If It Ain't One Thing Ch. 02

{There is nothing erotic here, not to my way of thinking. I am at home, still injured, and not much in the mood for erotic anyway.

I normally write a story when something happens, and around here that might be months apart. In between, I will jot down things from memory, and yeah, sometimes I embellish to try and make things sexier.

That never seems to work out well from the comments though, some of you folks posting can be just plain mean. But then, I never did claim to be any great author, I am just an old man, retired, with time on my hands.

Now some of you folks have suggested that chapter one reads a bit like a diary, and I guess that is correct.

I am not even trying to write anything sexy, so if that is what you wish for today, this probably isn't it.

But then, since I am writing this over several weeks, even months, who knows?

I suppose in a way, all I have been doing by posting on this site is writing a diary.}

+++

My wife Debra, is gone to Boston to deal with her Mother's estate. That was a surprise to both of us, she and her Mother talked on the phone maybe twice a year, and we did go to visit her, just once.

We were there two days, I saw the old lady three times, the best description might be crabby. One thing I did note was that Debra and her Mother were nothing alike.

Her assets? I had no idea at all really, some apartment building was all I knew, when Debra's Dad passed it all went to her Mom.. She lived in one of them, Debra and I stayed at a hotel while we were there.

Debs wanted me to go to Boston with her, I didn't want to. Middle of Winter, snow, Ice, hell with that. Oregon is green, here on the coast if it snows, it's never much more than an inch.

Anyway, I refused to go, that left me here at home, in what is best described as probably going to live condition following the accident, with this 30 something redheaded nurse(bottle kind) that might be best described as pretty cute.

By the time Debra was on an airplane from Portland, the casts were off my wrists, I could sort of walk with the aid of crutches, and no longer needed help wiping my behind.

Plus Sandi, my sort of daughter came by when Kate was in class just to make sure I was OK. That was nice, getting to spend some evenings with her. Since she married our local Police Chief her life has been full. Amazing how a person's kids can live just 15 miles away and you seldom see them, isn't it?

Sandi isn't really my kid, I sort of found her. I wrote that story, it's posted here someplace. She turned out to be quite a little lady, I have to say I am proud to be a part of that success.

The plan was for Debra to do an inventory, but when the phone rang and she began to explain, it dawned on me that there was way more involved than either of us had figured on. It seems Debra and her Mom had a serious falling out way back, her Mom wanted her to stay and help with the rentals, Debra wanted to be a Doctor.

Communication became Christmas cards and birthdays, a phone call maybe once or twice a year. One trip after Debra and I married, just one in 10 long years. Kind of a shame when you think about it. The old lady made it tough to try and reach out, so finding out she left everything to Debra was a surprise.

I have to say I never thought about her Mom much either, so I guess I am guilty too. Something to think about there if you become estranged from family. There will come the time when it is too late.

+++

The building had 40 units, 36 of them rented. There were two back rent court cases going on, her Mother was a no nonsense old gal and would fight bad tenants tooth and nail.

Then she told me about the dolls.

The entire top floor was filled with.. dolls. Not the kind you let your kids play with, but the collectable kind. Ceramic ones, native stuff, some of them hundreds of years old. Nearly a thousand of them, her Mother turned out to be a major collector, something that neither Debra or I had any idea of.

"I can't just turn this over to some agent I don't know, Danny. Many of these dolls are worth huge sums, I have to inventory it all. Then there are the rent collections, Mom was actually handling all of that herself. I am working on hiring a management company."

"OK, so how long do you think it will take?" I asked.

"I don't know, honey. I just don't know." She sounded like she was about to cry.

+++

Over the next few days, Debra told me about some stocks, bonds, and CD's. It seems her Mother was storing the rent revenue in short term and long CD's, and had them all laddered out for five years in six month long graduations. That part I really didn't understand, the return on some of those was barely over one percent. But it did mean that large checks were coming in regularly to her bank account. Hell, even one percent of a $100,000.00 CD is a grand.

And that bank account? I won't mention the figure, just that when Debra told me, it took me a few seconds to catch my breath. Let's just say the government would be pleased, there was no trust or any effort made at all to keep the estate tax free. The capital accounts alone exceeded the government limits.

Which means.. taxes.

Think of checking your State lottery ticket and seeing it has all six numbers. Her Mother turned out to be a miser, a hoarder, a saver, and a pretty good business woman.

Except for the estate tax part.

Debra's Father had passed a couple of decades before, and the old lady had put their assets to good use.

She also mentioned that there was a freezer in her Mom's apartment, so full she could barely close it. The fridge? Same way. Debra ended up throwing all of that away. She told me that some of it was over a decade old. One corner of a room had neat stacks of newspapers, nearly 5 feet high, all appeared to be unread.

+++

Debra flew home for a few days after about three weeks, which was good. Kate and Sandi were both at the house when we got there, after the usual hugs they made themselves scarce quickly and Debra and I caught up.

