Burn

"Hello."

"Is this Jimmy Pearson?"

"No, my name is Jimmy Greyhawk. My wife Connie kept her maiden name, Pearson."

"Well, this is Doctor Saheed Alwari. Six months ago, your wife and I started to have an affair here at the hospital."

"What?! Is this a joke?"

"No, she was one fine piece of ass and great cocksucker. Listen I don't have time. The reason I called is that I am about to return to Saudi Arabia and about two months ago your wife dumped me for a new doctor, Gregory Zender. I am hoping you are not a wimpy cuckold and will get revenge."

"Wait a minute. How do I know what you are telling me is the truth?"

"Well, if you can get to store room 506 in the hospital in the next 15 minutes you can probably catch her and Gregory going at it. Sorry, my plane is boarding. Good luck, Cuck."

Jimmy was in shock. His beloved wife, his daughter's mother, had been having sex with other men? It was too hard for him to believe. He was a slow-to-passion man. His first thought was how to prove or disprove what he had heard. Then it popped into his mind: "Jerry!" He was Jimmy's neighbor who worked security at the hospital where his wife, a nurse, also worked. He called Jerry's cell phone.

"Hello, Jerry Austin, Security, how can I help you?"

"Jerry, this is Jimmy. Listen, are you at work?"

"So much for small talk. Yeah, I am making rounds now. What's up?"

"This may not be anything, but I just got a call from some Arab doctor who said that Connie was having an affair. She and some other doctor are supposedly having sex right now in store room 506. Is there any way you can sneak in there and, if she is there, take a picture?"

"Man, are you sure? Connie?"

"No, I'm not sure. That's why I need you to find out. Please, I need this favor."

"No problem, I certainly owe you a favor for all the carpentry work you've done for me. I'm not far away. I'll let you know if I see anything and will send you pictures if I do. I sure hope it's not true. You and Mattie deserve better."

"Thanks."

While Jimmy was waiting, he was trying to figure out what was going on. He had devoted his life to his wife and 10-year-old daughter. The house they lived in had been built mostly with his own hands over three years. Everything had been constructed the way his wife wanted. As far as he knew, Connie was happy. Then he thought about the last six months. His wife had started working longer hours and staying over when she only had a few hours between shifts. Their sex life had suffered as he figured should be expected given her work schedule, but she didn't complain about anything and seemed to enjoy their sex as much as ever. There was no way she would endanger their marriage and the parenting of their daughter, was there? The wait was excruciating.

His phone rang. "Jimmy? I'm sorry man but your wife and Doctor Zender were making out like two horny teenagers. I got pictures and video to send you. I don't think they noticed me. I'm so sorry. If you want me to do anything else for you, let me know."

After viewing the video and witnessing his wife willingly having sex, for one of the few times in his life, Jimmy cried.

"Daddy?"

"Mattie. What are you doing up? Go back to bed, sweetheart. Everything's okay."

"I heard the phone and then I heard you crying. What's the matter? I'm ten years old. I'm not a baby. I need to know."

Mattie was mature beyond her years. Jimmy had trouble denying her anything because she seemed to always choose to do the right thing. Upon reflection he realized that this situation affected her as much as him. "I'm crying because I just got proof that your mother has been, how can I say this, "loving" another man at the hospital. I'm trying to figure out what to do. She gets off work soon and I guess I should wait to talk to her then."

"I don't think she's coming home tonight. I overheard her tell someone on the phone that she was happy they would have a whole night together. I thought she meant work. I think you should call her now. See what she says."

"Okay. Maybe there's some good explanation." Jimmy was told not to call his wife's cell phone while she was working unless it was an emergency. This rated as an emergency.

After several rings, an out-of-breath voice answered, "Jimmy, is there something wrong with Mattie?"

"You seem out of breath, dear, are you okay?"

"I didn't have my phone with me, so I had to run to pick it up. What's the emergency?"

The memory of the video removed any desire to be understanding, "I thought you might have been short of breath because you were just having sex with Doctor Zender."

