The New Road

Back home we continued our timeout until the children were home from the daycare and went to sleep. Then we sat down in the living room and I asked her, "Do you still love him?"

"No."

"No? Could you please explain all the damn cheating behind my back? You didn't stop seeing him after the damn Christmas party, did you?"

"Of course I did stop. I can swear that I had neither seen him nor talked to him since the Christmas party until he showed up at the airport yesterday morning. It is Errol who took him with us. I didn't know anything before the last Friday when Errol told me that he had good news for me. When I threatened to stay home Errol promised to keep Ronnie from harassing me and persuaded me to go. Ronnie sat next to me during the flight and worked hard to get us back to the old feelings we had before the infamous Christmas party. I can promise you that he didn't have much for it. Errol had suggested me to ask you call me at my cell phone and avoid telling you about which hotel we had booked. I can't understand why I was stupid enough to do that. At the hotel Errol and Ralph took the single rooms and I had no other choice than go with Ronnie because we were in hurry for our meeting at the EU office. I tried to get a single room but they didn't have any vacant. I accepted to keep my bag in the double room and then try to get Ralph change room with me or try at some other hotel. We had booked dinner at one of the best restaurants in town, which I wanted to attend. But your phone calls changed all my plans. When I knew that you knew all about my stupid lies, I got terrified and the only thing I wanted to do was going home with the first possible flight. I swear that I have never had any sex with Ronnie neither before the Christmas party nor after, nothing happened in Bruxelles and I can promise you, nothing will ever happen between him and me. I love you and our children. I'm sorry for been a stupid idiot who let Errol persuade me to lie to you. I didn't dare to tell you that Ronnie was there because I feared you to come there and get in serious trouble. Please forgive me."

"But you can't deny that you were attracted by him and dressed up extra for him at your damn meetings and you had planned something to the Christmas party. And yesterday you lied to me and had no intentions ever telling me that he was together with you in Bruxelles."

"No, I didn't deny it was a slight possibility that something could have happen after that Christmas party, I was stupid but not involved in any sex and you have forgiven me for that evening. Yes, I confess that I shamefully lied to you yesterday and I can promise you that it was the most foolish thing I ever done. My stupid lies turned yesterday's visit at the EU to a horrible nightmare until you came and saved me from the damn mess. The whole stupid trip to Bruxelles was a big terrible mistake."

"You are obviously some kind of a dream-girl for Ronnie. Could you please tell me what other mission than fucking you he had in Bruxelles? As far as I know he doesn't have anything to do with your damn road or with our town. A rookie member of the parliament representing an unimportant small party can hardly have any influence anywhere."

"I ought to have told you that Errol had invited him to that trip. But I wanted to go there and I was sure that you had cancelled my trip if I told anything about him to you. I was sure to be a big girl who could handle that situation. I feared for the consequences if you found out the truth. I got mad when I found out that they had booked us into a double room but we were in hurry to our appointment at the EU and therefore, as I told you before, intended to get a single room of my own when we got back to the hotel. But after you had created a total mess of our sightseeing tour and got the men totally mad I had decided to skip the dinner and take the evening flight home or get a room at the airport hotel. But then you rushed in as a crusader and saved your wife from the evils. Thanks God for that"

She had told me a good true story without any attempts to lie to me. That's for sure. But she knew that everything she said could sometimes be used against her. Her tactics must been "not tell a lie but not tell more than been asked to tell", which gave the story some weak points why I asked, "Why was Ronnie together with you back to the hotel instead of going with the others? Had you agreed him some favors before you left?"

"In no way. I was in total mess and could not even think about such thing. My only goal was coming away from that damn hotel and trying to save my marriage."

I had connected the memory card from Ronnie's camera to my own camera, which was connected to our large wide screen TV-set and started the slide show from the memory card. Now in the large size we could see that those pictures were pure political dynamite. It was Ronnie and a woman in a hotel room. The woman was a well-known member of the parliament. The main sensation was that she is about twenty years older than Ronnie, member of the governing party and married to one of the most respected Undersecretaries of the State. I told myself, "Now I got you damn bastard."

