All in the Family

The flight time from Detroit Metro airport to Chicago was 29 minutes. It was a few minutes longer flying back. Once we landed in Detroit, It was a longer drive to the cabin than the flight had been. Far longer, in fact, it took me over 90 minutes to drive there. While Dawn unpacked and got Greg settled in, I went to a couple of local stores and bought enough groceries to last for a couple of weeks. I loaded up with a lot of things that kids would like and even got a few movies for him and for Dawn.

I gave Dawn my attorney's number and my cell phone number in case she needed anything.

"Dawn, I have to go back down there and deal with my part of all of this," I told her. "Call me tonight and we'll talk about it. Take your time thinking about what you want to do about your part. You don't have to worry about money or anything, we're in this together."

I waited until I was back in the Lower Peninsula to even turn my phone back on. I'd drained all of the power from the phone by playing a video at maximum volume and putting it on a loop so it played over and over until the phone died. Since the iPhone doesn't have a battery that the user can change I had to be sure the phone was dead, so it couldn't be traced. Just in case.

As soon as I'd plugged the phone into the charger in my car and turned it on, it rang.

"Justin, where are you Honey?" We've been waiting for you for two hours. The judge is pissed," said Annie.

"I'm at Applebee's, your favorite restaurant," I said.

"Justin, my favorite restaurant is Olive Garden," she laughed.

"Well, let's make this a dinner meeting instead," I said. "How about Red Lobster?"

"The one on Twelve Mile road in Madison Heights?" she asked.

"That's the one we used to go to," I said.

"Justin, did you know that I tried to go to work today to get my mind off of you leaving me? When I went in Bob called me into the office and told me that he hoped things worked out for us, but that I was fired. He said that he'd tried to work with me and give me all of the time off that I'd requested but that I'd taken advantage of his generosity and kindness and misrepresented what I'd wanted the time for. He considered himself partly to blame for us breaking up."

"I'm sorry you lost your job Annie," I said. "I never asked Bob to fire you and he didn't tell me anything about it. I guess I wanted you to be gainfully employed so I could give you less in the divorce settlement. But, you did lie to him and to me about why you needed the time off, so he has just cause to fire you. You told him that you had a son when you never even told me. How could you lie about your father being ill to a good friend? Does your conscience ever bother you?"

"Justin, can I please come over, so we can talk before dinner. I have some things that I need to say to you."

"I don't think that's a good idea," I said.

"Well, I think it is," she said almost crying.

"What's the problem, Annie?" I snapped. "We're going to see each other at the restaurant in a couple of hours. Have you thought up another bunch of lies to tell me, that you just can't wait to start on? Or wait, you sound a little sad. Do you need to look at me and remember how big a fool you've made of me over the past four years to give you something to laugh at and cheer you up?"

"Justin," she said. Her voice was choked with emotion. "Is that how you think of me now? Have I become just some bitch who took advantage of you?"

"Yep and I'm not going to be your fool anymore," I said. Then I started laughing. I couldn't help it, it just came out and I couldn't stop. I almost drove off the road so I had to pull over.

"Justin, what is so God damned funny?" she asked.

"Remember when we used to cuddle up on the couch and just watch whatever came on TV because we knew we'd never make it through a whole show?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said. "It seems strange that only two days ago, we couldn't get enough of each other and now you don't want to have anything to do with me."

"Remember when we watched the Flintstones? Remember the Ann Marg-rock episode? Remember the song she sang. It was called "I ain't gonna be your fool."

"Justin, only you would remember something like that," she said.

"Well it fits," I said. "The song went - I ain't gonna be your fool no more. I cried and cried, til my eyes were sore. I gave you all the love I had, but still you had to treat me bad. I love you but, I ain't gonna be your fool." I started laughing again.

"Justin, you are a fool," she said. "If you believe that all of this time I had some nefarious plan going on just to take advantage of you, then you're a fool. I'm not a despot bent on world or even Justin domination. I'm just a woman who was confused. I love you more than you would ever believe but I guess I was holding onto the sex with my brother as kind of a security blanket."

