Hutch's Property Ch. 02

Janet smiled as Hutch returned to his office. About twenty minutes later, Janet ushered Lorna in and closed the door behind her. She took a few steps into his office, stopping about four feet from the desk. He looked her over, realizing that he had a broken woman standing before him. Wearing an "Army" short sleeve sweat shirt and indiscriminate pants, her hair was simply combed out slightly past her shoulders. Dark circles around her eyes from the lack of sleep, she wore no make up. Head bowed slightly, eyes cast down, shoulders slumping, Hutch had never seen his wife looking so bad. Even at each of her parent's funerals, or the report of her brother's death in Iraq.

True to form, Hutch remained silent, allowing his adversary, Lorna was still at that time and place his adversary, to speak first. She held her purse in one hand and two sheets of paper in the other. Hutch knew she was trembling due to the rattling of the papers. In a meek, shaky voice she whimpered, "Normie? I ah, I ah, well ah, I surrender, run up the white flag. I need you , oh gawd I need you. I know I messed up everything a whole lot. Can you forgive me, please, Normie, Pleease??" Gone was the arrogant, condescending bitch. What stood before him now was merely a shadow of his wife and Janet was very right, a fragile one at that.

In the softest, gentlest voice he could muster, however, still the lawyer in settlement negotiations, he asked, "What do you propose?"

Still in a meek, defeated tone, she said in little over a whisper. "Ah, ah, well umm, Jeremy came over to the house on Tuesday. Ah, he ah, he gave me a plan of action to start the process. To ah well, get us back together? He also showed me two lawsuits. Ah, Ohhh Normie, they would both make me look like some dumb ass slut. He said that the only reason he had not filed was because you wouldn't sign them?!?"

Still in a gentle voice, but also still the lawyer in negotiations, he asked, "So? What's your plan of action?"

His tone of voice and willingness to listen to her put Lorna a little more at ease. "Ah, First point. I ah, well, I had our bedroom remodeled. I mean repainted, new carpet, ah furniture, ah rearranged?"

He knew about the remodel. A crew was sent in right after she left for work on Wednesday to remove all his video and audio equipment from the bedroom. Still trembling, Lorna handed him one of the sheets of paper. "Second point." She said in a little more audible voice, "I went to my gynecologist and she gave me a clean bill of health and a lecture on doing stupid things. She's on your side. It seems that everybody is on your side in this mess. I ah..."

Hutch took the report from her and glanced over it. The laid it down on his desk and returned his gaze back to his wife. She adjusted her stance a bit, then handed him a second sheet of paper. This was the first indication that she was serious. Her hand was visibly shaking and the paper was rattling as she extended it across the desk. Again in a very meek tone, "Ah, third is that I ah, well ah, that I resign from the school district... Ah, Normie? I realized that I just can't do the job without you..." Ending the sentence in a whine. She shifted her weight from one leg to the other. "Normeee? I ah, I don't even want to try to do the job without your help..."

Hutch had to take into consideration the fact that she had worked long and hard to get where she was with the school district. Her intentions were completely honorable and respectable. It troubled him to know how much it hurt her to give it all up. However, he could not help but feel some elation over the fact that she was willing to give up her position to get them back together. He read the letter of resignation carefully as he would any document so pertinent to a case. Then when he glanced back to where she had been standing, Lorna was not there and nowhere to be seen. Next thing he knew, she came crawling, on her belly, around the left side of his desk. Tears flowing as she approached him. She whined even more meekly, "Ummm, Ummm, Jeremy said that, umm, I should get as low as I can and crawl, beg, plead and gravel? Pleease Normee, please forgive this dumb slut.... I'm so sorry, I ah...." She wrapped her arms around his left leg and rested her head on his knees. "Please come home. Pleease, I ah, I can't... Oh Normee, I can't even sleep without you there with me. I need you Normeee!!"

Noticing her purse on his desk, he thought of one last test of her sincerity. Hutch removed her cell phone from the purse, taking note that it was turned off. He held the phone in front of her face and said, "Call your attorney and ask her to file a request to withdraw your petition for divorce.." How quickly she reacted to his request would tell him quite a bit. Without hesitation, she snatched the phone out of his hand, turned it on and leaned against the desk drawers. Finding her lawyers number in her speed dial, she placed the call. It was answered, "Elizabeth Meyers office."

