Chapter 1: A Sad Story

I was raised by my father, my mother died giving birth to me. He was a great dad. He never missed one of my little league games or a parent teacher conference. He helped me with my homework and gave me great advice all through school. I graduated high school and did not have an idea of what I wanted to do with my life. So, I joined the Army!

After basic I was assigned to an Engineer Battalion and eventually sent to Iraq. There I helped repair a couple of roads and build a bridge. But most of my time was spent clearing I.E.D.’s. you know, things that go BOOM!

After four years and two tours in the sand box, I came home knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be an engineer! I enrolled in the local university using my G. I. Bill. I was older than most students and had a lot better understanding of life, so I did well. Between my sophomore and junior years, I interned at a development company. I was assigned to work with the project engineer, an older gentleman who took me under his wing. I did a good job and was invited back the next summer, working with this same man. I impressed the owner of the company and was offered a job when I graduated.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning of my senior year.

I met Sue in the Student Center. She was starting her sophomore year. We shared a table and talked. I asked her out and things moved quickly. Within a month we were making love. She said I was her ‘soulmate’ and I agreed with her. Why not? This girl was beautiful! She had short blond hair cut very stylishly, beautiful blue eyes, long legs and the perfect 34-c firm breasts of a 20-year-old girl.

By Christmas I knew she was the one. On a spring break trip to the beach, I asked her to marry me. I made her a June bride after I graduated.

Let’s hurry this story along.

We moved into a condo. Sue quit school to be a housewife and I went to work for the company I had interned with during college. Six months later my boss, the project engineer, had a stroke. He did not die. Death would have been a blessing. He sits in a wheelchair, paralyzed on his left side and unable to talk.

I took over his duties and the owner was very pleased with my work. To be honest here, the project we were working on, a new wing of a hospital, was 80% complete when I took over, but I finished the job and was made Project Engineer on a strip center just outside of town.

That was when my father died! He was an accountant and had worked at the same company for over thirty years. He had a heart attack and by the time I got to the hospital he was dead! I never got to say goodbye or thank him for everything he had done for me.

A week later I sat in a lawyer’s office and listened as his last will and testament was read. Being the only living heir it was no surprise I received everything. His house was free and clear and worth about $200,000. The furniture was old. I do not remember him ever buying anything new. But it was all mine now.

Then there came the big surprise! Dad had a $500,000 life insurance policy and I was the beneficiary! I had no idea. I stared at the check as the attorney finished reading the will. My dad’s will ended with him telling me to invest the money wisely and that he loved me.

I did not feel like making any investment decisions at that moment so on my way home I stopped at my bank and bought a one year CD. At home I told Sue about me now being the owner of my dad’s house. She was excited! She had been there many times over the last couple of years but now that it was ‘ours’ she had some ideas. We drove over and went inside.

It is a big house! It sits on a corner lot and has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, den, living room and a two-car garage. I remember asking Dad why he lived in such a big house all by himself.

His answer was that this house was my mother’s dream house and she planned on filling it with kids. She was not able to realize that dream but he could never bring himself to sell it or even replace the furniture.

Sue immediately started planning to re-model it. I told her she could do whatever she wanted. As she told me her plans, I realized this was going to take some money. The next day I was back at the bank and applied for an ‘equity line of credit’ on the house. The bank had the house appraised and it came to a little over the $200,000. I suspected it was worth. The line of credit was 75% or $150,000.

Sue donated the furniture to Goodwill, then had all the carpets ripped out. The outside of the house was re-painted, the hardwood floors in the den were sanded and stained. The tile in the bathrooms was replaced with modern colors and the kitchen was completely re-done. Sue did all the inside painting herself. The only thing I had a problem with was our bedroom. It was painted a burgundy rose color. But I did not say anything. The inside of the house was livable in less than three months, so we moved in. We had lived in a two bedroom condo since we were married, and had some furniture, but Sue was slowly buying more. We had time, or so I thought.

I was busy with that strip mall and was working 10 or 12-hour days. Everything was moving along perfectly. We were talking about starting a family next year after we had finished the house. Sue was planning on installing a swimming pool, hot tub and built in grill. I was happy.

It was a Thursday, and I was on my way back to the office from the job site. I decided to stop for lunch at the exit off the expressway where there is a big truck stop. At that exit there is a Waffle House. I like waffles but I love their patty melt sandwich! I order a side of crispy bacon and put it between the hamburger patty and the cheese. Talk about a heavenly concoction! I also order their hashbrowns, smothered and scattered!