"I love our life together, but at the same time, it isn't what I ever saw for myself. I'm not the fairy princess Justin. I was the weird punk girl with multi-colored hair who everyone laughed at, but no one wanted to take home. There were always a couple of guys who wanted to fuck you as long as it was kept quiet, but they went back to their girlfriends the next day. And they always called you names when you didn't give it up. They also went back to laughing at you when you walk by."

"I guess that I never expected to have anyone love me the way you do. You've seen Dawn, my brother's wife. She's the kind of woman that men go nuts for. She's pretty in that classic type of way. And she's built so crazy too. She has huge boobs and they're real. And she's also such a sweet woman. I'd give anything in the world to look like her. Men just love her. Then when I got older, men started to look at me too, but not in the same way. You see, all of you guys are basically the same. You get bored with what you have every once in a while and you want to sample something different. And that's what I am to them, something different."

"Jack was already married to Dawn when we started, but Jack has a fetish for tall skinny girls. Plus there's the fact that for some reason he and Dawn don't click in the bedroom. Other than sex, he loves that woman as much as you love me, but they just aren't compatible sexually."

"Even when you and I got together, I couldn't believe that someone as handsome as you wanted to be with me. At first I thought it was just sex and as soon as you got between my legs you'd evaporate. The only remembrance I'd have of you would be a couple of memories and a used condom. I decided that I'd make you wait to fuck me. I figured that you'd give up and move on, but at least I'd still have my dignity. But you kept asking me out and calling me every fucking day. I kept waiting for you to come to your senses, but you didn't. Then one night, we were at a restaurant and I was looking at you out of the corner of my eye and I noticed the way you just stared at me. You looked at me as if I was something precious. And I knew right then that there was no way I could ever be without you."

"I was just as crazy about you as you were about me. So I decided to just go with it. I didn't give up fucking Jack because that way, when you dumped me, I'd still have something to fall back on. I knew that fucking Jack was wrong. Especially since he was married to Dawn and he loved her. But I loved him too and really thought he loved me. I was still pissed about him not standing up for me and our baby, but I couldn't just turn that love off. So for a while I guess I loved both of you equally. As stupid as it sounds it was true. But it wasn't very long before you won, Justin. You're my love. You're my man. Jack is just some guy I fuck, who also happens to be my brother and also happens to be the first person I loved."

"I guess I held onto that relationship far longer than I should have, because it was comfortable and it was my security blanket. I get together with Jack once or twice a month. That's roughly twelve or fifteen times a year. Some of those times we don't have sex, I just visit Greg. So let's say that reasonably I fuck him maybe 10 times a year. Do the math Justin. Who gets me the other 355 nights? Does that seem like an even balance to you?"

"Justin when I moved here, it was just for work and to get away from Jack. I'd always intended to move back to Chicago after a year or so. Why the fuck, do you think I'm still here? And let's look at things seriously Justin. How many women did you have sex with before we got married? There were at least 6 or 7 that you've mentioned to me. For the record, I have never fucked my father and I have never fucked Uncle Dan. I've given them blow-jobs and hand jobs aplenty, but I've never fucked either one of them and I never will. Actually from the moment you caught me, I won't ever so much as kiss another man other than you Justin, I swear it. Anyway, that means the grand total of men who have been in my pussy is two. You and Jack, that's a lot isn't it?"

"I'm sure that you're thinking that right now it's one too many, huh? Well I agree with you. The two of you are so different in bed though. Justin you make me feel so special and I never want it to end. I crave you in each and every pore of my body. Jack on the other hand just fucks me. No he doesn't use me like I'm a slut or anything but that's all it is. It's just a release. You know how you and I fuck every night? Even Jack won't fuck me if I'm on my period but you do. Anyway, Jack is the same way. Almost everyone in our family just has this huge sex drive. And since he and Dawn aren't doing it, well you get the picture. Jack likes to try different things, which is really frustrating for him because I won't do anything with him that I haven't done with you. And even some things that we have tried I just won't give him. Like he really wants to fuck my ass, but I won't let him. It's yours only. I was and I do mean WAS, still giving him pussy because he was there first, I can't take that back. But the rest of me was all yours and still is."

