You Always Regret
Jodie Morgan moved in across the street from us when she was fourteen years old. For a fifteen-year-old boy, it was love at first sight. There was no 'cute meet'. From the beginning, it was as if we were destined to be together forever.
Enough of all that squishy stuff.
What really bound us together was a common love of adventure. We constantly had to be doing things. Not just common everyday things but extraordinary stuff. As kids, it started with kid stuff like climbing extremely high trees or going cave exploring. Diving off of the local bridges and painting the local water tanks. Nothing seemed to be off-limits as long as it wasn't illegal, although a lot of it was a bit borderline if you know what I mean.
Her favorite expression was, "You always regret the things you don't do." Just who is Jackson Browne?
It was a struggle for us to get through high school without killing ourselves. I finished first and had a good job waiting, laying bricks. Our school had an industrial arts program and I took full advantage of it. Jodie finished a year later. She had been in an EMT training program and was quickly picked up by one of the local ambulance services.
Six months later, Jodie Morgan became Mrs. John Terrell. Our extracurricular activities slowed down tremendously but did not disappear. The excitement that we were missing outside the house was made up for in the bedroom. Sex-wise, nothing was off the table.
We worked hard. We saved our money and bought a house. After our third son was born, Jodie quit working. Life was good. I had six men working for me and more jobs than we could handle. Only one problem still existed. Jodie was starting to regret.
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"John, we have to do something."
"About what? I thought everything was fine. Are the boys okay?"
"The boys are fine for now. It is us that I am worried about. We are stagnating. If we don't start doing something we are going to grow roots and never be able to move again."
"That's a hell of an exaggeration, but I do understand what you are trying to say. Any suggestions?"
"The boys are eight, nine, and ten. I think that they are old enough to be doing stuff with us. We will have to adapt a little to be able to include them, but I think it might be fun. It doesn't have to be continuous, but we should be doing something. I don't want them to regret not doing things when they were young. We didn't."
Jodie didn't appreciate it when I started laughing. "What the hell is so funny John?"
"You sound just like you did twenty years ago. Is this the legacy that you are going to leave your sons?"
"Well. Why not. I think it is a good thing to instill in them. I want them to be more than just bumps on a log."
"Is that it?"
"No! I want it for me too. There is a hell of a lot of stuff that we have not done yet. We can afford it and we have the time. Your guys can cover for you whenever you have to get away."
"Okay, I am on board. Start the ball rolling or so they say."
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For the next couple of years, we were constantly on the go. It was not continuous, but it was pretty regular. When one trip was done, Jodie was already planning the next one, or two. We all enjoyed white water rafting and that opened several doors. We made two trips to the boundary waters in Minnesota. We tried bungee jumping and zip lines.
We ended up owning five kayaks. After getting SCUBA certified, more doors were opened. We tried hot air ballooning but found it boring. Jodie and I each did a tandem parachute jump.
Ten years had passed.
Terry, our oldest son joined the Air Force. Greg became a SCUBA instructor and Robert, the youngest ended up being a long-haul truck driver.
Jodie and I were alone. Things seemed to slow down. I spent more time at work and Jodie spent more time on the internet.
Jodie went back to work.
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Things were quiet for several months.
"John?"
"Yes."
"I am starting to get a bit antsy."
"What exactly does that mean?"
"I need to do something."
"Things are a bit busy at work right now, can it wait a while."
"I guess so. Actually, I was thinking maybe I could do something on my own for a change."
"You mean by yourself?"
"Not exactly. I thought maybe, with one of the girls from work. I have never gone anywhere without you, so this would be a little different."
"Anything particular in mind?"
"No. Sarah and I talked about it a little, but we haven't decided on anything."
"That's Sarah Harlow?"
"Yes. You met her at some of the picnics."
"Is she the one that's been divorced twice?"
Jodie hesitated. "Yes, but that is not a problem."
"Why would it be?"
"I am sorry, I just thought that you were being a little judgmental. Just because she is divorced doesn't make her a bad person."
"I never said that, and I am sorry if you interpreted it that way."
"So, It's okay with you?"
"Of course. Have I ever denied you anything?"
"Thank you! Thank you!"
I did not feel good about this.
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Any trips or vacations that Jodie would be planning would in some fashion be related to her mantra. I knew that. I just had to figure out how it would apply in this case. She would be doing something so that she would not regret not doing it later. That's a lot of negatives there. All I had to do was figure it out.
The business had grown well over the years. In addition to laying brick, we were also doing a lot of blockwork and poured concrete foundations. We didn't do driveways or pavements, just foundations and wall pours. The company was also doing steel building construction. It was usually prefab-type buildings, but some of them were quite large. I now had over fifty full-time employees.
I never asked Jodie what she was planning. The fact that she didn't openly volunteer what it was going to be caused me some concern. I am sure that she had something in mind. My fears were greatly magnified when I discovered that she was deleting her computer browsing history every time. I guess most guys would have no trouble getting around that problem, but I was not that clever. I didn't even know what a key logger did. She was also deleting her emails, but that is where she screwed up.
Jodie was sending her emails to trash, but she did not realize that they stayed in trash for thirty days unless she also emptied the trash every time. I started reviewing her emails for the past thirty days. Most of them were just usual junk, but the correspondence that she had with Sarah was eye-opening.
The words were enough to confirm my suspicions, but the web links that accompanied them finalized it. I didn't check out all of the websites that were referenced; it wasn't necessary.
It was time to make a decision that I would not regret.
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It was the Tuesday Market in Boquete, and yes. it actually was Tuesday. I felt like the new kid in school. This was my first time venturing out even though I had been here two days. I strolled around for a while and finally found the designated coffee shop. Being old school, I just ordered a plain black coffee. It was early and the people were just starting to accumulate, as I grabbed one of the still empty seats. I felt odd wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap, but that was one of my stipulations.
"Hey! New guy! Welcome to Boquete. You must be Mickey, right?"
My greeter was also wearing a Yankees cap. I sort of half stood to greet him, but he motioned me to sit back down and he did the same.
"Ted Williams. Always glad to meet a fellow ballplayer." He shook my hand with great vigor. We both sort of snickered a little at the lame ball player reference. I assumed it was an in-joke, but I was getting the feeling that a lot of people were aware of it.
"Just how many fellow ballplayers are we talking about?"
"As of now, it looks like ten baseball and three tennis players."
