Chapter 2

A few months later I ran into Barb. More accurately, she ran into me, her cart rammed mine as I exited the frozen food aisle. To make a long story a little shorter, we met, we dated, she got pregnant, and we got married. Betty and dad were not happy, but I was. I had always lusted after Barb and now she was mine. To keep what I did for the military a secret, I told Barb and everyone else that I worked with electronics in a factory. That was sort of true. You made things in a factory, and I made things.

Less than two weeks after we married, she had a miscarriage I was upset but Barb seemed to take the event in stride.

“We can always have another kid down the road,” she said, “but I’ll need a break for awhile.”

Two years later she was still unwilling to have a child, and I was getting the deep chill treatment more often than not. I had to make frequent trips to navy and air force bases to fine tune those devices that I had invented, and it did not seem to bother Barb at all. All her affection seemed to be directed at Fu fu, a dog the size of a rat, with the temperament of Attila the Hun. Except for people he was used to, he was a yappy little ankle nipper. Me, he hated, and the feeling was mutual.

Barb was now a partner in a medical practice in town. Her folks were well off and had purchased her partnership for her, and gave us our home in the snooty part of town. Our house was even more expensive because it was at the end of the road and the side and back yard were bordered by a state forest preserve. Her daddy, to protect his doctor baby from being taken advantage of by a lowly factory worker (me) had insisted on a pre- nup. I of course reluctantly agreed.

Barb was obviously embarrassed to introduce her factory worker husband to her snooty friends at their frequent cocktail parties. Often we both found excuses for me not to go.

The only times I could not get out of the parties was when they were at our house. It was at one of these parties at our house that things started to make sense. The first clue was when I noticed that Fu fu was very friendly with Dr, Parker Randolph Cabot, one of Barb’s partners. He was blond, tall, handsome, and an obvious client at the gym and tanning salon. With this heads up, I started to pay attention. Usually I sat in a corner drinking a beer (out of the bottle) and veging out, as Barb’s guests sipped cocktails and tried to impress each other, but now I was as observant as a hawk looking for a mouse. It was so obvious that I was embarrassed that it had escaped my notice in the past. Dr. Prick (PRC) and Barb took every chance to rub up against each other and give each other sly looks and smiles. It was obvious that many of the guests were in on the joke. A few, a very few, even gave me looks of pity.

It was time to get proof and form a plan of action for revenge, but first I would consult the three smartest people I knew, Sal, Betty, and dad.