A Life Changing Event 1

I'm Henry Grayson, just a regular old guy. I'm fifty-six and I want to tell you my story. I'm not famous or did anything fantastic; not a martial arts specialist or anything like that. In fact I was never in the military. My life totally changed five years ago when I got a ticket for a DWI (driving while intoxicated).

I wrapped my late model pickup around a tree. It was a day that changed my life forever. Before I tell you about the accident I would like to tell you a little about my life and what lead up to me driving drunk.

I've been a truck driver for over thirty years. I went to high school and upon graduation I knew I wasn't college material. My dad was a truck driver and I wanted to be just like him. Since I wasn't old enough to drive a big rig my dad got me hired as a yard man at the trucking company depot.

I loaded and unloaded trucks and even learned a lot about repairing trucks. I've been around them all my life. I attended a truck driving school after I turned twenty-one. It was a year later that I finally got hired on as a driver. My dad told me he was proud of me and that makes a guy feel pretty good.

Mom was a homebody and volunteered a lot. I have a sister, Jen who is two years older than me and she worked at the local supermarket and got married when she turned twenty.

Life for me was good and I dated a lot of the local girls. I went to a party with some of my friends who attended college about forty miles away. It was where I met my future wife Mary. I called her Mare and she never seemed to mind.

Mare came from a more uptown community but for some reason thought she would hang with us less intellectual people. Maybe it made her feel smarter or something, I don't really know. She had a year to go to get a teaching degree when we began dating; I would go up to the college every chance I could just to be with her. We were having sex pretty regular and she got pregnant.

When she told her parents they were really pissed. The hadn't even met me and when they found out I drove truck for a living they were even more pissed. Mare told them she loved me and we were going to get married no matter what they said. I hadn't asked her yet but I loved her and had no problem asking her to become my wife and the mother of my children.

We got married before she began showing and her parents paid for the wedding. My parents gave us a thousand dollars to help us get started. They liked Mare a lot but not so much her parents who often interfered with our marriage. They just didn't think I was good enough for their only daughter.

When Mare graduated with her teaching degree she decided she wanted to be a stay at home mom. Her parents told her that they helped pay for her education and would hate to see it go to waste. Mary decided to appease her mother by becoming a substitute teacher and worked up to three days a week. My mom watched our son Robbie whenever Mare worked.

I was an over the road long hauler and would be gone four or five days at a time. I would then get at least three days off before I hit the road again. Being a long hauler paid a lot more than local driving but I would have much rather been home with my family.

Whenever I was home Mare and I spent a lot of time making love. Whenever her parents would take Robbie for the day, Mare and I had sex all day. We were young and fucked like bunnies. Her parents got pissed when Mare got pregnant again. Nine months later Boyd arrived.

Her mother told her that if I wasn't man enough to use condoms than she should take birth control pills. It kind of pissed me off that her mom didn't consider me a man because I didn't wear condoms. We were married for Christ sakes. Mary made an appointment to go to the doctor the following month after Boyd was born.

The doctor said she had an allergy to birth control pills and shouldn't take them. She talked to her about possibly getting fitted for a diaphragm. She said she wanted to talk to me first. We decided I could use condoms for awhile and see how it worked out. When I got home the following week we had sex a couple of time a day. I did wear the condoms but one time the stupid thing came off.

I had stayed in Mare after we both came and when I went to pull out my cock was soft and the condom came off. I was half finger fucking Mare trying to get the condom out of her. We were both laughing and Mare was getting hot at the same time. I finally got hold of it and pulled it out; my cum had pretty much leaked out of it.

I threw it in the trash and put on a new one and we went at it again. Mare and I decided after our little mishap that she would get fitted for a diaphragm and made an appointment to get fitted. When she went back to the doctor they told her it was too late, she was already pregnant again.

She came home and cried and said her parents would kill her. We waited till she began to show and she told her mother. Her mom blew her stack and of course blamed me. She said Mare should cut my dick off.

To make a long story short Mare had our child. It was a girl and we named her Amber. She was such a cute baby that Mary's mother actually smiled when she saw her. As for me, her mom rarely talked to me unless it was to degrade me.

Mare and I had a long talk and I told her I would have a vasectomy. We had three beautiful kids and that was more than enough. When she told her mother her mother said I should have had one before our first baby was born. Damn, that woman hated me. I remember her saying that Mare was too refined and too good for me.

My mom was over most every day when Mare needed help with the kids. I knew I had to do something and put in for a daily route where I would be home every evening. Eventually I was able to get a daily route but had to take a pretty good pay cut. At least I would be home in the evening and help take care of my kids. I loved my kids and they loved me. I would play with them and let them crawl all over me.

Since I backed down to the daily deliveries money was a little tight. Once the two boys were in school Mare decided to become a full time teacher. As she explained, she would be off the same days as our kids and my mom loved taking care of Amber.

After Mare went back to teaching full times things began to change. I realize after you've been married a number of years and have three kids that sex isn't the number one thought in a person's mind but we weren't even doing it once a week.

