Mementos

I flew down the highway, and got back to my place about seven thirty, Ellen's car was missing from the driveway. I quickly when to my stash and looked at MY BALL. It was a copy, and it had been switched. Even though it had been over twenty year since I caught that ball, I still knew the signatures, and the smudge mark was gone. CARL!

I looked around for my lures and found nothing. Nothing, on either side of the cabinet, below, or behind the cabinet, they were gone!

It was Carl, I just knew it! He was ticked off about the fishing, and had swiped my lures.

I went into the master bedroom, to get fresh clothes. On the bed was a Victoria's Secret bag, with only receipts in it. Ohhhh Ellen! What the hell are you doing right now? But I had a really good idea of who she was with!

CARL! CARL! CARL! My rage was building.

I went back out to my van, and pulled out my camouflage pants and shirt. I have never understood fishing in camouflage. Are the fish really going to be fooled? But, it WAS a tradition with the fraternity, so I had some. I went back inside and put them on. I grabbed the fake ball, and headed over to Carl's.

I parked the van out of sight, and walked down the alley that went behind Carl's home, and slipped into the back yard. I still didn't have a plan, but I had a camera, and I knew which rock Carl put his spare house key under. I had been to Carl's a few times, and knew the layout. Even if they had used a hotel room, there was a possibility to retrieve my stuff in I talked to his wife Melissa.

As I went along the outside of the home, I went by the master bedroom window, and heard Ellen moaning. I knew Ellen's moans, and I figured she may have just ended our marriage. She knew how I felt about infidelity. I had laid this out very clearly a month before we were married.

I let out a sigh, I was glad we were still trying to build up our finances before having children. We were renting our house, and still working on a substantial down payment so that Ellen could quit work, and become a stay at home mother. We had only been married four years, and everything could be split up easily.

I was still boiling mad, and ready to give it to Carl, but I didn't want to get arrested. I tried to look in the window and see what was going on. I couldn't get any pictures, because the blinds were drawn. As far as gaining evidence with my camera, I was stuck, but I still wanted to get my stuff back.

Carl threw some big parties, and his bar in the den was his source of pride. He had a custom built bar with lots of glass. It had a glass top, glass shelves, and neon lights around the woodwork to show off his liquor. There was a chance that he might have put my stuff inside the bar or on the shelves behind the bar. I decided to sneak into his house and check the bar for my stuff. When I got to the door and opened it, I could still hear Ellen and Carl going at it, so I opened the sliding door as quietly as I could and slipped in. Once inside, I paused, and listened. There was no change in the sounds coming from the bedroom, so I closed the sliding door as quietly as I could, and walked over to the bar.

On the shelf behind the bar, was my stuff! All of it! The lures, the baseball, and a bunch baseball cards were all there. I hadn't even thought about the baseball cards, but I knew he had taken them too! My life! The mementoes of my life, and he had taken them! I quickly replaced the ball, and put three old lures in place of my prized lures. I had nothing to replace the baseball cards with, so I just took them. I quickly went back out of the sliding door, and started to open it, when I heard Ellen starting to orgasm, followed by Carl.

I waited, because Ellen was a screamer. A neighbor might hear it if the door had been open. I waited, and listened. After about thirty seconds, the noises from the bedroom quieted down, and I opened the door it and went out.

I was about to close it, when I hear Ellen yelp.

"Stop that! What do you think you are doing?"

"Relax, I'm just going to take your ass."

"No you're not! I haven't even let John do that!"

"Relax, I'll be gentle, and you'll know whether or not you want to do it with John."

"I don't."

"Look, if you ever do it with John, he will want to do it again. If you do it with me, John will never know, and wouldn't know what he's missing."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Positive, you just need to relax, and let me help you out. John liked some of those positions I showed you, didn't he?"

There was silence.

"You're going to be gentle, aren't you?"

"Yes, you'll just have to relax."

"Wait! What's that?"

"It's Vaseline, you will stay lubricated longer."

"But you aren't supposed to use condoms with that stuff!"

"Yes, and you're not going to get pregnant from semen in your ass."

"No, I might get pregnant."

