Peaceful Easy Feelin’

I wasn't sure we had gone to the right house, until Tadpole and the twins came running out of the front portico, when we finally arrived at the end of the drive. All the children piled out of the cars and disappeared into the mansion as Sonya made her appearance.

There was something about the woman that I couldn't get my head around. She was dressed in a pair of cut off denims and a blouse that was tied just below her breasts, showing off a vast expanse of midriff; not the sort of clothing you would expect someone living in a house like that would wear. But the point was, she somehow managed to look so elegant in that attire. It struck me that, whatever the woman wore, she always managed to look like she was about to step out on the catwalk at a fashion show.

Sonya led us through the house and out into a rather large cast iron conservatory. Well, I assumed it had been a conservatory once; now it sported a large indoor swimming pool, that three young people -- a boy and two girls - were splashing about in. Sonya told us they were the offspring of some of the people who lived on the estate -- I noted that she didn't refer to them as workers. They were college students at the time, but on the weekends and during the holidays they liked to come up to the house and help keep the children amused, she informed us.

All three were formally introduced to us, before the children came rushing back down from wherever Tadpole and the twins had taken them to get changed. At the time, I didn't think much of it, but I got the feeling that the boy, Jeremy, was sizing me up. I didn't really notice either, that both of the girls sought me out for a chat at one time or another during the day and afterwards they would spend a few minutes in quiet conversation with each other.

Nothing much else of note happened that day; except I -- like all the other adults - was persuaded to don a swimsuit at sometime during the afternoon. Sonya supplied them from somewhere. I could only suppose that she held a stock of the things for guests to use somewhere in the house.

Oh, yeah, one other thing I noted was that Susan's guy, John, couldn't keep his eyes off of her figure -- Susan's, that is -- once she squeezed herself into the bikini that Sonya supplied her with. Well, I think that was what he was gawking at! Whatever, the bikini that Susan chose must have done the trick, because she called me the next day to tell me that John had asked her to marry him when they got back to her house that night.

I'd liked John from the moment I had met him; god knows where my sister picked him up. And I could tell he was a thoughtful bloke because the next time I saw him the cherished BMW Three Series was gone, replaced by a people carrier in which he could transport Susan and all four children around, in comfort and safety.

Everyone had appeared to enjoy themselves at Sonya's house. Well, it was a different world to us. Anyway after that weekend, it became a regular thing for Sonya and her three to turn up at my house on Saturdays, and on Sundays my two girls and myself would go over to Sonya's house. Most often John, Susan and the children would be invited to Sonya's house on the Sunday as well. Since Jean had been gone they nearly always turned up at mine on Saturdays anyway.

During our visits to Sonya's house over the following weeks, we did meet a couple of her relatives: an old boy who everyone referred to as Uncle Theo, who seemed to spend most of his time clay pigeon shooting out in the grounds somewhere, and a very formidable old lady who everyone respectfully addressed as Aunt Gilda. She frightened the arse off of me and just about every other adult that I ever saw in her company - well, Susan and John anyway.

You'll remember Lady Bracknell from 'The importance of being Earnest.' Yeah, well, I think Oscar Wilde must have based Lady Bracknell on Aunt Gilda; there was an uncanny similarity in their personalities. I know that she wasn't someone I would want to cross swords with, in a hurry.

Aunt Gilda always seemed very pleasant when she was with the children; she appeared to take a great interest in and spend a lot of time talking with my two girls, who were in complete awe of her.

Exactly what she talked with the girls about, I have no idea. But whatever Aunt Gilda said to them, they accepted as gospel. At home I discovered that chores around the house and school homework suddenly took on a new importance to them. When I enquired of the girls why the sudden change in attitude, I learnt that it had something to do with what Aunt Gilda had said to them. I enquired no further.

"All signed and sealed," Rachel said, handing me an envelope as I opened the door to her one evening. "The judge only made one order and that's that he considers Jean's reasonable access to the children shall consist of not less than sixty-five visits a year. Basically, once a week and on their birthdays and public holidays and the like." She grinned.

