Edited by Barney R. Further messed with by me. All errors and omissions are mine.

I lost a spendthrift bitch and found a treasure.

I am Roger Determan, and when I started this adventure, I was 32 married, and dad to two kids, twins Jack, and Sandra (Sandy) 4, I was married to Carol Determan (nee Morgan) and we had been married for 6 years.

I was at the time an engineer for a medical equipment manufacturing company. I was well paid and fairly frugal.

I am also an amateur treasure hunter and Michigan history buff. I was particularly interested in the history of the ‘wildcat’ banks that plagued the Michigan backcountry during the pre-Civil War years.

I also have several quirks most of them Carol calls character flaws. I am slow to anger, but I carry a grudge until it turns to sand, then put the sand in a baggie and carry it some more. I am a one-woman man. I do not cheat or two-time and seldom look more than a passing glance. I am a neat freak. I am loyal until I am shown loyalty is not returned. I absolutely hate being lied to. Don’t even compliment me if you see something wrong and choose to ignore it. I am also frugal, not cheap, but I look over all options before I spend my money. I also trolled thrift stores most of my grubbies are Goodwill or Salvation Army purchases.

The frugal part pissed Carol off to no end. Every time she complained I told her; “Last time I looked, the job market for legal secretaries was very hot. You could put that college education to use then you would have lots of money to blow on your stupid shit.”

That generally stopped the bitching for a month or two. Carol, besides filled with avarice had turned out to be lazy as hell. If I didn’t withhold mad money when she didn’t do it, the house and clothes would not be clean. The only household chore she enjoyed was cooking. From the petite ambitious lady that I married, she had become a lazy slug. The lazy slug bothered me because of the image she is projecting to our children.

When I met first Carol, I was in my final year of my college career. I was a few credits shy of my bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. She was completing her associate’s for Legal Secretary. I met her when we happened to be in the same ‘Introduction to Business Law’ class. I was taking the course as an elective and she was taking it as a required part of her degree goal.

I always arrived at my classes a few minutes early. I also almost always sat in one of the first three rows. Carol came in on the third day of the class and sat next to me. I looked up and saw a pretty dark-haired girl who appeared to be afraid of something.

“Please; I need to sit by you for this class, there is an aggressive jerk trying to get me to date him again. The real problem when I wouldn’t go out with him after I broke it off, he went out with one of my friends and when she told him she wouldn’t go out with him again he put her in the hospital. When she got out, she was so afraid of him that she quit school and went back to her home town.”

I replied; “I would be glad to help. If it will help, when the class is over I will take your hand as we walk out and I will walk with you while you go to your next class. This is my last class of the day, so I will not be delayed for anything. I hate abusive jerks and bullies. They prey on the weak and vulnerable. They usually are cowards, and when confronted with equal or greater strength, they run like hell.”

We introduced ourselves and talked right up until class started. When class ended and we walked out together, and Carol put her arm around my waist as we went through the doors. We looked like a typical college couple.

Waiting outside was a scruffy looking dude that had an obvious mad on. “You cheating bitch, you think you can blow me off like that?” Then he made a grab for Carol.

I moved Carol behind me and intercepted his grab. We were pretty similar in size, but I never was one to back down. I never looked for fights, but I seemed to find one about every three years since I hit puberty. Not bragging, but I won them all, because I never quit. I have had my nose broken twice, been stabbed once, spent several days in hospitals several times after fights, but I never quit and I never lost. The guy that stabbed me is in a wheelchair in a prison in Lower Michigan.

The bastard pulled his hand back and started to swing a fist at me. I moved to the side, and he hit nothing but a wall. I heard the distinct sound of bones breaking. I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back and whispered in his ear. “I didn’t even hit you and you have an injured hand. If you don’t leave this lady alone, you will have more than an injured hand. If you think I’m bluffing, just look at my nose. Better men than you did that and they got much worse. Leave, and I will never see you again; do you understand?”

He nodded. I let go and the idiot swung again with the same hand. I just grabbed his fist and started squeezing. He nodded again, and I shoved him away. He left post haste. I never saw him again while in school.

Carol just pulled me back to her and said; “Thank you, you helped more than you can ever know. I would like to reward you somehow. I am a pretty good cook. Could I cook you dinner? My apartment is just off campus?”

“That would be nice, I can do chicken, burgers, chops, and steaks and the like, but other than those, if I can’t microwave it I don’t eat it.”

The dinner was great; Carol really was a very good cook. I had a great time, and when we had eaten enough, I helped clean the kitchen and the table. We talked for a long time. When I told Carol I had to leave as I had to be to work on a weekend project from the company that I did my internship the last summer.

I got up; she walked me to the door, and gave me a seventy-seventh date kiss. I thought her tongue was checking my tonsillectomy scars. “Call me, I want to see you again, and not just in class.”

