Chapter 10

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Jake had not known that sitting in a boat would present such an odd perspective. With the boat riding low in the water, his head was only a couple of feet above the surface. From that vantage point, he couldn’t see that much of the lake, nor could he see much beyond the shoreline. It made him feel isolated from the world.

Mark Harrison demonstrated yet again how to cast the line.

“Now you do it. Try over by that stump, Jake. I’ve had several good strikes there.”

“Okay.”

Jake awkwardly cast the line. It failed to make it even halfway to the stump.

“No problem,” Mark said. “Keep it up. After a few tries, it will come naturally.”

Jake’s next cast went further, but not far enough. Jake reeled it in and tried again. He decided it was close enough this time. He began to slowly reel in the lure.

“Good, Jake. Just like that. We’ll make a fisherman out of you yet. So what’s on your mind today?”

“I’m going to be talking out of school. I’ve learned something about your wife and something else about your daughters that I think you ought to know about. But neither are going to be comfortable subjects.”

“You know something about Jan? Is this why she got so angry last night?”

“No. I haven’t seen Jan since Thursday. She’s mad about something?”

“I’ve never seen her so mad. We were eating dinner, not saying much. I was kind of lost in my own thoughts. Then all of a sudden, she accuses me of being disloyal and a philanderer. She wouldn’t even talk to me. I ended up sleeping in Kyle’s room.”

Jake read Mark. He had been musing on his liaison with his secretary when Jan had started yelling at him. Damn, Jake thought. She had gone from sensing simple thoughts to following Mark’s thoughts at full speed in a single day. She was going to be a fine mind reader. Jake had thought that he would have more time to get Jan ready for the shocking things she would read in other people.

“So she figured out you were having an affair that you never told her about?”

Mark hung his head. “Yes, that seems to be exactly what happened.”

“I’ve come to know Jan pretty well. We’ve been spending a lot of time talking. I’m pretty sure she’s not mad about the sex. It’s the deception.”

“Of course, she doesn’t like being deceived. But I hardly expect her to cotton to my being attracted to other women.”

“Yes and no. You may be surprised to hear that Jan and I have talked about that very subject. I’ve had my eye out for men for my mom. You are one of the men I’ve considered. Jan and I have talked about it.”

“You have?”

“Several times. She’s of two minds. She’s grateful to you for giving her the freedom to see me. She thinks it’s only fair that you have some freedom, too. But at the same time, she’s having trouble getting past her jealousy. I expected her to work it out eventually, but it looks like the issue is ripe now.”

“If she was already jealous, how are we going to be able to work it out?”

“Do you remember my advice to you to get Jan to share her sexual interests with you?”

“Sure. It was good advice.”

“It goes both ways. This is not a hard problem to solve. Confess your every indiscretion. Beg forgiveness for the deceptions. Grovel as low as you can because she is justified to be upset about you lying to her. Flowers and expensive jewelry should start flowing as soon as you can get to the store. Later, when you all are talking again, tell her how you feel about other women. Tell her what type of women catches your interest. But be sure to assure her that they are no threat to her, that you are just wired that way and you find other women interesting.

“When she understands your sexuality better and you two are comfortable talking about it, her jealousy will diminish. Before long she’ll start to suggest women to you that she thinks you might be interested in. Once you’ve regained her trust, she will probably start suggesting women for you to take to bed.”

“You make it sound so easy to fix.”

“Simple, yes; easy, no. You’ve done some real damage by having an affair behind her back. That’s going to take some serious time, effort, and money to repair. You’ve got to be able to show her that you are devoted to her.” Jake had a thought. “You know, I might be able to suggest a way to show Jan how much you really do love her.”

“What?”

“This is going to take an open mind on your part.”

“Like I haven’t already demonstrated an open mind with you and her?”

“You have. That gives me a reason to think that this might work.”

“What might work?”

“She’s almost thirty. Her biological clock is ticking. She wants a baby badly.”

Mark stiffened. “We have a deal. She knows I’m too old to start again with children.”

“And she intends to honor that agreement. Her sense of fair play doesn’t allow her to disregard your deal, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t suffering from the intensity of her longing.”

“She hasn’t said anything to me.”

“No, and I don’t think she’ll ever bring it up with you on her own.”

“But you think I should go ahead and give her a child.”

“I think that sometimes a husband will decide to make a sacrifice for his wife’s sake. But in this case, I’m kind of hoping that you will decide not to get her pregnant.”

“I don’t understand. You don’t want Jan to be happy about this?”

“No, I want it badly. I just think that I see a way for that to happen without you having to go into your golden years with an adolescent child.”

“You’re talking in riddles.”

“Mark, I want to be the father of Jan’s baby.”

Mark was speechless. He started to get angry and then decided he didn’t have a reason to. Then he started to get angry again.

“Are you trying to come between us?”

“No, but I do want to be more important to her. Listen, Mark, she’s your wife. She lives with you. She eats meals with you. She sleeps with you every night. She enjoys your company. She admires you. She’s grateful to you for her material comfort. I can’t compete with all that. She loves me, but you’re her man.”

“But if you and she do that you’ll be the father of her child. Won’t that draw her closer to you?”

“Some. I’m not sure how it will work out exactly. I can’t imagine Jan would have me keep the baby, so it would live with you. But I would be its father. It would spend a lot of time with me and my family. My side would be its other family. We could keep the baby when Jan is working. It could hang out at our place when it got older.

“It won’t be too many years before I can announce myself as its father. But you would be there, too, a father, if not as actively involved as I am. No, more an uncle. And there would be a multitude of doting aunts at my place. It would be unconventional, but it could work.”

“I don’t want to lose her.”