"I thought with the mutual petition we were keeping custody out of the court?" I replied, as I led Rachel into the kitchen and began pouring her a cup of tea.

"We were but the Judge wanted to know what arrangements had been made concerning them. He's a nice old boy so I told him what we had on Jean and Seymour. Henry wasn't too pleased about that. Anyway he decided to add it into the decree that Sonya's visits must be supervised by a responsible person and on no account could Seymour be present, even if she marries him in the future."

"So that's it, we're divorced then?" I asked.

"To all intents and purposes yes. It will be a little while before the paperwork's complete; it all has to be rubber stamped yet. But as far as you're concerned you are a free man from today and Jean has to pay the child support monthly or risk the wrath of the courts."

"Thanks, Rachel. Now I suppose I'll have to look forward to receiving your bill."

"No, the Judge took care of that as well. Once he'd asked about what arrangements had been made for the children, he looked at all the paperwork that I just happened to have with me. He saw your projected income and what Jean's raking in. That's when he decided to formalise the child maintenance payments, and when I told him that you were not asking for any maintenance for yourself until the girls were of age. You would have gotten that, you know; some cash to tide you over until you could go back to full time work. Anyway the judge decided that Jean should pay your legal expenses."

"Thanks, Rachel. I'm not on Poverty Street yet, but I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the cash for a few years."

Rachel went on to chastise me for not taking Jean for everything that I could. "That's the trouble with some of you guys. Your bloody pride gets in the way of your common sense. Jean would have taken you for every penny she could¸ don't you worry," Rachel admonished me.

"You're probably right, Rachel, and most likely Jean would have tried to make it difficult for me to see the girls as well. But I'm not Jean. I'm Frank Moore. I don't cheat on my family and I don't use my children or money as a weapon."

"I don't suppose the silly woman will ever realise what a catch she lost in you."

"Looking back I think Jean always wanted a big fish with plenty of money, not a tiddler like me. I'm quite happy in my little pond and I need to find the kind of woman who'll be happy to share it with me."

"What makes you say that, Frank?"

"Oh, I don't know. The little things, like Jean always being envious of people who had newer cars and bigger houses. She was never blatant about it but I could always sense the envy in her."

"Well, she's got her big fish, but I wonder if she got a strong enough net to keep him in." Rachel grinned.

I wondered how long it would last as well; after all from the hints I'd picked up from Sonya, it was extremely doubtful that Jean was Seymour's first extramarital affair and there's the old saying once a cheat always a cheat.

It was the following weekend that Susan and John announced their wedding date. Maybe I was a little worried that they hadn't known each other all that long, but in the long term John turned out to be a great husband and surrogate father to Susan's children, who by then hadn't laid eyes on their real father for three years. He'd turn up now and again in the following years, but not very often.

Anyway a week or so after Sue had made the announcement; Sonya asked where she and John were planning on going for their honeymoon.

"A honeymoon, you've got to be joking," Susan replied. "Who'd be dumb enough to look after the terrors whilst we were away?"

"Well, they could come and stay here with the children and me. Or better still if you move your wedding back a couple of weeks until the schools break up; they could come to the villa with us," Sonya said, then turned to me. "You and the girls could come along as well, Frank. I think they'd enjoy it over there; I know that Tadpole and the twins would love having them along."

"Over where, Sonya? Where is this villa of yours?"

"On an island in the Caribbean," Sonya replied rather vaguely, and before I could ask more she went on to Sue and John. "Hey, better than that, there is a guest house in the grounds, you and John could use that, it'll give you some privacy most of the time and your children can stay with Frank and me up in the villa. Then the children would be able to see you everyday, but you'd be on your own at night."

By that point the snowball was rolling down the hill on its own accord and getting bigger every second. One of the children must have overheard what we had been talking about and the next thing you know, it's all a done deal as far as the children were concerned. Disappointing them, I felt, was not an option; although I thought that the airfares were going to make a bleeding great dent in my bank account.

I think I vented my spleen a little at Sonya later.

"I'm sorry, Frank, I just got carried away. I like Sue, and John's a great guy taking on a ready-made family like that. Not every guy would do that. I just thought it would make their honeymoon something special. You know, a couple of weeks in the Caribbean for free."