I was sipping a cup of coffee and looking out the window when I saw my wife’s car pull through the parking lot. She drove over to the ‘Do Drop Inn’, parked in front of the last room, got out and walked up to the door. She was dressed in her black stiletto high heels, a very short black miniskirt that I had never seen her wear and a top with spaghetti straps that ended just below her breasts, leaving her tight stomach bare. She knocked on the door and a black man answered. They kissed as he shut the door.

This can’t be happening! Not Sue, my Sue! The waitress was back with my order. I stared at my food, then looked out the window. Yes, that is Sue’s car. I could see the license plate, definitely her car. I started to eat but suddenly I lost my appetite. I sat looking at my food.

My waitress came back over to the table. I noticed she had tattoos on both arms.

“Is there something wrong with your order?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I wish I had.”

She walked away as I tried to decide what I was going to do. After about 10 minutes of trying to tell myself there must be a logical explanation for all this, I took two twenties out of my billfold and laid them on the table. I motioned towards the waitress and walked out.

I drove my company truck over to the hotel and thought about parking next to Sue’s car. I decided against that. I pulled across the lot and backed into a space where I could watch the door to room 120. Where Sue was inside and doing ... what?

For the next three hours all kinds of ideas ran through my mind as I sat staring at that door. Things like going to the toolbox in the bed of the truck and finding a hatchet, kicking open the door and announcing myself, “Here’s Johnny!” like Jack Nickelson in ‘The Shining’, but no. I am not spending the rest of my life in jail for taking my anger out on a cheating slut and her lover.

I waited.

There may be some reasonable explanation why she is spending the afternoon in a cheap motel room with a black guy. Right?

Well, NO! Not one I could think of anyway. At about 3:15 the door opened and they both walked out. He followed her to her car door as she opened it. He sat the gym bag he was carrying down and she turned and kissed him. Not a peck on the cheek. No, a tongue swallowing kiss with his hands squeezing her ass cheeks and hers behind his head! She got in, closed the door and backed out, giving him a goodbye wave as she drove off.

I sat fuming!

He limped (yes, I said ‘limped’) across the parking lot to an 18-wheeler, opened the door and started it up. I followed him as he took the ramp up to the expressway. He was hauling ass when I got to my exit. I decided to go home. He disappeared down the highway.

I stopped at a gas station and filled the tank. Then I pulled around to the side and sat. I wanted to get home at the normal time, so I had to kill about 15 minutes. I remember thinking I wished I still smoked!

At the time I usually got home from work I pulled into my garage and went inside the house into the kitchen. Sue was coming in from the back yard. She was dressed in gym shorts, an old burgundy colored football jersey, and flip flops. Her hair was still damp from a shower.

“Oh hi! I did not hear you come home. I was out back thinking about how to arrange the furniture when we put in the pool. Take your shower and I’ll set the table. I made one of your favorites. Beef stew!”

She’s right, it is one of my favorite meals. Chunks of tender beef slow cooked in a crock pot with lots of onions, potatoes, carrots and a can of kernel corn. But for some reason I am still not hungry!

I walked into the bathroom in our bedroom and stripped off my work clothes. As I opened the hamper to put my shirt inside, I saw the top and skirt she had worn to the motel that afternoon. I lifted them up and there was a pair of Sue’s thong panties. I reached in and picked them up. They were wet and sticky! I raised them to my nose. The semen smell hit my brain! I threw the panties back in the hamper and forced myself into the shower. I had to calm down!

I let the cold water wash over me while I tried unsuccessfully not to cry. Finally, I exited and found a pair of cargo shorts and a tee shirt. I walked barefooted down the stairs into the kitchen where Sue had placed a bowl of stew at my place at the table. There was a glass of iced tea and a plate of crackers next to the stew. I like crackers with my stew.

“You shampooed your hair and got soap in your eyes, I can tell, they’re all red.”

“Yeah, rough day. How was your day?”

“You know typical housewife stuff. I cut up the ingredients for the stew and put it in the crock pot. Then I dusted, vacuumed, stripped the bed, did a couple loads of laundry, then folded the clothes and put them away. I took my shower and waited for the man I love to come home. Eat your stew before it gets cold.”

“You left out the part about spending 3 hours in room 120 at the ‘Do Drop Inn’ with a black man. Want to tell me about that?”

I was staring directly at her. She dropped her gaze and asked, “How did you find out?”

“I was ordering lunch at the Waffle House when you pulled thru the parking lot. I watched you knock on the door and enter. I waited and saw you leave after kissing him at your car door. He drives a black Mack truck. You care to explain?”