Chapter 2

Mrs. Ann Buchwald knocked on the door of room 219 at the Long Night Inn. She was there in response to a telephone call from Victoria. The last time Victoria had spoken in such a tension-filled voice to her was when Sid had been rushed to a hospital as a result of food poisoning. She didn't know what had happened, but it had to be pretty bad.

When Victoria opened the door, Mrs. Buchwald took one look at the woman and knew it wasn't good. It was late Friday night and Victoria was wearing her charcoal grey business suit. She understood how Victoria used clothes like a suit of armor to keep everyone at arm's length. If she was wearing her business suit, she was in a mood to take names and kick asses.

"Hello, Victoria."

"Hello, Ann," Victoria replied in a tight voice. "Please come in."

"Thank you," Ann said.

"Please, have a seat," Victoria said while pointing to one of the two chairs in the room.

It was a standard hotel room with a single queen sized bed, a small desk set, a table, and two chairs. There was a television hidden in a cabinet. The chairs were actually pretty comfortable compared to those she encountered in most hotels. It wasn't a particularly intimate setting, but she hadn't sought out the room for intimacy. It had been her intention to find a place to hide, cry, and perhaps get a little rest. Now that Ann was here, she wanted it to be a little more formal so that it would inhibit her emotions.

Victoria said, "After I called you, I ordered a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, they didn't bring proper glasses. I hope you don't mind drinking wine out of plastic coffee cups."

"That's fine," Ann said.

Ann realized the situation had to be really bad. When Victoria was tense, her manners became even more formal than normal. She didn't fail to observe the tray of cheese, crackers, and fruit slices on the small table. Victoria was assuring that she could control the conversation through subtle polite manipulation of the situation. While taking a seat, she watched Victoria fuss around with pouring the wine into the plastic coffee cups. Her motions were tight and jerky.

While pouring the second cup of wine, Victoria said, "I'm sorry to have called you so late at night, but I didn't know of anyone else I could call."

The sad fact was that she had been tempted to go to the next door neighbor, but while leaving the house she had seen a woman working in the garden. She didn't recognize the woman. It was only then that she remembered Susan had moved out a year ago as a result of a divorce. It was a shame because she didn't even know the cause of the divorce. At one time the two women had been close. They used to have coffee together in the mornings when the kids were younger. She hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye to Susan. Seeing a stranger living next door had driven home the point that Victoria didn't know anyone she could call on a crisis except for the wife of her boss.

Holding out the plastic cup, Victoria said, "Here you go."

"Thank you," Ann said while accepting the cup of wine. She took a small sip and said, "A nice sweet dessert wine."

Victoria took a sip of wine without taking a seat in the second chair. She paced in the small area at the foot of the bed like a tiger in a cage. Ann watched her jagged movements wondering what could have upset the young woman so much. Her inability to stay still, the ever decreasing path being taken, and the crudeness of her movements suggested that she was anxious and tense, but slowly pulling her thoughts together. It was almost tiring to watch.

"What's the matter, Victoria?"

"My husband told me he wanted a divorce," Victoria answered.

She managed to get it out without crying. She was rather proud of herself. Fifteen minutes ago she burst into tears just thinking about it.

Taking a chance that she could get more of the story out without losing control of her emotions, she added, "Actually, he didn't ask for one. He set the kids up to tell me that they wanted me out of the house. Can you imagine the nerve of that bastard to use the kids for something like that? They weren't even nice about it. They were downright nasty. John must have been proud of them.

"You should have heard the way they called me mother. It was like they had turned it into an insult. I couldn't believe the kinds of things that they said. Each sentence was punctuated with 'Mother' spoken as an insult. It was so bad that I actually wanted them to stop calling me mother.

"When I tried to send the kids to their rooms, they told me that they wouldn't go. Davy just told me no. Can you believe that? My mother would have knocked me into the next room if I had ever done that. They had the gall to tell me that I didn't have the right to tell them what to do. I'm their mother for crying out loud!

"John must be letting them run wild. They would never have done that when I was at home. They were even drinking wine at the dinner table as if they were miniature adults. To think that I trusted that man to raise my kids. What a mistake that was!

"When I started to talk at the kids, they just ignored me. I was furious and John was sitting there doing nothing at all. Have you ever heard of anything like that? Parents are supposed to work together to raise kids and he left me hanging. He made me look like an ogre.

"Rosie even called me a bitch. My little baby called me a bitch. I'll tell you something, I was really tempted to show them what a bitch could be like.

"When I confronted John about it, he told me that he agreed with them. Can you imagine the nerve of that bastard? He basically said that he was ready to kick me out of my own house. I pay the damned mortgage on it. If anyone goes, it will be him. I know who is the primary wage earner in that house and it isn't him."

The rant continued for an additional ten minutes although nothing new was covered. Ann watched Victoria complain about the kids drinking alcohol, running wild in the kitchen, and making plans as if she wasn't even there. It appeared that Victoria wasn't going to slow down or stop anytime in the near future.

"Victoria!"

"I really expected to get more support from John than that. I mean, telling me that he agreed with the kids. My mother would have taken a frying pan to my dad's skull if he ever did something like that," Victoria said. She was on the verge of screaming out her rage.

"Victoria!"

Victoria paused and asked, "What?"

"Sit down and drink your wine. You aren't making any sense," Ann said.

Realizing that she had lost control over her emotions, Victoria went over to the other chair and sat down. She took a long drink from her cup of wine. She then sat there rigid and thin lipped.