"Not exactly free, Sonya. There's the cost of getting there and back again," I reminded her.

"Ah, now, this concern is about travel expenses, it isn't really about Sue and John, is it? Rachel told me that you're feeling the pinch a bit. But don't worry about the flights, Frank; I'll sort them out for everyone."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Sonya," I started to say.

"Frank, before you say anything else, my father was one of the biggest individual share holders in the airline. All those shares are still in the family and I get a whacking great discount whenever the children and I fly out there. On top of that, with the size of the party flying out we'll get an even bigger discount. So please put your masculine pride away for once."

"It's got nothing to do with pride..."

"Come off it, Frank. Don't you think I know you by now. But I'll be honest with you; I had an ulterior motive for inviting you, Sheryl and Annette along. Besides Tadpole believing that Sheryl is a private gift from god to him, he'd already said that he wanted to stay with Aunt Gilda this summer instead of going out to the villa, which means he must really be serious." Sonya stopped talking and smiled at me.

"Yeah, I gathered that they are getting sweet on each other, but they're barely ten years old," I replied.

"Children grow up a lot sooner than we did in this modern age, Frank."

"Tadpole might change his mind later, when he discovers how much of her mother Sheryl has in her. But what's this ulterior motive you have for inviting us out there?"

Sonya grinned again, "Well, you are well aware that my soon to be ex-husband is shacked up with your ex-wife, right." I nodded that I was aware of the fact. "You might not have heard about it, but all is not as well as it could be in the new household."

"How do you know that?"

"Trust me, Frank, I have ways of finding these things out. Jean is holding Seymour on a very tight leash and he doesn't like it a bit."

"How the hell is she managing to do that, if someone like you couldn't keep him under control? Christ, you outclass Jean in just about every respect and you couldn't control the bugger," I pointed out. Hey, they weren't married or anything yet, so I couldn't see why Seymour couldn't just throw Jean's cheating arse out.

"Thanks for the compliment," Sonya said, then asked, "That was a compliment, wasn't it?"

I just gave Sonya a sideways look in reply.

She smiled again. "Let's just say that some of Seymour's business ventures aren't quite as legal as they could be, and I do believe that Jean knows where all the skeletons are buried. Well, a good number of them anyway. What is it you say? Jean's got Seymour by the short and curlys! He's well and truly lumbered with her, until she gets bored with him.

"Ooh ah," I commented.

"Yeah, and I just thought it would be terribly funny if they got the idea that you and I were, you know, becoming more than just friends. Maybe we could put on a little show, just to turn the knife in the wound a little."

"A show?"

"Yes, we let them know when we are flying out and invite them to come and see the children off at the airport. Then you and I pretend to be a lot more familiar with each other than we really are. That should piss both of them off nicely."

"Pardon? Did you just say Piss-off?" I asked. 'Piss-off' wasn't the sort of language that Sonya usually used. Well, not in my hearing anyway.

"Frank, just because I went to Benenden - a school like that teaches you how to behave and talk like young ladies in public, but that doesn't mean all us girls didn't speak plain English when we were in our studies. There were girls from all backgrounds there, so I can curse with the best of them, when I want to," Sonya giggled. "Anyway are you going to go along with my dig at our exes, or are you going to disappoint the children?"

"You know that you are a very wicked and naughty girl, Sonya, and you manipulated me today, didn't you? You made damned sure that Tadpole would overhear you inviting us along."

"Honest answer?" she asked.

"Of course!" I insisted.

"Well, yes. I admit it. But in mitigation I must explain that it was Tadpole's idea to invite you all over there in the first place. He just had a different objective in mind. I told you, he has become very attached to Sheryl and threatened to stay with Aunt Gilda if Sheryl didn't go along with us this year, just so that he could see her."

"I don't know what to worry about most, your son's intentions toward my daughter or what sly trick you are about to pull next. It's getting so that I can't trust anyone."

"You are coming though?"

I couldn't bring myself to say no to the pleading little-girl-hurt expression on Sonya's face.

"I guess I haven't much choice really, have I?"

