Chapter 1

This is a story about what happened between my wife and me. I am going to give you a little background to help you better understand what and why I did what I did.

My name is Albert Bell, Al to my friends. I graduated high school and started looking for work. I was not a very good student, I hated studying, so college was not in my future. While job hunting, I happened to pass the Marine Corps recruiting station. Everywhere I had applied for a job wanted ‘experienced’ people. My thoughts were, the Marines would give me the experience I needed so I walked in. two hours later I had a bus ticket to Parris Island S. C.

Four years later I was back looking for a job. I found out that very few companies needed a former Marine Corporal who was an expert with a M-16 rifle and could direct fire onto a target from a 105mm Howitzer. I was hired by a construction company as a laborer.

One night I was eating supper at a crowded restaurant when this nice-looking girl asked if she could sit at my table. We started talking and I found out she was my age, had graduated college with a B.B.A. degree and was working in the purchasing department for a large manufacturing company. She was cute, not beautiful but nice. She looked the part of an executive. I’m a construction worker. This girl is above my pay grade. Understand? But one thing led to another and before we parted company, I had a date for Friday night!

I am not going to bore you with the details of our courtship, but I will tell you that neither of us were virgins and before long I was waking up in her bed. About a year later we were married!

Let’s talk about Sue.

Sue is smart. Why she went out with me is still a mystery, but we had a lot in common. That is other than our work. We both loved going to movies and critiquing them afterwards. The same with books we read. We loved going to the beach and planned several vacations to different beaches. We both think it was on one of those trips that she became pregnant!

Instead of that being a joyous thing for her, it became a sticking point in our marriage. She was moving up in her company and really did not have time for a kid, her exact words. She worked up until two weeks before the baby was born, then she was back at work before the baby was a month old!

I quit my job and became a stay-at-home dad. I also had a vasectomy. Please try to understand, that was part of the deal. She wanted to have an abortion; I was against it. So, the deal was she would have the baby I would take care of it and we would only have one kid.

About six months after my baby boy was born, Sue’s boss at work dropped dead of a heart attack in his office! Sue was made the ‘acting’ purchasing agent until another one could be found.

Now I must explain something here. This was at a time in history when companies were trying to show how they were ‘in-tune’ with the times. There were very few women executives and none at the company where she worked. Long story short, Sue was made the Purchasing Agent and given a seat on the board. Now I am not saying she did not deserve it or could not handle the job. From everything I heard she did a fine job. I was proud of her. She had the qualifications and was in the right place at the right time.

Now she was making more than her and I put together before she had the baby! It may have gone to her head a little, just a little.

She had to work a little more and a couple of times the first year she had to go on business trips. I could not go with her because of my duties at home. No problem, I trusted her.