A pause lingered before she said, "Oh, shit. He knows. Don't worry, Greg. I'll take care of it." That statement was made to the other person in the store room. "Jimmy, I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but I'm glad you know now."

"That's sure not the response I expected."

"I love you and our marriage, but I work so damn hard in life and death situations, I have to deal with a lot of stress. I deserve something more to deal with all this responsibility. That's all this is, a little extra sex on the side to reduce the stress. It's not really a big deal. It does not affect our marriage or my being a mother to our daughter."

"I'm afraid I don't quite see it that way."

"Look, I've got to go back to work. This is the way it is. You have two choices: 1) Let things continue the way they are. We continue raising our daughter. You get a loving wife who gives you sex now and then but has occasional recreational sex or 2) You file for divorce and I get half your assets, the house, and primary custody of Mattie. You will get every other weekend and every other major holiday to visit with your daughter. That's the way divorce works in this state. I guarantee I will make your life miserable and find all the excuses I can to cancel your scheduled visits. I know how much you love Mattie, so you really only have one choice. After I finish this shift, Greg and I are going to a motel and enjoy a night together. Then I will work a regular day shift and be home tomorrow night and we can talk. You'll see that things will be better for you to just continue as is. Bye."

Jimmy and Mattie sat at the kitchen bar looking at each other seeing anger, disappointment and sadness all fighting for dominance. "Well, Mattie I'm not sure what to do. I don't think I could stand living here knowing your Mom was having sex with other men. If I go for divorce, I will not get to see you every day. At your age, I don't think a judge would let you choose who to stay with. If I moved out, do you think you would be okay staying here with your mother?"

"Hell, no!"

"Mattie!"

"Dad, I'm a big girl. If I have a choice, I want to be with you."

"We don't seem to have much choice."

"Dad, there is another choice."

"What's that?"

"BURN THE BITCH!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You remember my friend, Beverly? Well, her dad caught Beverly's mom fooling around and he just left. He took all the money he could and just disappeared. They caught him after a while and went through a nasty divorce. You and I could leave her with as little as possible and do a better job of disappearing."

Her idea actually sounded feasible to Jimmy. "Where would we go?"

"You know where."

Realizing what Mattie was proposing, her Dad reflected, "I don't think they would take me back."

"You can ask. I have had a vision of us returning."

Mattie was the grand-daughter of the most highly regarded spirit guide of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Reservation. Jimmy had left the tribe when he joined the army with his buddy Tommy White Elk. He was an angry young man and had disrespected his parents and his people and was kicked out of the tribe. After serving in Iraq his anger cooled and he re-established contact with his mother. During the times he had alone with Mattie, he had taught her about her people and, especially, her grandmother. In the last few years, his daughter had shown signs of being able to receive and interpret visions. Connie knew almost nothing about his family or what he was teaching Mattie. He told his wife that he did not want to talk about anything in his life before he left the Army and Connie did not ask many questions.

"Okay, I'll call. Your Mom will not be back until tomorrow after 5:00. We have a lot to do before then."

Connie and Greg were getting dressed to go to work after a whole night of being together. Connie was disappointed. Greg could fuck but he did not seem to know how to make love which she admitted that Jimmy was really good at. Her doctor/lover was only good for two times in eight hours. She tried to suck him erect for a third time, but he just could not get hard. Her orgasms were faked. Connie realized that part of the thrill of sex with Dr. Zender as with Alwari before him was the secret, illicit aspect of their times together. Now that Jimmy knew, sex with someone else was just not that exciting.

Whenever she had a few minutes rest during her Monday day shift, Connie would think about how she should end it with Greg and mend fences with Jimmy. After all, Greg's teacher-wife would be moving here with their two kids as soon as the school year ended. Connie could go back to being the model wife, lover, and mother then somewhat later look for someone new after things got back to normal at home. No way that Jimmy would give up sex with her or endanger his access to Mattie.

Connie left the hospital at the end of her shift and walked to her car in the staff parking lot. From several feet away, she could see that all four tires had been punctured. "How juvenile!" she thought. "Well, there goes the plan to make nice when I get home." She tried to call Jimmy on her cell phone but there was no service on her phone. She asked one of her colleagues if she could borrow their phone. Connie's call to her husband's phone got her a "service to this number is no longer available" message. So, he wanted to play nasty. Well, so could she. Threatening divorce alone might get him back in line but she would need to see some major groveling on his part.

