I hang up the phone. My wife still doesn't want much to do with me. I've tried talking with her but it truly does look as though we are headed for a divorce. What we had is fading, it's both sad and frustrating. She has been staying at her sister's house for the past month, and I haven't seen her in the past 2 weeks. I don't know what else to do. I just wish I could talk with her, and have everything go back to how it was years ago. I wish I could touch her ... hell, I wish she would touch me. Five months without her embrace is starting to take a toll on my body and mind. Touching myself isn't enough. It gets harder each day to get off. Ha, life was sure better with her love in my life.
Driving into a campground, and I'm finally at my destination. We have a son, James, and he's starting his senior year of high school next week. He's 17, and we are out for a camping trip with one of his best friends, Mike. James lives with me at the moment, and god knows this fight has been affecting him. He's got a great head on his shoulders though. He has told me countless times that separations happen and that he won't let it cloud his outlook of his mother and myself. He is a great kid.
Making my way through a couple dirt paths I make my way to campground #12. I see my son has already arrived with his friends. I walk out of the car and am greeted by my son and Mike.
"Hey guys, how long have you been here?" I ask.
"Maybe 15 minutes. Not long really." Replies James.
I see the other car to be a familiar silver SUV.
From around the side I see two more men with camping gear, unloading the car. They head over to us and say hello. The younger man is Ben, Mike's older brother by two years. He comes along side his father, John. John reaches out his hand to me and says "Nice to see you again Brian. How was the drive?"
"It was good, a lot of thinking time on these back roads though. What was it, 2 hours?" I replied.
John spoke "Yeah, just about. Lets get everything unpacked and then we can have lunch, maybe talk more then."
"Yes sir." I said.
John was actually a neighbor. He lived a few houses down from mine. And though our kids were in the same grade and buddies, we never really had much contact with each other. He was quite different from me looks wise. I was 5'11" and 43 years of age. John was 6'1", maybe 6'2" and 54. I had dark short hair with a goatee, both showing some gray hairs coming in. My body had some muscle but was also accompanied by a little weight around my gut and a dark hairy chest, stomach, arms and legs. John was a fit and tall man, short combed back hair also sporting a goatee but with a complete salt and pepper look. He didn't seem to have much body hair on his arms or legs, but they had some little muscle definition to them. and finally he wore a thin pair of glasses.
We all unpacked our gear and started to set up the tents. Both john and I brought a single tent that we would both share with our respective children. Since John had two of his children with him, his tent was obviously larger to fit all three of them. By the time we unloaded and ate a couple sandwiches, It was already 2 pm. John suggested we go for a small hike and pick out some sticks to use for roasting food later that night.
Following a few paths around the area, we all explored the woods around us. It was a nice time, and It got my problems off my mind, if only for a few hours. We found some interesting sites, one of them being the lake, which had a spot to swing from a rope tied up to a tree. We talked about trying it out potentially tomorrow.
Finally we made our way back to the campsite. It was around 6 or 7 pm and we decided to roast marsh mellows and hotdogs for our first night camping out. We ate and chatted about varies topics, mainly to do with James and Mike starting high school, and maintaining a higher grade this year.
Soon it became time for us to hit the hay. As John and myself were about to head off into our respective tents, Mike asked "Wait, can we maybe sleep by the fire tonight?" I looked at John to see what he thought.
