The Fifth Day: Another Ending

Sally perked up and started to speak. I quickly told her to be quiet.

"If you interrupt me again, I'll just get up and walk out leaving you sitting here by yourself. Understood?" My words and body language told Sally that it was my turn on stage and she needed to remain silent until I was done.

"I say it is irrelevant now because your actions after you found out were uncalled for and very spiteful. Once you found out about Tina and me, you could have very easily confronted me with that knowledge and you would have had a very penitent husband who would have been ready to receive your wrath. But, you didn't. You conjured up this hideous revenge plot which went over and beyond just balancing the scales. There were four nights into your tryst that you could have still confronted me with my sins and then told me you had an affair just to settle the score. Any one of those nights, I would have still been the penitent husband and even forgiven you for the mistake I brought about. You said thirteen times if four days, as you boasted to me in the bar on Saturday. Why thirteen times? Why was it necessary for you to exceed the number of times you knew that Tina and I had intercourse?" I paused a moment and took another sip of my drink.

Sally made a move like she wanted to make a comment.

"Not now, Sally. You will have plenty of time to give me your answers when I am done speaking. Let me finish uninterrupted." My voice was very authoritative and unyielding to her.

"As I was saying; it wasn't the fact you felt a need to balance the scales that has brought this situation to a higher level of distress. I could have dealt with an eye for an eye, what I can't deal with is the reasons why you felt the need to exceed the parity after the seventh time or the fourth day with your lover? When you drove us over to the club on Saturday, you had more than payback on your mind. More than once you told me that the outcome of that evening was still in doubt and that we might just go our separate ways."

Another pause, another sip of my drink. This time, Sally just sat there contemplating my words and the meaning behind those words. Her face was becoming a stoic poker face, no emotion, no outward signs of what was going on in her mind.

"That implied threat, that we might not be leaving together and that you could not be certain if you would want to leave with me, was a serious blow to my psyche. What had gotten you to this point I wondered?" My words were slow and very distinct.

"You had already said you more than exceeded the parity of an eye for an eye. So, what was your motivation for bringing me to the scene of your infidelity? More than that, what was your motivation for continuing your infidelity right in front of me? Why rub my nose and ego in the dirt? Why the photos? Why the wet panties?"

The waitress started to walk over to our table. I waved her off and then took another sip of my drink. These short pauses were calculated to give Sally time to digest my words and the serious meaning behind them.

"In all the four years of our marriage I had never realized there might be a very dark side to your personality. A dark side which would always wants to exact more revenge than necessary whenever it was threatened or abused. You had always been so loving and caring toward me. Although it may seem like a lame excuse, the reason I chose not to tell you what happened between Tina and me at the resort, was the fact I didn't want to hurt you with my infidelity." I could see Sally squirm a little in her seat. She said nothing and her eyes did not betray her inner thoughts.

"The Fifth Day was about something else. Something that drove you to want to totally eviscerate me. Something which I am still totally unaware of. I have not been able to make any sense of the Fifth Day. It was unnecessary to achieve the balance you initially gave for your infidelity. You had completed your payback episode. You even told me that on the first day with Dan, you told him that the tryst would last only four days and then you would never see him again. So, again I am faced with the serious question of why you needed to take me to the club on Saturday and initiate a Fifth Day of extra marital sex with Dan?" Another short pause. Sally sat very still, no emotion coming through, no sign of what her response would be when I gave her permission to talk.

"All of these questions bombarded my mind as you walked away from the table on Saturday. It made no sense to me then and it still doesn't make sense to me now. If you want to know why I left the club after you went off with your lover, the reason was simply that I could not come to a rational answer to why the total humiliation was necessary."

"There was more there then I could logically explain away. All of a sudden, I was faced with the fact I really didn't know you like I thought I did. I also realized I could no longer predict what your next actions would be."

This time the pause was much longer. My eyes never left her face. I took the last sip of my drink and then said to that it was time for her to speak and answer my questions.

Sally's poker face change to a look of a innocent little girl about to explain why she did something her father told her not to do. She ran her tongue over her lips and then began to speak.

"I think I know what your trying to do here, Peter. You're trying to make me responsible for our marriage crisis. I'm not going to let you do that to me. You broke your wedding vows first, you opened the flood gates and now you must suffer the consequences." Her voice was both accusatory and unyielding.

"All I'm asking for, Sally is a reason why the Fifth Day was so important to you? Why did you need to carry your revenge that far? That's all I'm asking. No blame, just a reason that you felt the Fifth Day had to happen to make you feel vindicated." I lightened up my tone to try to get a solid answer from her.