She used the phone again to call a cab. On the way to her home, she contemplated various ways to punish Jimmy short of taking a scalpel to his balls. Turning into her neighborhood, Connie noticed the plume of smoke and eventually the fire trucks and police cars. "It looks like one of our neighbors has had a fire." The closer the cab got the more she realized that it was not a neighbor's house on fire; it was her house!

Connie jumped out of the cab telling him to wait. As she rushed towards the house, the chief in charge told her to stay back. "But it's my house. Where are my husband and daughter? Are they okay?"

"I think they are fine. Your neighbor said she saw them drive away just after setting the pile of clothes on fire."

"What?" Connie looked in the front yard and saw a pile of her clothes on fire. There were some things on top of the pile. In a few seconds she realized they were her wedding albums. Pictures of that oh so expensive wedding she just had to have. Gone in smoke. Looking at the house she observed that although the fire was under control, little would be left of the house she so dearly loved. Connie saw her nearest neighbor, Mrs. Jenson, standing out on the sidewalk watching. When she approached her neighbor, a frown appeared on Mrs. Jenson's face.

"They're gone. I hope you're happy now."

"What are you talking about Mrs. Jenson?"

"Jimmy and Mattie talked to me before they set the fire. They wanted to make sure my house would not be in danger. They told me what you did. I can't believe you could treat that wonderful man and precious little girl so horribly. I hope you hurt for a long time, but that would assume you cared about them in the first place."

"I do care about them. It's just a misunderstanding. Wait, are you saying Jimmy started this fire? But he built this house with his own hands. It was our home, a beautiful home. Where are they?"

"Your husband told me that since he built this house, he could destroy this house. It was just a house. Jimmy said it stopped being a home when you decided to stop being a wife and mother. He burned a house. You burned a home. Jimmy and Mattie have gone, deary. They plan to disappear where you will never find them, and I hope they are successful." With that statement, Mrs. Jenson shuffled away.

Walking back to the fire, the chief informed Connie that it would be a few days before they could declare the house safe to search for any valuables that might have survived. He asked if she had somewhere she could go. After a pause she said, "My parents."

Getting back in the cab, Connie gave her parents' address to the driver. Many thoughts came to her mind that basically fell between two possibilities: He'll come back and beg forgiveness then build a new even better house or once I find him, I royally screw him in a divorce. In the middle of her internal debate, they reached her parents' house. When she went to pay the taxi, the driver told her that her card had been rejected. Three times. She asked the driver to wait so she could get the money from her dad.

She rang the bell and for the first time today tears came to her eyes. Connie needed her mom and dad for emotional support. Harry opened the door but not all the way. "What do you want?"

"Dad, it's me, Connie, let me in. Something terrible has happened. Jimmy . . ."

"I know what has happened. Jimmy and Mattie stopped here on their way out of town. How could you? I loved him like the son I never had. She is our only grand-child. You were raised better than that. I'm afraid we can no longer consider you our daughter."

"Dad! What are you talking about? It's just a misunderstanding. Jimmy will come back, and I'll straighten it all out. Let me speak to mother."

"A misunderstanding? Is that what you kids call it these days. How can you 'misunderstand' a man, not your husband, having his penis in your vagina? How can you 'misunderstand' having another man's penis in your mouth? I saw the pictures."

"He . . He has pictures? Oh, God! Where is mother? I need to explain it to her."

The door did not open any wider. "Your mother is in bed. The doctor had to order a sedative. We're lucky she didn't have a heart attack when she saw the pictures."

"Jimmy showed Mom pictures? How could he?"

"He didn't want to, but your mother said she would not believe a daughter of hers would ever do something so vile, so against what she taught her, so against what her religion taught her. So, I handed the pictures to her and once she saw them she passed out. She does not want to see you soon, if ever." The door closed. She did not have the courage to ask for the cab fare. Connie walked back to the taxi in tears.