She was sort of rubbing my back when she stopped.

"What's this?" She said.

"What's what?"

She slid around, took a look, then felt something back there.

"Oh, shit." She said.

"What?" My Debra is a Doctor, she runs our local medical clinic.

"You have a growth that wasn't there, it's probably benign but we need to have that checked."

"Probably... benign?"

"Don't worry, honey, I will call the Dermatologist in the morning and have them check."

I know my Debra very well, so I know when she is concerned and pretending to not be.

Which, of course, made me concerned.

That also kills the sexy moment, which up until then the two of us were doing very well at enjoying. But the appointment was made, Debra was back on an airplane, and it was Kate and me alone again for God knows how long.

Kate did try to apologize for not having noticed it, but it had been nearly a month since she washed my back. I was healing up fairly well from the kid in the hot rod that tried to kill me some nearly 3 months back, so I was taking care of myself mostly..

Now, barely back up and around and beginning to think of fishing and stuff, this popped up. Two rather major accidents in just a few months, my wife gone out of town dealing with what was sounding like a mess, and now perhaps Cancer?

+++

Kate drove me out to the clinic, she handled my big old Dodge Ecodiesel easily. I could have driven, it was only about 60 miles, but my legs still were not used to very much effort.

The clinic was a nice place, hardwood floors, expensive furniture, two young women receptionists. I was led into a room in the back, again it was expensive appearing. There were charts all over the place having to do with cosmetic surgery which was a surprise, clearly they did a lot more than just medical.

I barely got sat down when in walked two women, one appeared to be perhaps 35, the other was younger. They wore identical dark purple smocks.

The older woman was Doctor Miller, her nurse was Melissa. Doctor Miller was a tiny little oriental woman, I doubt she weighed 100 pounds.

"OK, let's take a look at that spot on your back." She said, so I peeled off my shirt.

"Hmmm." She said, poking me with a latex gloved finger. Then she

walked around to the front, looked at my chest.

"Hmmm." Again. That went on for quite some time. She checked my scalp, looked in my mouth, even up my nose.

"Hmmm." She said at least a dozen times.

"OK. Go ahead and strip." She said finally.

"Strip?" I asked.

"Yes, we need to do a skin check on your lower body."

"OK, but don't I need a robe?"

"Why? It's a skin check, we need to check you everywhere." She looked right at me, no change of expression.

Now, if you have read any of my stories, you know I am not bashful.

I blushed.

This was different, here were two fairly attractive females standing there, expecting me to strip naked right in front of them?

I blushed, I swear to God.

But, I also stripped.

"Socks, too." She ordered as I started to sit down.

"Stay standing up." She ordered.

I peeled off my socks, stood there as she walked around behind me.

Now at my age, I have lots and lots of lumps and bumps, scar tissue, moles, warts, you name it and I have some.

"Going to take some pictures, OK?" The nurse named Melissa said, but that obviously was not a request since she was already snapping away. Then she set the camera down, picked up a marker pen and was following the Doctor around as she poked and probed me.

Then I noticed the thing in the nurse's hand, at first I thought it was a cell phone, but it was a recorder and the Doctor was dictating short medical terms.

"OK. Hop up on the table." The Doctor asked, so I did.

"Lie back, spread your legs."

Great. Two young women, standing there, me completely naked, and they tell me to spread my legs? That was when I noticed she had a magnifying glass in her hand.

I did as she asked. Fingers lifted my testicles, moved my cock back and forth, the Doctor reached out with a gloved hand and slid back my foreskin, turned me back and forth some more.

"OK. Turn over." She said.

"Turn over?"

"Yes, and up on your knees."

At that point I had a pretty good idea of what was coming and I knew I was still blushing furiously. She did just what I expected, she reached out and pressed my butt cheeks aside, looked.

"Hmmm." She said. Then down both legs, bottom of my feet, between my toes. She sure did not miss anything.

"OK. get dressed." With that, they both were gone.

The nurse came back in, talked to me, told me they would call with the results of the biopsy in four days, so Kate and I got in the truck and went home.

I spent probably two days researching skin cancers on the internet, that really didn't sound too bad to me. Kate told me it looked to her like it might be a Squamous Cell Carcinoma, which is a rather slow growing thing they can remove 99.9% of the time.

Caused by too much Sun, they suggest, which lord knows that had happened to me more than once in my past.

I was four days before the phone rang, a nice sounding nurse explained to me that the thing was a Squamous Cell Carcinoma and it had to come off. That's no nice news to get, especially when here I was barely getting healed back up from a major accident. Hell, I was only barely getting healed from crashing that silly three wheel motorcycle when that happened, now this?

Life was beginning to look like it was fucking with me, so let's just say my mood was sour.

+++

The surgery was fairly quick, they took a chunk about the size of half a hamburger patty, sewed it up with 20 stitches since the skin was stretched rather taut, sent me home with an appointment to do a skin check in six months. Satisfied that all was going to be fine, I decided to wait until Debs called to tell her about it.

