Get Lost

My sincere thanks to SouthernCrossfire. He translated my Dutchlish into English and his suggestions and corrections made this story much more readable. Thank you so much for your effords.

Dear readers.

This is fiction. All resemblance with reality is coincidental.

Get Lost

Five months ago, Inge sat in the kitchen with her 20-year-old daughter Annika and her 18-year-old son Bjorn. They were talking about Inge's husband Harry.

Annika asked angrily, "Mother, why are you complaining about dad? You're acting as a spoiled adolescent. Dad pampers you. You have everything you can wish for yet it's not good enough. What for Pete's sake do you want?"

Inge thought, She's right but that's beside the point., but replied, "I want to spice things up. He is too compliant and he never stands up for himself. I want him to have more backbone. I...I want him to be angry sometimes."

Björn interrupted. "Really? I've had dad mad at me; that is not an experience I'd like to repeat." He shuddered at the memory.

Inge continued. "I have a plan. I'm going to needle, push and bully your father until he loses his patience and gets mad at me. Then, when he has cooled down again, I'll make it up to him and tell him how much I love him. But I need your help with that."

Annika looked unbelievingly at her mother. "I don't like the idea. If you love dad, you're not putting him through an ordeal like that. Explain what you want from us."

Björn cut in. "No, no, no! I won't be part of this. I pushed dad too far once and I still regret it. We both got hurt, then it took a year before he trusted me again. I warn you, mom, this will go wrong. And the problem with dad is that you don't get a warning before he reaches his breaking point. He just snaps. Please, mom, don't."

Inge took no heed and outlined her plan. When she was done explaining, she looked at Annika and asked, "What do you think? I won't push Harry over the limit, but I need him to stand up against me."

Annika replied wearily, "I still don't like it; just like Björn, I'm afraid that it's going to tear us apart." She paused, shaking her head. "Mom, I'll help you, up to a point. Just know, if it goes as Björn predicted, I won't support you, but will support dad instead."

"Fair warning," Inge agreed. "And you Björn?"

"Absolutely no way. You hear! No fucking way. And if I see dad suffering, I'll tell him everything."

Inge tried to talk Björn out of it, but he wouldn't budge.

====

Next morning.

"Harry! Harry, where's my coffee? I told you that I wanted coffee!" Inge shouted.

Harry was stunned. What brought this on? he thought. He walked out of the kitchen with the coffee in his hands. Putting it in front of his wife, he started to walk away without saying a word.

"Well?" Inge said.

"Well, what?"

"What took you so long?"

"I'm not a coffee machine. You know, coffee, freshly made? Takes time."

"Don't take that tone with me!"

Harry walked away. The onslaught from Inge went on well into the holidays.

Björn tried to talk with his father. He saw the signs of the wear and tear on Harry.

But Harry quietly told him that this was between Inge and himself. He would sort it out.

====

Present.

Car and caravan were trundling along the A2 southward. In the car, the tension could be cut. For Harry, it was one of the worst days of his life. Inge's behavior towards him deteriorated to downright humiliation this morning while loading the caravan, and Harry almost snapped.

Now, Harry concentrated on driving to contain his anger. He resolved to confront Inge when they were settled on their destination. Inge felt that Harry was almost on breaking point. She didn't dare to utter a word. That was extremely difficult because she always had something to comment on his driving.

After a 3 hour drive, they arrived and made camp without saying a word. Almost 24 years of experience made that easy enough and Inge couldn't fault Harry. They had lunch in silence and Harry went for a walk to clear his mind and find his equilibrium again. Three hours later he was back. Harry felt refreshed and his mood improved considerably. Inge wasn't with the caravan so he went looking. He found her at the other end of the camping-site with some other campers drinking wine. He walked over and said, "Dear shall we go out for dinner?"

Inge looked up and said, "Can't you see that I'm in amusing company. So be so kind as to get lost."

The others smirked but Harry went white as a sheet. He looked again and saw Inge turn around and lay her hand on the thigh of one of the men. Seething he said, "As you wish madam," and went back to the caravan. He'd had enough. Tomorrow he would confront Inge and leave her.

