How About Another Drink?

"No. Nothing."

"That's what I thought. I don't know what got into her but I sure as hell know it isn't what it sounds like. I know my Sally. She wouldn't just cheat on you for no reason. I just have to find out what it is."

She stopped and turned her attention back to me.

"What are your plans? Where are you staying and what are you going to do? I want to know. And what about me. Oh, I don't care where I stay. I could go into a home on my social security if it's necessary. Don't you worry none about me."

"That's one of the things I wanted to tell you. You can stay here as long as you like and Sally can keep the house. It's paid for so she could keep up with the utilities on what she makes. I told her that and told her I'll never live here again so long as she's here. I quit my job and I've got a place to stay for a while. I want to do a few things and I need to call Sally and make a time to talk to her about the divorce stuff. I'll do that, probably tonight. Call, I mean."

Meg and I talked for a little while longer before I left. I tried to talk her out of giving Sally a hard time but I knew that Meg would do whatever she pleased so I just let it go. I was satisfied that Meg was not aware of any of Sally's activities and that was OK. I told her to let Sally know if she needed anything from me once I talked to Sally. We parted friends as we had been. I was glad of that. I really liked Meg.

My next stop was Phil Sutton's house. I parked down the street and a little across from his place and I had a perfect view of the driveway and the side entrance. It was just a few minutes past noon so I waited and sure enough, he pulled into the drive a few minutes later. I watched as he exited the car and I saw a nice looking woman open the side door and wave to him. That must be Mrs. Sutton. Very interesting. I wondered if she knew what her husband was doing with my wife. For that matter, was my wife the only one of his playthings. Well, that wasn't my concern.

Now that I knew where he lived and that he had a wife, I wondered what I could do to make his life as miserable as he made mine. I had one idea that came from my days as a Sergeant supplying those nasty spies in Intelligence. It seems they were always doing some really neat things with tape recordings and videos and the like. One of the things that I knew how to do was to record a tape onto a CD and then use the CD to make an audio file that could be sent by email and played on any computer. That was fairly easy to do and I decided that I could make a copy of my tape and send it to Mrs. Sutton. All I had to do was find out if she had an email address. Again, there were ways to do that and I knew how to do it. I also decided to send the CD as backup so that she would have both files.

As I drove back to the bar and my home away from home, I planned to do the CDs right away. I wanted to begin my payback as soon as possible.

Once in my little room, I took out my laptop from home and began. When I was in front of a computer, I actually felt quite smart. I could make computers do things that a lot of people couldn't. I began to feel better now that I was ready to strike back. First the audio file and then the CD in the mail. By tomorrow, Mr. Phil Sutton was going to be very unhappy. As I worked, I began to think that maybe I should also plan to call Sally tonight. Maybe. I logged onto the internet and began my search for Mrs. Phil Sutton or Mr. Phil Sutton and their email accounts.

I had a few passwords that I had taken with me when I left the service and I used one of them to hack the accounts. Both had an account with Hotmail and I found the email addresses for both without a lot of trouble. Next, I made a wave file of the recording from last Friday night and uploaded it to my computer. I attached it to a short email to Harriett Sutton with my name and a suggestion that she listened very carefully to the attachment, and saved it. I also attached it to Phil Sutton's email address and saved that as well with a note that his wife would be asking him about it. Both were to be sent from an anonymous account. I wanted to wait, however, until that evening before sending them.

It was just a little past three in the afternoon when I decided to call Sally. I placed the call to her work number and waited. She answered on the third ring with a listless hello. I was surprised since she was usually very bouncy on the phone. She liked getting phone calls, especially from me. But, she didn't know this was from me so maybe that's why she was so solemn.

"Hello Sally. It's the clod."

There was silence on the other end and then a soft sob. No words, nothing. Just the one sob and then nothing. She hadn't hung up. She just didn't say anything. That sort of shook me up and I was a little flustered. Well, I just hung up. No words, nothing. I just hung up. I was stumped. Damn if it didn't break my concentration when she didn't say anything. Why hadn't I remembered that she froze when she was upset? I had to think, not something I was very good at. But I tried. After a furious hour in which I started and stopped ten times to call, I finally gave up. I decided to wait until Sally went home to call her. I needed that much time just to come up with a plan.