I was sitting in my recliner, idly flipping the channels, when it hit me that Debra had not called since Sunday evening.

This was Wednesday? Debra had gone two days several times, never three.

Kate was gone somewhere, here I was at home all alone. By evening, there was still no call, so I picked up the phone, called Debra's number, it went to voice mail. Debra is a Doctor, at least she is when she is at home, calls to her do NOT go to voice mail.

I finally went to bed that evening, mildly upset.

By the middle of the next morning I was beginning to get really upset. Kate came in at around 11, asked me if I needed anything. I didn't, she got some things from her room and left.

Now I am sure some of you will understand when I mention that I had a feeling that something was not right? I just had no idea at all of what it could be.

The phone woke me up, I grabbed it. It was Debra, she apologized and said she had no cell service, she and some friends had taken a trip to some resort.

"A resort? In Boston?" I asked.

"No, silly, it's a place about 60 miles away."

"Oh. Who all went?"

"Just some people from the management company, they knew I was here by myself so they invited me. " Then she quickly changed the subject, talking about an auction she had scheduled, how she had set up with a major broker and put all of the liquid assets under management.

"So, when are you coming home?" I asked.

She hesitated.

"I.. well.. probably next week, if all goes well." There was a bit more, but one thing I did notice. Debra is normally very open, very together, and to the point. One thing for certain, she is organized. If her plan was to head home in a week she would already have the plane ticket.

My sense was that something was not quite right. It popped into my head about the last time we were apart almost 3 years back, she was in school. Over the holidays, she had stayed back there for three weeks, which was the longest stretch we had ever been apart.

Which had culminated in a one night stand with some much younger professor, something she finally told me about nearly six months later. All of that now slipped into my head and would not leave.

But things really did seem normal again, and I drove up to pick her up at the airport a week or so later. Once home, it didn't take long before we were in our bedroom. I was lying there cuddling, just feeling normal again when she dropped the bombshell.

"Honey, I want you to reconsider coming to Boston with me." She said.

"Why? I thought you were about done there?"

"I am, but honey.. it's a lot! It really is, there is way more money coming in than I could ever hope to make here."

"Oh. You mean.. a permanent move?" I sat up, surprised.

"Yes. We can sell the place here, the top floor apartment is fantastic, the revenue stream is very good and since the college is there, it is a steady stream of renters. Then income from investments, it's really good." She sounded excited at the prospect.

I.. wasn't.

"I don't want to move there, I just don't. I belong here, everyone I know is here, everything I know is here."

She looked at me, then leaned back, a sad look on her face.

"All right. But I do have to fly back Monday." She said. I had a feeling that was not the end of it.

The following Wednesday, she called. She didn't pull any punches.

"Honey, I want you to be here with me, I love you. But I am going to stay here and work." She told me flatly.

"I am not moving to Boston," I told her stubbornly.

"All right, then." There was only a bit more, then she hung up.

+++

As I write this now, it's April. My days are a lot like they were some 10 long years ago. Kate found a boy friend and moved out, for what I guess is a gift she came in and gave me a nice rubdown, yes, she even did the happy ending part. It had been probably six weeks since she had, I was thinking something was up and I was right.

Her way of saying good by, thank you?

The next day there was a very thick Manilla envelope in the mail, I had been expecting that. Not a divorce, a legal separation which might as well be the same thing from my point of view. She had explained all of that in letters and phone calls over a period of a few weeks.

The house was all mine, she signed off on it. She had posted quite a large sum to our joint account at our local bank, and bought out the remainder of her performance contract at the medical clinic.

I had never bothered to ask what her Mother's estate was valued at, I simply did not care. What I now had was enough that I would not live long enough to run out, that much was obvious.

She did tell me that any time I changed my mind, I could join her. Yeah, there were some tears mixed in, some on my side.

But I knew that there was no place for me there.

I did ask one question, got an answer I expected but did not like. You see, I know, or should say I knew my wife Debra very well.

"What about.. sex, Debra? I know you, the way you are." I asked.

"Danny, we are not together, so what I do doesn't matter. All you have to do is join me here, and I will be with you. But if you don't. I guess I will just do what I have to."

That's the last thing she said to me before I hung up on her.

+++

I will end this tale here, that last phone call was about two weeks ago. I haven't heard a peep out of her since, nor have I tried to call.

Tomorrow looks to be a fine day here on the Oregon coast, Sunday the 21st. I am taking my new truck out onto the jetty, to see if I can catch some fish. Life seems to have made one of those full circle turns, with some bumps in the way.

One BIG bump. I didn't tell anyone, not Kate, not Debra, not anyone. Barely a week after they removed that thing on my back, my phone rang. It was the nurse at Doctor Miller's office, she told me they were referring me for more testing, something about my growth, they didn't got it all somehow.

So. What else could go wrong?

Beats me.