Chapter 2

I was surprised that over the next few weeks, none of the women in my life mentioned Claire at all. This at first worried me; I don't know why, but it did. I had figured they were thinking along the lines 'he loved her once, perhaps he will fall in love and marry her again.'

After some time I decided I was wrong on that score. I began to think perhaps they realised that loving someone isn't all it takes to make a good marriage. You do have to be able to live with them as well; Claire and I had proved that was the one thing we couldn't do.

However meeting Claire again had brought back the memories of the good times that we'd shared together. And I think those first six years we were married... no, nine, or was it ten years... that we'd known each other, we had some really good times together.

I remembered our first date together. Well, no, that isn't really correct either; it was half of a date actually. I was going with a girl at the time. Oh, god, what was her name? Never mind it's not important. Anyway she asked me to find a date for an old family friend of hers who was coming to stay with her family for a few days.

I conned a pal of mine into coming along. The guy owed me a favour so reluctantly he agreed to come along. We picked the girls up in my friend's father's car and took them to a local nightspot. Nothing special but they had live music there. Claire was very quiet and my friend didn't hit it off with her too well. Actually he spent more time dancing with my date. It was when I was returning from the gents that I caught sight of them smooching away in a dark corner together.

At first I wasn't sure what to do. Punching the guy on the nose sounded like a good option. But I doubted that would it achieve very much except get me banned from the pub. I can't say I was madly in love with the girl... well, that must be obvious, because I can't even remember her bleeding name now.

So I thought to myself, 'Okay, man, you've nicked my date then I'll nick yours, ' and I asked Claire to dance with me.

I think for the first time that evening, I saw a proper smile come on Claire's face and it was then that I began to realise just what my so called friend had passed over. Claire was a very pretty girl especially when she was smiling. When the next really slow number started, she moved in real close and, oh, boy, that's when I knew just who had gotten the best cut of the deck.

Claire and I didn't bother to return to the table. After collect her handbag, we left the pub and went for a walk down by the river. By the end of the walk, which I suppose I should add lasted until about two in the morning, I think I knew everything I needed to know abut Claire and she knew my life's history. You know, I still dream about that evening walking along by the river with her.

When we finally got back to the girl's house, I'd arranged to meet Claire again the following evening. Claire was to tell me later that the other girl wasn't impressed with the outcome of that evening. Apparently my so-called mate had borrowed some money off of her to put petrol in the car and had then not even bothered to take her phone number. So we all doubted she'd ever see that cash back. Ah, well, that was her problem. She'd made her own decisions the night before.

Anyway the following evening Claire came back to my place, where she met my parents and Brian. I know, a strange thing to do on your second date, but that's what we did anyway. Claire was a hit with my family straight away and she appeared to like them.

The following day Claire went back to her own home. From then on our courtship was a long distance one, because Claire, as I said, lived in another town. We did manage to see each other most weekends. Either I went up there to stay with her folks, or she came and stayed at my house.

Four months into our relationship, Claire and I first made love. Well, to us it was making love, but it was the first time experience for both of us. Not strictly true, since I'd managed to screw a couple of the local bike's before that evening. But whilst those occasions had been satisfying for me at the time, neither had been a memorable or noteworthy experience that could ever have been described as making love. However things didn't go quite as well as Claire and I would have liked either.

My parents were away that weekend and Brian was out with his fiancée on the Saturday evening. There was no discussion between Claire and myself about us going out that evening as well. I think we both knew what the evening held for us that night and wanted it to happen.

But as I say, it was not the magical experience that we had both envisaged. Although we did actually do the deed three times that night and we were, up to a point, satisfied with the results, but things could have gone better.

Why three times? Well, there were three rubbers in the pack. Rubbers, not the most erotic things that you can come across and they kind of destroy the romantic atmosphere somewhat, don't they?

I will say that we were quick learners though. I think both of us did some really hard reading over the next few weeks, even exchanging the books we had each managed to find. You know finding good books on how to make love successfully weren't all that easy to come by, back in those days. Quite a lot of what the books we found were complete rubbish really, but I think they got our minds working the right direction. After some discussion though there were things we decided we'd leave trying until after we were married.

Anyway we talked a lot about sex when we were together and learnt what each of us liked when we had the opportunity. That was the important thing. We had more chances to get together once my brother Brian had got married. There was no way that my parents or Claire's were going to let us share a bed together. So before Brian got married, I'd give up my bed to Claire and sleep in the lounge. Once Brian had left home, Claire started using his old bedroom and from then on it was a tiptoed creep across the hallway, once the parents were asleep. We did have to keep the noise down though.