Sally thought deeply about my last statement and the question I wanted answered.

"By the third day, I was having doubts about the need to go further with my plan to even the score. Dan and I had sex about eight times and now I began to wonder what was next and how I should break the news to you."

"On my way home, I called mother and told her the whole story. After hearing my story and confession, she told me I was doing the right thing to get even with you. But, she said that it would be necessary to actually do more than just even the score. She said you needed to be taught a serious lesson."

BLAM!!! It hit me like a ton of bricks. It was her mother who was behind the Fifth Day. Edith! Sally's mother! That was it! And all because I had a serious falling out with her about a year and a half ago.

Edith was a 'persona non gratis' in my house. She was literally a walking bitch. She never had a good thing to say about anybody. Everybody hated her, or so she said all the time. Nothing pleased her, and she found fault with everybody and everything that happened to her or around her.

Luckily, Sally and I moved to a town about 250 miles away from Edith after we were married. Even that distance wasn't far enough in my estimation. Still, Sally found ways to let her mother's negative comments about me and our life slide off her back.

About two years ago, Sally's father had enough of Edith's whining and complaining. He packed up and left her. Several months after their divorce Edith came to visit. For the first day I put up with her constant bickering before it pushed me over the edge. Finally, I let loose with all my pent up hostilities toward her. I made it perfectly clear she was a total bitch and I never wanted her to step foot in my house again. My outburst caused Sally a lot of grief, but she stuck by me. The next day Edith was gone, never to return to my house again.

So, the Fifth Day's revenge was not Sally's original idea. It was her bitch of a mother's idea. It was to be Edith's day of revenge on me. Now the pieces were falling into place. Sally had seemed ready to end her affair after she had evened the score. But, it would be her mother who planned the Fifth Day.

Damn, it was so clear to me now. I had never given Edith any thought as I struggled to resolve the conflict in my mind about the Fifth Day. Yet, now it all made sense.

Sally was still speaking when my mind shifted from Edith to the words she was saying.

"Mother said all men are cheating, lying, low lives. None of you could be trusted to be out of our sights. She reminded me about my father walking out on her. She said you would probably do the same thing to me in a couple of years." Now Sally paused to gage my reaction to her words. My facial expression undoubtedly changed radically when she told me about the phone call to he mother.

"She said I should go back the next day and have sex with Dan again. Then she told me there needed to be a way to have me publicly humiliate you. She told me unless I totally took control of the marriage direction, you would eventually cheat on me again."

"Her words at first were contradictory to the person I knew you to be. But, maybe it was the confused state I was in that caused me to start thinking about the things she was saying."

"As much as I initially did not wanted to enjoy the sex that Dan, I was amazed at just how good sex with another man could be. Maybe, I secretly wanted to continue to have sex with Dan that made my mother's words resonate with me." She paused again and looked at me as if she wanted me to make a comment. I didn't. It was her turn bear her soul.

"Thursday evening during supper, I wanted to tell you about the affair with Dan. But, our discussion got diverted by your question of where I was before lunch. It caught me off guard and immediately my defenses went up and I lied about where I had been that morning. Afterwards, I couldn't get up the courage to tell you about Dan." She paused again. Licked her lips and then began talking.

"That night, I tossed all night with the conflicting thoughts about my going over and beyond the payback plan of mine. You were up and out of the house early on Friday and I was left alone to try and decide whether or not I was going to go visit Dan again. The phone rang, it was mother. From that point on, my payback plan had become her crusade to punish you severely."

"I wanted to defend you and tell her I had completed my mission and further sex sessions were not necessary to satisfy my vengeance. But, she would have none of that from me. She kept harping the fact that you needed to be punished more harshly than just telling you about my sexual indiscretions. You needed to have on-site living proof. You needed to be worried that I was about to leave you for another man."

"Her plan was very detailed and very descriptive. I could tell that she had put a lot of thought into the plan. I had told her about Dan taking photos of our sex sessions. She told me that I should give those photos to you just as I was leaving to have sex again with Dan." Sally stopped talking and sat back as if she thought that her response had completely answered my question.

It was as if her dialog was another one of those 'I'm not to blame for anything that happened' excuses. At first it was all my fault. Now the rest was her mother's fault. None of this was Sally's fault. That may have been true up to a point. But, Sally wasn't a little girl who had to do what her mother told her. She was an adult with free will. Not only that, but she was my loving wife who was now freely consenting to do some very nasty and humiliating things to me in public.