Well, we continued to date and when I graduated I was hired by the largest company in the world making equipment for hospital and laboratory clean and sterile rooms. Carol got a job with the local Public Defender’s office and we continued dating.

Her ex-boyfriend tried to make a comeback, but I was coming out of the restaurant restroom when he sat down across from Carol. He didn’t see me until I put my hand on the back of his neck and squeezed.

I will give him credit, he never made a sound. He looked at me and nodded and when I let him go he calmly walked to the door and left. Carol’s eyes were as big as saucers.

“Where did you learn all of that stuff? When he bothered me at school, you never hit him and he ended up with a broken hand. Now you grab him and when he looked at you he nodded and when you let him go he just walked away.”

“Carol, I have never lost a fight, I have ended up looking like I did, but the other guy was always worse. I learned that stuff the hard way; experience.”

Ex must have finally got the message, but apparently did not learn his lesson. About a month later he beat up his date in front of a cop and an assistant prosecutor. He was jailed and denied bond as the girl was in very serious shape.

Carol had all of the details, except the client and public defender conversations. She was very respectful of attorney-client confidentiality.

It seems ex did his number on one too many girls. Several former girlfriends showed up for his trial. When the defense lawyer showed him the list of witnesses, the Asshole pled guilty. He should be out before the Semi-quincentennial in 2026.

We dated for another year and a half when I asked her to marry me and she said yes.

We got married and honeymooned in Toronto. She had never been to Canada, and I had never had a bad experience there. We did the touristy things. When we got home, I discovered that my father and mother had signed over their home to me to move to warmer climes. I guess Costa Rica is warmer than Grand Rapids Michigan.

Things were great for a while, my sexy wife was happy in her job, and we had saved a lot of money. About 18 months after the wedding, Carol told me she wanted to start a family. We practiced for over a year and nothing was happening.

I was beginning to wonder if I might be sterile. That didn’t do much for my ego. Then I discovered the reason and got the answer.

One Thursday night after working very late, she walked into the kitchen after work and put her purse on the table edge. She went into the bathroom to shower, when the door closed, the kitchen table jiggled and her purse fell off. When it crashed to the floor a pack of half empty birth control pills fell out.

I picked them up, looked at, and went into the bedroom. I threw the pack in the middle of the bed. I then grabbed my pillow, a set of sheets, and a blanket, and went into the second bedroom. I closed the door and propped a chair under the handle so it couldn’t be opened from outside. We had a second bed in there even though we had never had guests in the apartment.

Carol must have seen the packet on the bed. I heard a wail and some crying. Then I heard footsteps running to the kitchen. I heard “No ... No ... No ... Please no.” Then she must have seen the purse.

A few minutes later I heard the handle on the door turn and start to open until the chair back locked on the knob. “Please Roger, let me explain. Please.

I didn’t answer. About five minutes later she gave up and I heard her footsteps go back into the living room area. I rolled over and tried to go to sleep. I was mad, surprised, and very hurt. Sleep did not come easy.

I was up at my normal time and when I went to get my uniform to dress for work, Carol was curled up in the fetal position naked on the bed. She must not have put her sleep tee on. I did not wake her.

I went back out, got ready for work, and left. I turned my personal cell phone off. Carol and the other spouses were not supposed to call us on the company phone. I worked a full day without interruption. When I got back home Carol was still in bed, but now she was under the covers. I grabbed a couple of days’ worth of clothes and went back in the spare room. I had eaten supper before I came home.

Things remained frosty and I avoided talking to Carol until the weekend. I found that there was no way I could avoid her when we were both home all day. Saturday morning after I made myself breakfast, I gathered my dirty clothes and went into the laundry closet and started to sort and wash clothes. Carol must have woken up when the washer started.

After making sure the washer started correctly, I went out and she was sitting at the kitchen table flipping the pill packet nervously.

“Rog, honey, let me explain. Plea...

“You lying bitch.” I screamed at her, “You all but laid the fault on me for not getting pregnant when you were still taking your pills. Can I ask if you were ever going to tell me; you sorry shit?”

She flinched at every word, and when I was finished, she just hung her head and cried.

I was still very mad, but a little calmer. “I am going to pack and go to a hotel. You have one week to tell me about the guilt games you are playing. I love you, and I trusted you, and I wanted to start a family with you and you pull this shitty stunt.”

I continued, “On second thought, I wasn’t the one who lied, so you pack your shit and move into a hotel or anywhere but here.”

She nodded and got up from the table and took her rings off and placed them on the pill packet and went back into the bedroom. I heard drawers being opened and other noises indicating she was packing. I also heard crying.

About a half-hour later she came out with a suitcase and makeup case. As she walked to the door, she turned and said; “I was really going to tell you, but because you are so mad, I will go to mother’s until you call to have me come home. I will get the rest of my clothes when you are at work.”