"And you'll play the game at the airport?"

"If you insist, but don't go overdoing things in front of the children; we wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea."

"Oh no, that would never do," Sonya replied, with a strange inflection to her voice that I didn't quite understand.

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The weeks went by and I still found I couldn't buy a newspaper. Stories about Sonya and Seymour's legal wranglings over money were in them most every day. And there always seemed to be pictures of Jean and Seymour together at some club or the other. I rarely read the stories but in the few that I did skim through on the news-stands - and reading between the lines - Jean was being painted as a real femme fatale and a marriage breaker.

The news reporters' quest for something -- anything -- different to write about the divorce, led to stories even mentioning Sonya and her friendship with me, a few times. But oddly -- well, for the way the muckrakers' normally phrase things -- there was no insinuation that anything untoward was going on between Sonya and myself. Well, not blatantly anyway; for some reason I was expecting salacious hints, but I was surprised that there weren't any.

Jean took to visiting the children for an hour or so a couple of evenings every week. Seymour would normally drop her off and by coincidence one or two press photographers always seemed to be hanging around in the street on those days. I came to the conclusion that someone was tipping the press off about which evenings Jean was coming to visit the children, because the press boys were never around on the days she didn't come. Considering the way she smiled and posed for them to take their pictures, it could well have been Jean herself.

Right from the start it was evident that I needed to get someone else to supervise Jean's visits. Maybe I was being bloody minded, but to my way of thinking supervised means that she's never alone with them. My feelings towards Jean at the time were still very antagonistic; some people might have called it hate.

But personally I don't believe we're on this earth long enough to waste time on hating anyone. But I will admit that I was winding her up, by insisting that a second adult of my choosing was always present when she was with the children.

Because I was very aware that my personal antagonism towards Jean manifested itself whenever we were in the same room together, Rachel did the honours a few times, but then she turned up one day with Tracy, a young secretary from her office who didn't live far from my house. Tracy did the honours from then on for a small fee.

Tracy's presence proved to be very handy. She looked very young herself and I do believe that Jean just thought that she was a local teenager who I'd roped in. Tracy didn't enlighten Jean otherwise and reported back to me diligently, when Jean began to question Sheryl and Annette, first about our visits to Sonya's house and her and the Springfield children's to ours. And secondly about what kind of a relationship was developing between Sonya and myself.

"Don't be silly, mummy," Annette had replied. "We go over to their house because Tadpole is Sherry's boyfriend and Jeremy is teaching us to swim."

Tracy said the mention of Jeremy had confused Jean somewhat, because she obviously had no idea who he was. Then she'd gotten further confused when Annette had rolled straight on into talking about Susan and John's wedding. Once again Jean had no idea who John was either. As she was leaving that night Jean did enquire of Tracy if she knew who Jeremy and John were; but that was the advantage of Tracy being there, she had no idea of who they were either.

A month or so went past and Jean began to hint to the children that she was going to be away for a few weeks during the summer. Tracy informed me that Annette had begun to say something about us going away on holiday as well, but Sheryl had cut her off by changing the subject to Susan's wedding.

"Frank, I know I'm only there to upset your wife."

"Ex-wife!" I corrected Tracy.

"Yes, sorry, your ex-wife. But I also know that you want the girls to have a, er, reasonable relationship with their mother."

"As reasonable as can be expected under the circumstances," I commented.

"Yes, I understand that it's very awkward," Tracy said, tentatively.

I thought that Tracy was beating around the bush so I went straight to what I thought she was getting at.

"Look, Tracy, if and when Jean ends her relationship with Seymour Springfield, I will relax my conditions on her visits to the girls. Whilst that animal is still around, she'll never be on her own with them if I've got any say in the matter, and she'll never take them out of this house unless you or someone like you is with them."

"No, you misunderstand me, Frank. I think that she deserves the conditions you have put on her visits. I do all of Rachel's typing and paperwork, so I know all about the indecent with Seymour in your lounge. What I was trying to point out to you is that Sheryl is feeling some real animosity towards her mother. I think even more than you publicly show. It could be that she hates her mother and to my mind that isn't right."