I slept through the rest of the night after the late night call from Ester. Even Jed got into the act, since he woke me up at 8AM. He wanted to go pee, so I let him. Once he was outside I did the same thing. It was warmer where I was, so I didn’t rush as much as Jed. He banged on the rear door. He and his banging was why it had been necessary for me to buy a grate for the storm door. He almost destroyed a plain storm door the first month he lived with me. I was forced to install the heavy metal grate over it. It was necessary so that he would injure himself. Make no mistake, he could still make a hell of a racket when he wanted to come inside.

I let him pace around the kitchen while I fixed my coffee. I know it was mean, but I made him watch me drinking coffee over the furnace. I did all that before I made his breakfast. I felt it was good for him to be reminded who had the thumbs. When I finished his breakfast, I removed one of the bran muffins from the plastic carton. I covered it with cream cheese, then began to eat it over a paper plate. The muffin was so crumbly, all I had to do shake the plate to reuse it.

After breakfast I checked my phone for messages. There was none from Ester. I was happy about that, but I was a little concerned about Jewel. I shouldn’t call her since she should be at work. I sent her a text message:

... Are you okay. If I don’t hear from you this morning, I going to stalk you at the restaurant...

I received a Text message an hour later: Larry ... Jewel is suffering from a flu like bug. She went to the emergicare. The nurse said she should be better soon. She doesn’t even want to talk on the phone. Try her again tomorrow ... Rhonda.

Jed and I took two walks that day. I test rode the two wheeler a couple of times. The lead acid batteries wouldn’t charge fast enough to allow me more rides. When dark arrived, I was looking for things to pass the time. Yes I had a few weak moments in which I thought of Ester. I did manage to stay strong and fight off the urge to call her. I knew that it was a weakness of character. I also knew that I had a breaking point which I was rapidly approaching.

To take my mind off Ester, I began working on my sign for the two wheeler. The sign holder was made and ready for a flexible vinyl sign to be attached. I had the name of a local man who agreed to make it for me. It was a small size I wanted, so I felt lucky he would do it. I just had to decide what I wanted on it. His policy was for the buyer to give him a computer fill with the design on it. According to him, the sign would be exactly like the art work, or as close as possible to it.

I experimented with signs until my eyes hurt. In the end I was no closer to a sign than I had been when I awoke that morning. While I had worked on the sign designs, I had also transferred the Ester files to an external hard drive. The files went from the computer’s hard drive to the external hard drive much faster than I expected. I based my expectations on the download times. The files almost filled my sixty four gigabyte flash drive. I placed an order for a new flash drive from Ebay. I needed to have some back up storage available for my own use, just in case.

Once that was done, I was no longer able to resist looking at the files. I hated myself for it, but I opened the first file. It was labeled with the first name of a man. Since my circle of friends was limited, I had never heard of the man. I had no idea if there really was a man by that name. The quality of the video was better than the one I had seen from Earl. Even so it was not even close to professional quality.

The video began with Ester sitting at a bar in some bar or dance club. There were about five minutes of her alone. That scene led me to believe it was an amateur sex video. I noticed when a stranger joined her to have a conversation that the sound wasn’t very good. Since it was an amateur recording, it was probably acceptable. After a little conversation the man and woman left.

The next scene starring the two of them was set in a bedroom of some kind. The camera seemed to be stationary which led me to believe the man didn’t know he was on film. I had heard of ambush videos which were all the rage on the net. The men and women in those videos were never identified. There were several sites for them online. Some of the sites bought them, others refused to pay for video for legal reason I expected.

Ester and the guy did some kissing then undressed. Ester did her thing which I expected. She was the aggressor for sure. It was more the Ester I had known. She wasn’t at all the same Ester she had been with Earl. After about a half hour of video showing several sex acts the man just left. Ester had his business card which she showed to the camera.

The next scene on that video showed Earl coming into the room. When Earl showed up Ester changed. She became extremely compliant. Of course there followed another sexual encounter between the two of them. I honestly didn’t know what to think of the video. I sat and stared at the computer’s blank screen for a long time. I had no better idea what was happening at the end of the file than I did before I watched it.