Where Was She

A tale of two people who loved each other but didn't notice when things began to go wrong. It happens all too often.

Edited as always by Angel Love. My thanks to her for her encouragement and comments, always right on target.

I hope the 60 year old guy likes this one.

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Where Was She? Part 1

Where in the hell was she? It was now just after 7:00 in the morning and she hadn't answered the home phone or her cell. I had just arrived, coming directly from the airport to the hospital, after my daughter Jessie contacted me at my hotel. That was almost five hours ago. Jessie had been unable to contact Paula, her mother, so she finally called me using the number she found on the refrigerator door. I always left my contact numbers there when I went out of town on business. I glanced at my watch and made a note to myself to call once more at 7:30. She would have to be getting ready for work soon.

I walked back down the hall to the room where Jessie sat at bedside, watching her brother Jim. He was so quiet, so pale, so motionless. According to Jessie, he had been that way since he was brought down from the operating rooms three hours ago. The doctor that came in to monitor his condition told her all we could do was wait. And pray. I sat with Jessie now and did exactly that. I prayed for my son's recovery and for an explanation of how this happened.

I got Jessie's call just after 1:30 this morning at my hotel on the outskirts of Chicago. I was there on a service call and had been for the past two days. I worked as a trouble shooter for the alarm systems my company installed in private homes, high risk businesses, and in museums and galleries. Our systems were state of the art and quite expensive and came with full support. I was the best in our company and I handled only the biggest jobs. For this job, I left early yesterday, Tuesday morning, from Youngstown, Ohio with plans to be back no later than Friday. If things went well, I hoped to fly home late Thursday and finish up in the office for a nice weekend. Paula was going to work a little overtime so that she could be off Friday as well. We planned a long weekend together. The call woke me from a sound sleep, and after what Jessie told me, the end of sleep altogether for that night.

There was no way I could get a commercial flight until morning so I called a charter service that I had used in the past for emergency calls and had them get a plane ready to take me back to Youngstown immediately. They were a top pro outfit and never questioned me. Just told me to check in when I got there. A plane would be ready. I packed what little I had with me and called the desk to get my bill ready. Fifteen minutes later I was in a cab headed for the small airport that hosted the charter.

During this time, I had called my home four or five times without success. Jessie said she had tried to reach Paula at the shop where she worked for her mother and father but the girl working said she was off for a few days. Paula was not answering the phone at home because she was not there. I tried her cell but all calls were being forwarded to voice mail. Paula was not anywhere to be found. I would have worried except for the conditions of this whole thing. I was angry sure, but too worried about Jim to concentrate. I had to get home, now!

As we lifted off in the pre dawn darkness, I went back over what my daughter told me. Paula and I lived in a large home in one of the suburbs around Youngstown. Jessie lived in a small apartment only a few miles from our home. She was out on her own and working with a seamstress in town as sort of an apprentice. She wanted to be a dressmaker and fashion designer but wanted to try it this way. We offered to send her to school and we helped her when she needed it but she was very self sufficient. Jim was enrolled in college in business in Youngstown and lived at the dorm. I wasn't sure what he had been doing at home this time but that wasn't important.

Jessie said she was just getting ready for bed when Jim called her. She saw who it was from the caller ID so she answered only to hear Jim gasping for breath. He told her he was at home, and had just started up to his room when he felt a sharp pain in his head. It was so severe, he lost his balance and fell down the steps and lay there at the bottom, unable to move. No one was home so he didn't know who else to call, so he punched the first number on his speed dial which was her. He asked her for help since he was unable to move and his head was splitting. As they talked, Jim's voice became weaker and weaker until it simply stopped.

At that point, Jessie, God bless her, called 911, gave them the address, told them to enter regardless of whether anyone answered and get her brother to the hospital. She then tried to call her mother on her cell but got no answer so she drove to the house arriving before the emergency crew and found Jim laying at the foot of the steps, pale and hardly breathing. Just then, the emergency crew arrived and in a whirlwind of action had Jim on a stretcher and out the door. She yelled at them to tell her where they were taking him and once she had that information called me.

