Territory Manager

That night I ran the railroad tracks. Actually not on the tracks but there was a flat trail next to the tracks. This was an overgrown area near a small creek. Fairly secluded. I had seen people hanging out down there. I couldn't tell if they were homeless, doing drugs or what. They left me alone so I didn't pay much attention back.

This time as I was running I noticed some kind of commotion ahead of me. I muted the sound on my headphones. Immediately I heard the high pitched sound of a child screaming. As I got closer to the group a young blond girl, maybe nine years old ran up to me crying.

"Help, help. They have my sister, they have Violet!" She screamed.

"Wait here." I told her.

As I approached I saw a younger girl sitting on the ground sobbing as three adult men surrounded her. One had her forearm trying to drag her somewhere. I saw a decrepit tent down the ravine near the creek.

"What the fuck is going on here!?" I yelled at the homeless looking guys.

They looked up, startled by my appearance. And then the one who was dragging the young girl turned toward me. He was dark haired with scraggly dark facial hair on his pale face. An overbite created a wolf-like look. A tattoo crept up one side of his neck.

"Ain't your business," he said. "Keep moving if ya know what's good for ya." He looked me in the eye and added.

Quickly I pushed one of the guys down the embankment, grabbed the little blond girl and told her to run to her sister. Now I was between the remaining two and the girls.

"You just made a big mistake." The dark haired guy said to me. He had a knife.

He approached and swiped at me with the knife. I dodged away.

The other guy, bigger with no weapon, came toward me. I cold-cocked him square on the jaw and he crumpled.

That interaction allowed the guy with the knife an opportunity. He swiped again and got my left forearm. Hurt like hell, but the knife became tangled in my shirt and he lost his grip. The knife fell to the ground.

Now it was one on one, me and the dark haired guy. I was injured. But I was also pissed. I resorted to my early golden gloves approach. Hit hard and quickly.

I hit him with my right twice to the face. He swung wildly and I ducked. I hit him once again in the face, that dazed him. Then I took a lesson from Graham McKenzie.

I kicked him in the balls, hard. He collapsed and tumbled down the bank. That was that.

I took off my shirt and tied it around my bleeding forearm and went to find the girls.

They were almost to the city streets when I found them. The older one had her arm around the younger one, Violet. Violet was crying.

"Girls are you okay?" I asked.

I startled them. Violet started crying harder.

"It's okay. You're safe." I told them. "Do you live around here?" I asked.

The older one nodded and I told them I would stay with them until they got to their house. After a moment the older one agreed that I would walk them home.

"You're bleeding," Violet told me in her little girl voice, and pointed at my wounded arm.

"I know, sweetheart." I said. "It's not too bad." I told her.

Their house was just a few blocks from the trail where I found them. The trail was a shortcut to a convenience store. That was where the girls were going.

As we walked up the drive the front door of their small house swung open and there stood a confused and angry woman who I assumed was their mother.

I imagined what she saw, her two young daughters, frightened and in tears with a bloody stranger, shirtless, with them. I understood the anger in her eyes.

"April, Violet, get in the house!" She commanded. "Who are you and what the hell is going on?" She demanded.

"Your girls, I saw them on the railroad trail." I told her. "There were some assho..., um, bad people that were bothering them. I just walked them home." I told her.

She stared at me, as if trying to decide if I was telling the truth. Then she looked at my bleeding arm.

"What happened to you?" She asked. "Are you okay?"

"To be honest, I'm feeling a little light headed." I told the woman. "May I sit on your steps for a minute?" I asked.

So I sat. The girls came out and April told her mom her version of the events on the trail.

"... and then, he beat up the bad guys." April said and pointed at me. "Hey, we don't even know your name." April exclaimed.

The woman, Gail, I later found out asked me what happened down on the trail. I explained what I saw and what a dangerous situation it could have been for the two little girls. The mom, Gail, started crying. She was scared for her girls and blamed herself. She felt she was a bad mom. She was quite upset, shuddering at the thought of what could have happened.

"Do you mind if I wash my arm up?" I asked.