When I mentioned it to Mare she said we went through our sex everyday stage and it wasn't as important to her as it was to me. She had a family and a job and I should understand it. I knew she had been talking to her mother.

I did understand but some of the loving wasn't there during our love making. I don't believe she was cheating on me or anything like that, it's just that I rated our sex life at a possible seven and Mare said it was about four for her. Eventually I lost some of the interest also because it was so one sided and I wasn't going to plead with her whenever I got a little horny.

I spent more time doing things with my kids. Sometimes Mare took part, other times she didn't. When I went to the kids' ball games and school doings, Mare would go with her mother to plays, movies and what not. She told me she missed doing the more intellectual things.

I took the kids to the big amusement parks every year. Mare went about every other year. She said she didn't like roller coasters or things that went round and round; they upset her stomach. She wouldn't even go on the water rides because she didn't want to get wet, but the kids and I loved it. We would let the sun dry us off.

Our life over the years became somewhat mundane. The kids and I did things together and Mare had her life of plays and operas and went to intellectual parties with her parents. Thinking back she never invited me to go with her, probably because she usually went with her mother or maybe she was just embarrassed to let people know she was married to a truck driver.

Don't get me wrong here, Mare loves our kids and was always there to help them with their school work and made sure they had breakfast and a good dinner every evening. It was more like we were going through the routines of life that didn't include a lot of love between Mare and I.

She would often go see her parents and take the kids with her. They liked going there because my in-laws had a pool and the kids loved it. The only time I visited them was during holidays or if there was a party. I honestly believe that my wife felt she sowed her oats with me and had the kids. Now it was out of her system and she wanted some of her old life back.

There were times when she would go out with her friends. It was other teachers or her old neighborhood friends. She might have to much to drink and when she would come home she would be horny and want sex.

I would never deny her because I was happy to oblige. During these times she would often be her old self and the sex was good. She would even let me go down on her which we didn't do very often. I remember telling her she should go out with her friends more often.

She never really cared for my friends. I don't know if she had something against truckers or just thought she was above them. When my friends and their wives threw a party we were often invited. Mare never wanted to go. If it was a family party I would take the kids.

We just seemed to drift apart as far as doing things together. One thing for sure is that we were opposites and that was probably our initial attraction. Then she became pregnant and we were struck with real life. I enjoyed the whole family thing and doing things with the kids. I just wish Mare would have done more with me.

We made our bed and I guess we were sleeping in it. I wasn't much into porno but I did like reading erotic stories. There were a lot of guys out there that had it worse than I did. Mare and I still had sex once a month and great sex when she went out with her friends.

Mare was a good looking woman. She dressed conservatively but also fashionable. She would walk most everyday, even in the winter and she took aerobic classes for years. When Amber got older she used to go walking and to aerobics with her mom. She said she liked doing the exercise.

Amber was still my little girl no matter how old she got. She played softball and volleyball all through high school and even in the summer leagues. I didn't miss a game. Once in awhile Mare went to a game but said she didn't care much for sports.

I caught my sons' games also. They played football and baseball so my time was usually spent going to my kids games. Robbie and Boyd both went to vocational school. Mare was aggravated with them because they didn't want to go to college. I told her that it was up to them what they wanted to do with their life.

Robbie took up wielding and actually received a scholarship at a wielding school that included an apprenticeship at our largest factory. I was so proud of him. Boyd took up auto mechanics and could tear a vehicle apart and put it back together. He got a job right out of high school at a large dealership. They even sent him to school and other classes to improve and update his skills. My boys must have gotten their brains from their mother.

They eventually left the house when they turned twenty to make a life of their own. They both had girlfriends and I made sure I had the talk with them about the birds and the bees. They kind of laughed at me but I told them safe sex was important. I remember Rob telling me that if I practiced safe sex, he wouldn't be here today. It gave us all a laugh because it was true.

A little bit about our neighborhood. We owned a three bedroom ranch style home. It was in a semi rural area in a small town. Our neighbors all seemed nice and I went with the kids to the block parties. Mare even attended a few of them.

I know Mare seemed a bit snobbish to a few of our neighbors but they still treated us with respect. Our kids played with their kids on a daily basis and they all went to the same local school which was in walking distance of our houses. Some thought Mare was this way since she was a teacher and didn't want to show favoritism to any of the kids. The truth is, she was a snob.

She loved her kids, her friends and her parents. Anyone else was treated a bit differently. I loved her, but once the happy Mare somewhat disappeared I just lived with it. I guess her mom won out in the end. She became her mother in her personality. The only thing is I don't think she hated me but I think she lost her love for me somewhere along the road.

Five and a half years ago:

This takes us up to a little less than six years ago when the changes began happening. Amber decided she was going to go to college and become a nurse. This made Mare and I both very happy. I remember Mare telling me at least one of our kids had some sense. That pissed me off. I told her all our kids were good kids and both of our boys made good choices and a future that they were interested in. It was too bad she couldn't understand that. We rarely argued in front of the kids. There were times we raised our voices but I would walk away rather than listen to her rant.