"Finish your glass of wine and then take another one," Ann said.

Ann waited until Victoria drank down her glass of wine and then refilled it before she said, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes," Victoria answered.

"Why do you call your son, Davy?"

"I've always called him that," Victoria answered surprised by the question.

Ann said, "He's sixteen years old and wants to be called by an adult name. To him, Davy sounds childish. People have been calling him David for two years."

"Really?" Victoria asked wondering how she had missed that little bit of information.

"Yes really. I guess you aren't aware that Rose recently asked people to stop calling her Rosie," Ann said.

"Why would she do that?" Victoria asked.

"Rosie is the name of an obnoxious ignorant fat cow who appears on daytime television," Ann answered phrasing her description exactly how Rose had phrased her opinion of the woman.

"Is she some sort of cartoon character?" Victoria asked.

"No. She's a real person," Ann answered. "According to Rose, she's a real jerk."

"I didn't know that," Victoria said.

"You did know that David is president of the computer club at school," Ann said.

"No," Victoria said.

His membership in the computer club didn't exactly surprise her. John was a wizard at computers and had probably handed off a lot of his knowledge to David. Based on his behavior that evening, she was surprised to learn that he had a leadership role.

"Did you know that Lisa is on the track team?" Ann asked.

"I didn't know that," Victoria answered.

"Did you know that Rose was in the gifted and talented program earlier this summer? She spent two weeks at a computer camp," Ann said.

"She was?" Victoria said trying to remember if anyone had mentioned that to her. She couldn't recall anything of that nature being mentioned.

"Did you know that all three of them won prizes for their canned foods at the county fair last year?"

"Canned foods?"

Ann shook her head and said, "You know, preserving food for the winter. Things like canned peaches, pears, applesauce, and various fruit jams. John gave me a jar of peach jam that was out of this world. Their jam won first place. He and the kids made it from some peaches that they picked out at some farm."

"They do that?" Victoria asked.

She seemed to recall them mentioning John's Farm several times lately. It sounded like some kind of pick your own farm. She had never heard of it, but that wasn't surprising. Her trips kept her from keeping up with businesses in the area.

"It seems to me that you don't know much about your own kids," Ann said pointedly.

Taken aback by the accusation, Victoria asked, "How do you know so much?"

Ann answered, "I have had several long talks with John over the past year. We got to talking at the Christmas Party. Since then, we have met several times. He tells me all about the kids and what they're doing. He's very proud of them. I would be proud of them if they were my kids."

"That doesn't change the fact that they acted like spoiled little monsters and want me gone," Victoria said.

Ann said, "I'm fifty seven years old and there are a lot of things I've forgotten. Even though it was forty three years ago, I remember my first period like it was yesterday. That's something a woman never forgets. Do you know where Lisa was when she had her first period?"

"She's started her period?" Victoria asked.

It suddenly felt like there was a snake crawling through her belly. She couldn't believe that her little girl was having periods. She wondered who told her about feminine products and how to use them.

"Yes. John called me to ask some advice on what he should tell her," Ann said. "I told him to have Lisa talk to the school nurse. It was the stupidest advice I've ever given a person. If I had been thinking, I would have gone over there and talked to her myself."

"She's started her period," Victoria said in a soft voice. "Where was I?"

"You were on a trip with Sid," Ann answered.

Victoria sat in her chair staring at a spot in the middle of the floor. She had no idea her little girl had undergone that important transformation into becoming an adult woman. In a very soft voice, she said, "I should have been there."

"I'm not going to argue with you on that one," Ann said. "There have been quite a few events in their lives that you've missed."

"You might be right," Victoria said.

"You haven't been very communicative with your family either."

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked defensively. "I talk to them."

"Communication is a two way street. You not only have to talk; you have to listen," Ann said.

The kid's suggestions that she should listen to John came back to haunt her. It dawned on her that they may have had a point. She listened to her boss, but others listened to her because she spoke with his authority. She wondered if she had brought that attitude home with her.

"You never told your husband about Sid's cancer. I was shocked when I mentioned it to him and he told me that you had never told him about it," Ann said.

"That's very personal information about Sid. It is none of John's business," Victoria said primly. She was used to treating all of Sid's business with absolute discretion. If a person had no business knowing something about him, they would never learn it from her.

Ann snorted and said, "You're traveling five days a week with a man and you don't think your husband deserves the peace of mind that would come from knowing the man you are traveling with is impotent?"

"Now that you put it that way," Victoria said.

"Did you ever think that he might be sitting at home wondering what you and Sid are doing in those hotel rooms far from home?" Ann asked.

"No," Victoria said thinking that her husband should trust her enough not to suspect anything of that nature.

"What is your sex life like with your husband?" Ann asked.

"That's personal," Victoria said.

Ann said, "You don't need to answer. I can guess. He's probably lucky if he gets you one night a week."

"Maybe that's so," Victoria said.

She hadn't given the matter much thought except for how much she looked forward to Saturday nights at home. Usually she was too tired on Friday nights to do anything. They usually had some quiet time Saturday nights unless there was some sort of event they had to attend or it was her time of the month. She usually flew out on Sundays.

Ann said, "Victoria, I'll let you in on a little secret. I attended a barbecue your husband threw a couple of weeks ago. It was attended by a bunch of the neighborhood kids who are friends with your kids. John asked me if I would like to help him chaperone since he felt that he wasn't going to be able to ride herd on a dozen hormonally driven teenagers."