And she helped. I got to see their small house. It was neat as a pin. I also took a moment to check out Gail.

I guessed about my age. Intelligent, lean, and attractive looking. Not the more flamboyant look of Crystal, but pretty with wholesome features. Short, curly hair, an olive complexion and in good shape. She was wearing soccer shorts and I noticed her tan, smooth, muscular legs.

I gave Gail my B&B business card and told her if she wanted to go to the police I would cooperate and give my account. She said she would think about it.

I felt like it was time for me to go. I said goodbye to April and Violet and was surprised when I got a kiss on the cheek from Gail.

"Thank you," She said with a tear rolling down her cheek. "You are our hero." She told me.

Bandaged and feeling proud of myself I waved goodbye and walked the short distance to my apartment.

Despite my concerns over the problems I was having with Crystal, I felt positive about life after helping these two scared innocent girls.

Much later I began to focus on the problems at home.

When I talked to Janet she said no strange cars in my driveway. That was somewhat of a relief.

On Friday I talked to Oscar.

"No extra cars around." He told me, "But, last night I drove by later, almost eleven o'clock. The house looked empty. No lights on. Nothing. So I parked up the street and creeped the house. Your woman wasn't home. I waited a couple hours and drove by again. This time I stayed in the car. I didn't need one of your neighbors reporting a Mexican prowling around your house in the middle of the night." He told me.

"House looked the same." Oscar told me. "One thirty in the morning. Roger, your woman wasn't home." He said.

I had to pull over. I had two more sales calls today, but I think I was going to skip them. I sat and thought. Going into this relationship with Crystal I knew there was a risk. I had heard about her reputation but I thought we had gotten beyond all that. I thought about all our good times and for a moment I became emotional.

And then I thought about Dobler. I had seen him looking at Crystal, I was so confident in her, I didn't think anything could happen. And I'm still not sure it had, but there were a lot of signs. Trust but verify.

As I sat at that rest stop I realized for the first time since I had been given this remote Montana territory, I wasn't looking forward to going home for the weekend.

All of a sudden I was interrupted by a phone call. A number I didn't recognize, I nearly didn't answer.

"Roger?" A voice said. "It's Gail Calahan, April and Violet's mom."

I was surprised by the call.

After some brief small talk she invited me over for dinner that night. She wanted to thank me.

I told her unfortunately I was driving back to the city today.

"Oh," she said. I could hear the disappointment in her voice. "The girls made you something. Oh well. Maybe we can just drop it by to you sometime." She told me.

I paused for a moment and thought.

"You know," I said, "I think I can change a few things and make it after all." I told Gail.

It was a spur of the moment decision, but there was something about those two little girls and their Mom that made me want to spend time with them. Perhaps it was a way of avoiding the problems at home, but I was now committed. And I was looking forward to the evening.

I called Crystal and made up a lie about a customer event I had to attend at the last minute on Saturday. I told her it was no sense getting home Saturday night and turning around and leaving a day and a half later. I would spend the weekend in Montana.

I was a bit surprised when she didn't really seem terribly upset by this change in plans. I would have expected her to demand that I come home to be with her. She did ask if I was sure I needed to stay for the made-up customer event. I told her it was important.

She all too easily said she understood.

Though I had no specific evidence of her infidelity, there were a lot of circumstantial signs. I was also pretty sure it was if there was another man, it was Dobler. I began to wonder if the entire plan of me moving to Montana was so he would have a shot at Crystal. Huh, I thought. I'd seen him look at her. And I had seen her look back.

I decided to think about all that later. Right now I was going to think about Violet, April and Gail. These were far happier thoughts.

I brought a bouquet of flowers to Gail. She looked like she had tried to dress casually but nicely for the dinner. Both girls were in dresses. They had made me a cardboard heart saying "Our Hero'. It was very cute.

"I'm never going down to the railroad tracks again." Young Violet told me.

In fact that was the only mention of the incident through dinner the entire night. After dinner I played soccer in the backyard with the two girls until it got dark.

When we all came in from the backyard Gail told the girls to get ready for bed.

