Chapter 2

Sarah MacDermott was a pleasant-faced woman, meeting us at the door, ushering us into her home. There was a closed door that had an office sign on it across the room. “Coffee or something to drink?”

“No, I’d like to get this over with. Truth, I never thought I would be in a situation like this.”

“I understand. Okay, I’ll talk to you first.” She indicated me, and led me through the office door. “Mr. Prentice, is it okay for me to call you Howard? And please call me Sarah, I find it eases the tension. Tell me how you discovered or had any suspicion your wife wasn’t being true to you?”

“My father-in-law made a statement one time about my wife and her mother, Mable. Something to the affect they were always going shopping, but never seemed to be bringing any purchases home. Shortly after that I heard Lorna on the phone discussing with her mother of being out and having fun the previous evening. Understand I only heard one side of the conversation, but it didn’t sound right. The next day I asked Henry if he knew of a private detective and he gave me the name of the Hammerstein agency.”

“So Henry knew all about his wife and had suspicions too?”

“I’m not sure that he did and I didn’t say much at that time. I think he was upset he wasn’t involved in his bedroom enough. I’m sure he didn’t know for sure about Mable until I received the first report from the detective. There were two photos of my mother-in-law fully involved.”

“Okay, let’s leave that for now. Tell me about yourself. Are you happy in your work? I understand you are employed by Henry?”

“Yes, I’m the leading engineer in his company. That’s how I came to meet his two daughters and eventually married the oldest, Lorna. She is my age and I have been acquainted with the family for years. The other daughter is younger by five years and named Kittery. I’ve always called her Kitten. That’s kind of an affectionate nickname I call her. Everyone else calls her Kit or Kittery.”

“And how affectionate are you two?” I looked down and Sarah knew I didn’t want to answer.”

“Tell me. We don’t want any complications.”

“Well, Kitten was fifteen when I met her. She was brash and funny and then again serious at times. She liked me and I liked her and we used to tease each other. I found out two weeks ago how much she liked me, but it was more than like because she loves me.”

“And you? Do you love her?”

“I pretty much have to. I should have realized this sooner because Kitten moved out to Montana when I became engaged to Lorna. She came back the day I was married to her sister. I didn’t see much of her. She was more serious, of course. She had the upstairs room in my house but I didn’t remember seeing her while staying with us. She left us a note of goodbye and was gone before we were up the next morning.”

“And why do you say you have to love her?”

“Because she is six months pregnant. I didn’t know this until I went out to visit a few days ago. Henry and the rest of the family, except for her aunt Mary, whom she lives with, know nothing about this.”

“Is the baby yours?”

“I’m certain it is even when I didn’t know I made love to Kitten the night I was married.”

“I need more details.”

“It seems as if I got drunk at the reception very, very suddenly and passed out. Henry, Kitten and my best man brought me home and dumped me on the couch and they went back to the reception. This was about six in the evening. I fell off the couch and woke myself up at two in the morning.

“There was very little light and I struggled to get to my feet and then I felt someone helping me down the hall to my bedroom. I thought it was Lorna. We had to pass my old room to get to my marriage bed. I could hear someone having sex in that room and I figured and made the comment that it might be one of my ushers. The room I was headed for was dark when I entered.

“Anyway, still more than half out of it, Lorna got me to my bed and helped me remove my clothes. I relaxed and turned over putting my arm around her and consummated the marriage right then. It wonderful and I was so in love. When I woke up I could tell that Lorna and I were legally married because of some evidence showing. I got up then and found that Kitten had already left for the airport. Sad story, I haven’t had a very satisfying time being married to Lorna. The respect I feel I should get isn’t there.”

“Tell me about meeting Kitten again some days ago?”

“Aunt Mary and Kitten knew I was coming. I knocked on the door and Kitten stood there and I could tell she was pregnant. She said she got knocked up by a married man and he couldn’t do anything for her. I went into a rant about finding the bastard to make him pay. He couldn’t do that to my dear friend.

