Six Minutes.

Many thanks to Dennis for editing this story.

*

Six minutes is a short time in most matters. Though nothing at all happened to me during these six minutes between two trains at a train station those six minutes was time enough to turn my happy marriage to a real hullabaloo.

At least I thought that it was a happy marriage, as my lovely wife had never told me any different. ; I thought that both of us could agree about that, but how wrong I was.

My pretty wife Ann-Christine's twin sister lived in the main city at the south coast of our Scandinavian country and as twins usually are very close; they visited each other rather often. Usually those visits were on family level and the few times my wife went without me she always took our kids and sometimes even her mother with her.

This time was different. She asked me at a Tuesday evening, "Do you mind if I'm going to see Marie-Louise during the next weekend?"

"No, not at all because I have some very important work to do. What about the kids, are they going with you as usual?"

"Not this time. Neither the kids nor mom and I'll take the train instead of driving alone."

I was bit surprised because our two kids and their two cousins liked each other very much and were sometimes used as reasons for the visits. I said, "The kids will be very disappointed if you are going without them."

"Yes I know, but their cousins will not be at home because Kenneth is taking them for a hike they've been looking forward to. Marie Louise and I will be going shopping and have dinner out, just her and me, if you don't mind."

I didn't mind but was still a bit surprised.

Then the shit hit the fan. On Thursday morning when I looked at the calendar in out home office, I noticed she had written on Friday, "Train, 15:09".

The nearest main train station for express trains was in a town about 30 kilometers from ours and I was used to catch customers arrived there now and then. That was the reason why I knew that the express trains departure times and that it was the northbound train towards the capital city, that left 15:09 while the southbound express train left 15:03. Simple knowledge, because those express trains always departed three and nine minutes after every hour during the whole day.

I didn't say anything to Ann-Christine but talked with one of my acquaintances from the local motor club who worked at a different department in the same company as Ann-Christine. He promised to do me a favor because he had bad experiences with his own cheating wife.

15:00 at Friday he was standing at main line station express train platform and 15:10 he rang me and said that the north-going train had been on the dot and my wife was on board on it together with a fellow worker by name Tommy Blommer. He even sent me a few pictures from his cell- phone. In one of them I could see the two coworkers kissing.

I waited until Ann-Christine's train was past the first of its few stops before I phoned her twin sister, who sounded very surprised about my call. I told her, "Dear Marie Louise, I'm asking you for a favor because I've got an urgent job in your town early tomorrow morning, and I'll be there for a few hours. Can I spend the night at your house? Only one night and I can share the spare room with Ann-Christine so you don't have any extra problem with me. Is that okay for you?"

What could she say? She could hardly say 'no' because she usually slept over in my house when she and her family visited her parents and us in her old hometown. After a while she said, "Of course, no problem. You're welcome as usual."

I was sure that she immediately rang my wife and the sweet sisters had got a real problem to solve. Marie-Louise rang me fifteen minutes later and said, "As I said before, you are very welcome but Ann-Christine called me only a few minutes after your call and said that she's got a slight silly problem and will be here very late, probably not before tomorrow."

I pretended to be surprised and asked, "What problem?"

"She went on a wrong train by a silly mistake."

"Impossible and even if she did it, she ought to been clever enough to been off the wrong train at the first stop where she could taken the next south-going train with a delay of less than three hours. Where was she when she told you about the wrong train? Is she off the wrong train now?"

Marie Louise sounded panicked and replied in angry voice, "How should I know? I didn't ask her about any details. Why don't you ask her by yourself?"

Now it was time for the truth, "Because both you and I know for sure that she took the wrong train on purpose. She might acted very stupid in this matter but she is not so insane that that it takes her almost ninety minutes in bright daylight to note that she is traveling in the wrong direction. You agreed to be her backup while she went to the capital for a weekend with her lover boy, Tommy Blommer. Do you know at which hotel they are booked so I can fax her copies of the divorce papers I filed today?"

She groaned, "Oh God Lord, please calm down. Nothing has happened yet."

She terminated the call without any hotel information.

Now I rang Tommy Blommer's wife and told her what her dear Tommy intended to do. She didn't believe me at first that was why I sent the two pictures from the train station to her cell phone and asked her to tell Tommy, if she rang him, that he would probably be castrated.

After that I pushed a button and sent a pre-written text message to Ann-Christine's cell phone:

"Dear A-C. Though I'm a both sad and disappointed ex-husband, I have to tell you good news. Our divorce papers in the court means that you from now on can feel free to fuck that asshole Tommy or whoever you want to fuck as much as you want to do. In my eyes you are only a cheap slut and I don't care a shit about your doings any longer. Your ex-husband."