Then I told Mi, "You were chosen to be the next star to the slide show."

She began to sob loudly and I continued.

"I must say that I'm surprised how damn stupid you have been. Let us imagine that everything had gone on as they had planned and Ronnie and you had got expected glory night together. Can you even imagine what had happened afterwards? Why do you think that Errol paid Ronnie's trip with our tax money and assisted Ronnie to share your room at the hotel? Had Ronnie agreed to share you with Errol and maybe even Ralph already in Bruxelles after he had fucked you and got you on his hook? Or is it difficult for you to guess what had happened when both you and Errol had been away for looking at some crap for the road and stayed overnight? What if he had given you some nasty pictures of you and Ronnie and a polite choice to be a 'good girl' or even I had got some of them? What had you chosen? How many times and to how many men had you agreed to be a 'good girl' before you had burst the bubble?"

Now she was crying loudly and sobbed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for being an idiot but I couldn't think anything such about Ronnie and Errol."

"I can because I've heard some rumors about Errol. One pervert with you was already one too much and when I heard that even Ronnie was joining you I feared the worst and decided to be there and see what happened."

We continued talking for a long time and Mi wanted to know why I got suspicious. I told her the simple truth. "We have the highest tax level in the world and I want to know how my tax money is used. That's why I got curious if the journey to Bruxelles was necessary at all. After two phone calls for open information I knew it wasn't. And I knew you were lying to me about the whole damn trip. Your night at a secret hotel with a secret lover had been too much crap for me to take. I went there for saving our marriage and the future will show if I succeeded."

Mi and I had problems but as nothing went too far or out of control; we decided to go on with our family. But I wanted to do something about the trip and told her what I intended to do and she had no objections.

I wrote a "letter to editor" to our local newspaper in which I as a taxpayer complained about the incredible stupidity Errol and his cohorts had showed when four people went to Bruxelles with an envelope to the EU office. Estimated cost (in US$8000) and our postal service or DHL could done exact the equal job for (US$30). I accused Errol for swindle and demanded the participants to pay the trip from their own pockets.

The newspaper did a half page sized follow up article, which gave me right about all facts and agreed that our tax money could be used in a much better way than sending four bureaucrats on two days tour with a night at a five star hotel included for bringing an envelope from one office to an another.

If some entrepreneur had been allowed to increase his invoice with one million due to "unexpected difficulties" and given those four bureaucrats, Mi included, a big secret "kick back" no people had objected because nobody understood what "unexpected difficulties" exactly meant and nobody wanted to spend a long time in searching for clues. But everybody understands what mailing an envelope is and ought to cost. Therefore they acted as Professor C. Northcope Parkinson says in his famous "Parkinson's Law" that a minor matter is most debated because everybody understands the issues.

I had expected some angry calls and a few letters to the town hall but got surprised by the strength in the storm of wrath with so many angry calls that the switchboard in town hall collapsed. Then the local radio station and TV gave me an opportunity to "pour more kerosene" to the fire, which blew up even more when a secretary who's been working for Errol's accused him for sex harassing.

Epilogue.

Errol got fired, not for harassing his secretary or for the trip to Bruxelles, but because a the town hall lawyer had found out that between the visit in EU office and the expensive dinner he had used the towns credit card at a famous whorehouse there. Officially he left the job by own request for health reasons with a fat pension and a gold watch in his pocket. Ronnie left parliament, not for his affairs with Mi, she was far from such important member but because for his well documented nasty sex with the wife of the undersecretary of the State. His Party had made some useful support to the government and as a part of the payment for their help the government appointed Ronnie to a well-paid top job in an UN and EU joint venture development aid mission in Angola, Africa.

Mi got enough of the politics and by her own decision left both the Liberals, her seat in the town hall and the new road committee. She had always been fair in her relations with the local press and got a fair treatment back now when she had problems. She was almost not at all mentioned in their campaign against Errol and Ronnie. Mi and I are back to a happy marriage where all such crap as the tales of Ronnie and Bruxelles are history and put in garbage can, which is never opened. Mi is a real "loving wife"

The new road was built and nobody cared much about the final price.