That was how we ended up here. Jessie and I watching over her brother, and my son, Jim. Paula was nowhere to be found. Not at home, not answering her cell and not anywhere she could be reached. I thought about that and there were no satisfactory answers coming to mind as I wondered what would have happened if Jim had been unable to call his sister. Paula should have been there at home where she belonged. Had she been, she could have responded much sooner and Jim might not have been lying here in critical condition, hovering between life and death. If he died, it would be Paula's fault!

Lost in thought and worry for my son, I waited until about 8:00 and then walked down the hall to the small reception room. I used the wall phone to call home one more time. I dialed the number and waited as it rang three, four then five times. I was about to hang up when she answered.

"Hello? Her voice sounded breathless as if she had been running. Paula didn't run. She never exercised unless it was in her pricy spa. Then it was just pampered crap called cardio.

"Paula, where the hell have you been? I've been trying to reach you for several hours."

Her response was testy and belligerent. She snarled into the phone, "I've been here at home, Del, sleeping like everyone else. Where the hell did you think I was? What's the damn problem?"

So, now I knew. She had deliberately lied to me and did so without any hesitation. Her voice was angry and she was going to attack me as she usually did lately. Nothing I did was right, nothing I said was right and everything she did was perfectly OK. Well, not any longer. Not this time, damn her!

I spoke calmly, holding myself under tight control. There is a time and place for everything and this was not the time. "Jim is at Mercy hospital. He had a blood vessel burst in his brain and he just got out of surgery. He's in critical condition and the doctors don't know whether he's going to make it. Jessie is here. I think you had better get down here as soon as you can."

I hung up the phone before she could respond and slumped down onto one of the chairs. It was clear she had been out all night and callously lied to me. That, coupled with her behavior the past several months all fit together now. She was having an affair and she wasn't even sorry about it. I wanted to be angry: to rant and rave and make plans to kill her and the son of a bitch she was with, but I didn't have the energy to spend on her worthless ass. My son was a breath away from dying and she was out fucking someone else. While he lay there on the floor of our home, blood seeping into his brain, killing him slowly, she was in bed fucking some other man. Her son lay dying while she betrayed all of us.

After I had calmed myself down, I walked back to the room to see nothing changed. Jessie was sitting in her chair, bent at the waist with her head on the side of the bed and her arm flung across her brothers legs. She had fallen asleep. I felt the tears that welled up in my eyes at the love between brother and sister. Unconditional on Jessie's part and I was sure the same was true with Jim. The pride that swelled in my chest for my children made Paula's betrayal insignificant. We would be OK, the three of us. Nothing else mattered now.

I sat and watched the monitors while nurses and doctors came in and out, checking vitals, adjusting IVs, taking readings and in general, watching. Jim's condition remained unchanged. I was drifting off myself when Paula came in the room, breathless and agitated. She looked at Jim and Jessie and burst into tears. I watched her move to the bed and bend over Jim to kiss his forehead and stroke his hair. She was cooing to him and talking softly into his ear. I watched the monitors but saw no response from Jim. He couldn't hear her. Somehow that both pleased and depressed me.

She straightened up and looked over to see me sitting there. She came over to me and bent down to hug me.

"Tell me what happened Del. What happened to him? How did this happen?"

When Paula reached out to put her arms around me, I tensed but didn't try to stop her since I noticed Jessie had waked and was watching her mother. She hadn't said a word, just watched. Paula noticed and pulled back with a look of concern on her face. I thought about what to say but decided I had to be honest, at least with this part of it. I would let everything else play out later. Only Jim mattered now.

"Most of it I found out from Jessie. Jim came home last night late. I don't know why but he was there just after midnight. Since the house was empty, he started up the stairs to his room but felt a sharp pain in his head. It caused him to fall down the stairs where he hit his head and broke one of his arms. He had his cell so he called Jessie." At that point, I looked over to see Jessie smiling at me. "She was so brave and did such a wonderful job. She was the one that saved his life and got help. She got the paramedics to the house, tried to call you but when she couldn't get you, called me. I got a flight home and here I am. Jim had surgery and he's in critical condition. The doctors don't know if he'll make it. He bled too long before the paramedics could get to him."