“It may be your best chance to keep her. If you and she continue to ignore her need, she will do her best to suppress it, but eventually, her longing will become stronger than her will. I don’t know how long it would take but in three years, or five or eight, she will be miserable and she won’t even be able to talk to you about it. It will be like a cancer in your marriage.”

Jake watched Mark mull it over.

“There are practical issues. You live too far away to have the child coming and going between our homes.”

“Didn’t Jan tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

Jake pointed to the far shore. “Do you see that big house over there?”

“You mean Cockrell’s model home?”

“It’s not a model home any longer. My family and I move in on Monday.”

“Jake, what are you talking about? That’s a $2,000,000 home. It’s 8,000 square feet of finished living space.”

“He was asking two point two. We got him to reduce the price a whole lot.”

“Even a whole lot, it would take someone with a net worth of millions to be able to afford it.”

“Mark, I’m not going to open up my finances to you, and I won’t go into all the factors that made it workable for us to get that house, but I promise you it’s happening. In fact, why don’t you come over on Monday? I’m sure the women will be glad to have another strong back there to move furniture around for them.”

“What are you going to do with all those bedrooms?”

“There is plenty of demand for them. Ellen and I are moving in with Leanne DeRizzo and her kids. Plus miscellaneous hangers-on.”

“Is the whole world going crazy or am I? Jake, you’re a boy. You’re not even in high school yet. How can you be buying that mansion?”

“We’re leasing, not buying. We’ve got a ten-year lease. Listen, Mark, I’ve bragged before on how good I am with people.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“I’ve learned some ways to turn that skill into money. I probably make as much per month as you do.”

“But even I would have trouble paying rent on a house like that.”

“Your wife was there when I negotiated the terms of the lease. Ask her. But stop browbeating me about it. In 48 hours, I’ll yell hi to you across the lake while I’m supervising the movers.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“So do you want some time to think over my proposal about giving Jan a child?”

“If you don’t mind. So what’s the other thing you wanted to talk to me about?”

“I also want to talk to you about Shannon and Christine.”

Mark became suspicious.

“What are you doing to my daughters?”

“I’m trying to do right by them, but there are issues. You’ve been kept in the dark, and I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Then why don’t you tell me about these issues,” he said snappishly.

Jake sighed. “Come on, Mark. Be calm. I’m trying to involve you in things that you’ve been shut out of. Or would you rather I kept you in happy ignorance?”

“I’d rather you weren’t handling all the women in my family.”

“I’m not a significant player in what your daughters are doing. Think of me more as the messenger.”

“So what are my girls doing?”

“They’ve discovered that they share a personality trait with their mother.”

“What’s Meg got to do with it?”

“Are you aware of her, uh, unusual, uh, sexual preferences?”

“Meg? I never noticed anything unusual about her sexual practices.”

“I’m not surprised that you didn’t notice it, but she has an, uh, unconventional need. I’m guessing that during your marriage that she lost interest in sex and then in the marriage itself. Eventually she wanted out, but never really gave you a clear idea why.”

“Actually she had a pretty high sex drive. We continued to have sex until the end but the rest of what you describe is about right.”

“What do you know about her circumstances now?”

“Not much. Not long after the divorce was final, she moved in with that control freak. She’s still there.”

“What she never told you during her marriage is that she needs a control freak. She’s submissive.”

“Meg? Nonsense. She was always strong-willed.”

“That’s how she behaved, in part because these days society teaches women that they have to be strong. It’s a front they have to put up no matter how they really feel.”

“What’s wrong with women being strong?”

“Nothing, but there are some women whose strength isn’t expressed by leadership or independence. Meg may be a very strong woman. I’ve never met her, and I don’t know enough about her otherwise to say. But the point that I’m making is that she needed — she needs — someone to dominate her. She either couldn’t tell you about her needs, or she decided that you didn’t have the kind of personality that could dominate her. That’s why she asked for a divorce.”

“Why wouldn’t I be able to dominate her? I run a big company. I know how to boss people around.”

“What about you and Jan? Are you the boss there or is it more equal between you?”

“I treat her with respect. We have a partnership.”

“That’s what I thought. And I can tell that that works for Jan. But if you were the same way with Meg, she wouldn’t have been content.”

“I suppose I was. It didn’t occur to me to treat her any other way. It wouldn’t have been respectful.”

“The problem for Meg was that she didn’t want respect. The fault was chiefly hers because she didn’t tell you that she needed to be dominated. But then again, it may be that she recognized that you wouldn’t have been able to assert yourself even if she had asked. Some men are very much in control outside the house, but they need to let down at home. For them, home is the refuge from the burden of controlling others.”

“Huh.”

Mark sat quietly for a couple minutes. Jake listened to his mind as Mark considered his interactions with his current and past wives. It didn’t take long before he recognized that he didn’t want to be the boss at home and that he was grateful that Jan didn’t expect it of him.

“So what are you saying about Shannon and Chris?” Mark finally asked.

“They have the same need to be dominated that Meg has.”

“Huh.”

“Shannon realized it while she was away at college. Christine learned about it last week.”

“How did that happen?”

Skipping over the mind-reading aspects, Jake explained about how Christine had kept him waiting on Jan, how he had gotten his revenge, and how Christine had responded.

Mark chuckled. “She’s the little princess who always gets her way. I’m surprised that you were able to conquer her.”

“I haven’t really done that. I just noticed her need. I don’t want to be the person who gives Christine the domination she needs. I’ve got too much on my plate as it is. Besides, I’m not really the domineering type either. The problem is that a submissive girl is at terrible risk of meeting up with someone who will use her need to be dominated to take advantage of her.”