After a time Claire went on the pill and that saved us all the problems with what to do with the used condoms. You know the pills back in those days were a lot stronger than they are nowadays. A few years ago I heard somewhere that they had some unexpected side effects for a few women. I've often wondered if they were the cause of Claire's problems, but I suppose I'll never know the answer to that one.

The company that I worked for also had offices in the town where Claire lived. It was about three years after I met Claire that a good position became vacant there; I took the opportunity of a transfer and promotion. Work-wise it was the best move I'd ever made. The company had been having trouble finding the right candidate to fill the position. I didn't really have the right qualifications for the job, but I did have the experience in the office that I worked in and with the way the company did things.

You might say I landed right on my feet, the youngest department manager in the firm. From that move on, I've always been ahead in the game, when it came to the promotion ladder.

Claire and I married a month or so after I took up my new position. Hey, my relocation allowance had helped us buy our first house. Well, it made our mortgage a little smaller than it would have been. All right, the house needed a hell of a lot of modernisation, but Claire and I got stuck in and did as much as possible ourselves. Because of that fact, Claire stayed on the pill and thought of children went on the back burner.

Three years later we upgraded to a much newer and larger house. That left us with a larger mortgage though, so Claire had to stay in work for us to afford the payments; so children were still off the agenda. Our sex life had taken off in a big way though. You say it and we tried it and if we liked it we did it often. I don't recall very many things that we didn't like.

Outside work we'd - or rather, I'd - taken up horse riding; Claire was a proficient rider already. It is a hobby that I have continued to enjoy to this day. Ballroom dancing was another pastime we took up together and we were not far short of competition standard before we... well, when the shit finally hit the fan, to be precise.

We'd been married five years when I got another promotion and one hell of a pay rise; money was suddenly no longer a problem in our lives. So we decided the time had come to put children back into the master plan.

Claire came off the pill and we started the routine for getting her pregnant. Right from the beginning we watched her cycle dates very carefully and banged away like a pair of rabbits at what we calculated was the right time of the month. Yeah, we tried all the tricks you hear about. Claire did everything but stand on her head to make sure my little soldiers found their way in the right direction.

After a year we began to think something wasn't right. Claire just didn't fall pregnant. We had the tests done and at first they showed no problem. Actually my sperm count was very high. But after further tests carried out over the next year or so, we were given the bad news about Claire. They was nothing wrong with the eggs that she produced, but there was something about her womb that meant it was doubtful the embryos would implant properly. The few that did she miscarried very quickly.

No, this didn't really mean she was infertile, but the doctors told us it was doubtful she would ever carry a baby for the full term. So we did keep trying but not to the extent we had before.

In theory life went on as normal. But over the next few years, it became a very strange normal. Slowly without us even noticing it to start with, we began to have little arguments. Not disagreements; I think all families have them. No, these were arguments, often about the most insignificant things that got exaggerated completely out of all proportion. And we often found ourselves going to bed before we'd cleared the air.

I have no real explanation as to what really happened over the next couple of years. At times we were as loving to each other as we'd ever been. At other times we'd have stand up rows at the drop of a hat, as I said, often over the most ridiculous things and in the most public of places. Some of our friends stopped asking us to their parties and the like, because they didn't know whether we'd explode at each other.

Somewhere in amongst all this Vivian came on the scene. I think she had been around for sometime, but Claire started turning to her for support. I turned for support to where all too many men do: the boys down at the local pub. To be honest I'd began to not want to go home from work in the evenings to face yet another row.

As time went on, things just got worse and worse until the day we finally decided to get divorced. I can't tell you now which of us was the first to bring the idea up. But we went to the solicitor together although hardly speaking to each other when we did so.

The woman was good and managed to arrange everything amicably. Claire and I did not wish to prolong things by arguing over our assets, so they were split down the middle. I think we both just wanted out, as quickly as possible. The house was sold and Claire, I believe, went to stay with Viv for the time being, whereas I rented a small flat for a while. But luckily for me a position soon became available back at head office and I'd returned to my hometown.

My father had died about a year before Claire and I divorced and my mother died of a broken heart a few weeks before our divorce was due to become final. Claire's last act as my wife was to attend my mother's funeral with me.