Lorna pressed "speaker" on her phone so Hutch could hear the whole conversation. She then said, "Hi Carolyn, this is Lorna Hutchinson."

"Oh hi Missus Hutchinson. How can I help you?"

"Is Beth in?"

"Ah no ma'am, she won't be back until Monday. Can I take a message?"

"Yes you can. Tell her that I would like to withdraw my petition for divorce."

"Oh OK, I can prepare the request for your signature. If you can be here before five today and sign it, I'll place it on her desk. From her comments lately, I don't think that she will hesitate one moment to get it filed." said the bubbly Carolyn. Her comment brought a little smile of victory to Hutch's lips.

"OK Carolyn, thank you. It's one thirty. I can be over there in fifteen or twenty minutes..."

OK Missus Hutchinson. I'll have it ready for you. Oh, and come in the back way and take those back elevators. There are no reporters back there. We have a couple of high profile divorces like yours going on. So, watch out, they are all over the place. They even tried to camp here in the office. Beth had to call security to get rid of them."

"Thank you Carolyn, I'll see you in a few minutes." said Lorna. Then she closed her phone and handed it back to Hutch. He handed her a list of three items to accomplish.

She looked at the list, then read it out loud, "Number one. Sign the request. Number two. Kay dash why jelly? What's that? Where do I get it?" She asked looking up at him. It was the first time she had made eye contact with him since entering his office.

He smiled slightly at her naivete, realizing how sheltered a life she lived. "You can get it at drug stores, sex shops and erotic book stores. Places like that."

Lorna vaguely recognized the jelly from the stories she had read on the internet. She looked at the list and then back at him, "Normie? I've never been in places like that. I ah I don't think I want to walk into a drug store and ask for it. I'd feel like I was asking for condoms when we were in high school."

Now Hutch was struggling to keep a straight face. But, Oh how he loved his wife, "Look them up in the yellow pages. Ask the clerk, it's a common item in those places."

"OK well, .." Then she read the third item and smiled, "Number three. Two big juicy steaks and all the fixin's? Does that mean you'll be comin' home? T'night? Maybe..?"

"I'll be there at about five thirty or six. If Kathy will be there, get her a steak, too."She threw herself into his lap, "Thank you my husband. I ah, I said something that I need to take back. Ah..."

"What's that?"

"I said that maybe I didn't love you any more. Oh Normie? I do love you, I have always loved you and always will love you. I love you with all my heart, an' an', I've missed you so much, Oh how I have missed you. Come home to a great dinner and anything else you want from the dumb slut. Make her your slut..."

He touched her for the first time in almost a month by running his hand over her cheek and into her hair. Then, again in the softest most loving tone he could muster, but still firm, "I don't want a personal slut. I want my wife back. Somebody has trespassed and tried to take her from me and I don't like that one bit."

She looked up at him, "I'm really sorry that I let it happen. I won't ever do that again. Come home an' reclaim your property." She stood up and said, "I promise you this my dear husband, you won't ever be sorry that you did..."

"I'll see you around five thirty or six"

She managed another smile, then turned a left the room. He watched her leave thinking, "Much more lively stride then when she came in, but certainly not the erect posture and fluid movements of my wife. Head still bowed, shoulders slumped, I've never seen her so down and defeated. I pray that I will never see her like that again."

A short time later, Janet poked her head in the door, "Good job, sir. She left smiling."

"Thank you Janet. Get Mister Baker on the phone for me, please."

A few minutes later, Janet's voice came over the intercom, "Mister Baker on line two."

"Hey Buddy." Greeted Hutch. "She was in here a few minutes ago. Looks like our plans have come together and broke the bitch, she gone. The real Lorna is about to reemerge"

Jeremy chuckled, "Good, Hutch. How's she doin'?"

"Oh man, Jeremy. She looks terrible. I hope and pray that I never see her lookin' like she did today, never ever again. You remember how she looked at her brother's funeral?"

"Oh yeah, I do."

"Well, double that, maybe even triple it. But, I cheered her up some. I sent her off to sign the request to withdraw her petition. Then I had her chase down some KY jelly and told her I'd be home around six today."

Jeremy was hilariously laughing, "Hutch, I've known you all these years and you still surprise me." Some more laughter, "You're gonna take what she refused that jerk Burns, aren't you?"

"Yep, ol' buddy. I may never do it to her there ever again. But, tonight, yeah, once or twice just to let her know who owns it all. If that's the way it has to be for now on...."

