How I Met "The Doctor"

I met Denise my junior year in college. She was a cute brunette and a year behind me with a liberal arts major. I was in Vocational Education and wanted to be a counselor.

By June of my senior year, she was three months pregnant. I guess the pill is only 90% effective. She didn't finished her last year. We were going to get married anyway, it just upped the time line.

I wanted to be a counselor but you had to have a Bachelor's degree and then an additional year of studies for the counselor certificate.

I had to take a job as a teacher so we could eat and have health insurance. I taught high school CAD (computer assisted drafting).

Money was tight. Student loans are a bitch. I took on a part time job driving cab during that summer. I drove at night, 7 nights a week. We saw each other in passing when I came in to sleep and when I got up in the evening.

The road to being a counselor now went through many night school classes and the next summer too. With Denise a stay at home mom money was in short supply.

When Todd was two years old she was pregnant with Tim. That was a planned pregnancy. We were content with two boys so I had my vas deferens cut and tied.

I finished my Masters in Guidance counseling and got assigned to Von Tobel school. With my additional class work and my masters, we finally had enough money. Life was getting easier. We took our first vacation to Disney Land. She joined a county parks &recreation tennis lessons/group and was able to hire a baby sitter.

When Tim was in first grade, she wanted to go to work. She was tired of being broke and cooped up with just kids. She got a job as a front office receptionist for a group of dentists on the west side. She loved it.

The next year, just after school started, she said, "We've got to talk." She wanted a divorce.

She had met someone and had fallen in love with him. She didn't want counseling or a cooling off period. I tried to give her both, she did not want anything , just a divorce.

The next week I got served divorce papers and a restraining/ no contact order at open house. FUCK!

I had to call her attorney to make arrangement to get MY clothes from MY house. I could not under stand what had gone so wrong with our marriage or when it had happened. I could not even contact her to try to find out what was wrong. I was hurt. I felt bad.

She had cleaned out the savings and checking accounts and canceled the two credit cards that had both of our names on them. I was left with just my Sears card and thirty five dollars in my wallet. Now I was hurt and a n g r y .

Back in those days we got paid once a month. It was two weeks before payday. That month I had to take out a loan from the credit union for gas and food.

My friend Barry let me sleep in his pickup camper that was stored in the RV yard across town. His house was full because he had a wife, two kids, two bedrooms, one bath.

Denise wanted custody of the boys, and child support.

I got to keep the house. The one with about a thousand dollars equity. Zero down on a VA loan isn't a economic powerhouse, but it worked. I'd always thanked Uncle Sam for the leg up.

She wanted the family wagon, her MUST have upscale three year old Volvo. I got to keep my 15 year old GMC pickup. I also got to make the last thirteen months payment on her wagon.

She wanted, and got, the boys during school, I got every other week end from Friday 3:30pm until Sunday at 5:00 pm. Easter break and summer would be negotiable. I got every other Christmas and Thanksgiving. BFD! (big fucking deal)

I went to a free one hour legal meeting with the CTA (classroom teachers association) legal service. The guy was straight up and told me not to waste any money on a lawyer, just sign the papers because there was NO way I could get a better deal even with an expensive lawyer.

We lived in a no fault state, irreconcilable differences was the only requirement to file for a divorce.

You're screwed. Just be glad she didn't want the house too. She could have gotten the house and you would have gotten the payments.

He said, "Make your best deal on visitation rights. She's done with you son, move on. Sorry."

The boys were screaming and crying when I had to drop them off the first week end. They didn't understand. Neither did I. The restraining order was still in effect for her. She would not return my calls to talk about us.

Three months later the decree was final. The next day she moved out of the house and took the boys with her. It was Dec 23rd. the house was barren and cold. She had turned the heat off. It was winter in my heart too.

Christmas sucked big donkey dicks that year.

She moved into her boy friends house. I finally found out who he was. He was a dentist where she worked. She had traded up, financially. FUCK ME.

It was nice to be out of Barry's camper.

The last week in February I called the ex-bitch to negotiate some time with the boys during Easter vacation. She was not interested in letting me have the boys for a camping trip to Yosemite.

I told her, "It is in the divorce decree that spring break is negotiable, you have to negotiate this period of time. You cannot just say "No."

Denise yelled into the phone, "Damn you! I can't deal with this. You will have to talk to the doctor!"

And that was how I met, the doctor.

He came on the phone and introduced himself as Dave. Over the course of a half an hour, I got the time and medical authorization for the trip to Yosemite.

He had to talk to me, turn and talk w/ex, relay back to me what the old cunt (spat out with anger & hate)said until we finally arrived at an agreeable solution.