I went down to the bar and had a couple of beers and a sandwich to keep the edge off and drove over to check my PO box. Finally, the checks were there: my regular paycheck and my severance check. This would be enough to keep me going for the next three months or so. I drove down to the bank and opened a separate account that Sally didn't know about and deposited my checks. I took enough cash to pay for food and gas and left the rest in the bank. That's all I needed for now. I didn't own any credit cards so I had no bills to worry about. My life was always simple, to match my IQ.

I waited until almost 7:00 that evening and then I sent both emails out. I made sure that they were delivered and then shut my computer down. I went down to the bar and used the bar phone to call Sally at home. This time I was ready.

"Hello? This is the Overton residence." "Hello Sally. It's me, Jimmy."

"Hello Jimmy. I'm glad you called finally. Are you OK? Are you safe and do you have enough to eat?"

"Yes, Sally, I'm fine. I have my truck and my clothes and I have my last check and the vacation and sick leave check so I'm OK."

"Mom said you stopped and told her about me and Mr. Sutton. I wish you hadn't done that. She's very mad at me and it's not good for her to be so mad."

"I know but I didn't want her to think I walked out for no good reason. I like Meg and I didn't want her to think bad about me. I'm sorry she's mad at you but so am I."

Silence. This time I was ready for it.

"I think we have to talk Sally. There are some things we need to settle on before we get divorced. I want to talk about Meg and the house and some other things. When can we get together and talk?"

Still, silence. This time I just waited. Sally would speak when she was ready. I had known her long enough to know that this happened when she was upset or confused. She just went silent. So, I waited.

After about 90 seconds of silence, Sally finally spoke.

"You can come by anytime you want to. Mom is usually asleep by 7:00 or 7:30 so anytime after that is good. Or maybe you want me to take some time off and meet you somewhere during the day? I can do whatever you want. It's up to you, Jimmy."

I heard the little sob again but this time she tried to cover the mouthpiece so I wouldn't hear it. But I did.

"I'll be by tomorrow night then. We should talk sooner rather than later."

With that I snickered since that was what we always said copying Bill Clinton. This was the first time it seemed appropriate though. I decided to hang up then so that nothing more could be said. I knew that I wanted to yell and scream but I knew that I shouldn't.

I wondered if my emails had been received yet. I couldn't be sure without actually logging back on and checking the server for their accounts. That would be harder to do and would leave me open to backtracking. While I didn't think Phil or his wife could even know what that was, my spy buddies had said things like that often enough that I had picked up a little paranoia on my own. Well, I would certainly find out later. Since I had a couple of hours to kill, I went back to the bar and sat down. A few beers couldn't hurt.

At about 10:00 that evening, I decided to make a phone call to Mrs. Sutton. I wondered what I would hear when I called. I slipped into the phone booth and made the call. She answered on the first ring.

"Hello? Who's this?"

"Hello Mrs. Sutton. I'm the one that sent you an email earlier today? Have you had a chance to listen to the attachment?"

"Of course I listened. How do I know that it's really Phil and some woman named Sally? It could be a fake."

"Sally is my wife and I assure you it's not a fake. I haven't been back home since I heard that tape. I recorded them in my house in my bed on Sunday night. Sally works for your husband. He's her boss."

"That son of a bitch. I knew he was screwing someone but I didn't know who. Now I do. What do you want?"

"I don't want anything from you. I may do something to Phil, but I don't know what yet. Are you going to divorce his ass?"

"I don't know. We've been married thirteen years and we have two little girls. I don't know if I can do that to them."

"Well, he didn't seem to think about them while he was screwing my wife. What you do is up to you but I'll do what I have to. Goodbye."

"Wait, I'm . . . "

I hung up. What she did now was her business. I would do what I wanted to do without any hang-ups now since she knew the truth about her dip shit husband.

The next day came early for me since I found it hard to sleep that night. All I could do was think about that tape and the words that Sally said and the hurt that it caused. I guess I loved her. If I didn't, I wouldn't care as much as I did. The pain in my chest was so intense I thought I was having a heart attack. But aspirin couldn't cure this pain.

