around and looked at me. She shook her head and looked at me again. I said, “Yeah, it’s me. Who were you expecting?”
She tried to stand up and fell to the floor. She said, “I have to go potty.”
Helping her up, I took her to the bathroom and held her up on the toilet. When she was finished, I helped her back to bed and she was quickly back to sleep.
I sat in a chair and watched her sleep for an hour, then I went down and had breakfast. I got a to-go order and took it up to the room.
Marilyn was awake and sitting in a chair. She had on a sweater, long pants and high heels. I showed her what I had brought, and she sat at the writing table and ate the meal and drank the coffee. I left her alone until she was finished. Then I asked, “What happened? Why did you miss your plane?”
She said, “Brandon, you are going to divorce me. I thought that I might have some fun first.”
“Don’t you realize that getting drunk will harm the baby? You will probably have a deformed baby now. You really screwed up. I was all set to forgive you.” I told her what I had done to Bert and the two security guards. She tried to smile, but couldn’t.
She asked, “Do you really think that I hurt the baby?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they are very susceptible in the first trimester. You should probably have an abortion.” I really didn’t know if this was true, but it sounded good and fit the situation well.
She began to cry. “Damn, Brandon, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I just wanted to make it easy for you to leave.”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t going to leave; I had decided that I loved you. I just wanted you to grow up some. But it seems that you are still a kid at heart. I don’t know now. You slept with how many men so far?”
She seemed defiant. “I didn’t sleep with anyone.”
I grimaced. “Bullshit, Marilyn. You slept with several the other night, and you would have slept with at least one more last night if I hadn’t stopped you.”
She took a swing at me. I let her slap me. It didn’t hurt. She said, “You bastard, you lied to me.”
I shook my head. “I have never lied to you. What are you talking about?”
She said, “This is all your fault. If you had just talked to Bert like I asked you to, none of this would have happened.”
I picked up the phone, called the airlines. While I was on hold, I looked at her. “Are you going home with me?”
She looked scared. “Do I have to get an abortion?”
I turned my back to her. “One person, from O’Hare to DFW.”
She screamed, “PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!”
I said into the phone, “Make that two people.” I listened for a minute and said, “We will be there in twenty minutes.”
I looked at Marilyn. “Put on some decent clothes. We have to leave in ten minutes.”
I called the front desk and asked for a taxi. In ten minutes she was ready, she had on a mini skirt and a rather open blouse and high heels. She looked like an expensive hooker, but I didn’t say anything.
We went down to the taxi and rode to the airport. I didn’t have a bag and Marilyn just had the one bag. We made it through security and I upgraded us to first class. The plane was full. I wanted to talk to her in private and knew we couldn’t do that in coach. We had the very front seats. I put her by the window and I sat in the aisle seat.
The plane ride home took two hours. She drank Cokes and I drank bourbon. We had our private chat which amounted to whether she was going to be honest with me or not. I wasn’t about to tell her about Sharon. She finally admitted to being with a man the night before, but she didn’t think they had sex; they were both too drunk.
I thanked her for her honesty and didn’t tell her that it was just one more nail in her coffin. She told me a lot about herself and Bert that I didn’t know. I might just work him over again. He had really abused Marilyn. I would do my best to break up his marriage and see that he got fired.
When we landed and were waiting on her bag, I called Bert’s wife and told her about the affair and how long it had gone on. I offered her dates and let her talk to Marilyn. Marilyn was in tears at the end of the conversation. Now to get him fired.
We got her bag and headed for our cars. I went to mine and Marilyn went to hers. We met at a restaurant and had a late lunch. Then drove home and had to face my mother.
My mother ripped into Marilyn and had her crying before I could even intervene.
I got Marilyn into our bedroom and put her to bed.
She grabbed me by the shoulders. “Baby, do I really have to get an abortion?”
I smiled. “Go to sleep and we will talk about it later.”
She shook me. “No, I want to talk about it now. Tell me the truth.”
