Sherri and Gail

"I flat told him that I wasn't going to live a sexless life because he was stupid. He laughed at me and told me that most cops were dumb and all they were bright enough to do was write traffic tickets. He wasn't laughing when an undercover cop slapped the cuffs on him when Brian sold him some cocaine. The "might or might not wait for him" changed to "fuck off and die" the day he was arrested. Just about the time he was being cuffed I was sitting in a doctor's office being told I had a social disease. Apparently Brian was getting a little more than money from some of his customers. He found out how I felt about that when he made his one phone call to me to tell me to arrange bail. I told him he could rot in jail for all I cared. I had to go without sex for eight months while I waited to make sure that the asshole hadn't given me HIV. So that's the deal on my husband. My family doesn't know that part by the way."

"I really call out her name?"

"You do."

"Damn!"

I looked at her for a second or two and then said, "It changes nothing. It is obvious that I loved her when I married her and I guess somewhere in my subconscious mind there are still some good memories of the time we were together. Are you familiar with Travis Tritt?"

"I have a couple of his CDs."

"One of his songs says it all. In "Here's a quarter, call someone who cares" there is a line that says "The truth is you've run and that can't be undone" and that is where things are at with Gail. She is history whether I call out her name in my sleep or not. And that brings up the next question; can you accept that?"

She gave me a long look and then said, "I guess I'm just going to have to take the gamble. How about we head for the bedroom and see if I can burn her out of your mind."

++++++++++++++++++++++

A week went by and one night Sherrie said, "Marge is bugging the hell out of me to get you to help her find your wife."

"I made my position clear on that. I still need five more months before I can file for divorce using abandonment as grounds."

"Marge says that she has a plan that will keep you out of it."

"How could she do that?"

"You find out where your wife is and tell Marge. She will go to wherever your wife is, run into her somewhere and act surprised, show her a picture of me she has in her purse and then start the twenty questions on where your wife is from and all of that. Other than pointing Marge in the right direction you will be out of it."

"It won't work that way and you know it. Marge will want to draw Gail into the family and there are too many in your family who know about you and me and one of them will eventually slip up and let something out. For Marge's plan to work you would have to be willing to stop seeing me until my divorce is final. You willing to do that?"

"Of course not, but there has to be a way we can do it."

"Gail is twenty-five years old and your family has gone those twenty-five years not knowing she even existed. It won't kill them to wait another five months to get in touch with her. Besides, I don't trust Marge. I believe she would rat us out in a heartbeat just to break us up so you can go back to being the faithful waiting wife,"

"Then I guess I'm going to have to tell her the full story. She's going to love that. Her little sister had a social disease. I can hear it now:

"Oh my God; whatever will people think of our family."

++++++++++++++++

There is a saying that I have heard a time or two. "Men plan and the Gods laugh." My plans for divorcing Gail and Marge's plans for meeting Gail all went into the shitter on a Tuesday night. I was working late so Sherrie had stopped at the bar with her family. They were sitting there talking when John suddenly said:

"Oh my God!"

The others looked at him and then turned to look at what he was looking at. They turned just in time to see Gail storm up and pour a beer on Sherrie's head as she screamed:

"You leave my husband alone you filthy fucking whore."

Sherrie was up and off her chair and the fight was on. Gail was getting the worst of it when John and Sherrie's cousin Tom pulled them apart.

I had given Sherrie a key to my place (Gail didn't have one -- I'd changed the locks when she ran off) and she was sitting on my couch waiting for me when I got home. I was greeted with, "We have a problem Frank" and then she proceeded to bring me up to date.

"Apparently she has been around here watching the house and she started following me when I'd leave in the morning."

"What happened after they pulled you apart?"

"I left."

"Any idea where Gail went?"

"She was still there when I left and I saw Marge talking to her. What are you going to do now?"

"What I didn't want to do. Now that she is here I can't go the abandonment route so I'll have to serve her papers and do a regular divorce which means I'll end up in the poor house."

"It won't be that bad."