"So is that all you needed to say to me?" I asked her.

"Well it's a lot of it," she said.

"Good that means we don't need to see each other," I said coldly.

"Justin, are you fucking crazy?" she asked. "Don't you know what's going on here? I haven't seen you in almost three days. We need to spend some time together. We have never been apart for this long even when we were only dating. And as much as you're trying to pretend to be cool and okay with it, Justin I can tell you're surviving on anger. You're pissed at me and you're using it to stay away from me. But I know you miss me too. All throughout this conversation, I've told you that you love me several times and you've never denied it. Justin we need to get together to figure out what I have to do to get you back."

"Well, maybe I do still love you," I said. "But I'm doing my God damndest to get over you. So I don't think us getting together somewhere will help. What were you hoping? Maybe we'd get together and end up having sex and in the after-glow I'd forgive you and we could get back together again? Then six months from now when this has all blown over you could slowly start fucking Jack again and just not get caught? It's not going to happen, Annie. Maybe I do still love you Annie, but I'm a grown up. I know that everything I love isn't good for me. There are certain things that I can have all the time. There are certain things I can only have sometimes, because too much of it isn't good for me. And there are certain things that I just have to stay the fuck away from, period."

"You said that fucking Jack was like a drug. Well some people can handle drugs all the time with no ill effects. Others can handle them in moderation and some people just can't handle drugs."

"I don't have any problems with impulse control Annie, when I see something isn't good for me, I leave it the hell alone. Right now I'm thinking that you aren't good for me, so guess what I'm doing? I wish it wasn't necessary, because I really do love you. You lied to me for our entire relationship, before and after we got married. You also hid things from me, again for our entire relationship. In the words of Ann Marg-rock, "I love you but I ain't gonna be your fool."

Annie started crying and I hung up. I'd spoken to her for far longer than I should have and I wasn't sure I could take hearing the woman I still loved cry, without reacting to it. I called Dawn just to see how she was doing. She wasn't doing well either. The reality of what she was doing was sinking in. I told her that I'd be back at the cabin right after I met with Annie and her fuck buddies. She told me to tell Jack what was going on with her and let her know about his reaction. As sweet as Dawn was, I sensed that she had a desire, maybe even a need, to hurt Jack right now. And there was no way that I minded playing that game. Hurting Jack in any way possible was the top item on my list. That after all had been the main reason I'd told Dawn about what he was doing.

Thinking about it made me feel really shitty. I was more interested in hurting my shit bird brother in law than in helping a really sweet woman out of a bad situation. I'd only brought her with me because it would hurt Jack even more.

I decided to give her a nice evening tonight and maybe even take her and Greg out to eat tomorrow. Maybe even tonight, I was supposed to be at the restaurant at 5 p.m. If I got out of there by 6:30 I'd be back at the cabin by around 8 and I was sure I could knock a lot of time off by driving my little pony the way she wanted to be driven.

When I got to the house, I saw that all of Annie's things were still in the garage where I'd left them. I remembered then that she didn't have a key.

I called Loretta and she filled me in on how things were progressing. Annie hadn't contacted her yet with the name of her attorney so our options were limited. I was sure that the Judge was going to act for Annie. Loretta informed me that since the Judge had been named that it would be considered a conflict of interest, so he couldn't represent Annie and shouldn't represent himself.

Loretta also told me that the investigators had dug up evidence that the Judge had been in similar situations at least two other times. Both previous times had been with women who were related to him. Both of the previous cases had never gone before a judge and had been dropped before they entered the court system.

Loretta had already started on Dawn's paper work but wouldn't be ready to serve Jack until tomorrow at the earliest. Surprisingly Dawn was going for full custody of Greg and wanted to adopt him. Holy shit this was going to be crazy.

