Chapter 2

Edited with great skill by DB448

You'd think that by the time a man got to be my age he'd know the difference between acceptable risk, and genuine stupidity. But as I walked into the teeth of the building storm, I just didn't care. My intention was to make it to the comfort station that was located a little more than a half a mile from the truck stop. There were food machines there, benches, maybe even cots to lie down on, and hopefully no one there to bother me.

Over the past 3 days since I'd left the town that had become my home since Mary and I left Texas, I'd gotten over some of the initial pain and heartache of Mary's betrayal. I could see that some of my actions over the past week or so had been fueled more by anger, and my bruised ego, than by rational thought. But hey, an emotional situation sometimes requires an emotional response.

I was ashamed of the way I'd spoken to some of the townspeople. After all, people in general are just fucking nosy. That curiosity and need to know things has helped the species survive and thrive, so I guess them wanting to know all of the gory details about our breakup, while embarrassing for both Mary and me, was only normal.

I was also really ashamed of my treatment of Mary. I should have been, and had really tried to be, more civil about the whole thing. I'd offered her a quick easy divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, which could really mean anything. But she had thrown it back in my face, steadfastly refusing to grant me the divorce. So she had really forced me into threatening to drop the hammer on her and bringing out my big guns.

My big guns were changing the reason for the divorce to infidelity, suing her lover/pimp, and posting the pictures of her whoring, in a local motel on the internet and sending copies to her parents and all of her friends. I was going to also sue her pimp Sundown for alienation of affection. She had basically laughed in my face and told me that rather than divorce me she'd go door to door all over town and personally tell everybody what she'd done, and she'd have billboards made with my pictures of her on them because she didn't care what anyone thought of her. She was just not willing to let me go.

The fact that Sundown was dead and no one was willing to believe or even care that I'd killed him meant that I couldn't sue him either. I really needed to think this out and I needed privacy to do that, so the comfort station in the middle of a blizzard seemed like the perfect place.

The problem was, as anyone with half a brain knows, that when you walk into a snowstorm of that intensity everything starts to look the same. They call it "Whiteout". It becomes very easy to get turned around or start walking in circles and after about fifteen minutes I was not only lost, but beginning to become uncomfortable from the cold. I turned around hoping to spot the lights from the truck-stop I'd just left, but I could no longer see them in any direction. I then tried moving to the side so I could find the edge of the road and the drainage ditch along either side of it. If I could find the ditch, I'd be able to know which direction to walk in, because going along the road either way would be good. If I went one way I'd end up back at the truck-stop, and if I went the other way, I'd end up at the comfort station. Either way I'd be out of this storm.

The problem was that somehow I'd already left the road apparently, so at least I now knew that I didn't know where the hell I was. As you can see except for where Mary was concerned I was extremely optimistic so I just started walking again; and the snow got thicker and piled up deeper. I was so cold after a while that I hoped my fingers would just drop off so they wouldn't hurt any more. Then I started thinking that in just a few more yards I'd be home and Mary would make me feel all better, so I kept walking. I just had to get home to Mary.

I don't know how much longer I was out there but an SUV pulled up next to me and the door opened up. At this point I could barely see but I was shocked.

"Mary," I said.

"Get in the truck John," she snapped.

I got into the truck's rear seat and the sudden warmth was a shock to my system, I started to get dizzy. The woman behind the wheel reached past me and closed the door, then started inching forward through the snow. The big SUV had a light bar across it's roof that lit up the road ahead of us but you could still only see maybe 20 -25 feet in all of this snow. The driver was talking to me, but I could barely make out what she was saying.

"Talk slower Mary," I said.

"My name is Arlene," she snapped. "That bitch has you twisted up really badly doesn't she?"

I sat right up at that point; I was exhausted and half frozen, but I wouldn't stand for anyone talking about Mary badly.

"Don't call my Mary a bitch," I snapped.

Then I fell over on the seat out cold. Arlene just shook her head and continued driving.

When I woke up I was in a bed with blankets piled on top of me, and nothing on but my boxers.