One day I showed up for work and everything changed. We had heard rumors for awhile that another company was looking to buy our trucking company out. Well, it happened. All the employees were called into the warehouse for a meeting. After we were asked to be seated. We were told that the new company had taken over that day and that their human resource department would be talking to everyone who worked there.

The lady speaking said her name was Helen Sparks. Someone yelled out, "What about our union representation?" We were told that a few of our union representatives were there and four men stood up and sat back down.

"We have talked with your union and will abide by the contract with them. What you need to know is there will be some changes. The economy is down which we all know and there will be some layoffs. Some employees may choose to retire. We will be talking to everyone and explain the changes and options that affect each one of you," said Mrs. Sparks.

She continued, "This week's schedule was already planned and we will abide by it so we don't upset our previous commitments. We have over fifty truck drivers driving for us. Fifteen of them own their own trucks. We will be cutting back to at most thirty drivers. Our warehouse staff will be cut back by seven people. There will be layoffs and retirements. If business improves there is a chance of being called back. We are trying to be honest with you up front. Business as most of you know has declined considerably over the last few years.

"We have a schedule posted when we will be talking to each one of you this week starting with senior employees. Your names and times are posted on the three bulletin boards. Please let us know if you won't be able to make the appointment and we'll make other arrangements. Thank you all for your service to this company and we'll do our best to make this transition as quick and painless as possible."

Mrs. Helen Sparks was a good looking woman in possibly her mid to late forties. The first thing I noticed about her was the confidence she seemed to have, since I lived with a woman like this for over twenty-five years. She also was a good looking woman and dressed nice and didn't try to dress younger than she was and pile on the make-up. I guess if I was to sum her up in one word I'd say she was a classy lady.

I looked to see when my interview was and it was that day after I made my first run. I was down to two runs a day and would often eat lunch between deliveries. When I got back from my first delivery Mrs. Sparks said she would be the one talking to me.

She asked me if I had lunch yet and when I told her I hadn't, she asked me if I would mind having lunch with her at the diner next door. We could do our interview while having lunch and I could get back in time for my second run. I told her that would be fine.

She asked for a booth when we entered. We ordered lunch; she had a salad and I ordered a sandwich and fries. Some of the other workers were having lunch and smiled at me; I just shook my head at them. I guess they wondered why I was having lunch with Mrs. Sparks.

"Mr. Grayson, I read that you have been here for twenty-five years. I see you started as an over-the-road driver and was trying to get on doing daily runs which you have been doing most of your time here."

"Yes, that's true, by the way you can call me, Henry, everyone does. Once my kids were born I wanted to be able to be home with them and do things with them. They were my life and I spent all my free time being with them and going to all their school and summer activities."

"What are they doing now?" Helen asked.

"Robbie, my oldest is a welder as well as working on becoming a Journeyman. He's doing great and I'm really proud of him. Boyd is an auto mechanic and works at the local dealership. He is also improving himself by taking advanced auto repair classes. Both of my boys have done well and I'm proud of them."

"I noticed you have a daughter, Amber who just graduated."

"Yes, she's my pride and joy. She's daddy's little girl and always will be. She is attending the local college to become a nurse. She started taking college classing her senior year of high school. Look Mrs. Sparks I glad that you're interested in my family but what does this have to do with my job?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't prying but I needed to know a little about your family. You see, our local businesses are cutting back on the number of deliveries that they will be receiving each month which presents a problem for us. The only way we can have you driving full time is that you will have to go over the road whenever there aren't any local deliveries."

"My God, I will be back to where I started," I said rather loudly and a few people looked at me.

"Not exactly, it looks like you would go over the road possibly one week out of a month or be put on part time. I'm sorry but you aren't old enough to offer a retirement benefit package to. Also you have the best driving records of all the drivers here.

"You've never been cited or had any type of accident or claim. I've been in the trucking business for nearly twenty-two years and that's nearly unheard of. We would hate to lose drivers like you," said Mrs. Sparks. "By the way, if you want me to call you Henry, then please call me Helen."

We finished our lunch and she told me she would need my answer by the end of the week. She also said it was really nice meeting me. I got in my truck and made my second local delivery thinking that I didn't have a lot of choice on what to do. After twenty-five years I wasn't going to become a part-time driver. I wasn't sure how Mare would take it but I found out when I got home.

****

Mare and I didn't talk much anymore. We got along and I did my thing and she did hers. I did all the outside work like having a small garden, cutting the lawn and of course doing the shoveling and snow blowing in the winter. Any small house repairs I usually did; if it was a major job like a roof replacement or new windows I figured they had contractors for that.

We all, that's Mare, Amber and me helped clean the inside. We always kept the house in pretty neat and clean shape, in my opinion. Mare of course didn't like our house over the last few years. It made me wonder if she ever liked it. Always complaining about how nice her friends' houses were and how they could afford nice vacations, new vehicles, new furniture and whatever else she could think up.

The truth be known, over the years Mare didn't want to go anywhere with me. Whenever I suggested vacations or cruises she always had excuses why she didn't or couldn't go. She did go on vacations with her parents when they asked her and usually took Amber with her. At those times I took my boys and we went to the big league ball games.