Erasing Julie Ch. 03

PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here
Katmai
Katmai
368 Followers

"This advice is born of my pain, suffering and unhappiness. Listen closely so that you don't repeat my mistake," Gus continued. "No one really likes to talk about the Dark Side of marriage. This is where errors, mistakes and misjudgments occur together with the hurt, pain and heartbreak that result. I know what you are both thinking: it won't happen to me! I'll never do that! You are wrong. It will happen. And not just once, but many times during your marriage. Sometimes it will happen accidently, and sometimes it will be purposeful. Sometimes the incident will be small, and sometimes it will be enormous. Suddenly you will find yourself in the role of Darth Vader wondering how you joined the Dark Side."

Gus labored to control his breathing. He began to doubt the wisdom of giving his talk the evening before Bess's wedding. It could ruin an otherwise joyous occasion.

"With the help of a lovely lady, Shelly Green, I have discovered two ideas, two tools, to extract myself from the Hell of the Dark Side, and I want to share these with you both.

"The first idea is: you are the only one responsible for your own happiness. You and only you. It's easy to be a victim and give up responsibility for your happiness to someone or something else. Victims feel at home in the Dark Side of marriage. You want to leave the Dark Side? Simple: take back the responsibility for your own happiness. Stop being a victim!"

Gus looked directly at Bess and Brian. Both looked surprised at the intensity of his words and that told Gus he had to continue. He didn't want his daughter's marriage to fail as his had failed.

"The second idea is: release. Release isn't about the other person, either. It is all about the person who is releasing. It's about letting go of all the anger and pain so that you can love once more. You don't release for the sake of other person, you release for yourself. So release and be happy. Or don't release and stay miserable. It is simple, really," Gus summarized with a forced smile.

He looked around the table and saw the stunned looks of the guests. No one could have imagined Gus would discuss such dark, serious topics on the eve of the wedding.

A movement caught his eye, and he looked at the back of the room. Julie was leaning against the back wall. Gus took a deep breath and continued.

"For the past four months I have been living in the Hell of the Dark Side. But as my son, Josh, observed, I was still carrying the hate and pain with me every moment of every day. I certainly was not happy, nor could I be happy. Thank you, son."

Gus glanced at Josh and saw the smile and thumbs up from his son. At least one person was supporting his efforts.

"And tonight, I take the next step," Gus continued as he looked at Julie.

"Four months ago I discovered that my wife of twenty-four years had engaged in a clandestine two-year affair with an old college lover in Seattle."

The guests were shocked and began whispering among themselves. Many of them had suspected something was amiss in the marriage, but Julie's untimely death had silenced any rumors. No one wanted to speak ill of the dead.

"She returned to Anchorage a few days before her accident. She was pregnant with her lover's child."

Loud murmurs circulated around the table. Gus knew that he had to ignore them and just keep going to the end. He clasped his hand together to keep them from shaking.

"We were in the initial stages of a nasty divorce when Julie died as a result of a traffic accident," Gus continued. "It was nasty because I chose to make it so. I was angry, and I wanted to punish her. "I will never forgive Julie for all her actions concerning her affair with Greg Peterson. But I will no longer hide the truth and keep it bottled up inside me. The truth about Julie is dark and ugly, and telling that truth will set me free from the pain, anger and hate that I have been living for far too long."

I'm sorry, Gus.

Gus watched the back of the room as Julie disappeared.

Bess bolted from her chair and embraced her father.

"Daddy, I'm so glad you are getting help," she sobbed. "That's the best wedding present you could have given me."

Brian stood nearby smiling. Several people left their chairs to shake Gus's hand and console him. Gus sat back down in his chair, put his face in his hands and wept.

Epilog: Five Years Later

"I forgot to tell you" Gus said to his wife. "I had a dream about her last night." They were holding hands walking down the hall to the maternity ward. He loved sharing his dreams with Shelly. It made Gus feel closer to his wife.

"Her?"

"Julie. I hadn't thought about her for almost two years. Now she's in my dream. What do you think it means."

"Tell me the dream."

"I don't remember much. She just appeared in my dream and said 'See you soon, Gus' then she walked away. You don't think I'm going to die soon, do you?"

Shelly laughed and hugged her husband. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her and her daughter, Annie. She wasn't about to let him go anywhere!

"No, you are not going to die. Your dream may have been triggered by the birth of your first granddaughter, Gus. Or maybe it was a touch of indigestion. Don't read too much into it, okay?"

"Sure."

They continued walking in the hallway until they saw Josh approaching them holding a small bundle. "Here she is, Dad," Josh said with pride as he presented his daughter to his father.

"She's is beautiful, son," Gus replied. "My first granddaughter."

"Well, we have to catch up with Bess and Brian's two boys, right?"

"Have you and Linda picked a name for her?" Shelly asked.