I told her it was probably time for me to head home too.

She grabbed my forearm, the good one, and said, "stay a bit."

I sat on the couch, slightly confused about where this night may be going. I thought that it had been a good night. I barely thought of my marital problems. More than even Gail, I'd enjoyed spending time with these two little girls. Several times my mind drifted to the thought of what likely could have happened if I hadn't been on that trail at that precise time.

Gail came out and sat in the single chair across her small wood coffee table from me. That at least defined her objectives for the evening.

"Thanks for staying, in fact I can"t thank you enough for everything." She told me. "I'm pretty good with people and I have a good sense about you. Tell me more about yourself. All I know is that you are our hero." She added with a smile.

So I told her about my job at B&B. I told her about Crystal. And then for some reason I told her all about the problems we were having. About the sock, Dobler, and my suspicions. She had this way of focusing as she asked questions that made me feel comfortable opening up to her.

It felt good to talk all this through with somebody.

We talked about her life a bit too. She was an independent marketing strategist. She used to work in-house for a big box retailer. She, her husband and the girls moved to Missoula for his job at the university. Shortly after they moved from Seattle he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Within a year he was dead. That was two years ago.

Gail had several steady clients and with no false modesty she told me she was good at what she did. I believed her. Her biggest struggle was raising two young girls as a single Mom.

She then broke into tears imagining the terrors of her little girls and the horrible men on the trail.

I moved to comfort her with a platonic hug. She hugged me back and there was absolutely no sexuality in our embrace. Don't get me wrong, Gail is an attractive woman on the verge of beautiful, but sometimes the human connection can override a sexual impulse.

As we stood there, all of a sudden, out marched the sleepy-eyed April.

"Remember to tell Roger about the picnic tomorrow." April said and then abruptly turned around and went back to bed.

We stood closely facing each other, a slight uncomfortableness in that moment, she looked at me and then shyly looked away.

"We were going to Palmer Lake tomorrow for a picnic. The girls wanted me to ask you to come if you can. If you can't, that's okay, I mean it's short notice.... "

"What time should I be here?" I asked. And that was that.

The picnic was fun. I just felt so comfortable with Gail and the girls. I would have moments when I just watched Gail. Her attractiveness grew on me. But it was also her warm, intelligent, personality that was so attractive. I had to keep reminding myself I was married.

At least for now.

For the first Monday morning since I had been calling on Montana I woke up in my territory. Despite the problem at home I had a bounce in my step and I was getting things accomplished quickly in my sales territory.

Tuesday I took Gail and the girls out for ice cream after work. I couldn't help it, I was becoming more and more attracted to Gail. And I loved spending time with the girls.

By the end of the week I decided I needed to see what was going on with Crystal and understand where my life was going. I told Crystal I would be home at the normal time Friday night. I was going to give this a good shot.

That Friday she was home when I got there. That was one good thing, I guess. I tried to act like all was okay. We didn't discuss my suspicions or bring up any points of potential contact that night. I was warm and affectionate and she responded.

We made love that night and it was sexually fulfilling for sure. Crystal was always good sexually, but the intimacy seemed absent. I told myself we had been apart and maybe we just needed to reacquaint ourselves. But deep down my suspicions of her fidelity made me cautious.

We were having a normal weekend, running errands and doing chores around the house and I decided tonight I would talk to her about moving out with me to Montana. For an instant thoughts of Gail, April and Violet flashed through my mind. It was a confusing thought.

Crystal suggested we walk down to The Regulator and have a drink and dinner. I thought this would be a good place to have our discussion.

By the time dinner was over Crystal had two drinks and had just ordered a third. A little more than normal. I brought up the idea of her moving to Montana. Crystal sat and listened as I laid it out: Rent out our house here. Look to buy something or some land to build in Montana. Consider starting a family.

"But what about my job?" She asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"Come on Crystal," I said. "You can get that type of job anywhere." I told her.

"That type of job!?" she asked, starting to get angry.

"You know what I mean." I offered placatingly.

