Chapter 5

Paul was enjoying a nice tender steak that had been cooked on the hibachi grill out on his back patio. It was a simple meal with a small eight ounce cut of meat, a baked potato loaded with butter and sour cream, and a lettuce salad smothered in salad dressing. He’d had a small glass of red wine to go with the beef. With the coming of summer, this had turned into his Friday evening end of the week dinner. He viewed it as a small celebration of having ended another work week.

There was a map on the wall next to the table which he studied while eating his meal. He had two weeks of vacation time coming up, and he was planning a little road trip. He was going to drive a great circle and see a little bit of the countryside. The map was marked up with locations of interest that he wanted to visit.

It had been years since he’d taken a real vacation. Once Annie had become a teenager, she didn’t enjoy traveling on vacations since it took her away from all of her friends. Of course, Judy refused to go without Annie, so that had been the end of vacations.

Although he would be alone, he was looking forward to the trip. He was an explorer at heart. He enjoyed few things more than going out and seeing new sights. Now, for the first time in a long time, he was actually getting out of town to see more of the world. It sure beat taking the odd day off here and there to do work around the house.

With each week that passed, it was becoming more difficult for him to convince himself that he wanted to salvage his marriage. In fact, the arguments against it were increasing in number. Coming home without having to listen to the details of Annie’s daily dramas was just the beginning. Even this simple dinner was something that he would have had a problem with, back in the days before leaving. Meals were Annie’s favorite times to throw tantrums. His upcoming vacation was just one more argument against trying to save it.

He studied the map thinking about his planned trip. He wished that he didn’t have to take it alone. That was still an argument for saving the marriage. In fact, it was slowly becoming the only argument for saving it.

He picked up his cell phone and scrolled through his contact list. Finding the name he wanted, he started the call.

“Hello, Bert, this is Paul.”

“Hello, Paul. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing fine. How about yourself.”

“I’m doing well,” Bert replied. “Our health is good and Sue is happy. Things are great.”

“I was wondering if you and Sue were busy, tonight.”

“Not really. What’s up?”

“I’ve got an idea and I wanted to share it with you. Could you come over this evening?”

“You’re not trying to get us to become Amway salesmen, are you?”

Paul laughed. Bert had an unusual sense of humor.

“No. It’s nothing like that. I’ve got a nice wine for you try.”

“That’s a mighty convincing argument. Would an hour from now be okay?”

“That would be perfect,” Paul said.

An hour later, Paul invited Bert and Sue into his apartment. Both of them stopped right inside the door and looked around at the furnishings.

Bert said, “Last time I was here, it was a lot emptier than this.”

“I thought Judy sold all of this stuff at a garage sale,” Sue said.

“She did. I had a friend buy it for me.”

“Did you save the antique chest of drawers?”

“I sure did,” Paul said. “It cost me twenty-five dollars.”

Bert stared at him incredulously. Sue had her mouth open.

She said, “That cost you nearly a thousand dollars, twenty years ago!”

“Judy was desperate for money,” Paul said.

“That stupid, stupid girl,” Bert said shaking his head.

“I take some of the blame for that,” Paul said. “I’ve protected her from having to worry about money for too many years. She really had no idea of the value of anything.”

“Still, it’s a crime to sell a treasure like that for twenty-five dollars,” Sue said.

Paul said, “I’m being a terrible host. Have a seat. Would you care for some wine?”

“That’s what convinced us to come over,” Bert said rubbing his hands together and smiling.

Paul went into the kitchen and returned a minute later with a plate full of sliced cheeses of various kinds, along with rectangular ‘club’ crackers and also some of the round ones. He made another trip and brought out the bottle of wine and the glasses. He showed the bottle to Bert.

“I understand that is a nice dessert wine,” Bert said. “I was reading about it, just the other day.”

“I saw that article and thought I’d try it,” Paul said.

Sue shook her head, “You boys.”

“It’s a simple pleasure of life,” Bert said.

Paul poured glasses of wine for everyone. Bert took a sip. “Oh, that is good.”

Paul took a sip. “I’ll get another bottle or two.”