Fuck! What a Bitch, but I had the boys for all of Easter break.

My "Thanks doc" was from the heart.

He apologized for her abruptness and said, "I think that her hormones were probably just out of whack. What with the baby being due and all."

Fuck! News to me. Let's do some FUCKING math here! If she was due in March or April, that meant she was probably getting doc's dick service in, (counting backwards here) in June or July. That bitch was pregnant when she filed for divorce.

Fuck! Now I know why she had no desire to try with our marriage. Looking back, I wondered if her getting Pg the first time was her intentional doing. Shit! I'll bet It was! Damn her!

Now I really hated her. She couldn't wait another year for me to finish my counseling degree.

It was a late spring and the Yosemite Valley was rainy and cold. We bailed after the first night and went to Oceanside and rented a motel for the last three days. THAT, was great.

When we got back she was pissed that we didn't stay with the original schedule. Yeah I guess I should have called, but fuck, they're my boys too.

Summer time was easier because doc and I did the negotiating and the ex-bitch just rubber stamped our plans. Even the doc did not understand her position some times.

She was busy with her new little girl so doc and I were able to get the boys living with me for the summer and visiting her and Dave on Friday and Saturdays.

The boys were ecstatic. I had picked up three used dirt bikes and we rode most of the summer. We camped out and rode east of the mountains in the desert. We'd be gone from Monday until Thursday. The next week we'd do it all over again.

We ate dust and canned stew cooked over an open fire. We did get two weeks in a row one time. I found out later that was the two weeks that the doc's kids camefrom California to visit.

Tim was having trouble with his reading, so we spent a lot of campfire time on that. We read his Yamaha's owners manual. He was motivated. We read Pat's Kawasaki manual too.

When school started it was back to the grind. We rode only two weekends after that. Fall sports took over for both of the boys.

When I took my boys back to their evil muther's the last week that we rode, the doc came out to chat. The boys had given him and their mother all of the exciting details of their summer riding and camping.

Dave told me that he was envious of me and my relationship with the boys. His first wife had divorced him and taken his children with her.

His visitations were reduced because she moved several hundred miles away to be with her medical doctor husband. He also was part of a group that owned a company that had a string of MRI's. Let me translate that for you, "biga bucks."

I guess she moved up too. I don't know, Dave seemed like a nice guy. Must have just been the fire tucking (what starts with F and ends with UCK?) money.

He wanted to know if he got some dirt bikes, if he and his kids could join us and all ride together spring break?

"Sure, why not." was my position.

He borrowed a big crew cab Ram with a Cummins and a trailer. He rented three dirt bikes. We had a blast. Dave sprung for the entire trip. He felt guilty about Denise hammering me for child support when they had plenty and I was struggling to make ends meet.

Spring Break, Camp fire.

It was colder than usual, again, so we went to the dunes in So Cal. There were six of us. Doc's kids, Alex and Shelly picked up the clutch and shifter really quick.

Being the youngest, Shelly was determined to be as good as the boys. She just didn't have enough upper body strength to handle her Honda in the rough. But, she loved to ride the road.

Dave would often ride hard with the boys and I would ride easy and stay with Shelly. We became reasonably good friends. We talked about everything. I liked Shelly and we got along just fine.

One evening after dinner while Dave and I were sipping our last cool one of the day, I asked Dave, "Where did you meet Denise?"

" I met her at the rec center tennis lessons. She was not wearing a wedding ring. I thought she was single. It wasn't until our second date that she told me that you two were separated and just waiting for the divorce to wind it's way through the courts.

"When was that?" I asked.

"April 15th. I remember because it was tax file day. She said that she was tired of being abused by you Emotional abuse. You would scream and yell at her. You controlled the money like a tyrant and wouldn't let her have a life. Was any of that true?" he asked.

I found out later that doc had ask my boys about my screaming and yelling at them and their mom. They were confused because they didn't know what he was talking about. They told him that they never heard me yell except at a football game while cheering for the Rams.( The local high school team)

"I don't ever remember screaming at her. I didn't control any money, she did all of the bills and gave me a monthly allowance. As for the rest of it, I thought she was happy being a mom and my wife. We didn't argue much, 'cept about money."

That summer doc got his kids for an entire month. All six of us rode bikes for two weeks straight. We went to Moab. What a beautiful place to ride and camp.

We took one day and floated the Colorado. We had so much fun that three days later, we floated the river again. Once again, doc picked up the tab. Thanks doc.