The day of my mother's funeral she played the part of a wonderfully supportive wife. I don't think I could have gotten through that day without her there. Three days later she was out of my life completely and I hadn't laid eyes on her again until I saw her when I began making that speech at Terri's wedding.

Well, I thought Claire had disappeared from my life again for the next four weeks or so. I learnt otherwise when the next lot of telephone bills came in. With three teenagers in the house, I keep a close eye on who they are talking to on they're mobiles, as well as keeping track of they're internet usage.

On all three of the children's mobiles were calls to a number that I didn't recognise. Why should I recognise the number you might ask? Well, normally I don't take too much notice. I was really looking for premium rate numbers. But quite suddenly all three of them were calling the same number. Now that was unusual. They don't all have the same social circle.

I noticed they called the number on consecutive days. One day Kylie, the next Graham and on the third day it was Angela's turn. Well, this set the little grey matter working. A check back showed me the calls started a few days after Terri's wedding. From there it wasn't too much of a puzzle to work out who the calls were being made to. A check on the phone book in Angela's phone - checked when she left her phone in the stable whilst she was exercising her horse - confirmed my suspicions. The children were calling Claire.

Then I realised that they were calling her at the same time everyday. On checking where they all were at that time, I worked out that they were all in the house alone, whilst I was doing the late check on the horses.

That evening instead of going straight to the stable block, I circled around the house and watched through the lounge window whilst Graham call Claire on his mobile phone and then placed it on the table. I can only assume that he'd put his phone on the loudspeaker function as all of then lent towards it as they spoke. It was a shame I hadn't thought to leave a window open; I would have been able to hear what they were talking to Claire about.

It was a couple of days later and Terri and I were having lunch together when she asked me, "Jack, what's got into you this week?"

"Sorry?"

"You've got something on your mind. Come on, don't try to hide it from me. I know when you're upset about something."

God, talk about a chip off the old block. Terri could read my mind almost as well as her mother could.

"The children have been calling Claire."

"So? She's their auntie, isn't she? Why shouldn't they talk to her?"

"Oh, its not that I object to them talking to her. It's the fact that they are keeping it secret from me. That's what I find upsetting!"

"Well, what do you expect, with the way you behaved at the wedding?"

"What the hell did I do at the wedding? I introduced her to everyone and danced with her."

"It was the vibes you put out that evening, Jack. Everyone was terrified to mention Claire's name after that night."

"You're joking!"

"No, you made it plain Claire was a taboo subject and, well... the children wanted to get to know her better."

"You knew they were calling her?"

"Yes, well, I knew they'd asked Kevin to get her phone number from his aunt for them. So it stood to reason they would be calling to her on the phone."

"Terri, am I really that much of an ogre? Do they think I'd try to stop them talking to Claire?"

"Don't be so silly. I'm sure they think that it would upset you to know they were calling Claire. So I expect that's why they've kept you in the dark about it."

That day I left the office early and stopped at the telecom store on the way home. It was around ten that I got up from the sofa to go out and check the horses as I did every evening that I was home. But that night I went into my den first and returned with a conference phone that I replace the phone in the lounge with.

"You might find it easier, kids, if you use this to call your Aunt Claire instead of the hands free function on that little mobile. The calls will be cheaper, as well." I smiled at the three slightly confused and guilty looking teenagers, then left them to it.

That evening I took a little longer than usual with the horses. When I got back inside the house, Angela was the first to speak.

"You knew we were talking to Claire on the telephone?"

"I would think that was obvious."

"And you don't mind?"

"Why should I? She is your auntie, I think, and your godmother. You've got the right to speak to her as often as you wish."

"We thought you'd be upset if you found out."

"To be honest I'm more upset that you didn't tell me that you were calling her than I ever could be that you did call her."

"We're sorry," Kylie butted in. "We thought because..."

"Because what? That Claire and I are divorced. Look, kids, that's something that happens in life. Claire and I fell in love when we were young and got married. I don't know, maybe we got married too young. But somewhere along the line it all went sour on us."

"You fell out of love with each other?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah! No. Oh, I don't know what happened. We just kind of started having rows all the time. Look, I don't know why we do things sometimes. We ended up getting divorced, but she's still your auntie and if you want to keep in touch with her, I'm only too pleased."

After that evening they called Claire on the phone in the lounge every day, but still when I went out to check the horses. I didn't listen into their calls as I could see no harm in them.