“They looked at me and asked a couple of questions. Anyway Kitten had left the reception and came home sitting in the corner watching over me because she was worried and wanted to make sure I was okay. She saw Lorna come home with a previous lover and go into my old room. It was Kitten who I had sex with that night, She swears she doesn’t mind being pregnant with my child but she does love me and I’m not happy with Lorna.”

“I suppose you and Kitten jumped right into bed,”

“It is a little more complicated than that. I wanted to so badly, but I have this thing about vows and giving your bond. I’ll admit I have kissed Kitten repeatedly, and I have fondled her by rubbing her tummy where the child is waiting to come meet me. Kitten has never taken off her clothes and I have never seen her naked. You can’t imagine how much I want to.”

“I guess I can. Let’s get back to Lorna. So you come home and find your wife cheating. Solves your problem doesn’t it.”

“Yes, but I would do the same if there was no Kitten and if she wasn’t pregnant by me. The detective tells me that I shouldn’t view the evidence he collected because Lorna isn’t a good and true wife any longer. I feel badly for Henry for the same reason.”

“Okay, I’ll look at the evidence and call you tomorrow. You seem to have been taken in by both sisters.”

“That may be, but there is a child now to think about. I would do much for it even if I didn’t love the mother. I think I will love the child or give it my best shot.”

“We’ll see what I can do for you.”

I went out into Sarah’s home and told Henry he could go in now. The television was on and I watched that for what seemed forever. It was seven that evening before we left. I started my car and turned to Henry, “You know our wives are going to be home when we get there. Are you going to start trouble?”

“No, I’ll act just the same as always. I imagine Mable will keep away from me and I’ll growl at her.”

“The same here, I guess. I’ll see you tomorrow. We may have to see Sarah again tomorrow if she gets the paperwork for this done. There are always papers to sign.”

“Okay Howard, get some sleep if you can. I’m going to.” I was worried about Mable, because I knew Henry and he would never contain himself like he said he would.

Lorna was home when I got there. “Where have you been?”

“Henry had some papers for me to look at. I was with him. We played golf and last night we got drunk. I’m feeling frisky. I plan on getting something going when you are ready for bed.”

“No way. I’m too tired. Jesus, you’re always wanting sex.”

“Yes, and the reason is because I ain’t getting much or very often. There’s going to be some changes around here soon.”

“Keep it up and you won’t be ever getting any. “ Lorna thought about the statement she had just made. “Howard, I didn’t mean that. Tomorrow night I’ll rock your boat as much as you want. There are some new things I want to try, anyway.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

I went in to bed after showering. I didn’t sleep, just lying there thinking of what was coming up this week. I was a little scared, I hated confrontation and you never knew how a divorce was going to turn out. My mind was going round and round. I must have gone to sleep. I went out to the bathroom during the night and Lorna was in bed. She flipped over and put her arms around me. Oh, what the hell, I enjoyed feeling her close to me. I went back to sleep.

Lorna was sleeping in. I did go in and tell her I was leaving for work and she just said okay but didn’t really pay any attention. It made me a little sad. Sad for her because in a day or so I wouldn’t be here to tell her I loved her ... well maybe skipping the love bit. I wouldn’t be in her bed anyway.

Sarah called my office at noon and said she had the papers ready for both of us to sign. We said we would be right over. When we got there and signed the papers, she laid out the reasons we could charge our wives with. This was a No Fault divorce state so we had to end up letting the evidence speak for us to get the marriage dissolved.

Henry was hurting more than I was and told Sarah to put down adultery. Sarah said that adultery was obvious and again the evidence would be proof enough. “I’ll file these this afternoon, and both spouses can be served tomorrow. I’ll hire a process server to do it. It is a thankless job, but some people enjoy bringing pain to others.

“Your wives will have to get a lawyer to represent them. You’ll have to do a little trading of what you want from the divorce. With this amount of evidence, it shouldn’t be long before some agreement is reached. If it is not settled before the suit is brought to the judge, it will depend on the judge to set the conditions. We’ll see won’t we?”

