The Cheating Zone 13: Treatment

"Why?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Because they're assholes," the old man said. "The 'why' really doesn't matter. What matters is what they intend to do to you."

"Damn," I said.

"You sure you don't want them fed to sharks?" the old man asked. "Maybe tossed out of an airplane at 30,000 feet with no parachute?" His eyes sparkled as he mentioned other grisly methods of getting rid of them.

"No, I don't want their deaths on my conscience," I said. The old man looked disappointed. "Isn't there anything else you can do?"

"Well, I suppose we can make her disappear," he said.

"Disappear?" I asked. "How?"

"Disappear," the man said, repeating himself. He seemed rather put out. "As in, she doesn't exist. I can make it so she never existed."

"You can do that?" I asked, surprised.

"Of course," he said. "That's a piece of cake. But not very dramatic, if you ask me. Far better that she go out in a blaze of glory, wouldn't you say?" I began to wonder what this guy was smoking.

"No," I said. "Just keep it nice and quiet. In fact, I'd like it if you can do that to ALL the cheaters involved in this."

"Of course, I can," he said. "But are you certain? I mean, absolutely certain?"

"Yes," I said emphatically. "Surely, Bill's not the only person she's been screwing, is he?"

"Well, no," the old man said. "In fact, she's been a pretty busy girl while you've been out working."

'Oh?" I asked. "How many? Who?"

"Well, I know of five others she's been with over the last few months," the old man said. "All of them friends of Bill's."

"Then I want ALL of the cheaters in this relationship dealt with," I said.

"As you wish," the old man said. "Your call."

"By the way, how much will this cost me?" I asked. He looked at me and smiled.

"How much do you have on you right now?" he asked.

"About $200," I said. He nodded his head.

"Then it will cost you about $200," he told me. I pulled out my wallet and handed him $197.00. It was all the cash I had on me at the time. He accepted it and put it in his pocket.

"Thank you," he said. "There, it's done," he added after making a few clicks with his mouse. "It will happen tonight, about 7:00 pm."

"Excellent," I said, smiling. He said nothing and simply nodded his head.

"Keep an eye on your television," he said.

"I will," I told him as I stood up.

"Good luck," he said when I left. I waved and headed on out to my car. I had no desire to go back home, so I drove around and spent the day doing pretty much nothing. I got home about 4:30 and saw Jenny was dressed in a short skirt and a pair of high heels.

"What's the occasion?" I asked.

"I'm going out," she said. "I can't take another night of you pretending I'm not here, so I'm going to spend an evening with someone who actually wants to be with me. We'll talk about things when I get back."

"Whatever," I said, going into my office. I locked the door behind me and sat at my computer. I heard her walk out the door and I looked out the window. Sure enough, she was going across the street. Bill met her and the two of them kissed like long-lost lovers. As I watched, he opened the passenger door of his Mustang and closed it after she got in. They pulled out of his driveway and sped off. I didn't care where they went. I just wanted them gone.

I turned my computer on and started searching. Sure enough, I found what he had put on my computer and promptly deleted it, using a program to wipe the files completely off my computer. Suck on that, asshole, I thought to myself. While I was there, I changed my password and cleaned up my hard drive, just in case he wanted to try something else.

By the time I finished, it was 6:00 pm, so I grabbed a beer and a beanbag from my office and sat in the front room to watch a Twilight Zone marathon. That had always been one of my all-time favorite programs and I loved it when they played the marathons.

Toward the end of the second episode, there was a newsflash on the television. From what the anchor said, police were responding to an unusual crash on the Interstate. It seemed that an unoccupied Mustang had crossed the median and crashed head-on into an oncoming truck that couldn't get out of the way.

From the video report, I could tell the car was Bill's Mustang, the front end completely destroyed. There was no way anyone could've walked away. According to the anchor, police were stymied by the fact that the car was unoccupied when the crash occurred.

"YES," I screamed, pumping my fist in the air. I reached for the beer sitting on the floor next to me, but was unable to grab it. Surprised and more than a bit confused, I looked at the beer and tried grabbing it again, but my hand went right through the can. What the hell is going on, I asked myself.

I held my hand up and was shocked when I realized that I could see right through it. I looked down and noticed I could also see through my legs. Then it hit me.

"Oh shit," I said to myself. I looked at the television and the last thing I remember seeing was a grim-faced man in a dark suit. He held a cigarette in one hand and the smoke curled around his head as he spoke.

"Meet Troy McGregor," the man said. "A hard-working man who truly loves his wife. He came home one day to find her with one of her lovers. Devastated, he sought to get revenge, and he got it. But in his zeal to deal with his cheating wife, he forgot about his own one-time drunken indiscretion with a woman he met in a bar five years earlier.

"He asked to have ALL the cheaters in his relationship dealt with, but he forgot one very important thing. When you point a finger at someone, there's three more pointing right back at you. Consider this an object lesson, straight from... the Cheating Zone."

He smiled, winked and took a drag off his cigarette.

Fade to black...