"But we already agreed Ellen, that I was going to get you pregnant, didn't we?"

I hung my head. Was that was all it took? What power did he have over her? I had asked several times for anal sex, and this asshole gets her to give in less than thirty seconds. And on top of that, they were planning on Ellen carrying his child. Any thought of reconciliation was gone from my mind. Our marriage was over. I closed the door and snuck away.

I had just replaced the key under the stone when I saw movement in the den. I went behind a bush and watched in my camouflaged outfit. Carl had put on a bathrobe and was going to the bar. With a flick of a switch, and the neon lights in the glass case were on, and the bottles of liquor were lit up. He pulled out a fancy cut glass decanter and poured two drinks. While holding the fancy glass decanter, he picked up one of the drinks and downed it. He then refilled his drink and saluted the shelf where the baseball, the lures and the card were, but the cards were not there anymore. Carl looked as if he was surprised.

Before I tell you what happened, I need to tell you that I had always believed in karma. Maybe it was because the good guy is always supposed to win, or something like that. Or, it may have been from when I caught Pete Incaviglia's baseball. Karma meant that if I was worthy enough, a ball would be hit to me. But I got to see a bit of karma hit Carl that night.

Carl had seen something was wrong and in rage, slammed down the fancy crystal decanter on the glass bar top. It broke the glass top of his bar, and the decanter crashed into the bottles of liquor on the first glass shelf, breaking several of them, along with the shelf. The shelves below fell like dominoes, breaking bottles, and sending their contents into the neon lights at the bottom of the bar.

When the glass broke the neon lights, Carl was engulfed in a fireball.

I found out that Carl had put generous amounts of Vaseline on his erection. I also found out that petroleum lubricants on your penis are not you friend when you are engulfed in a fireball. I now know that the flashpoint for Vaseline is 365 degrees Fahrenheit.

I saw Carl dancing around with his penis and hands on fire. Ellen came into the den, and tried to put Carl out. Ellen must have also had Vaseline on her hands, because her hands also caught on fire, too. They managed to wrap blankets around themselves and smother the flames. A portion of the den was not on fire, and filling the house with smoke. I decided to leave when I saw Ellen going for the phone. I never saw Carl's wife, Melissa, so I figured that she had to be out of town.

I went back to my van, and drove back to my house. As I drove back, fire and emergency trucks sped by me towards Carl's house. I was sure Carl would have a whopper of a story for Melissa, his wife, about all of this. I wasn't sure that I had been seen, so I decided that I would try to get back to Bricktown and pretend to be oblivious to what had happened.

When I got to my house, I found out that I could not put MY BALL back in the holder. In desperation, I grabbed a ball and faked the signatures, and probably did a better job than Carl did. I returned the fake ball back to the holder, but, I positioned it with Nolan Ryan's Signature showing and headed back to Oklahoma. I grabbed the photo albums, and hit the road.

On the way back, I was in a state of peace. All of the aggression that I had built up had been released when I saw Carl's penis on fire. I had several images of punching the daylights out if Carl, but somehow, watching his penis on fire quenched my thirst for revenge. I had many ideas on how to deal with Carl on my way back to Dallas, but what I saw was far more gratifying than anything that I had come up with. I didn't think he would be breaking up another marriage for a while.

I kept on smiling and laughing. I knew that both of them had burnt their hands. I soooo wanted to tell them that I had caught them 'red handed'.

It was almost midnight when I ran into my buddies in Bricktown. I was greeted, and asked if I had a good nap, and was given a beer. It was as though I hadn't even left. It looked like my buddies bought it, and would be able to say that I had never made the trip to Dallas and back.

***** *****

The next morning, I turned on my cell phone. I didn't know what to expect. There was a message from Ellen, telling me that Carl had an accident, and was in the hospital. She also said to call her on her cell phone. I was relieved that no one died, but I was not interested to talking to that cheating slut, so I turned my cell phone back off.

There was only the one call, and nothing that even hinted that she had done something wrong. She was going to try and cover up her infidelity. I called the credit card companies, and my cell phone providers, and asked for records going back for the last four years. I had to pay a bit to have them e-mailed to my account, but I intended to go over our finances and phone bills to really figure out how long this had been going on.