As I spoke, I watched the color fade from her face, her breathing become shallow and rapid and her eyes widen. I knew what she had done was now coming home to rest squarely on her. Her betrayal may have cost our son his life. Not only that, but it was clear to everyone here what she had done. There was nowhere she could hide, no one who would not know her part in this. As her eyes met mine, she knew. And she could see the accusation in my eyes.

Before she could speak, I rose, told her I had to get out of the room, and walked over to Jessie. I hugged her and whispered in her ear to call me if anything changed. She said OK and I walked out of the room without another word. I had to get away from Paula and Jessie and Jim and all that had happened. Call me a coward, a wimp, anything you wish but I had to leave. At that point I felt I would literally explode if I stayed there any longer. I walked down the hall, turned left toward the exit rather than to the lounge and out the door to my car. I got in, closed the door and pounded my fists on the dash. The anger and the grief inside me fought to be released. I shed the tears I had suppressed through the last painful hours. The tension was still there, but I was alone and free to let go.

For what seemed like forever, I raged and pounded and cried until I forced myself into some sort of calm. After I stopped, and the tears dried up, I decided to head home to change my clothes and pull myself together. The doctor told me that Jim was in an induced sleep and would be that way for the next 36 hours at least. They wanted to keep him under while the swelling in his brain subsided. The less activity now, the less chance of damage. At least that was the thinking. So, it was safe for me to be gone for a while.

I walked into the house, noticing how dark and silent it was. I walked over to the base of the stairs and looked at the floor. There was only a small spot of blood, not the huge puddle I expected and the floor was scuffed and scratched where they had knelt to administer to him. I looked up the stairs, almost seeing Jim as he stopped in surprise at the jolt of pain and then the failure of his legs to support him. I watched him tumble down the stairs and I actually reached out to stop his flight before remembering that this was just a nightmare. I shuddered and turned away to stop the vision.

I walked into the kitchen, thinking to fix myself a cup of coffee before I had to brave the stairs when I saw the small overnight bag on the floor near the door to the garage. Paula must have just gotten home and had probably dropped it when the phone call came in. She had not had the time to take the bag upstairs after the call. I bent down to retrieve it, taking it over to the table. I opened it more in curiosity than with any clear purpose. The smell hit me between the eyes: the smell of sex! I pulled out a pair of panties that were wet and smelled of arousal. I dropped them as if they were a snake ready to bite. I backed away from them before catching myself. I had to be sure. I found a new night gown, one I had never seen, also wet but with some dried white crust. I knew what that was. There was a skirt and blouse that must have been from yesterday and some perfume and other cosmetics. All the things needed for an overnight visit with her lover.

I collapsed onto one of the kitchen chairs and held my head in my hands. Now that I had final proof of her infidelity, her adultery, I felt nothing but emptiness. It was all too much to take in. My son in the hospital, near death. My wife of twenty four years unfaithful. My daughter forced to handle her maturity in adversity. My life about to change for the worse. I couldn't deal with it right now. I rose, went to the cupboard and took out a bottle of cooking sherry. I didn't drink often and I hated sherry but I wanted something to take that horrible taste from my mouth. The taste of ashes, the residue of my life as it had been.

As I sipped straight from the bottle, the phone rang. I let it go to the answering machine since I had neither the strength nor the courage to field calls just now. I ignored it as the message played and then a voice I recognized came on, snapping me back.

"Hey babe, where did you go? I woke expecting to find you still in bed beside me. Please call and let me know where you are, OK? Last night was really great for me. Call me when you get in. I'd like to get together one more time before Finnie gets back. Why don't you meet me at our usual place. Call me. Love you."

I knew the voice but the name, Finnie, was the clincher. Only my brother Johnny ever called me that. My name was Delfin Reynolds, or Del for short, to everyone else. Even Paula never called me Finnie. Only John. My older brother. My blood!