Lorna was looking at me as we sat down for supper. She did have a roast of pork just the way I liked it. I complimented her. “You’re a fine cook when you are here to set out a fine meal. You just haven’t been around that much.”

“Thank you, I guess, Howard. My grandmother ran a restaurant and did pretty well with it. I thought I might follow her footsteps, but then I took a business course in college. Grandma Hetty passed away so young and she wasn’t here to advise me. I was lucky I met and fell in love with you and haven’t had to work. I can be with Mom and we are close.”

“Well, if something happens to me, you would have a fallback position knowing about running a restaurant. We don’t have hardly any savings to get started, though. I do have a pretty good insurance just to protect you.”

“Howard, you certainly are going to get lucky tonight.”

“Good, you never know what tomorrow will bring.” We did make a night of it and Lorna was up to make breakfast for me.

I kissed her and went to work, with the words she had spoken in parting, “Mom and I are going out tonight. You don’t mind do you? We’ll be late.”

My last words were in answer, “Have fun.”

My secretary buzzed me, “Howard, you have a very upset wife on the phone. Do you want to take it?”

“Yes, I’ll take it. I know what it is about.” I waited a minute and then spoke, “Lorna.”

“You bastard, what are you doing. I was served a few minutes ago. You have nothing where you can divorce me.”

“I think I do. You had better get a lawyer and have him contact my lawyer, Sarah MacDermott.”

Lorna was sputtering and it was more about whom I had hired to represent me. “No Howard, you can’t do this to me. I know Sarah’s reputation and she is the best in town. Are you leaving home?”

“No, it is my house left to me by my parents. However, I’ll let you stay until after your lawyer talks to Sarah. It might be better if you moved in with your parents because I won’t tolerate you screaming at me and I’m that disgusted with you cheating on me.”

“I certainly will move. Where in hell did you get balls enough to even consider this?”

“Lorna, get a lawyer. For now, I’m up to my neck in work. Good bye.”

My secretary stuck her head in the door ten minutes later. “Odd Howard, but Henry got a call just a minute ago. It sounds like he had the same conversation with Mable as you had with Lorna. What’s going on?”

“Sorry sweetheart, I can’t say. Besides you must know what this is about you since listened in on the phone.” I grinned “Who is the maddest?”

“Mable is, Henry is going to lose everything including his underwear, and Mable said his tiny little dick is going too.”

I laughed, “Stay tuned.”

Henry came in after a half hour. “I hung up on the bitch. Whew, I know what my wife thinks of me now. She absolutely hates me. Don’t laugh, Howard, I think she is headed for your house to live. Sorry about that.”

“Geez, I sent Lorna to live with you, but I do expect they will be with me when I get home.”

“You’re going to go home? You can stay with me.”

“No, the house is all I have. I’m going to live there and guard it. Mable’s lawyer will tell her to not move out. Your house is jointly owned so she has more right to yours than Lorna has with mine. I would guess you soon will be living with me.”

“Good, you can feed me some more of that SOS you fed me the other day. Howard, to get serious, I am going to contact those corporations who have looked at my company to see if they are still interested. I’ve lived here all my life and it may be time for a change. If things get too bad in the next few days; I’ll cut you loose, and send you out west to look around. You might be able to shack up with Kittery while looking around.”

“I’d like that.”

“If you find something, I’ll let you take over here and I’ll go shack up with my sister-in-law.”

“That is even better and I’ll bet you would. She is a lonely widow and I’m almost positive she would welcome you.”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead, but you know I might look at my sister-in-law in a different way if I divorce Mable. When do you think we will hear from Sarah again?”

“Tomorrow most likely if our wives can find a lawyer.”

I went home at my regular time. Mable was there glaring at me. There was no supper on the table. “Lorna, would you please get Mable and me something to eat? It has been a stressful day for all of us.”

“You’re going to let Mother stay here?”

“Yes, until you get a lawyer and see what you are up against. Mable, I don’t expect you had much conversation with Henry. I will tell you this, neither of us have looked at all of the evidence I collected by the detective I hired. My Lawyer said that we shouldn’t because if we did, we would never get past what you both have been doing.”