There was a gentle glow from a small lamp on a desk near the bed. The whole room had a cozy feel; it just felt like someone's home. It had a lot of nice personal touches in it that let me know that it was a woman's place. We men never did things like that. We could live in a place for years but it would never seem nearly as homey as a place a woman had been in for a month.

I smelled food and my mouth started to water, I looked up and there was...

"It's Arlene," she said.

"Don't, fucking, call me Mary again, or I swear I'll throw you out."

"John, how long has it been since you last ate anything?" she asked.

"Yesterday I think, at the truck stop," I replied.

"You had coffee, I served you remember," she said. "I made some soup, nothing to heavy, just some Campbell's tomato. If you can keep this down, we'll move on to something heavier."

Arlene even had a robe like the ones Mary had back at home and only wore if she was sick or having her monthly.

It was uncanny, except for their faces; she was so similar to my Mary that I couldn't help staring at her. Even the cast of the faces though when you got right down to it weren't that different. If I didn't know that Mary had no sisters, I'd swear that this woman must be her twin.

I watched Arlene intently as she fed me the soup. It didn't feel very good when it reached my stomach, but at least it stayed there. She was right; almost any solid food might've come back out. As I concentrated on her, if she noticed it, Arlene gave no sign of her displeasure. It was as if she wanted me to take some time to notice the differences between them, and see that she was truly not Mary.

A week ago I'd have been able to see the differences much easier. Up until then Mary, always had a purely angelic glow to her. They say that pregnant women have this glow about them, and Mary had that all the time. But in the days that we'd been apart, she'd gotten paler, and colder, perhaps that whole persona was just a part of the snow-job that she and Sundown had pulled on me.

Both Arlene and my Mary were kind of thick, but definitely not fat. I think Mary had bigger tits but maybe they just sat up higher on her chest, or sagged a little lower. Arlene's ass was a little bit bigger but Mary's legs were in a class by themselves.

I was getting dizzy again but I could still hear Arlene talking to me.

"Are you satisfied?" she asked me

"What?" I asked confused

"Can you tell that I'm not your precious Mary?"

"Unh hunh," I said as I passed out again.

"This is one seriously fucked up family," was the last thing I heard her say before the darkness took me.

I woke up a little while later and Arlene was in the bed next to me. I was starving and only the small light was on. The human condition is one of the most amazing things, because as soon as I looked over at Arlene's large robe covered ass, I got a hard on.

"OK, turn over the other way" she snapped. "While you were asleep, you couldn't help it but now that you're awake, I'm not taking any chances with that thing. Especially under the circumstances,"

"What circumstances?" I asked.

"Better you don't know," she said softly.

"That was a good nap" I said. "I'm hungry again; can I have the rest of that soup please?"

"What soup?" she asked.

"The tomato soup you gave me a little while ago" I said.

"John that was 2 days ago, you've been asleep for longer than you think. I was starting to get worried, so I called the doctor from town. He took a look at you and said that you were dehydrated and suffering from exposure. After I told him about your situation, and what that bitch did to you,"

"How did you know about my situation?" I snapped. I started to get up but the room started spinning. Once the objects around me were stable again, I dove, right back in

"You read my letter," I accused.

"Yep, sure did," she snapped.

"You promised me that you wouldn't open it," I whined. "Opening someone else's mail is a federal crime,"

"So is murder," she snapped.

"How did you know about that?" I asked, confused. "That wasn't in the letter,"

"What the hell are you talking about John?" she asked.

"How did you know I killed Sundown?"

"I don't know what you're talking about John. I was talking about me killing you, if you don't let me talk," she said. "First off, the only reason, that I read your precious fucking letter to your precious fucking Mary, was because you forgot to close the word processing program you used to type it on my computer at the restaurant. Normally to save someone's privacy, I'd have just closed the program and not saved the letter, but after seeing the name on the envelope I was a little more than curious, especially since you and I have a little more in common than you know,"

Now it was my turn to be confused

"I'm sorry Arlene; I had no right to accuse you, without having all of the facts. I'm just kind of still sensitive when it comes to Mary,"

"Aren't we all, I'll get you something to eat," she said and got up.

As she got out of the bed, I couldn't resist trying to sneak a peak at her as her robe gapped open.