When we finally were ready to caravan to Arkansas, there were twenty four of us, including fraternity buddies, and their wives and girlfriends. I had a good time, but I think I drank too much. George kept checking on me, and eventually assigned Ashley, his sister in law, as my babysitter.

On the second day at dinner, I sat at the restaurant at my own table, with my laptop. Ashley came over and sat by me.

"Ellen cheated on you, didn't she?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not to guys, but some women look for things, like a man constantly twisting his wedding ring while gnashing his teeth."

I looked down at my hands. "Oh."

"It's probably good that you're away, and can work through your feelings. I'll leave you alone."

Ashley turned around and started to walk away.

I continued to look at my hands and quietly said, "Please stay."

Ashley heard me, it was as if she wanted to help, but felt she shouldn't. She turned around and sat across from me. "You don't have to tell me anything. Let's just enjoy a meal together."

Ashley had figured it out almost immediately. She kept the beer away, and listened. We talked, just talked. Once I switched over to iced tea, Ashley and I became the babysitters for the entire group.

We all fished, and Ashley and I talked. We even did Karaoke one night. I now think watching drunks trying to sing is more fun to watch sober. One by one, the guys also figured it out. My marriage was dead. Some of the guys were not surprised, and told me that Ellen had hit on them. I went through the photo albums with the guys. I discovered that the signs were always there. I had just ignored them.

I also received the records for our credit cards and phones. I found patterns. I was happy that I always used my credit card to pay for meals when I went of business trips. I had done so that I could use my credit card bill to verify amounts on my expense reports, but now, I had a clear record of every time I went out of town.

I could see visits for clothing, and stops to get her hair and nails done, usually on the day I left town. She always told me that she wanted to surprise me when I got back, but it now looked like she was doing it for her lovers. It was pretty easy to pick out Ellen's indiscretions. I had not looked for a paper trail, but I sure found one! I also found out that there was more than one lover. Ellen was a habitual cheater.

On the fourth evening, I had pretty much figured out everything, especially after putting together a profile of each person that Ellen had cheat with, and the three guys that Ellen had flirted with.

Ashley came over and sat down. "What's wrong now?"

"Ash, you know that line about 'In sickness and in health'?"

"Yeah."

I turned the laptop around so that both of us could see it. I pointed to the five photos on top of the screen. "These are her conquests".

I then pointed to the three photos below, and these are the three guys she flirted with on earlier outings. Do you notice anything similar about them?"

Ashley nodded, "They look the same."

I pointed to the bottom corner photo, "Just like her father, don't you think?"

Ashley gasped, "You don't think?"

I shook my head, "I don't know for sure, he died three years ago in a car accident. But I think she is drawn to a specific profile to have sex with, and she may not be able to control that urge. So that's why I am asking you about 'In sickness and in health'."

Ashley looked back at me, "You can't trust her anymore, can you?"

"Ash, she betrayed me when she went back to Brian Jennings, after I specifically said that it would end our engagement. The only thing that changed was that she hid the affair better. If I take her back, she will have to confess what she has done, all of it. She will have to be treated for this compulsion. Otherwise, she will only learn to hide her affairs better."

"John, this is your call, but I don't think you will be happy ever again in this marriage. You will always be checking up on her, and the distrust will kill the marriage."

"That's why I am only going to give it one shot. She has to want to marriage to survive, which means a full confession."

We ate, and watched my friends make fools out of themselves. I noticed that several others had switched over to iced tea, and were watching the show, too.

During dessert, Ashley started giving me looks.

"What, do I have whip cream on my face?"

"John, I was thinking about how much you are hurting. Would you like to come to my cabin tonight?"

I shook my head, "Ash, I don't want a mercy fuck."

"I don't want that either, John, and if that's what I'm going to get, then don't bother. I don't want a whimpering man to screw me. I have spent five days with a bunch of ex-frat boys, and I want to be taken, and pounded hard! I am offering a revenge fuck."