"Of course it will. This is a no fault state which means a fifty/fifty split of assets regardless of the reason for the break up. I'll have to sell the house and give her half of the proceeds. She will get some alimony and half of my pension and 401k. I'll probably have to sell the Triumph to come up with money. She will get a lawyer to make sure that she gets everything coming to her and I'll end up paying for the asshole."

"So don't divorce her."

"What? Are you nuts?"

"I mean don't divorce her now. Wait until she divorces you. While you are waiting get rid of things. She is entitled to half of what you have at the time of filing. So she gets half of the house, so what. My place is bigger and in a better neighborhood. Take your savings out of the bank and close the account. If anyone asks where the money went you say you took up gambling when she left you to give you something to do to take your mind off what she did to you. Sell your Triumph to me.

"Pick out what you want from the house and put it in storage and then say you gave it to Goodwill because there were too many memories of her attached to it and it was driving you to despair. And I'm not sure she can get alimony. That will be up to the judge and if you get the right judge he might not give her any because of what she did and even if he does he might set it low for the same reason.

"And while we are on the subject of money we might as well get this out into the open. I make almost twice as much as you do. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Aren't we getting a little ahead of things here?"

"Not from where I'm standing. It only took me a week to make up my mind about you. I've already filed for a divorce from Brian. That just leaves you to do whatever you are going to do. Do you know yet?"

"Get an address for her or a location where I can have her served and get on with the divorce."

"If Marge got into the long lost sister stuff with your wife maybe she got the information on how to stay in touch. I'll see if I can get it out of her if she has it."

But before Sherrie could get in touch with her sister Marge called me.

"I got your number from your wife."

"And you just had to call me why?"

"The girl is hurting. She loves you and she needs to talk to you."

"I don't need to talk to her. What she did said it all."

"That's just it Frank; she says she didn't do what you think she did. She told me her story and I believe her. I think you owe it to yourself to hear her out."

"Get serious Marge. Do you honestly think she is going to put herself in a bad light? Any story she tells is going to be slanted in her favor. She isn't going to tell a story that makes her look bad."

"Maybe, but like I say, I believe her and you should at least let her talk to you. Hear the girl out and then make up your mind whether to believe her or not."

"I don't even know where to find her."

"She's staying with me right now."

"I hope you know what you are doing."

"I'm almost certain that she is my sister and I take care of family."

"I'll think about it, but I'm not making any promises."

I talked it over with Sherrie and even though I really didn't want to talk to Gail Sherrie insisted that I had to.

"We have a good thing going here babe; what if my talking to her changes things?"

"I feel the same way honey, but things are just too complicated now. What if you don't talk to her and then you find out after we get married that she was telling the truth. What if the DNA test shows that she is my sister and I've taken her husband away from her? If she lied it wouldn't matter, but what if she didn't lie? She is always going to be around; Marge will see to that. No baby, it has to be resolved one way or another before you and I can get married."

"What if your dad won't give up a sample for a DNA test?"

"He has already given the sample. Daddy's not a monster Frank. He called us all in when Marge told him about Gail and he told us all what had happened. He took the job in Tucson to put some distance between himself and mom after he caught her with an old boyfriend. She swore it was nothing but a couple of kisses, but he didn't believe her. While he was in Tucson he met a girl and she came onto him and he figured his marriage was toast anyway so why not.

"Just before the job ended the girl told him she was pregnant. He told her would come home and get a divorce and then come back to Tucson and marry her, but she said she didn't want that. What she wanted was money to pay for an abortion. He tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted that she wasn't going to have a baby so he gave her the money, came home and never heard from her again.

"He came home and he and mom managed to put it back together and he forgot all about what had happened in Arizona. He did confirm that the woman he got pregnant had the same name as Gail's mother so even without the DNA test it is almost certain that Gail is our sister. That is why you need to talk with her honey. If her story isn't true it won't matter if she is my sister and we get married, but if her story is true it will matter."