"Stop that," she snapped. "I'm not used to having to wear a robe in my own home; so stop trying to look at me like that or I'll tell your precious Mary."

"Sorry," I said.

I swear she was smiling as she left the room.

"Call your lawyer, your cell phone is on the table to your left," she yelled

I checked my phone and there were several missed calls from my lawyer, so I called him back.

"It's good to hear from you," he said. "For a while there, I feared the worst,"

"I wrote Mary the letter explaining my side of things," I told him that she should be getting it any day now.

"We're in kind of a dangerous are for blizzards and snow storms so the mail service in this area is kind of spotty," I said

"Uhm John," he interrupted.

"Tell Mary" I'll give her a choice, after she signs the papers. She can either have an hour on the phone, or 30 minutes face to face but only after the papers are signed,"

"John," he said again, this time more insistently. "Your wife doesn't seem understand the legal process," he said hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" I asked "We explained everything to her the other day, or last week before I left, didn't we?"

"When I took her the papers, she said that she'd been thinking about it. She told me that your idea of her being free to marry someone else made absolutely no sense, because she was already married to you, and wouldn't ever want anyone else so signing the papers wouldn't be in her best interest. She also said as the papers being signed would however give you the right to marry someone else or start dating, and seeing as she'd never allow that, she tore the papers up, right in front of me. I told her that I'd just print up more copies and she said go ahead and she'd just tear them up as well. I told her that we'd send out copies of the PI file to everyone in town and she told me not to waste time mailing it and just give her the copies so she could take them around and pass them out. She also said that since you live in a small town, half of them probably know already but that she'd just tell them the whole story and eventually they'd forgive her or forget about it. She said the only thing that mattered to her was you, and she wouldn't give you up, period. I tried telling her that you'd never speak to her again and that signing the papers was her only option for a chance at closure and she told me that she had other options that I wasn't aware of. That was the last I heard from her, and that was yesterday,"

"I need some time to think, I still don't have my strength back yet, I'll call you tomorrow, but isn't there a time limit on these things, so that after it passes the divorce is granted whether both parties sign the papers or not?" I asked.

"In some states, in some situations," he said.

"I'll look into it," then we hung up.

Arlene came back into the room, instead of the robe she had on earlier, she now wore a short thin kimono. It was silky and molded to fit her body precisely. Her big legs had no stockings or anything on them and her tits were straining the kimono's ability to stay closed as they bounced around. My physical reaction was immediate and strong. As she leaned over and tried to kiss me I backed away. She laughed and put the tray down on a table next to the bed. As I reach for it I almost knocked it over. I was still not quite back to normal.

She started to laugh. "You're still going to need someone to help you for a couple of days, until your strength comes back."

She started untying the belt around her waist, which was the only thing holding the Kimono closed.

"Arlene, I don't think that's such a good idea," I said hoarsely.

"Why not," she snapped "You're already trying to divorce that bitch. You've got to move on sooner or later and you'd be stupid to turn this down" she said running her hands across her breasts.

"Yep, I would be," I said "But right now, I'm still married to her and I told you not to call her a bitch. Next time you forget, as much as I appreciate your hospitality, and the fact that you probably saved my life, I'll walk or crawl out of here back into the snow,"

"But why?" asked Arlene.

"I've never once cheated on Mary, and since we're not divorced yet this would be cheating," I said.

"But if she already did what you wrote in your letter, wasn't that cheating?" she asked

"To me yes it was, it was the worst kind of cheating, and that's why I can't be with her anymore. But just because Mary stopped loving me and needed other men, doesn't mean I ever stopped loving her," I explained.

"How can you still care for her, after all of that," she asked.

"I don't know," I said with tears in my eyes 'But I just do."

"So you still love her?" she asked, her voice had lost its hard edge.

I just nodded my head up and down.

"Too bad," she said tightening her Kimono up.

"Did you hear all of that?" she said a little louder.

"Yes, I did," said Mary from the doorway.

She stepped into the room and looked at Arlene's outfit.

"Why are you dressing like a whore around my husband?" she demanded.

"So you could see that this idiot doesn't want anybody but you," said Arlene.

