Only in a Dream

Just then, Kathy came down the steps and walked into the kitchen.

"Just checking to make sure you stopped and got the potatoes," she said.

He didn't tell her what had happened, how he'd driven past the store and had to go back.

"I did, and I got you a book you might like from the library, it's about Indians in Ohio," proclaimed Brad.

"Where is it?" she asked.

Spotting it as she walked into the living room, she picked it up.

"Ohh, this looks like it will be interesting, thank you," Kathy said.

She looked through the book attentively for a few moments, then sat it back down on the coffee table. Walking back into the kitchen, she picked up the bag of potatoes and took them over to the sink.

"I'm going to start supper now," she announced.

Brad walked back into the living room, grabbed the two train books, then walked back through the kitchen,

"I'm going out and sitting on the deck, holler at me when supper is ready," he said.

"I will. . . Oh, before I forget, mom called, she told me something kind of interesting."

"Oh, what's that?" Brad said curiously.

"You wouldn't believe it," Kathy responded.

"Anymore, I'll believe about anything."

"Well, you remember Sharon, Danny's girlfriend, is pregnant?"

"Yeah, and. . .?"

"Well, she was sleeping around on Danny with her ex husband at about the same time she got pregnant, so there's a real good chance that the baby isn't Danny's."

Brad got a look of disgust on his face, as he turned to go out of the back door.

"What a fucking cunt. . .!! Sounds about right, there's probably a lot of guys other than her ex that could be the baby's the father too, isn't there?"

Once outside, he headed up the steps to his sanctuary in the rain, the upper deck.

Danny was Kathy's nephew, her sister's son. He had been with Sharon for a couple of years now, they already had one child together, a two year old. Sharon had two daughters, eight and ten years old, with her ex husband.

Brad and Kathy had never thought much of Sharon. They had noticed, while at family outings a couple of times, how Sharon seemed to openly flaunt herself and flirt with just about any man that would pay any attention to her. Even the men old enough to be her father.

They'd seen the look in Danny's eyes and on his face, while this was going on. Danny bars and such. Brad and Kathy could just imagine what Sharon did on those occasions, especially after the way she had acted towards Danny's own family members.

After climbing the steps to the deck, Brad went over and sat down in a deck chair for a while, just listening to the rain. He sat there for a good spell, not thinking about anything at all, then thoughts of Danny and Sharon and the whole subject of cheating started creeping into his brain. Brad felt really bad for Danny,

"If Sharon loved her ex so much, why in the hell didn't she just stay with him?"

Thoughts of the two of them, brought back unpleasant memories of a time when he had suspicions of something similar going on, things he didn't like to think about.

Brad's mind drifted back to when he and Kathy lived in their old house on the other side of town. He had suspected that Kathy might have been messing around with a neighbor. He never knew for sure, and she swore that nothing had ever happened between them, but certain signs were there.

********

The year was 1988, Kathy was beautiful, not in a glamorous sense, but she had the girl next door look down to a science. A brunette, with shoulder length hair, she was about five foot, five and a size eight, 32 A chest size. At thirty four, and after three children, she looked more like she was her early twenties.

Her soft voice and warm, outgoing personality was like a magnet for men. She seemed so naive and innocent and it seemed every man she met was attracted to her. Most men just assumed that she wasn't involved with Brad and that had always bothered him. They acted as if there was no way, that she would ever be with someone like him. Guys would approach her, start chatting her up and act like Brad wasn't even there. They would become visibly agitated when they realized that she was actually with him.

Matt and Cindy Lane had moved into a house down the street from Brad and Kathy the year before. Brad had graduated high school with them, so they were acquainted already. They'd had a few classes together, but had never really been what you would call friends, but since Brad was the only person in the whole neighborhood that Matt and Cindy knew, they gravitated towards him and Kathy. They also had children close to the same age.

Brad worked mostly midnight shifts while Matt worked a regular daytime, Monday to Friday job. They would talk and visit sometimes, but never much more than that. Kathy and Cindy tho, were a different story.

Cindy worked days too, but her hours were seven a.m. to three p.m. This put her at home two full hours before Matt, so that gave Kathy and Cindy plenty of time to visit and do things together before Matt arrived home. When he was on night shift, Brad was always in bed asleep in the late afternoons anyway.

They liked taking the kids out to Hilltop Park, where they would sit at a picnic table talking while the children played. Most of the time they wouldn't get home until well after six o'clock.

"It won't hurt Matt to wait a little while for supper sometimes," Cindy told Kathy.

In the evenings, Cindy mostly liked to spend time with Matt and her children alone. But, a couple of times a week, on the nights that Brad didn't have to work, Cindy and Matt would come down to visit. Their children were usually all playing together anyway. Most of the time, Brad would be busy working on one of his projects, so Matt would go back to the garage or wherever Brad was, to watch and talk with him, While Cindy would sit and talk with Kathy. Usually out on the back deck, or on the front porch. Matt would sometimes stay and sit with Cindy, while she talked and visited with Kathy.

Brad would make his way out to where they were and join them sometimes, he could tell by the way Matt was acting and looking at Kathy, that he had designs on her. He couldn't tell if the women noticed it or not, but Brad thought it was obvious.

********

Brad shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as he thought about those times. He had an empty, hollow feeling in his chest, old suspicions and jealousies started floating around in his head again.

"Fuck!!"

He tried to get those old thoughts of Matt out of his head and think about something else, but it wasn't working.

********

To be continued. . .