Dave caught holy shit for that two weeks from the ex bitch. She was in his face, "How can we be a family if you take the kids off into the God forsaken desert for two weeks during their visit?"

Finally, I liked being divorced from her. The doc convinced the ex-bitch to sign papers cutting the child support in half. Thanks, doc.

MUSIC To My EARS

It was that fall that I started dating Melody. She was a math teacher across town at Clark High. She grew up in Reno and had a daughter in the third grade . Christmas and summer break she would move up to her mom's so grandma and Sarah could have some quality time and so that she could work her second job.

Melody had graduated from UNR (University Nevada Reno) and worked her last year in school as a cocktail waitress in one of the BIG downtown casinos. She had the body, the smile and the personality that made her a hit with the customers and the bosses alike.

The first time I saw her in her in her cocktail waitress uniform I damn near had creamed in my jeans.

It was a black tuxedo style jacket with tails just past her cute buns. The bottom was a black satin pair of Brazilian cut pants. More like a swim suit bottom. It had full frontal coverage, nothing on either side at the waist and just enough in the back to maybe legal in Ipanema.

The top was a fake dinner shirt that velcroed behind her neck and across her lower back. The jacket covered her arms and back. She wore either black tights or opaque pantyhose. It usually took her a week to get used to her high heels. Damn she looked good!

She worked the high end games and sometimes private meetings. She also made more money during the time in Reno than she did the other nine months teaching calculus to high school seniors.

Go fucking figure!

There was a standup comedian that drove a Rolls named KILLER. One of his jokes was that parents used to tell their kids to stay in school so they wouldn't wind up being a garbage man.

Now parents tell their kids to quit school and become a garbage man so they won't wind up being a teacher."

Financially, he had it right. What ever happened to Flip?

That was the last summer the six of us rode motorcycles for more than one day at a time.

The two older boys, Alex and Todd wanted to go to soccer camp in July. Shelly missed her friends in Marin and I guess the magic was gone. We had a ton of pictures and good memories from those two summers. We had all moved on. I sold the bikes the next year.

Visitation during summer was scheduled so I could have an entire week every month with Melody in Reno. Dave and I setup all the visitations. I never talked with the ex.

I spent the week before Christmas with Melody, Sarah and Lorna (Melody's mom ). The week between Christmas and New Years at home with the boys. Melody worked twelve/sixteen hour shifts during that week before New Years and the tips were outrageous.

After we were married, my darling wife did wonder, wistfully, one night while we were snuggling in bed, if she was loosing her sex appeal.

"What makes you think that?" I plied with genuine concern.

"Well, my tips seem to be less and I don't get my ass patted as much now with my diamonds."

Of course she carried her tray on her left fore arm with her fingers curled around the outer rim. The diamonds just seem to stick out into everybody's face.

I suggested that she turn the diamonds inside for better tips. She adamantly replied, "No siree Bob! I am yours and I want everyone to know it. Don't you ever say anything like that again. You hear me!?"

I heard! I felt like I had just won the Lottery of life.

I sold my little brick house on Perliter St in North Town and moved into Melody and Sarah's West Charleston Estates rambler. There was even a bedroom for my boys when they stayed. They liked Sarah and Melody.

Her husband was killed by a drunk driver, and part of the settlement included enough money for the house and Sarah's college fund.

I was never much of a drinker, only maybe a glass of wine with dinner and sometimes a tall cool one on a hot afternoon. I am sure that was one of things that Melody liked about me in the beginning.

Melody and I spent a lot of time at school activities.We sometimes even saw my ex at some of the boys events. Melody would always go over and chit chat.

Even the ex-bitch couldn't find fault with Melody. Dave confided that fact to me one night at a school play.

The boys often spent the night at our house. They were old enough that they could just call and tell Dave or their mom what they were doing.

Oh, those rocks (diamonds) on Melody's left hand? They were her grandmothers. Lorna quietly gave them to me (us) when I told her I was going to ask Melody to marry me. Lorna kinda liked me. We had them reset into a ring that Melody chose.

Things are a lot more relaxed now between me and the ex-wife because I never talk to her or think about her. There is a guy I know named Dave. He's the kids dentist, and he's an OK guy.

What would life have been like if Denise hadn't dumped me?

I have no idea, but I love Melody more than I ever imagined that I could. It was like my life started over again when I met her. I don't even remember my life with, what was her name?

Todd and Tim are great, but now I have a daughter, Sarah. A daughter that I would not have had if my ex had not traded up. Sarah and I get along just fine. We talk about everything.

Oh, and I got my new dream job at El Dorado High. I'm the voc counselor.

Life is good.