+++++++++++++++++++++

Two days later I was sitting in Marge's kitchen and Gail was sitting opposite me. Marge had taken her family out for dinner so we could be alone. Gail was fidgety and nervous and I finally had to say:

"Get on with it Gail. I don't want to be here anyway so if you aren't going to talk I'm leaving."

She looked at me and in a quivering voice said, "I miss you Frank. I want to come home."

"You should have thought of that before you left."

"I didn't leave Frank; I swear to God I didn't leave. I was drugged and taken away. I did not leave."

"You were drugged? And I supposed to believe that?"

"It's true Frank; I swear to God it's true,"

"This I've got to hear."

"The last clear memory I have of that night was you shooting pool with Abe, Mike and Jimmy. I remember snatches of conversations, bits and pieces that don't make any sense and then suddenly I was aware that I was having sex. I remember wondering how we got home without my knowing it and I was surprised we were making love since we had just had that big argument over my job and the long hours I was putting in. You accused me of having an affair at work and saying I was working late to cover it. I couldn't figure out why you were making love to me after saying all of those nasty things you said.

"I remember saying, "Thank you Frank, I love you" and then a voice said. "I ain't Frank you little whore. You can call me Sir or Master." I focused on his face and it was a face I'd never seen before, but he was screwing me hard and I was responding like I always do when I make love. Even though I was moaning and having orgasms I kept asking him who he was and where you were and the guy kept saying "Shut up and fuck me slut."

"I faded in and out a couple of times and every time I faded in I was being screwed. I guess he finally ran out of steam because he stopped and I fell asleep. When I woke up I was in bed with some big guy who was heavily bearded and covered with tattoos. I started to get off the bed and I felt a tug on my leg. I looked down and saw that there was a rope tied around my ankle and the other end was tied around his. My moving woke him up and he asked me where I thought I was going and I told him I had to get up, find my clothes, find you and go home. He laughed and told me that I was home.

"Then he told me that you had sold me to him for five hundred dollars and had even given him the date rape drug he had used to knock me out and get me out of the bar. I called him a liar and told him that there was no way you would do that to me and then he said he guessed he was going to have to prove it. He untied me and told me to go take a shower and when I finished he told me that he had called you and you were on the way over to explain things to me. He said he would feed me breakfast while we were waiting.

"The coffee or the food must have been doped because all of a sudden I was being screwed again. He kept me doped up for five days and for those five days he and his friends used me. I had a few lucid moments and during one of them I finally realized that everything I was given to eat or drink was doped. I started faking eating and drinking and then I faked falling asleep. When he fell asleep I got up and ran."

"You expect me to believe this cock and bull story?"

"I had hoped you would. I hoped that you loved me as much as I love you and you would believe me."

"Well I'm sorry Gail, but I don't. How can you expect me to believe this far out tale especially when it comes on top of your affair at work?"

"There was no affair at work Frank. All you had to do was look at my paycheck stubs to see that I was telling you the truth. The overtime hours were right there for you to see. As for my cock and bull story? Like I said, I hoped you loved me enough to believe me without me having to prove it to you, but I guess you don't love me as much as I love you. You probably never did."

She opened her purse, took out something and pushed it across the table to me. I picked it up and it was a business card for a Detective James Davie.

"What's this?"

"Just call him Frank" she said and she got up and left the room.

I called and Detective Davie answered and I identified myself.

"How's your wife doing?"

"Okay I guess."

"That is one gutsy little lady you have there" and then he told me how instead of crawling off somewhere and feeling sorry for herself she had called the police, waited for them to show and then had led them back to where she had been held. The SWAT team took the place down and she identified four of the men taken as men who had used her. Only then did she break down and start crying. She did all that with what the drug tests showed was enough drugs in her system to slow down a horse.

"All four had protested their innocence, but Gail had gone to the hospital and had the rape kit done on her and it proved conclusively that they had used her. Then the men changed their story to she was a willing participant. That story changed when the FBI came in on the case because it was being regarded as a kidnapping. Kidnapping still carries the death penalty so one of the guys got scared and rolled over on the rest of them in exchange for a plea deal. When all was said and done there were nine men in custody on a variety of charges the most major of which was kidnapping and the most minor was the distribution of an illegal substance.