Lorna spat, “It was you who hired the detective; Why?”

“Because I heard something that made me uneasy about what you may have done on our wedding night. I couldn’t verify it, because I was passed out drunk and drugs may have been involved in my being passed out. If the detective hadn’t found anything, I would have worked harder to get beyond the feelings of being disrespected. I will say that Mable is collateral damage, because I had no idea that she was disrespecting Henry by cheating on him. Mable proved to be there when the evidence was collected and she was totally involved.”

“But why did Henry sue me for a divorce ... we have been together thirty years?”

“Mable, you’ll have to search your mind for the answer to that. You’re fairly intelligent.”

Lorna sat supper on the table, never looking at me at all. Mable sat looking at the plate before her, making no move to eat. She was destroyed. Tears were running down her face.

When I decided to go to bed, I said to Lorna. “Mable and you use our room tonight. She needs someone close to her. I’ll sleep in one of the rooms upstairs.”

She said, “Use your old room?”

I held Lorna’s eyes for a minute and then said, “I don’t think I like that room anymore; I’ll be fine upstairs.” She just turned away from me. Let the memory of Rod Peters with her on our wedding night keep her warm tonight.

I was up and out of the house in the morning. I couldn’t face the women again so soon. Henry was already at work even though I was early myself. “Mable at your place last night?”

“She was.”

“Did you stay there?”

“I did. I told them they could stay until they saw a lawyer. After that I’ll let Sarah sort it out.”

“Why are we putting everything in her hands?”

“I was thinking about that last night. Hammerstein told me to let Sarah act for us. For another thing, both said we shouldn’t be looking at the evidence he collected. He did show us how bad our wives were acting. I suspect Sarah and Hammerstein did this so we wouldn’t get down on the opposite sex because not all women are like they are. Too, I suspect Hammerstein and Sarah have seen so much of this in life that they know it could ultimately destroy both the women as well as us.

“I was terribly tempted to strike out and unload on both with something nasty. I did speak plainly enough by hinting how bad they had been acting, but I don’t think I was mean in doing it. Mable is really crushed, but I don’t want her to take her own life. Think what that would do to us if she did.”

“You’re giving Lorna a free pass, aren’t you?”

“No, I’ll never be able to live with her again after this is over. Lorna can make her own way by working. Mable though, may not be able to unless she can do something she knows. I understand her parents ran a restaurant.”

“I can see where you are going with this. You want me not be so harsh to take everything so they couldn’t start something like that. I say no. Let that old bastard and his sons do it for her.”

“Henry, I doubt he would. For all we know he just picked them up for the weekend. I’m not going to investigate into how far back Mable and Lorna got involved with this sex addiction, which I believe is what they have, and I don’t think we should investigate either. Let’s drop the whole thing until the lawyers get together and listen to what they propose and what Sarah comes to us with. Think about it.”

“I wish I could get it off my mind.”

“We won’t be able to for awhile. Hey, I have to get something done today or you will be firing me for not doing my job.”

“Yeah, like I’d do that.” Henry left my office walking almost blindly. Was he thinking about what I had said? At two I put a call to Kitten, knowing she would be on her noon hour.

“Hi, Kitten, are you free for a minute to talk?”

“Oh. Howard, I think of you all the time. I’m so glad you could call. I thought I might hear from you this week end.”

“Kitten, we are so busy. Some of it may concern you and me, and ultimately the baby. I hired a detective to follow Lorna and I knew your mother would be with her. The detective came back with evidence that your sister and mother were being terribly naughty. Henry and I have instituted divorce proceeding. Henry kicked your mother out and she is staying with Lorna in my house. They don’t have lawyers yet. I said they could stay until my lawyer said otherwise.”

“Are you living there with them?”

“Yes, for a few days. I don’t want Mable to go off her rocker. She needs Lorna to cling to.”

“You’re too nice Howard, but I understand. When are you coming to visit?”

“I said I would be out at Christmas if you and Mary don’t mind.”