Jeremy gained some control of himself, but Hutch could tell that he was still smiling. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Jenny and I did it there a couple of times early in our marriage and that the way it came across to her. We haven't done it there since. Anyway, did she crawl?"

"On her tummy, as low as she could get. But, what really let me know that she was serious was when she handed me that letter of resignation. You could see and feel her hurt over that piece of paper."

"Well, it sure lets you know that she values her marriage and family over anything else. She fell into one of life's traps and I am glad we were here to help you get her out of it."

"Yeah, it was good to have you there with me, Jeremy. You know that if you ever find yourself in any kind of mess like this, I'm there for you."

"Thanks ol' buddy. Listen, I'll talk to you Monday. Spend the weekend with that prodical wife of yours. Remind her who it is that really loves her."

"Yeah, that's my plan. I'll talk to you Monday."

Lorna slipped in and out of her lawyer's office apparently unnoticed, thinking, "This nightmare might be over soon, hopefully." Out on the street, she phoned Randy. Catching him between classes. "Hello, mother." he answered in an insistent tone. Sounding so much like his father.

"Hi Randy." said Lorna in a contrite tone. "Ah, I wanted to let you know that I dropped the divorce, ah well, it will be filed Monday..."

"Hey, that's good to here. One big step in the right direction. You haven't been doing much of that, lately."

"I know Randy. But ah, your dad is coming home tonight and we are going to try to fix things."

"Well mother, that is certainly good to hear. Another big step in the right direction. Ah mom? I'm almost to my next class. But, I am really glad you called."

"Ah Randy? One more thing. Your dad gave me a list of a couple of items to get for tonight. One is kay dash why jelly? I don't want to just walk into any drug store and ask for it. He said I could get it at a sex shop or erotic book store?"

Lorna could hear what she thought was a chuckle from her son. Then he asked, "Where are you right now, mom?"

"I'm about a block and a half from your dad's office building."

"South?"

"Ah yes, I think so. Yes, south of it."

"OK, you should see a street that goes off to the east. About a block and a half down that street, you should see an alley off to your right. Down that alley about fifty feet, you should find an erotic book store. I'm sure they will have it. It was good to hear from you, mom. You've made my day. I'll call Tim tonight and let him know."

"OK, Randy. I love you."

"I love you too, mom. It's good to have you back. Talk to you later." With that, he terminated the call.

Lorna stepped out of the small shop reading the label of her purchase. She never had the problem of her vagina not lubricating. So, the only use she could see was that her husband planned to take her virgin ass. She smiled and said to herself, "OK Norman Hutchinson. For now on, it's all yours anyway. As of right now, you are the only man on the face of this earth that's allowed to stick it anywhere you want, as often as you want."

As she walked back to the main thoroughfare, she noticed a tattoo parlor on the other side of the street. Remembering a story she had read on a site called Literotica where a man branded and banded his wayward wife, she entered the shop. The tattoo artist worked up a drawing of what she wanted and went right to work. Lorna left the shop thinking, "OK, now I'm branded, forever. Next stop is my favorite jewelry store. Then on to the supermarket."

As Lorna walked to her car, she received a call from Kathy, "Hi mom. Ah, I have notes from all my teachers saying if I do my work and ace my finals, like always, I'll graduate with a four point oh grade point average."

"That's great Kathy. I knew you could pull off a quick recovery."

Before Lorna could mention anything about her father, Kathy said, "Mom? Ah, I've been invited to a slumber party tonight at Lorrie Jamison's house. I'll be back for lunch, tomorrow. Can I go?"

Lorna thought about it for a moment, "The Jamison's are old friends of our family and that will give Norm and I the night and morning to be together." So, she consented, "Sure dear, long as I know where you are. I'll have a surprise for you at lunch tomorrow."

"OK and thanks mom. I'll see you tomorrow."

Starting dinner as soon as she arrived home, Lorna paused and called Jenny, "It's me Jen. He's coming home tonight! It's almost over. My self inflected nightmare is coming to an end."

"That's fantastic Lorna. I knew you guys couldn't stay away from each other for very long. Good, that's great."

"Yes it is. Let's get together next Tuesday or Wednesday for lunch. Same place."

"OK, Wednesday is good for me. Nice to have my best friend in the whole world back with me."