One of the things that bothered me about the reports that Loretta emailed to me about the Judge's previous cases was that both of his other niece's or his cousin in one case had been married. Their spouses both filed for divorce and like I was doing listed the Judge in the case. In one case the couple stayed together though they ended up divorced a few years later. Neither of them would comment on the case though. In the other case the spouse suddenly disappeared and hasn't been heard from since. None of the investigators could find any record of him since the case started. Even if he deserted his wife, you'd think that his own family would have received some kind of word from him at some time over the years.

I called an old Marine Corps buddy of mine and told him to round up a few of our old troop mates who could get away on short notice and come visit me ASAP. I had a hunch that the Judge might fight a bit harder than I'd suspected so far. It wouldn't be a bad thing to have some extra muscle around just in case I was due for a disappearing act too. I was pretty sure that the Judge, like most of these guys would follow the usual three step process. Step one he'd try to talk me out of it. Step two would be to try and bribe me and after that I'd disappear, be discredited or thrown in jail somehow.

I went outside and since I still had a couple of hours to kill decided to wash my car. Since the sun was still up and I couldn't wax it in bright sunlight, I washed it in the garage. For me washing the car has always been a really relaxing experience. I hated car mechanical commercial car washes. They were too hard on the finish and most of them wouldn't give you any guarantee that they wouldn't damage after-market pieces. Plus the chemicals they used were often too harsh or didn't blend well.

I loved washing my car the old fashioned way. I had all of my favorite products laid out near the car. I tried to whenever possible buy all of the products from the same company to assure that they all worked well together. Sometimes it just wasn't possible though. I loved most of Turtle Wax's products, but their tire shine simply sucked. I couldn't use it. In fact the first time I bought it, I never even finished the bottle. It still sits on my shelf in the garage now. I guess I'll either give it away or use it in case of an emergency. But after the first time I put it on my tires, I went back to the Armor-All extreme shine gel I was using. Not only does it give my tires a better shine, it's a gel so it's less messy.

Anyway I was deep into my car wash therapy when I noticed someone watching me from a distance. I turned away from the person and when I looked again he was a lot closer than he'd been before.

After a few more times moving around the car and giving him time to get closer I opened the door as if I was looking into the car's interior for something. I kept one of those mini spy telescopes in my glove box. I'd gotten it as a door prize at a car show and just threw it in the glove compartment because I was sure I'd never use it. I pretended I was treating the leather of my interior while I got a closer look at my voyeur.

"He" wasn't a he at all. "He" was Annie. I'd told her that I didn't want to see her but she came anyway. I started washing the outside of the car again. I stopped and punched in Annie's cell phone number. She jumped up in surprise when her phone rang.

"Annie, the Judge would be really pissed if I didn't show up at the restaurant and told him it was because you came over here," I said.

"I'm sorry Justin," she said crying. "I just miss you so badly. I had to see you, even if it's only from a distance. Can't I just stay here and watch you, and pretend that things are fine for a little while longer. I promise I won't come any closer. Remember how I used to love to sit on the porch and watch you wash your car. I'd just sit there for hours watching you and bringing you drinks. And then you'd always come over and kiss me, and say, "Annie, let's go for a ride."

"We never did though," I said. "I guess it was because you didn't want me to get the car dirty after I'd spent so much time cleaning it."

"Justin, you can be so dense sometimes," she said. I could tell she was crying again. "After watching you spend all of that time softly rubbing on that fucking car's body parts, I'd always be jealous. So I'd have to find out if you'd rather go for a ride in that machine or in me. Baby, you always made the right choice."

"I wish I could say the same thing for you Annie," I said hanging up the phone. I went back to my car washing duties and I wish I could say that I put Annie totally out of my mind, but it's next to impossible to totally forget about someone that you love that much. An hour before I was due to show up at the restaurant I knew that I was going to be late. I was done waxing, but I still had to polish my chrome deep dish Bullitt rims. That usually only took about 20 minutes thanks to my power-ball but by the time I'd finished the car I was going to need a shower. I called Annie and told her to tell her relatives that I'd be late but not to worry.