"Yeah. We wanted to run it by you first, Dad. How does Marie Juliette Randall sound?"

"Your mother would be very pleased, Josh" Gus replied hesitantly. "It's a fine name, a really fine name. May I hold her?"

Josh's selection for his first granddaughter's name unsettled Gus. It would be a constant reminder of his first wife, someone he wanted to forget. Josh gingerly passed his daughter to his father. Gus accepted the bundle and held her close. Shelly peered at her face and saw that the child was awake. Gus looked closely at his granddaughter. She was looking around as if searching for something. Finally she looked Gus straight in the eyes and he thought he saw a slight smile. For a child born a day and a half ago, she seems unusually aware of her surroundings, Gus thought. The infant continued to stare at Gus.

Those eyes reminded Gus of Julie's eyes. Yes, the infant definitely had Julie's eyes.

"Hello, Gus."

Gus was so startled by hearing Julie's voice in his head that he almost dropped the child. "Fuck," Gus said under his breath as he quickly passed her back to Josh.

"What?" Shelly asked.

"Josh, I'm suddenly not feeling well, so I'm leaving now. I don't want to give it to Marie." Gus turned, grabbed Shelly and quickly walked away.

"Gus, what's wrong? It looks like you've seen a ghost," Shelly inquired.

"Worse than that. Much worse. Let's get the hell out of town, Shelly. Far, far away from this place. Okay?"

"Sure, Gus, sure," Shelly replied. She was very concerned for her husband. His actions were uncharacteristically abrupt.

Over the past five years with Shelly's help Gus had convinced himself that Julie's ghost was just a figment of his imagination. And after he began to work with Shelly to release Julie, she never appeared again; the wedding dinner was the last time. And now...

Was he going crazy? Or was Julie back in his life?

The End.

Katmai
Katmai
368 Followers
Please rate this story
The author would appreciate your feedback.
  • COMMENTS
Anonymous
Our Comments Policy is available in the Lit FAQ
Post as:
Anonymous
246 Comments
NoBullAlNoBullAlabout 1 month ago

Thoroughly enjoyed this story until the last few paragraphs when you went off the deep end and it became one of those stories that should be relegated to the file for wasted hours of reading!! Didn’t even mind too much with your throwing in a ghost but it really went off the rails when a spooky baby was brought out!! Thought this was a the LW category not horror!!!

WolfOfTheWorldWolfOfTheWorldabout 2 months ago

That ending didn't suck, it just brought home that 'forgivness is divine'.

Your story touched something deep and dark in me. Something that ate any light near it. Something I think I will be seeing before I am ready to. It's not the lies that eat you after the divorce is years behind you, it's the hate. Unless you release that hate, your hate for someone else will become self-loathing and self-hatred. It is unnatural to loathe and hate yourself. You keep that person close, some small part of them that remained with you. You have to forgive whatever they did to you, whether its real or imagined. Get rid of them totally, or be willing to have them take up residence in our mind and dreams. This revelation was far easier to realize and put down that to do. I hate my first wife, she took my sons and poisoned them against me. I'm so fucking glad she's dead, turned into paste in an accident.

I wanted to drive a road compacter, a steam roller over her body, turn her into the paste they buried. My sons died hating me, thanks to her. They both we Army Rangers, they both died in different parts of the Sandbox. They hated me because she told them that I put in for postings they could not go to. For 6 years and for 4 years they had her hate, when I lost my leg they never reached out or contacted me. When I was discharged I waited half a day for SOMEONE to pick me up. That never happened. I left the VA hospital in my own wheelchair and under my own steam.

Everything I sent them was returned, they backed over whatever I sent them. Now my family is dead, even though I remarried there were no children. One son died in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan. I hate that bitch, and I see her, smirking at me. With my hate for her I give her power in my life and over me. However, I cannot forgive her.

ker63469ker634692 months ago

Great story until the end. Gus really needed to forgive his wife and move on with Shelly

shopratshoprat3 months ago

Great story until the end. The ghost part would have been OK if she and Gus had gotten closure with his public release and she had moved on. Having her show up again at his son's baby's birth put what was until then a good story right over into Bride of Chucky territory. This piece should be in horror, not LW Great job on the first 2 chapters, but I really think you should rewrite the ending.

AnonymousAnonymous4 months ago

I admit I have dug myself into some deep holes while writing a story. I only hope to stay out of the wormhole you dove into and only got out of by invocation of ghost to resolve a bad marriage

Show More
Share this Story

story TAGS

READ MORE OF THIS SERIES

Similar Stories

An Unexpected Reaction To an unacceptable situation.in Loving Wives
Now It Ends She pushed me too far and I had to leave.in Loving Wives
Words Can you destroy a betrayer with just words?in Loving Wives
Just Accept It... ...she said. No, I said.in Loving Wives
Already Gone A wife and her lover plot but the husband is a step ahead.in Loving Wives
More Stories