"What came out was that the biker had cottoned to her at the bar and decided to grab her. He used her and then sold her to his buddies and their friends and after a while when he tired of her he was going to take her down to Mexico and sell her to a whore house. But she managed to get away and thanks to Gail the FBI now has solid leads on three other women who had disappeared and the asshole that had snatched her was looking at life in prison without parole at the very least and quite possibly the death penalty for kidnapping. The FBI was working on him to give them information on the other missing girls in exchange for not going for the death penalty.

"Hang onto her son; she's one in a million."

I hung up and sat there staring at the wall and wondering "What the fuck do I do now?"

My mind was full and working overtime as I drove home from Marge's place. I had loved Gail right up until I thought she was cheating on me with some one she worked with and then took off with the biker. No, that wasn't right. I can't say that I loved her "right up until" because you don't just turn love on or off. I still had love for her even after she had gone. Even when she called me and said she wanted to come home two-thirds of me was saying "yes" but the remaining third backed up by anger and rage was saying "Fuck you you miserable backstabbing whore" and in that case the minority ruled. But love or not Gail was gone and I had started up with Sherrie and in almost no time at all my feelings for Sherrie were as strong as the feeling that I'd once had for Gail. Then I find that everything I have been believing about Gail is wrong. Bloody Christ, what the fuck was I going to do.

++++++++++++++++++

Sherrie was sitting on my couch when I got home and she looked up from the book she was reading and said, "Well?"

"Not good."

"What happened?"

"The one thing I never expected. She told me some way out story about drugs and kidnapping and I scoffed at it so she gave me the card of a police detective and I called him. He verified every bit of it. She didn't do any of the things I thought she did."

"Where does that leave us?"

"It puts me between a rock and a hard place."

"Explain that please."

"I love you both and pretty much equally. My animosity toward Gail was because I thought she was cheating on me and when I called her on it she ran off with the biker and now it turns out she didn't do either. As much as I want you I've never fallen out of love with her. I want you both and that's my rock and hard place."

"So what are you going to do?"

"In the end there was only one thing I could do. I was married to Gail so she had to be my choice. Sherrie and I had a tearful farewell and Gail came home.

The DNA showed that Gail was indeed Marge and Sherrie's step sister and she was welcomed into the arms of the family and spent a lot of time getting to know her father.

+++++++++++++++++++

It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I was sitting on the patio sipping my morning coffee and watching the bird's dive bombing the squirrel who was trying to get at their feeder when Sherrie came out and joined me. Sherrie? Oh yeah. As Paul Harvey used to say, "Here is the rest of the story."

When Gail broke loose from her captors she called me and I told her to hurry home so I could wrap my hands around her neck and strangle her so she moved in with her mom. She went back to work and they told her she didn't have a job anymore for being a no call/no show for over three days which was a terminating offense according to the company's policy and procedures manual. She had them contact Detective Davie and after hearing what he had to say she was given her job back. She kept calling me and I kept telling her to fuck off and die. Then we had our sit down at Marge's that ended in her coming home (but before she got there I did check her paycheck stubs and she had been working overtime on the nights I suspected her of cheating.)

Things were great between us for just a little over two months and then my birthday rolled around. One of the benefits where I work is that my birthday is one of my paid holidays. I was off but Gail had to work so I decided to do something about something that I had just recently remembered.

When I suspected that Gail was having an affair instead of working late as she claimed I put a tap on the home phone the day before she was kidnapped and there was nothing on it for that one day. After Gail was gone I forgot all about the phone tap and since I always used my cell phone the house phone never got used and the tap sat there dormant. Then Gail came home and everything was lovey-dovey. I needed a tape recorder and was all set to buy one when I remembered the phone tap. I didn't want Gail around to see me dismantle it because it would have opened a can of worms that we had just pounded the top closed on so I decided to do it on my day off.