In preparation, he took his wallet out, took the car, and went to the village. At the ATM machine, he withdrew as much money as possible in one go. He did the same with his credit card before finding a branch of another bank and opening a new account. He then went back to the caravan, called his boss and explained the situation, and gave the man his new bank account information.

"I need to take some time off, too."

"You can take all of your leave if necessary. That's quite a lot, together with all the overtime, almost three months. When that's gone, you can apply for compassionate leave if the situation hasn't been resolved."

"Thanks, I'll be in touch."

At 1am, Inge returned drunk and reeking like sex and semen and she slurred when she spoke. "Harry, come here and fuck me. I want you to fuck me. I'm so horny, I want you inside me."

Harry answered through clenched teeth. "No way am I going to dip my wick in your cum-filled snatch. Who knows who put what in there this evening? Go fuck yourself." The venom dripped from his voice.

Inge was too far gone to notice Harry's mental state; she dropped fully clothed on the bed and went out like a light.

====

The next morning.

Inge woke up nauseous, hungover, and with a monstrous headache. She squeaked, "Harry?"

No answer was forthcoming so she got out of bed and was immediately rewarded with a bout of vomiting. Still receiving no reaction from Harry, she crawled outside.

Harry was sitting in the morning sun having breakfast with coffee, croissants fresh from the bakery, and orange juice on the table before him. He smirked as he looked at the miserable woman and said with heavy irony in his voice, "Well well, look what the cat brought in. Not feeling very kipper, are you?"

Inge wanted to say something, but her voice refused to obey.

Harry went relentlessly on, "You better keep your filthy mouth shut and listen carefully. Here are the papers of the car, together with the key, and the documents for the caravan."

"What? Why?" Inge croaked.

Immediately Harry almost shouted, ''Keep that stinking trap of yours shut while I'm talking!''

Inge recoiled. Harry had never talked to her like that, let alone shouted at her.

Harry continued. "Bank cards, here, credit card, all yours. I'm taking a hike."

Inge felt so sick, she barely held it together but managed to ask, "When will you be back? We need to talk."

An ice-cold calm descended over Harry. "That's the wrong question," he replied. The question should be; will you be back? And the answer to that is, well, no, I won't. This is goodbye." With that he shouldered his backpack.

Inge panicked. "No, no, no! This isn't supposed to happen!'' she shouted before immediately starting to vomit again.

Harry waited it out, offering no compassion.

Finally, Inge desperately cracked, "I love you. I only wanted you to man up and stand up for yourself. I wanted you mad at me!"

Harry looked at Inge with disbelief in his eyes. "You succeeded spectacularly. I am mad at you. I'm so mad that there are no words strong enough to describe it. You better check the sheets when I'm gone. They look exactly like our marriage. Soiled! I don't think that the stains will come out. When you got here yesterday you reeked like a decrepit whorehouse. Today I wanted to have a very serious discussion with you about the state of our marriage as a result of your behavior over the past few months—I had doubts that I wanted to stay married to you any longer—but yesterday's behavior made up my mind. Yesterday, you made it very easy for me to decide. You'd better get yourself checked on STD's. I'm quite certain that they'll find some."

Harry's final words to her really cut through the fog in Inge's mind and slammed into her consciousness. "So, my dear. I'm getting lost, as requested."

And with those words Harry walked away.

The extreme physical discomfort and the emotional onslaught became too much for Inge. Crying inconsolably, she stumbled into the now very smelly caravan and passed out on the bed.

====

Harry walked from the camping site to the village. He thought to himself;Walking away was the easy part. Now what? What do I do now and where do I go from here? He just started to walk, feeling sad and despondent.

Early that afternoon, Harry found himself slightly north of Hulsberg. He checked himself into a B&B. Finally, when he was alone in his room, he collapsed. The enormity of the situation dawned on him and the end of his marriage was a black cloud enveloping his thoughts. Harry could cope with the abuse Inge heaped upon him, but the cheating was a bridge too far.

====

At the same moment, Inge woke up again. Her head was pounding less, but her mouth tasted like a decomposed goat. Carefully, she tried to get upright. Her universe still wobbled but her stomach behaved better. Then the stench assaulted her nostrils and she fled outside.