And then we broke into a full blown argument. I think the alcohol contributed to the intensity. She accused me of not valuing what she did. I tried to explain that our relationship was more important than any silly job.

"Silly!?" she exploded, "Now you think what I do is silly?" She went on. "Gordon certainly doesn't think what I do is silly. He tells me all the time how wonderful I am. Something I don't hear much from you!" She added.

Now she was playing the Gordon card. I decided I needed to calm down or things were really going to get out of control. I told her I needed to use the bathroom.

When I came back, from across the room, I saw her furiously tapping away on her Iphone. My guess was she was texting Dobler.

The rest of the weekend was another cold war. Barely speaking, no attempt at trying to resolve things. I was afraid I may lose my temper and say something about Dobler. And if she is innocent I would be falsely accusing her.

With great relief I left Monday morning long before Crystal was awake.

I received an interesting call en route to my sales territory. Graham McKenzie.

After the usual initial banter he came to the point.

"Me and you are mates, Rog, and I owe it to you to tell you that we are going to explore different distribution in your market. Business is way off with B&B." he told me. "Nothing has been decided yet, but it"s coming." He said.

"I have an idea though." He went on.

Basically his idea was this. Can Pac would rent a shipping yard in town. They would lease a truck and a driver. I would hire an office person and a warehouse person. I would sell Can Pac lumber to the dealers in the same market that B&B was in. I would be their distributor. But still, an independent business.

"So, would I be a Can Pac employee?" I asked.

"No mate, listen, it will be your business. We will help you with terms of payment. But you will think up a name and go into business selling Can Pac products, and anything else as long as there are no conflicts." he told me.

We talked for another hour about the details. I was interested, but I also knew it was a big risk. For the most part I liked my job at B&B, and to leave it it would be a big step. I told him I would think about it.

"You've got two weeks mate, and then I'm going to need to do something." Graham told me.

That week while I was making my sales calls I made very discreet inquiries into the opportunity to buy from a new distribution company that I would run. Most responses were positive. I began thinking a little more about this.

I needed someone to talk to. I knew I couldn't talk to Mr Bellows. And I couldn't talk to Crystal even if we were getting along, which we weren't. Crystal did not have the correct aptitude to be helpful in this type of matter.

I called Gail.

That night I had dinner with her and the two girls. I brought dessert. After dinner the girls played and I talked to Gail about the proposition Graham had asked me about.

We talked for an hour. Her asking me questions, and me providing information. And then she asked me, what she said was the most important question.

"Do you trust Graham?" She asked.

I sat for a moment and thought about Graham. I thought about our history together. And then I thought about his character.

"With my life." I finally replied.

Gail just sat staring at me head nodding. As if there was nothing more that needed to be said.

I was a long way from a definite decision, but I was getting closer.

The following day I received a phone call from John Gomez, our long time inside salesman, the one who originally helped me get my job at B&B.

This was not totally unusual, but John's manner was a little off. After some preliminary general discussion. I asked him what was going on.

"Not sure what's happening Roger, but if I were you I'd try to figure out what is going on with your wife and Gordon Dobler." he said. "Crystal, Dobler, that guy Darin and the receptionist with the big hooters seem to be going out almost every night." He told me. "Last night I stopped at that little Tiki dive near the office for a quick drink after work. Those four looked too friendly together. I wouldn't want my wife hanging on some asshole like that." He told me.

And he described what he had seen, touching and some kissing. Laughing, sitting closely like a couple. No wonder she never picked up when I called. I guess the mystery of the single sock has been solved too.

I sat and thought for a good long while. Unless there was some extraordinary explanation my marriage was over. I thought about first meeting Crystal, I thought about some of the good times we had. I thought about our vacations to Hawaii and then I thought about all the good sex we had together. I thought we were a team. I thought we had a plan for life together. I became emotional.

And then I thought about Dobler. I thought about him checking out Crystal early on. The negativity and criticism of me at first and then the change where he became ever so friendly. I now knew he wanted me out of the picture so he could seduce Crystal. He wanted to exert himself over me by taking my woman. Apparently it wasn't terribly difficult.. Crystal, it seems, was all for it.