I put in a call to the plant and spoke with Terry. She yelled at me and told me that I was a pain in her butt. It seems Mr. Johnson, the plant manager wanted to talk to me and she couldn't give him a phone number or an address. Just a stupid PO Box. I let her yell for a few minutes before finally giving her this number. The one at the bar. I said I would wait here for the next ten minutes for him to call and then he could take his chances. She hung up right away after telling me to wait. I waited. Seems I was doing a lot of that lately. Just as I was about to crawl out of the booth, the phone rang. It was Paul Johnson.

"Damn it Jimmy. Why didn't you come talk to me before you quit? I want to talk to you as soon as possible. Where are you?"

"I'm living at a bar here in town for the time being Paul. I'm a bouncer in the evenings for the rent. What did you want to talk about?"

"Where can I meet you? We need to talk in private. Give me a time and place."

I thought about it and decided that I had nothing to lose talking to him so I gave him the name of the bar and said to meet me here after work. I said I would be here from five until 8:00 that evening. He agreed and said he would see me then.

At 5:30 Paul Johnson walked into the bar, stopped to look around and then, spotting me, walked over to the booth I was in and slid in across from me. He looked agitated and a little angry but I didn't think it was me he was mad at.

"Hello Paul. You look a little on the bent-out-of-shape side. What's eating you?"

"Damn it Jimmy. Why in the hell did you just up and quit. You know I've had my eye on you for some time and I promised you that there was a promotion coming up. Why did you quit without talking to me? Was it the money? Hell, I'll promote you right now and put you somewhere until the real job opens up. Come on. Talk to me."

Paul Johnson was a standup guy and he had indeed promised me something in the near future. I wasn't all that interested until he told what he had in mind but he was always more than fair with me and I felt bad about not letting him know what was up. Well, now was the time to cut bait or run.

"Paul, I need to tell you something and I need you to listen to me before you say anything. Can you do that? Can you hold it till I'm done talking?"

"Hell yes. Just start talking damn it!"

"OK. Here goes. I have proof that Sally and Phil Sutton have been shacking up. The last time I caught them in my own house and in my own bed. That's when I knew I couldn't go back to work without killing that son of a bitch. So I quit. I told Sally that I knew about them and I told her I was moving out and we were going to get a divorce. I haven't even talked to her since except to make a time to meet with her tonight. That's when she gets her say. But there is no way I can get past what they did and what Sally said to him about me. It's over Paul. It's fucking over!"

Paul just took it all in and kept his mouth shut just like he promised. He just sat there after I finished talking and I could almost see the wheels turning inside his head. I gave him the same courtesy and kept my mouth shut till he was ready. It didn't take too long.

"First, you have to know that I'm so damn sorry. I really like Sally and you know how I feel about you. But, OK. Here's the deal. Jimmy, the man fucked up. He most surely did. He is Sally's boss and what he did is enough to get him fired. If you have any proof, I'll need it when I fire him. That's the first thing. Sally will have to be fired too, since she was involved. I can maybe do something about that but right now, she is fired."

"I have proof and for your information, I let both him and his wife hear the proof. I talked to his wife earlier and she is not sure what she is going to do to his ass. I hope she divorces him and takes all he's got but that's up to her. And as far as firing Sally, I hope you don't cause she needs the money to take care of her mother. I'm giving her the fucking house since she shit in it with that asshole."

"Don't be too hasty Jimmy. Maybe we can work something out. I would be willing to support a small lawsuit by you against the company. They're the ones that put this dip shit here in my plant. I can make management think that if they let me handle it privately, I can get us off lightly and settle out of court for you to the tune of a lot of money. It would be something like alienation of affections or such. Anything. Maybe about a quarter mil or something like that? The company would jump at a quarter of a mil. You could use the money for the divorce and for Sally's mom. I know you really like her."

Well hell. I would never have thought of something like that. Sometimes it's good to have smart friends. Paul was that all right. I would do whatever he recommended there. I told him so and he said that it was settled.