My eyes must have bulged out and flared. I undressed Ashley with my eyes, and started to salivate. But I held back.

"John, you're not the only one with problems. I came up here with my sister Diane to forget how much of a creep my last boyfriend was. I was expecting to get fucked silly this week, by several guys. Instead, I'm finding out that you guys take care of each other. Did you know George did? That damn brother in law of mine told everyone that I'm in pain, and that I'm off limits this week! I don't think he told you, so I think he is trying to set us up. I want someone to make me forget. Hell, I wanted several of you to just use me this week, and I find out that you bastards have some GOD DAMN code of loyalty to each other. John, I need this, and I think you do too!"

"Ash, you don't know how tempting your offer is, but no."

Ashley winced. "Shit! That means I'm going to need another set of batteries!"

On the fifth day, I had a message from the resort that we were renting our cabins from. It was from Melissa, Carl's wife. She had tracked me down from work, and wanted to talk. I purchased a calling card, and went to a pay phone. She told me everything. She was divorcing Carl. Ellen had burns on her hands, and was treated for smoke inhalation, but was otherwise OK. Carl had burns on his hands, and on his penis, and would recover. She was unsure how much sensation he would have, when the burns had healed, but he would live to fuck another day. She had pryed a confession from the two of them, and they insisted that it was a one time thing. Melissa asked if I would be willing to share credit card and cell phone records, and I said I would. We set up a meeting to compare notes before I would confront Ellen.

As best as I could figure out, no one knew that I had come back to Dallas. I planned to use this information to trap my wife. I actually knew a lot more about Ellen's affairs than I wanted anyone to know at this point. I told everyone that my wife had an accident, and had to cut the vacation short. Antonio came back home with me, but the other two found other transportation.

***** *****

When I arrived back in Dallas, I rented a hotel for the final days that I would have been away. I called Melissa, and the two of us compared bills to see if our spouse's story held any water. I didn't tell Melissa about what I had overheard when I had returned, and that the affair had been going on a lot longer than a one night fling. I had already put the pieces together, and knew what Melissa needed to see from my evidence. We eventually found charges on Ellen's credit card that came a day or two ahead of hotel charges on Carl's credit card. We also checked the frequency of calls between the two of them on their cell phones, and they went up just before the hotel charges. By the end of the week, I had a lawyer drawing up divorce papers.

I came home, as if nothing was wrong, and gave Ellen a chance to explain herself. She confessed about the one night fling that had gone terribly wrong, and told me that she would make it up to me. I told her to move into the guest bedroom, and get tested for STD's. I checked the baseball, and found that it now had Pete Incaviglia's signature showing forward. I now knew that Ellen had as least repositioned the ball. For three days, she tried to plead with me to take her back, but never changed her story. She never gave me a full confession, so I stood firm. Ellen was served at work.

Ellen tried to call, but I had turned off the phone. I wasn't at work, either. When she came home, she found out that I have moved out.

She got a lawyer and they insisted on counseling. I had no choice in the matter. I went to counseling, since it was court ordered.

***** *****

At the first counseling session, I listened to the same sob story that she had given me. I didn't buy it, and I started to punch holes in her story. The counselor sided with my wife telling me that I was not being very open. I was told that I was being very judgmental. I was not allowed to refute anything that Ellen said on the first session, I was supposed to just listen to her lies. The counselor sided with my wife, telling me that I was being unreasonable. The session ended with me looking like a jerk. I apologized, and calmly asked if I could talk about my feelings on the next session.

On the second session, I talked about betrayal. I brought in the cell phone records from Ellen's phone, along with our credit card bills for the last two years. Melissa also gave me credit card bills that showed when Carl had rented motel rooms. There was a clear record that Carl and Ellen had been having an affair for over eighteen months. I had questions.

Why did Ellen go to the hair salon and get your hair and nails done the day BEFORE I left town for a week? If she were doing it for me, then why didn't it happen the day before I got back?

Why was Ellen purchasing things at Victoria's Secret BEFORE I left town?

When I was out of town, why did Ellen have to fill up you car with gas more than when I was at home? What extra trips was she taking?