store. I hadn't been in that part of town in a couple of years so I had never heard of Vinny's.

"You always go to the same place?" I asked.

"Yes. They have good food and it's not expensive. Most of their lunch business is take out so it's easy to get a table and the service is fast and it is the most convenient place for the three of us to meet," she said.

I was starting to get a sour feeling in my stomach. So far everything I found out matched what the caller had told me.

"Three of you? I thought it was just you and Kara." I said.

"Kara's college roommate started working with Kara about a year ago and she has been coming to lunch with us every week."

"Do I know her?" I asked.

"I don't think you ever met Francis. She was Kara's roommate for two years but she had already graduated before you met Kara and me."

"So the three of you go to lunch every week. Maybe I'll join you there sometime," I said as I watched Brenda to see her reaction to that.