I switched off my cell phone and few minutes later the wired phone began to ring. I let it go the answering machine and listened to Ann-Christine loudly sobbing:

"Please call me David, I love you, only you and you can be sure I have never had sex with anybody else since I met you. Please believe me, I would never want to have any sex with that damn asshole Tommy who have persuaded me into this damn silly mess, which I regret with all my heart and wish I hadn't been the stupid romantic fool I've been for a while. Please give me a second chance. I'll be back home in a few hours but please call me as soon as possible. I love you."

I'm sure that the other passengers close to her and Tommy regarded that call as an interesting entertainment. Obviously all kind of warm feelings between the two lovers had turned to a very chilly level.

I didn't take any of her calls. Instead of talking with her I carried her clothes and other things to our spare room in the basement. I expected her to demand staying in the house until our divorce was final.

Ann-Christine, now in a total mess, came back home by taxi from the train station about ten o'clock in the evening and to my surprise she had objections about being in the spare room.

Next morning, I took the kids to my parents, then it was high time for Ann-Christine and me to have a serious talk about our future. I told her the divorce papers was mailed to the court ten minutes after she and Tommy had gone onboard their train.

Ann-Christine told me the expected mumbo-jumbo about how sorry she was and how much she regretted everything she did. She said that Tommy's kind interest and gentle efforts had got her feeling as a romantic teenager again. After saying "no" for several months she had at last accepted his invitation to be his guest during a romantic "once in lifetime" weekend together with him at our national capital. He had tickets for the express train, room at one well-known hotel, tickets and table for a popular show and pay for everything. She had expected that such romantic weekend would spiced up the sex in our marriage and make it better for a long time.

Her confession, "My first regrets came after I saw a co-worker at the train station platform and suspected that he had taken pictures with his cell phone. Then Tommy got a phone call a few minutes after the train left the station and bragged with loud voice to some friend that he should spend the weekend together with David Olson's pretty wife at a hotel. That bragging caused some giggling among the other passengers and staring at me."

She continued, "I told Tommy that he was acting like a pig and I intended to skip the trip at the first train stop. He begged me to forgive him and persuaded me go on as planned. Then I panicked when Marie Louise rang me and told me about your plans. I feared the worst thing to happen and took Tommy's silly suggestion about 'wrong train by mistake' as a chance to save my marriage. Now I understand that it was so incredibly stupid thing to say and that it pushed me deeper down in the crap."

Ann Christine continued, "Then when Tommy's wife rang him, even he understood that our love story could only end in a terrible mess; he demanded to have sex with him in the train toilet or he would tell you that we already had done it. I refused and your text message about divorce saved me from Tommy's grip. I shouted 'Go to hell and fuck yourself Tommy' and the other passengers gave an applause".

She had left Tommy at the Central Station in the capital and bought her own return ticket for the next train back and taken a taxi home from the station.

After a long talk about our future Ann-Christine and I agreed to work on our marriage and not to see anybody while we worked on our marriage. I even gave in to her begging for counseling.

Tommy's wife demanded he move out from their house to a one room apartment at the other side of town. His driving license was temporary cancelled for speeding, so he used a bicycle to and from his job. He usually took the shortest way that goes through a small forest between two housing areas.

One day after work Tommy had been stopped by a man in ski mask, dragged into the bushes and severely beaten and his balls kicked.

Since I was the main suspect, when the police began investigate what happened to Tommy I was asked to go to the police station to answer some questions.

A very pretty blond policewoman held the interrogation. She was few years younger than me, pretended to play "the good cop", gave me a bright smile and said that she understood me. She was bright, very bright because her questions were simple and sounded innocent but I noted a clever pattern in what she asked.

I was polite with her but avoided her traps and understood that they had no real evidence against me. If they had some reason to think I was guilty, she was their only chance to nail me. She did a good job but found out after about a half hour that it was no point in continuing any longer. She did a last try and switched off the tape recorder, shook my hand and said, "You did the right thing to that asshole and I'll suggest my boss close down your case."

I suspected she might have a small recorder in a pocket and a wrong reply could get me nailed. I said, "I did what? What case? Why should I have a case?"

The blond beauty looked straight in my eyes and asked, "Do you really think I'm stupid?"

I stared back and said, "No, not at all. You are clever, very clever, indeed and I get the impression that you did a very good job."

Now she gave me a smile and said, "But not good enough to get the suspect nailed. However. I'm sure that I resolved the case and it will be recorded as technically solved but closed without anybody brought to trial.

Ann-Christine and I have continued going to the counseling but so far it has only been a waste of time. When somebody ask me about the marriage, I use to reply as Doris Day once in the time sang in a Alfred Hitchcock film, "Qué Será Será, Whatever Will Be, Will Be. Qué Será Será ..."