"Now, why in the world would Sally take up with Phil Sutton? He's a prick and a jerk and he isn't half the man you are. What was her reason?"

"I don't know. I haven't asked her yet. I told you I hadn't talked to her yet. I intend to ask her tonight. Maybe she can tell me, even if it won't make any difference."

"Well, you talk to her and let me take care of the rest. I'll put together an offer from the company and I'll fire Phil's ass tomorrow if you give me the proof you have. Do you have it here?"

"Yeah. Have a beer while I go get it."

With that, I went back to my wonderful little room and got the tape that I had made. I still had the CD and the original file on my computer so I could let this one go. I took it back down, gave it to Paul and watched him go. Maybe what he was going to do would give me back some self respect. At least, that smug son of a bitch would be long gone from there. Let Sally give him comfort when he was fired and his wife kicked his ass out.

Well, I had about another hour or so to kill before I was due at Sally's place. Funny how it no longer was 'my house.' It was just Sally's place. Maybe I was already moving on as they say. I never understood that. How can you move on? On to what? Well, I had another beer to help me think about that. But I didn't intend to get drunk. I wanted a clear head when I spoke to Sally tonight. So at about 8:30 or so, I switched to coffee, went up and washed my face and neck and put on a clean shirt. It was wrinkled like hell but it was clean. I never wore any crap so I would just smell like soap.

At 9:31 exactly, I pulled into my driveway and stopped. I just stared at the home that I once loved. It was my first house and it was paid for. That gave me a feeling of accomplishment. Daddy had helped me pay for it and I thanked him every day of my life. He was a good man but he was destroyed by mom's sickness. She had never been anything but a good woman. Not like Sally.

I was reluctant to get out of the car but I had no choice. I had to do this. I walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Sally answered, looking surprised.

"Jimmy? Why are you ringing the bell? You live here for God's sakes. Come in!"

"Didn't you get my note? I told you I would never live here again so long as you are. Wasn't that clear in my note?"

Sally didn't answer and just turned and walked into the kitchen. I followed her and took a seat at the table while she fixed coffee and got out some little cookies that she kept for company. I hated them but she thought they were classy. Tea cookies or something like that. I couldn't remember what was on the box. But my mind was rambling and I had to stop it. I needed my wits, what there was of them.

Sally came over to the table, set my cup in front of me and the plate of cookies in the middle between us. She sat down and fiddled with her cup for a few minutes. She was anxious and this was typical behavior for her. I just waited. If I pushed too hard, Sally would get flustered and then she wouldn't be able to talk or answer me. Her only defense was silence. So I waited.

She finally looked up at me. She looked into my eyes with that penetrating look she had when she was trying to see what you were thinking. It made a lot of people nervous if they didn't know her. I was used to it so I just endured it. It had always made me smile when she did it to me but not tonight. Tonight it was just annoying.

"What do you want to talk about Jimmy? I just don't know where to start or what to say. I'm hoping you can start and sort of keep it going. I don't know what to say. I'm so confused and I'm scared and I don't know what to say. Please, Jimmy, tell me what to say!"

Sally was getting emotional and I could tell she was about to burst into tears. I was amazed that she had gone this long without breaking down. She was really confused, just as she said. Sally couldn't handle confrontation and this was normal for her.

"Sally, please just calm down. I'll just start talking and you try to get yourself under control. OK?"

A few sniffs and a little sob and then, "OK"

"First, I told Meg that she could stay here as long as she wanted. That means you can stay too. She needs to have a safe place and she needs to know where she is. That's first."

Sally just nodded, understanding that part. "I just wish you hadn't told her about what I did. She's still mad at me."

"That's too bad. Next, I can't help much with the costs since I quit my job but I'll do what I can until I get another job somewhere else. That may take a little while but I'll try to hurry. And just maybe there might be some money coming in from somewhere else. I just can't work where you and Phil work anymore. I guess you can understand that."

Silence. Sally was hunched over again and her shoulders were moving up and down so I guessed she was crying silently. I had to stop and wait again. This time it wasn't quite as long until Sally finally nodded again. I continued.