I tried to get up. I was leaving.

"What the fuck is she doing here?" I yelled.

The room started spinning again and the sudden increase in blood pressure caused me to black out.

When I woke up, the first thing my eyes focused on was Arlene's kimono, she was sitting on the bed next to me close enough for us to touch and it felt so good, I almost went back to sleep just to continue feeling like that. I'd been stupid to turn her down.

She was reading something and crying softly.

"Arlene, why are you crying?" I asked.

My eyes focused better as she began speaking.

"Because I just read your letter and I'm not Arlene," she replied.

I immediately rolled as far away from her as I could get without falling out of the bed. I started trying to get to my feet, but the blackness started around the edges of my vision and I didn't want to black out again so I sat down.

"Are you trying to hurt yourself?" she asked.

"Maybe I'm just trying to finish off what you started" I snapped.

"John, I love you," she said slowly "I have never in my life, before you, or since you, loved anyone the way I love you. That's why when you didn't come home I had to be hospitalized. I simply can not live without you," she said, as if it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"Get the fuck away from me," I said coldly.

"No, we need to talk," she said.

"We were going to have a talk as soon as you signed the fucking papers," I said. "Remember you get 30 minutes, I won't interrupt, and you can say whatever ridiculous drivel you need to say to make you feel better but not until you sign the fucking papers,"

"John, I won't ever sign those papers," she said emphatically.

"My lawyer is looking into time limits for me, as we speak and if I have to I'll simply file from a state where I can wait 6 months or a year so whether or not you sign the papers the divorce will be granted,"

"Why would you do that?" she asked, she was noticeably paler now.

"Mary, just sign the papers and we can talk about anything you want for 30 minutes,"

She started to say something else until she noticed that I was looking away from her and had my fingers in my ears. It was very childish, but also very effective.

She started trying to feed me but I told her I'd wait for Arlene.

Mary started crying and sent Arlene in.

Arlene sat down on the bed next to me and began to feed me.

"You're kind of an asshole," she said "But I guess in your position, I'd be feeling the same way but you know you can't win this don't you?"

I just ate; every time the spoon was in front of me I opened my mouth and took food in. The sooner I got my strength back the sooner I'd be on the road.

"Trust me I know where you are, I've been there. Even if you win you lose, and she'll never give up," she said.

"How do you know that," I asked between bites.

"Did you notice how pissed I got every time you called me Mary? Mary and I are cousins, we grew up together; we were closer than sisters for all of our lives until we had a falling out. We argued over a guy. Mary had fallen in love with him first, but I had to have him. She told me that he wasn't the guy for me, but while they were together, he was fucking me on the side. He'd gotten Mary pregnant, but neither of them knew about it. When Mary found out about him and me, she confronted him, and he beat her up so badly that she lost the baby. What made it worse was that she couldn't have kids any more. He and I ran off together, even though everyone warned me to stay away from him, but to tell you the truth, I was just tired of playing 2nd fiddle to Mary. Even though I'm the older of the two of us, it was always Mary and Arlene. Mary has always had this way about her, everybody loves Mary and I was just her side kick then finally there was someone who wanted to be with me instead of Queen Mary. With Mary he had been loving and kind, until he snapped, but with me he was an asshole from the first day. We argued constantly and had physical fights regularly. He was always comparing me to Mary and I always came up 2nd or 3rd. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and walked out on him but the damage had already been done. Mary wouldn't forgive me and neither would the rest of our family. That was 12 years ago, and if you hadn't come along, she still wouldn't be talking to me. Mary has a great capacity to love, but she's also the most stubborn bitch to ever shit between 2 shoes so if she says she'll never let you go, she won't and you have another problem too,"

"What's that?" I asked

"Right now, you're hurt, your little ego is bruised, but you love her more than anything I've ever seen. You can refuse to talk to her about it and run away from her, but you're never going to get away. First because she loves you as much as you love her, and she'll just follow you, and secondly because you carry her in your mind and in your heart everywhere you go. Every woman you see, you compare to her, don't you? When you look at TV and see beautiful women there, they don't compare to Mary in your mind, do they?"