"Where now?" he asked. "It needs to be somewhere you can get money."

Connie figured her ATM card would be no good too. After pondering a bit, she gave the address to her driver for her younger sister. Connie did not have a good relationship with Leslie, but her sister had been a good aunt to Mattie. Leslie had gained a reputation as a slut in high school and fallen out of favor with their parents. Connie was not sure what kind of reception she would get, but Leslie was the only other family she had.

This time the door was opened wide. Lisa had a smart-alec smile on her face, "Well, well. I was expecting you."

"I guess Dad called you."

"No. Jimmy and Mattie stopped by here on their way out. I figured Mom and Dad might not be receptive to an adulterous daughter since they still aren't too happy with their slut daughter."

"Before we go any further, could I ask a big favor. Actually, two favors. Something's wrong with my credit card and I need to pay the taxi. And then, is it possible to stay with you a while? Jimmy burned down our house."

After a short mental debate in her head, Lisa relented, "All right to both favors. I guess I owe you."

"Thanks." After paying the cab and settling into the couch in her sister's living room, Connie asked. "What did you mean about owing me? I don't remember having loaned you money recently."

"You didn't. I grew up in the shadow of Ms. Goodie Two Shoes and her high grades, perfect looks, and noble career. You made me sick. I was always being compared to you and coming up short. I became a screw-up, but it made me different from you which is what I thought I wanted. Now you have made me the 'good' daughter. Everybody loves Jimmy. How many times did he volunteer to use his carpentry skills to help out one of your neighbors? Some mission group? That house was a shrine to you and what did you do? You shit on him. My niece was the most fantastic kid I have ever known. I will miss her so much. Most of all you had the most loving, devoted, caring, patient husband and you reward him by tearing out his heart and stomping on it. I tell you what. If Jimmy comes back, I will beg him to be with me. As much as I like a variety of lovers, I would give my life up and become the most loyal lover or wife the world has ever seen. You are a stupid, selfish, arrogant bitch and I hope you suffer as much as he has suffered."

"Don't be so subtle about how you feel about me," Connie said sarcastically. "You don't understand the pressures I have been under. How the stress was wearing me down. I needed, I deserved some reward. So, I got a little extra sex. Nothing important. Jimmy has blown this all out of proportion. He has over-reacted and he will pay."

"You need to see a therapist. The planet you are living on is a few million light years from the planet the rest of us live on. There is no way to forgive what you've done."

"It was just sex!"

"It was adultery. It was betrayal. In addition, you told him he had to accept being a cuckold or you would keep him away from his daughter. You might as well have cut off his dick and had him wear it around his neck. No real man would put up with what you did. And Jimmy is a real man. You can stay here awhile so I can enjoy seeing you suffer."

"Well, at least there is not any more he can do now. I, however, can fight back. He took my daughter without my permission and that is kidnapping. I will have the law after him. Let's see how he likes the bunk mates he gets in jail."

Connie spent a restless night at her sister's. She took off work the next day to try to get her life back in order. She found out that everything that had been in both their names was now in her name only: their joint checking account, the mortgage, her car loan, credit card, cell phone, etc. At least half of their joint assets had been transferred to her personal savings account, so she had the funds to get a place and start replacing her clothes and personal items. Towards the end of the day she called the insurance company to report the fire and see what had to be done to collect on the loss. She was surprised to find that Jimmy had cancelled the homeowners' insurance to be effective before the fire. There would be no insurance payment for the house. All Connie had was the lot that had a burned down house on it. At least the house was paid for, so she did not have to worry about a mortgage payment on a house that no longer existed. It seemed that every few minutes she learned of another thing that she had become solely responsible for. She was not used to dealing with such unimportant issues. Jimmy took care of those details. Connie began to realize what all Jimmy had contributed to their life together.

Connie realized she had gotten a missing person's report and a kidnaping report of a minor mixed up. Whereas a missing person could not be reported until 48 hours after they had left, a kidnapping could be reported right away. She went to the police station. The desk sergeant was very attentive when she said she wanted to report a kidnapping. "Who was kidnapped?"