Although I now knew the reason for the Fifth Day, I was not about to let Sally off the hook that easily. She wanted to remain 'blameless' and just move on as if everybody else cause the crisis. No way was I going to let her off that easy.

I looked hard at her before I began to speak very slowly.

"So, the fourth and fifth days were Edith's fault? You didn't want to participate in them at all did you?" I paused as Sally nodded her head 'yes'.

"It wasn't that you wanted to continue that amazing sex with another man as you said earlier. Was it? After the third day, you were completely influenced by your mother and her desire to see me punished further. That correct?"

Again Sally nodded her head up and down.

My anger was beginning to build inside me because of Sally's refusal to acknowledge any blame on herself, And also, there was her willingness to follow her mother's plan to totally devastate me. Now she wanted to duck the blame for all that humiliation I had felt.

My anger continued to boil as I remembered all the events that took place at the bar and afterwards. In all that time, there was never a hint of an apology or any sign of contrition on Sally part. She was continuing to maintained her 'innocence' and laid all the blame on her mother and me.

"I believe you're a fucking liar, Sally." I said loud enough and hard enough for several people to turn around and look in our direction.

Her face immediately turned beet red and she started to stumble around for words to slam back at me. But, before her words came out, I shot back again.

"You remember it was me you took to that bar on Saturday. It was me you publicly degraded and humiliated. It was me you gave your porn photos to as a way of making me a cuckold."

"As much as you might deny any blame for yourself, Sally. I was there. I heard your words which were intended to cut me down, to totally humiliate me. I even remember the tone of your voice as you told me you might chose not to leave with me. All of the innuendoes and inferred threats to our marriage were in your voice. Not your mother's voice, but your voice. All your actions were not those of one who was just play acting. They were the actions of a cunning devious bitch bent on her own brand of vengeance. It might have started out as your mother's plan, but when the time came to make it happen, it was all yours. All your hidden hate, all your desires to rub my nose in your infidelity were there on open display in front of me."

"That's why I know it is over between us. Your loving facade was just covering up a seething anger caused by being raised up by that bitch mother of yours."

Sally burst out with a loud retort. "That's not me, you son of a bitch!"

I cut her short and shot back.

"Oh yes it is, you fucking slut. You wanted it all to happen on the Fifth Day. And I'm sure that if I had stayed around waiting for you to come back, you would have insisted I allow you to visit Dan anytime you wanted. There was no remorse in anything you did in the bar or anything you have done since."

"You goddamn bastard! You think you are so superior and you know me like a book. Well Peter, you don't have a clue. Now that I know what another man has to offer, Dan will not be the only man to share my body." She snapped back with venom coating each of her words.

I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the papers. Her eyes opened wide as her mind must have grasped what they were.

"I don't care to read your book any more, Sally. Here are the divorce papers that will give you the freedom to fuck and suck any man you want from now on. There is also a restraining order which forbids any future contact with me in any shape or form. You cannot call me, see me or come near my house. If you do, I'll have you arrested and you can spend some time in jail. I'm through with you for good." I said as I stood up to leave.

Sally was speechless as I pushed the papers in front of her.

"Oh yes. One last thing. There's a stamped envelope there so that you can notify me of your new address. This weekend, I'm having packers come over and pack the rest of your belongings. The boxes will be in public storage until you tell me where to send them."

I dropped two twenty dollars bills on the table and as I turned to walk away Sally shouted out.

"You goddamn bastard! I'll show you who walks out on who!" Everyone turned to look at Sally. I simply smiled back at her and mouthed a single word. "Slut"

The drive home was a complete relief for me. The mystery of the Fifth Day had been answered.

In the back of my mind a new thought jumped to the forefront. I had read somewhere that if you wanted to know what your wife would be like in twenty-five years, just take a hard look at her mother today.

That thought made me smile all the more. At least I only wasted four years on this latent spiteful bitch. Better to find out now, than have it surface in another ten or fifteen years. "Like mother, like daughter."

The divorce went though with only a single flare up when the judge called Tina to ask her if we ever had an affair. True to her word, Tina denied us ever having an affair. The judge bought her convincing denial. Sally went ballistic and the judge almost threw her into jail for contempt of court.

I have never seen Sally since we walked out of the court house the day our divorce decree became final.

That episode happened nearly five years ago. I'm still not remarried.

I date a lot of different women and I have a lot of fun with them. Whenever I think it might be getting a little more serious, I ask them to let me meet their mother. After a couple of dinner dates with mother and daughter, I'm usually convinced that staying single is the best life for me.

Thank you Sally, wherever you are, for that very important lesson.