I became stoic. “Honey we will have to go to an OBGYN and see what he says. Whatever he says, that is what we will do. That is as honest as I can be.”
She let go of me and I sat with her until she was asleep. I covered her up and closed the curtains. Then I went in and talked to my mother.
“Mom, you leave her alone. You don’t say another word to her about this. She is a basket case, but I am going to take care of her, at least until the baby comes. If you can’t be quiet about this, then you go home.”
My mother got her things and went home.
I went and picked up our kids, brought them home and fed them. Then I let them watch some television, mostly cartoons. Marilyn woke up at eight and I fed her some leftovers. She went and took a shower and then she put the kids to bed. I watched as she sat on the bed with each of them, told them how much she loved them, kissed them and tucked them in. She was a loving mother, if nothing else.
That night I slept in my recliner again. I just couldn’t sleep with Marilyn. She was not the woman that she had once been. Perhaps I was a different man too. It was obvious that both of us had changed. Marilyn was acting out and I was hot on the heels of having an affair myself.
Saturday morning, we all were up by seven and Marilyn wanted to go down to the lake and feed the ducks. We drove to the lake and took a loaf of bread, and the kids fed the ducks. It was so very much fun for them, and us too. At noon we went to a big name hamburger joint and let them play on the playground. We finally ate and then went home. There wasn’t much to do, so we all cleaned house. The kids played more than worked. Marilyn really worked hard at cleaning the house.
She was cleaning the blinds when the pain hit her. She doubled up and screamed. “My stomach! Something is wrong with the baby!”
I called 9-1-1 and an ambulance arrived in less than five minutes. The kids and I followed the ambulance in my car.
We waited and waited. Doctors and nurses were in and out of the trauma room. Then an elderly doctor came out. He said, “Your wife is doing fine, but she lost the baby.” Even though I was prepared, it stunned me. I sat down with my kids and the three of us cried. They both understood that their mommy had lost a baby.
I had Rachael watch Johnny and I went in to see Marilyn. She had been crying. “God punished me. Now it is your turn. You can punish me anyway that you want to.”
I smiled. “God didn’t punish you and neither will I. You just lost the baby, that is all.” I shut my mouth before I said something really stupid. But it was too late; I had already said something stupid.
Marilyn tried to raise up. “Just lost the baby? I guess it is no big deal to you. Well, it is to me. My baby is dead!”
I did my best to calm her down, but nothing that I said helped, I finally just left her room and went out and sat with the kids.
The doctor wanted to keep Marilyn overnight, so I took the kids home, fed them and put them to bed.
Marilyn called me at nearly midnight. “I am in a private room. I just wanted to apologize for losing my temper. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.”
We talked for nearly an hour and I was careful to not say anything to upset
her. After she hung up, I sat for another hour and studied my situation. If I really wanted a divorce, the time was now. I shouldn’t wait too long. But I wasn’t sure that I could do it. I had my kids to think of. Could I live without them? I knew that I would see them occasionally, but was that good enough? Then I thought about Sharon. She was such an attractive and exciting woman, I could see myself with her for the rest of my life. Of course, I had once thought that about Marilyn.
I dozed off at some point and slept for several hours.
I woke up to the phone ringing. Marilyn had been released. I needed to get the kids up and go get her. I was up, barking orders at the kids. “Let’s go get your mother!”
Marilyn was ready and waiting in a wheelchair. The nurse pushed her down to the parking lot, and the four of us loaded up and made a merry trip back home. We sang several songs in the car, and even Johnny chimed in.
That afternoon, Marilyn and the two kids were asleep on our bed when my phone rang.
Bert said. “You just had to do it. You couldn’t leave my wife out of it. She left me, and I am coming over to your house, and this time I am going to kick your ass.”
After Bert hung up, I went out into the garage and found a small, wooden baseball bat. I swung it a few times and knew that I could knock his head plum off his shoulders.
It was an hour later that I heard the pickup stop in our driveway. My kids and Marilyn were now up and watching out the window.
I picked up the bat and went out in the front yard. The problem was, I had