Right in front of the entrance she stepped in a dried puddle of vomit and about a meter beyond lay another one. When she dragged herself inside this morning, she'd trailed her clothes through the muck. Breathing through her mouth, she went inside and collected her toiletries, towel, toothbrush and clean clothes before going to the showers.

When the water was running hot, she undressed, feeling filthy. Stale semen still trickled from her vagina and crusted her inner thighs. There were bruises and hickies over her whole body. She tried to remember what had occurred the previous evening and night, but her memories were sketchy, to say the least. What Inge saw, though, was very bad news for her marriage. It finally dawned on her that her husband had noticed her state and drew his conclusions. Harry had always been a gentle and forgiving person. He accepted her bullying and humiliation because of his love for her. Without her behavior over the last months, she had stood a slight chance of saving her marriage after her cheating, she thought. The combination was way too much.

She stood in the shower and cried.

====

Harry sat in his room. After he had cried his heart out, he was doing what made him so valuable for his employer, analyzing and finding solutions to problems seemingly impossible to solve. Now, he had to apply those talents to himself. He was facing the dissolution of his marriage and had to act on it.

The divorce should be relatively straightforward. They both had about the same income, but Harry needed a place to live, preferably near his work. He would never set foot in their house again. He called his boss and explained that the situation had deteriorated beyond repair and that he needed somewhere to live. Harry was told that the company had a few options and would have an answer tomorrow. Meanwhile, he went looking for an apartment too.

====

Inge washed and washed herself, but she kept feeling filthy and finally gave up. After drying herself, she got dressed and went back to the caravan where she recoiled at the stench. Feeling numb, she didn't know what to do. Calling her children after this debacle was a no-brainer, but instead she started to clean the mess in the awning, not wanting to face them yet.

After a lot of gagging and swearing, the stench was gone and she was sitting in front of the caravan trying to hold down some coffee and biscuits. The interior of the caravan would come later. The paracetamol she took started to take effect and flashes of what happened yesterday were emerging in her consciousness and Inge was appalled at her own behavior.

Did she really eat out a woman? Did she really suck a cock while being fucked from behind? Her memories told her she had. Dazed, she tried to gather her thoughts and decide what to do when her phone went off.

"Annika?"

"Mom, I can't get hold of dad and why didn't you answer your phone? What's going on?"

"We had a falling out."

"You finally went too far, didn't you? Where's dad? I want to speak to him."

"I don't know where Harry is. He threw the car keys, the paperwork, and the bank cards in my face and walked out on me carrying a backpack."

"What? What did you say to dad to make him leave like that? You know how he is when he is really really angry. Mom, you're in very deep trouble."

"Don't I know. I don't think he will ever come back to me. Things happened that Harry won't forgive. I can only hope that the divorce will be amicable."

"Divorce! Mother, what did you do that you even think there is no chance of reconciliation?"

Inge steeled herself and told the whole story as she remembered it, including Harry's sneer about the good company. Her voice cracked as she told her daughter how she'd told him to get lost."

Annika was aghast. "Mom, no! You stupidly had to pull all plugs to get what you wanted, didn't you? I will keep on trying to contact dad and talk to him. I'm definitely not going to intervene. You're on your own, I warned you from the start but you had to do it. And you're the one to tell Björn. He will go ballistic and I'm not going to be your messenger. For now, you have two weeks in the caravan to address your problems including how to get home, as you can't drive you have to find someone else. I'm not coming to help. Bye!"

Annika disconnected and immediately tried her father. This time the line was busy. She sighed and said to herself, "Good news. Dad is not crawling under a rock."

Annika waited ten minutes and tried again.

"Hi Anni. How's my little girl?" Her father's voice sounded familiar but seemed very strained..

"I don't know, Dad; you left mum, I heard. Are we still a family?"

Harry snorted and growled, "You already spoke to your mother. I presume. So she is conscious again? More important, did she tell you everything, including the sordid details? Wait! Before you answer that, my answer to your question is, NO! In my opinion your mother left me and that started about six months ago. Yesterday she literally told me to get lost in front of her new fuckfriends. I obliged and, now, to my regret I have to say; we're not a family anymore. I just had a call from my employer. They have an apartment and a very good lawyer for me. I'm going back to the house now. Rent a truck and move out. I'll let you know what my new address is as soon as I know it myself."

