Chapter 4

Grace

'Oh, Shit. Now what?' That's what went through my mind when I found myself back at the Hendrix place.

You know that old Chinese curse, 'May you live in interesting times'? Well, the last year and a half certainly qualified as interesting.

A little over eighteen months ago, I finally wised up and confronted my husband. He was one of those men who couldn't keep it in his pants. Every pretty woman was a potential conquest.

Maybe I deserved it. I'm sure I did as far as he was concerned. High school quarterback, naïve sophomore cheerleader, back seat of his car. I'm sure you can imagine the rest. He wanted me to get an abortion and I threatened to report him for statutory rape if he didn't marry me. We eventually married and three months later Kyle was born.

I'm sure there were other girls in the months before we went down to City Hall with my certified birth certificate and a note signed by my parents, then got a justice of the peace to tie the knot. I know there were at least two more honeys between the time we married and our son was born. And it didn't stop then.

There was just something about Henry that women couldn't ignore. He had a way of talking them out of their panties before they had a chance to object, even it they'd wanted to. He could also do the same thing in sales. You've heard about natural born salespeople? Well, that's Henry.

The reason it took so long for us to get married was football. There was no doubt we were going to do it. My dad would kill him and his own father would have ground up the pieces if he skipped out on me. But he made a deal with all of us. Let him finish out the season and he'd uphold his end of the bargain.

He took the team to the championships and got them within a game of bringing home the trophy. He made all state, as did his favorite wide receiver. There were plenty of colleges after him and he would have probably been drafted by the pros in four years, barring injury, if he didn't have to support a family.

He never told me how he felt about having to give up football and his education and I never asked. I never said I was perfect. I got what I wanted for my child and me.

Just because he quit school in his senior year doesn't mean he was dumb. He looked around and decided he wasn't going to get rich flipping burgers. He couldn't act, sing or paint. But he could schmooze others. He convinced the local Mercury dealership to let him sell cars on a trial basis. He even let them pay him commission only, which could have gotten them in a lot of trouble if the state found out. Within two months, he was pulling in more money than any of the other salesmen. A couple of months later, he had his own office and all the salespeople would bring their deals in for him to approve.

Of course, that was all part of the game. He'd come back with the salesman, sit on the edge of the salesman's desk, right in front of the customer and convince him or her or them that he couldn't afford to cut the price that much, then proceed to sell them the car with undercoating, Scotchguard on the upholstery, a deluxe alarm system and a six CD upgrade, all the while sending them away with a smile on their face. He got commissions on the extras plus a cut of the salesman's commission. The salespeople were happy because their closing percentages went way up plus the vehicles were selling for a substantially higher price than they had before Henry took over. Henry was happy because each customer he talked to was ready to buy plus he was making about one and a half times what he made as a salesman. The dealer practically came every time he saw Henry with that smile on his face. The one he got anytime he convinced some innocent to drop her panties or when he sold a car. Knowing Henry, I'm sure there were plenty of times when he did both with the same customer.

Henry bought his way into the dealership a couple of years later and bought out the owner three years after that. The Ford dealer was having problems and he made a deal for that a year later. We got the big house on the hill, the country club membership and the big cars. Henry did the obligatory things: the anniversary and birthday presents, some of the kids' events, sex three or four times a month. He was still hitting up other women much more often than that. I have to admit, I took a spin with the pool boy and my tennis instructor, more than once.

It took overhearing a couple of my 'friends' in the locker room at the country club for me to see what a complete lie my life had become. They were talking about Henry and his conquests. One woman told the other that her husband was just as bad. "At least my husband is discrete about it," was the answer. "You know she's got to know what he's doing. She gets everything she wants so why should she complain?"

I looked in the mirror as I got out of the shower. I saw a beautiful body with a face to die for. But I didn't respect that woman. I'd sold that respect away, a chunk at a time, for years. A ring, a marriage license, a house, a car, being 'friends' with the 'right' people. I felt the tears start, willed them to stop, got dressed and drove home.

I crawled onto my bed and let the tears come for an hour or so and then I decided it was time to do something about it. I'd been around the country club crowd long enough to know who the good divorce attorneys were. I made a call and met with one of the best the following afternoon.

I told him I didn't want to break Henry but I wanted to be fair. The two kids were his and they were used to a particular life style and I expected it to be maintained. I also wanted health insurance, the house and college educations for the two of them.

I think Henry was actually happy about the divorce. Shortly after we filed, he started showing up in the local gossip pages, at a play opening or a restaurant, each time with a new piece of fluff on his arm. The only thing he fought me on was the car. I had a Lincoln Navigator with all the bells and whistles and it was perfect for the family. He'd been able to write it off as a demo but it was actually going to cost him some money to give it to me. Let's just say that Henry sweet talked the manufacturers he sold for and not everything was kosher. That was the only time the divorce got dicey and I found out how important the right lawyer can be. That's the car that mysteriously rolled down the hill shortly after the divorce was final.

I took the time to examine my life, as well as the kids'. I'd seen how the other kids in our overly privileged neighborhood turned out and I really didn't want that for my two. Kyle was doing pretty good so far but I could see the signs that peer pressure was starting to raise its ugly head Christine was already having problems because she didn't fit in with the in crowd. Oh, yes, they had one of those for the 8 year olds.

I got in touch with the top real estate agent in the county, Marsi Archer, and told her how I felt. I wanted to find something we could move into as soon as we sold the house. I didn't want my kids to grow up to become delinquents like their friends who had everything handed to them without having to lift a finger.

When she told me a working ranch had just come on the market and it was a steal, my first impulse was to tell her to forget it. I said I'd have to think about it and that was it. A couple of days later she called me from her car. She was in the neighborhood, had a couple of hours, how about if she dropped by and we took a drive over to the ranch. No obligation, if I didn't like it, she'd never mention it again. I didn't want to go but she was in my driveway honking her horn before she hung up the phone and I felt trapped and obligated.

As we drove over to look at the place, I wondered what would happen if Marsi and Henry came up against each other. Now that would be a reality show I wouldn't mind paying to watch.

The place was vacant but all the furniture was still there. Marsi was very low key, not saying much more than "There's the kitchen," "There are three bedrooms upstairs," "Most of the kids around here have horses."

It was the horses comment that got my attention. Christina was right in the middle of the 'Can I have a horse?' phase that most young girls go through. I had to admit, the thought of Kyle being responsible for an animal had merit, too.

The furniture in the place was well worn, to say the least, but we had furniture up the butt in our house. The clincher was when Marsi told me she could sell my house immediately; she had a buyer who was already committed whenever I put it up for sale. We worked out a deal and I found I was the new owner of a ranch and almost a hundred cattle. We went home, packed a bunch of boxes full of dishes, books, linens and food from the cupboards, rented a U-Haul and packed it up.

The mysterious rolling down the hill accident happened in the couple of days we were packing up the old house. The insurance company was hemming and hawing, claiming it was suspicious and that they didn't feel they should pay for it. I argued with my agent and her supervisor and her supervisor and got nowhere with any of them. I had enough cash to rent something for a couple of weeks but nowhere near enough to buy a new vehicle. Plus, I didn't think I should be forced to. I hadn't done anything to be punished for.