“We don’t mind and I’m not sure I’m going to keep my clothes on when you are here. Let’s see that will only nine days from now isn’t it?”

“You do love to keep track of days. What would you like for Christmas?”

“Just you to rub my tummy. Oh, I’ve told the office I’ll be all done the first of February. Our baby will be coming the first week of March and I’m not working until the last day.”

“I’ll be sending you a little bit for the baby soon. I don’t know how much. I spent a lot on gathering evidence so I can be free to be with you all the time. The only asset is the house and that may go in the divorce. It seems so unfair that I can’t help you more.”

“Howard, don’t worry about it. Aunt Mary lets me live here for practically nothing. Bring a man for her with you. You started her thinking about sex after it being locked away after her husband died. Hell, she even looks at me.”

“I hope not, but I suppose it was to be expected after what we did when I was there. Kitten, I’ll call again soon. Your father and I are waiting on the lawyer to get back to us.”

“Howard, thank you for calling me. I’m so much happier knowing the baby is going to have a father in its life. I was pretty depressed before you found out what I had done to get pregnant. I’m not blaming you at all because it was my choice. I love you.”

“I love you too. Good bye for now, and I’ll see you at Christmas.” I hung up the phone. God, I wanted to leave right now for Helena to see the mother of my unborn child. My attention turned to Kitten. Was she different than her sister? She had the same genes. And when she climbed into bed with me that night she had to at least partly be thinking of herself. Looking at it in a different light, she was stealing a baby from her sister.

And me; was I rushing to get away from Lorna for the right reasons? I guess if I kept dwelling on things such as this, I’d drive myself crazy. I turned to my work. That was good for awhile until I thought of Henry talking about selling out this company and going onto a different smaller one. I was a good engineer and could certainly transfer my expertise to any of several applications.

“Howard, are you going home tonight?”

“Yes Henry, I thought I would eat out somewhere first though.”

“I hate to go home, so can I join you?”

“Sure, but let’s not get drunk.”

“I agree, I had one of those recently.” Henry found a restaurant. It had two bars and a small dance floor on each end of the building. The food that came out of the kitchen was barely edible in the one that appeared to serve a middle class clientele. Henry asked, “Marge, what happened to the food? Is Robert slipping?”

“Robert died and I’m trying to make a living from just the bars. The bar on the other end is doing better and keeps this one going. I’d like to lease this one out and concentrate on the other that has only booths and a little larger floor where people can dance to the jukebox. I need a chef like Robert was. I may shut the kitchen down the first of the year after the holidays are over.”

“What’s the whole operation worth including the real estate?”

“I don’t know. It was appraised at $750, 000 at one time. I’d sell it for a half million right now. I want to sell anyway and move out to California next September. I might just close it down and walk away. God, remember what the place was like when you and Mable used to come in to eat and dance. That was what, twenty years ago? How is Mable anyway?

“She’s around. She hangs out with Lorna most of the time. Both of us are having a little trouble with the two women. This is Lorna’s husband, Howard. I’d like to hear about your problems and you could let me cry on your shoulder. Really, Marge, why is the food so bad. You must have some idea?”

“Sure I do. I can’t find anyone to cook home cuisine any more. These so-called chef’s see ads saying prepackaged and frozen home cooking is as good as the original. I don’t know a damned thing about food and never have, but I know it is tasteless. You want to help me? Get me someone who knows something besides salt, pepper and hot sauce for condiment and doesn’t know what a freezer is.”

“I’ll think about it. Say I meet you here Saturday morning about eleven and we’ll discuss your problem and ours. I say ours and Howard’s because he is in it too. Just to give you hope, make me two of my favorite mixed drinks so Howard will know what a great drink really is.”

“You got it. I’ll be right back with them”

“What the hell are you doing, Henry?”

“I’m hoping I’m getting the two sluts we are married to off our backs and out of our hair. It’ll cost me, but that’s okay. It might get us away from them getting alimony and too big a settlement from us. I’m going home with you tonight and talk to the bitches.”

“What you just said doesn’t tell me much.”