"Think you Jenny. Ah, why don't you invite Barb to join us. Ah, I'd like to let her know that I hold nothing against her. It hurt like hell to hear about it... Still hurts. But ah, I want her to know that I'm not gonna bite her head off and I do want to keep her as a friend. I want to tell her that it was my fault. If I hadn't gotten on some high horse, it woulda never happened. You tell her that I got knocked off it."

"OK Lorna, I think she'd like that. Give me a call on Sunday and tell me how it is goin', Okeh?"

"Okeh Jenny, talk to ya Sunday."

With dinner almost ready, Lorna glanced at the clock, five forty. As she busied herself with the final touches of setting the table, she heard the garage door open. Smiling she lit the candle. Hutch entered the kitchen area without a briefcase, turned off his cellphone and placed it next to hers on the breakfast bar. She smiled and stepped around the table, stopping about three feet from him. Still smiling, she said, "Hello, my husband. Mine's turned off, too.."

He looked her over for a few moments, dark circles were still around her eyes and her hair was still in a five finger style. But he could not help thinking, "Yes ma'am, now you look and sound more like my wife." Then he gathered her up into his arms and kissed her. When their lip lock had ended, he just said, "Hi."

She took a step back, sort of bouncing on her feet, said, "I'm so glad to have you home. You don't know yet how glad I am to have you home. But, you are about to find out. Dinner is almost ready. The table is set and Norm? I accomplished all three of my objectives today."

Before she turned toward the kitchen, he grasp her right hand, noticing her new ring. Half inch wide yellow gold, it was hard to miss. "What's this?" he asked.

"Ah Normie? When you weren't here I couldn't sleep. So, I surfed the net and found some sites with erotic stories. A couple of them mentioned a band of commitment worn on the right forefinger. It's harder to ignore on that particular finger. They called it banding."

"Humm." he said. then gave her a consenting smile, "That's a good idea."

"The same story mentioned that the husband had his wayward wife branded with a tat.." she said, raising her dress to revealing a recent tattoo.

He looked at her lily white hip and first noticed, in bright blue, "100%." Curved over the top of the "100%", in black letters, was "Hutch's." Curved around the bottom of the "100%" was "Property" Under that was written in red letters, "No trespassing!" He smiled and asked "Why did you have that done to you?"

She allowed the fabric to drop back into place and moved back into his arms, "Norm? I found out a couple of things in this ordeal. One I love you more than words can describe. Two, I can't exist without you here with me. I need you Normie... I, I ah, I'm incomplete without you and yes Norman Hutchinson, attorney at law and CPA, I am your property. There will be no trespassing ever again. Now, we'll have a nice supper. Then we'll go upstairs and you can reestablish your ownership. There's a bottle of a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon chillin' in the frig. Just the thing for a couple of steaks. So, get it out an' open it. I'll get supper on the table."

They began their meal in silence. then she asked, "How's your steak?"

"Excellent, my dear. You are the only person I know that can cook a steak exactly the way I like it. Lorna Jean? You are a very good cook."

It had been a long time since he had complimented her on her cooking. She smiled and purred, "Thank you."

They ate in silence again for a minute or two. Then he said, "Lorna? Jeremy and Jenny had me over for supper a couple of time through out this affair. One evening after the meal, Jeremy and I sat out on their patio talking about the last twenty five years for us, almost twenty seven for them." He paused, took a sip of wine, "We came to the conclusion that neither one of us would be where we are today if we did not have our wives there with us. So, you say you need me. I need you as my wife, Lorna. It really bothers me that we drifted that far apart and that our jobs came between us..."

She sat up straight in her chair. Hutch had never said anything like that to her. She tried to smile, but his words stunned her. She always knew that her husband was not an emotional man. That one of his strengths as a lawyer was his ability to use other peoples emotions against them. However, in less than thirty days prior she had caused him to loose his cool, albeit briefly. But, for the first time in his life he did something irrational, unreasonable and illogical. In shear anger, he had violently pushed Ken out of his way. Recently as a week prior, she had brought him to a point of shouting at her. Apparently, everybody was right. He husband was beginning to take some steps to meet her halfway. Lorna stumbled around, looking for a response, "Ahhh, Norm? Normie? Ahh, I've realized that I'm like a part of you, like your arms. Cut of and not reattached, I will just wither and die... Ah, but ah, Ohh Normee, Thank you."