Annika inwardly cringed. Boy is my dad mad! I've never heard him so outspoken and decisive. And he really used to love my mother. Now it seems he hates her guts. She said as soothingly as she could, "Ok, Dad, I understand. One last question. Who is going to tell my little brother?"

Harry thought for a few seconds before he replied. "When you talk to him, only tell him that we have split. Please don't tell the whole story. It will devastate him and I don't have an inkling how he will react. I told your mother that she is the one to break the complete story to you two."

They disconnected and Annika started to cry softly.

Harry, on the other hand, was even more determined to see this through. Being bullied was something he could handle and he was man enough to bite back when it went too far. However, cheating was, in his vocabulary, an absolute no-no. He thought back to his youth and his first love.

Harry was deeply in love. They were already planning the rest of their life together when she came back from vacation with her parents and told him she had fallen for a local boy. He had forgiven her and all was well until the next vacation. It shook him to the core when he found some pictures with her kissing and blowing another local talent. When he confronted her, she admitted that she cheated on him again. Harry shook his head in disgust and spat on the ground at her feet before turning and walking away. He never looked back despite her pleas..

Never again was his thought, never again. Better the pain of the split than the humiliation of a cheating woman. Even with four parents backing her, begging him to show mercy again, he told the girl to go and get herself fucked. Remembering that so vividly, he knew he wouldn't be part of such a scene again.

Now Harry packed his backpack and went to the bus station.

====

The next day.

Harry sat in his house—he wouldn't call it home anymore—drinking coffee. In about an hour, he had a meeting with his CEO, Gerard Derksen and his lawyer. During a sleepless night, he packed the things he deemed he couldn't go without and his family heirlooms like the 250-year-old clock. CDs, books, and such were already boxed up and he was ready but didn't know what was in store for himself yet so he waited on hiring a van. Knowing Inge, he surmised that she wouldn't make it home this morning so he headed to his office at the appointed time.

On arrival, he was sent to the CEO's office where his boss awaited him.

"Harry, be seated. Coffee will be here soon; it looks like you are going to need it. Did you sleep at all?" Gerard shook his large head, very concerned, when he asked Harry this question since Harry was one of his best and most liked employees. Customers loved him too.

When Harry shook his head, Gerard went on. "Harry, May I introduce Mrs. Ella Herweijer. She is the one who will help you with the divorce. I take it that you do still want a divorce, don't you?"

Harry replied, his voice bristling, "Yes of course. And as soon as possible." Seeing the look on the attorney's face, he stopped. "Please know that I am extremely tired and I have a very short fuse at the moment. I apologize in advance but can the divorce wait until I'm a bit more rested?"

Gerard nodded. "Harry, I just wanted the introductions out of the way so you can get together on your own for that part."

She nodded, too, and they exchanged phone numbers before the lawyer took her leave.

When they were alone, Gerard said quietly, "Alright, time to drop the formalities. I'm Gerard and you're Harry. I've been in this kind of misery myself and I don't want to see one of my best men buckle under so that's why I try to help out. Now, on to business. The company has two houses you can choose from. One in the city and one in the suburbs. The last one is near public transport and within cycling distance."

Harry didn't think twice. "The one in the suburbs please. I don't like being in the city anymore. Too much hustle and bustle."

Gerard sighed happily. He had hoped that that would be Harry's choice. The city flat was smaller, but could be rented out for much more money. "Ok," he said, "here are your keys and this is the address. The rent is 750 a month, which will come out of your salary. You can take Harold and the company truck to move out of your old home; he's waiting outside."

"Thanks, Gerard."

"You're welcome, Harry, but one more thing: I don't want to see you in here again before you've spoken with Mrs. Herweijer. If you need help, though, you know where to reach me."

Harry recognized a dismissal when issued, so he stood and left the office to find Harold.

First, they drove to Harry's new apartment and inspected it. It was a flat on the third floor of a five-story building that had no elevator. The unit consisted of a living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom with a shower stall and toilet. There was a half-bath next to the entrance and a large balcony overlooking a park with a big pond. The apartment was sparsely furnished with only one single bed.