“I have to admit it. That is a nice little wine,” Sue said appreciatively.

Bert said, “So what is this idea you wanted to share with us?”

“Well, I’m taking a vacation in two weeks.”

“You haven’t had one of those since Annie became a teenager,” Sue said.

“I was wondering if you two would like to go with me,” Paul said.

Bert and Sue looked at each other in surprise. Although Bert was retired, they hadn’t really done any traveling since he had quit working. Bert was the first to recover.

“Where were you planning on going?”

“I’ve got it all marked out on the map over there,” Paul said.

The three of them went over to the map.

“It’s a road trip,” Bert said.

“Yeah. I plan to go about a hundred and fifty miles a day, with stops to see the sights along the way. That would mean about three hours of driving, and six or seven hours of sightseeing. There’s a lot of things to visit – museums, parks, scenic overlooks, and tourist traps.”

“That sounds like fun,” Bert said.

Sue said, “We’ve never done a vacation like that.”

“Usually, we have some destination in mind, drive like hell to get there, stay a couple days, and drive like hell to get home,” Bert said.

“I’ve had vacations like that. This time, I want to do something relaxing,” Paul said.

“You came up with a pretty good idea,” Bert said studying the map. There were all different colors of pins stuck in it. He pointed at a black pin and asked, “What’s here?”

“That’s a cave. I’ve got all of the places color coded. Green is for parks, red for tourist traps, yellow for scenic overlooks, black for the cave, blue for museums, and white for historical sites. There are a lot more places to visit than there will be time for. I figure I’ll see what kind of mood I’m in and stop in the places that appeal to me.”

“You’ve put a lot of work into this,” Sue said.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with it,” Paul said.

Sue frowned and then asked, “Wouldn’t you rather have Judy go with you?”

“Yes, but that won’t happen. Annie is still in jail. Judy goes up there for a visit every chance she has. She wouldn’t let two weeks pass without visiting Annie. She is also working for the first time in her life, and she doesn’t have any vacation time, yet. Finally, I’m not on her list of favorite people since she knows I could bail Annie out of jail, and I won’t,” Paul said.

“She’s working?” Bert asked.

“Yes. She’s got a job at a burger place. She’s making around ten an hour, and is working twenty-six hours a week.”

“She can’t live on that,” Bert said.

Paul said, “I disagree. She’s living quite well on that. After all, I’m paying for all of the necessities. Of course, she’s still living on the edge, since everything she is earning goes into a fund to bail out Annie.”

“The bail is ten thousand dollars. It’ll take her a year to earn that much,” Sue said.

“Yes. I know.”

Bert said, “I thought she only had to put ten percent down.”

“That’s if she could find a bail bondsman to underwrite the rest. Remember, she’s essentially having to borrow nine thousand dollars. She has a zero credit rating, and she doesn’t have any assets in her name that she could put up for collateral.”

He had several bondsmen call him about cosigning the bail bond. He had given them all the exact same answer, “Not only no, but hell no!” Apparently the word had spread, because after the first few bondsmen had called him, the calls had ceased.

“What about her car?”

“It’s in my name.”

“The house.”

“It’s in our name, and I won’t sign.”

Bert shook his head. He said, “I thought for something like this, they wouldn’t put up such a high bail. She isn’t a flight risk.”

“Well ... she kind of mouthed off at the wrong time. Essentially, she told the judge that her mother would pay the fine, and there was no f’-ing need for her to f’-ing bother with all of this f’-ing trial crap. Her words, not mine,” Paul said.

Bert cringed.

“The judge was not impressed. He told her that the sentence for assault was jail time.”

“How do you know this?” Sue asked.

“Carl was there at the hearing, and he told me all about it. The judge was not impressed with Annie’s insistence that she didn’t do anything wrong, because the old geezer had it coming for interfering where he didn’t belong.”

Carl had kind of hammed it up in the court room, looking and acting a whole lot more frail than he was in reality. He had acted as if it was hard for him to even stand up when he objected to being called an old geezer. The judge, a man approaching his seventies, took one look at Carl and then studied Annie with a scowl on his face before coming down on her like a ton of bricks.