Now I knew everything. I guessed that this wasn't a one time thing. They had apparently been cuckolding me for some time now and doing it without any degree of shame.

They had a usual place and they were nonchalant about it. Paula must make it a habit whenever I traveled. While not often, it was often enough for them to get comfortable with each other. I wondered now why I had never picked up on anything. I had noticed the changes in Paula but I never put it together!

As I thought about it, I became angry. All this time, my brother and my wife had been making a fool of me. I didn't know how long it had been going on but it was too long. My anger grew as I imagined them together and it became a cold fury. I couldn't accept this and I knew that my marriage was over. My brother! My wife! The cold fury became a blinding rage that threatened to consume me if I didn't gain control. I took a healthy swig from the bottle before throwing it across the room to crash against the wall, shattering into a thousand shards of broken glass. Broken like my marriage! I fought then to gain control of myself and calmed my breathing until I felt easier. I was the injured party but I was not going to be the victim here. I would take control of the situation and it would be resolved my way.

I took the bag with her things and jammed it in the trash cart in the garage. Nothing inside that bag was coming into my home. Yet, I knew I couldn't stop her from living here since legally it was her home as much as mine. Well, I could remove myself from the house. I wasn't going to stay with that slut ever again. I decided then and there that this was the last time I would ever call this place home. She had made that impossible for me. In reality, it was her home, more than mine. She found it, loved it and convinced me to buy it. We had lived here for the past ten years, while our children grew into adults and left home. In the last three years, we had been alone while the kids went out on their own. As I reflected on that, it seemed that things changed shortly after that. That was the time Paula began to spend more time outside the home in meetings, shopping, trips with her girlfriends and other things demanding more of her time. She had begun working for her mother and father in their photography business. They had photography shops in a couple of locations where they took photographs, sold cameras, picture frames and all the accessories, the new digital cams and other stuff like that. They wanted to retire and travel so she had taken on more and more of the supervisory job leaving them free to travel more.

My brother John had been a frequent visitor to our home after his wife divorced him a little more than a year ago. According to him, the divorce was his decision but now I suspected she had found him out in an affair. At the time, I knew he was seeing someone on the side but all I knew was that she worked in his office. Apparently that ended some time ago and he then took up with my wife. They must have decided to keep it in the family so that it would be easier to control. When I traveled they could get together and fuck their hearts out. When I was home, they could still stay in touch and maybe find an afternoon to get together while I was at work. No doubt they were laughing at me all that time.

I had to stop this now. My son was in trouble and he needed me to be strong for him. This self pity was not going to help him at all. It wasn't doing me any good either. There were decisions that had to be made and I was damned if I would leave that up to Paula. She had no right to make decisions for Jim since she was mainly at fault for his condition. Damn her! Damn her to hell! As for John, he would be out of my life as soon as possible. He was no longer going to screw me or my wife behind my back.

I showered, changed my clothes, packed up my toiletries and most of my clothes into two large suitcases and carried them all out to the car. I made several trips collecting all my files and my computer from the den. I cleaned out the desk drawers and the cabinets taking whatever I felt I would need. I looked around the house but was surprised to find that other than what was in my den, there was little I wanted. I decided to let her have it all. It meant nothing to me now. It was no longer a home to me, just a place where I used to hang my hat. She and John could rot in hell here for all I cared. I laid my keys on the kitchen table and pulled the door shut. I took one last look back and then drove away for what I assumed was the last time.

Two hours later, I pulled into the hospital parking lot. I had rented a room in a cheap motel nearby until I could find a better place, but that would come later. Now, I had to be with my son and daughter. I went up to his floor and walked down that long hall to his room. I walked in to see Paula and Jessie talking angrily to each other. They were keeping their voices low but the anger was clear on Jessie's face while Paula was crying. I stood in the doorway, watching. Jessie saw me and stopped talking to Paula. Paula turned her head to see me and, with a sob, ran past me and out into the hall. I watched her go without emotion. She was nothing to me now.