The Wages of a Divorcee's Sin

Author's Foreword: This submission is a re-telling of my 'More Legacy of Number: 10 Part Series ' (Which was itself a continuation of my 'The Legacy of Number 7 and Number 1.' ) Note further that in the original, I only mentioned Jere as being divorced. In the follow up submitted, as requested by several readers, I give the details of his painful divorce.)

Privately someone liked the storyline but loathed the format. Another said it was my best yet except that I fucked it up by submitting it in 10 Parts and I agree and say, 'sorry.' I blame it on my editorial naiveté. So I rewrote the original in one lengthy story and corrected some of the egregious typos - but it has not been edited by a professional Editor. The usual warning applies in that readers who skim LW submissions in private looking for ... will find no excitement here. It's lengthy and lots of thinking goes on here. I appreciate your private feedback.

The Wages of a Divorce's Sin

part one

"I saw you on television last week, Daddy."

The voice was vaguely familiar to Jere Jenkins.

An ordinary Monday workday, the Mathematician sat in a rear corner of the upscale Back Bay food court at work for a client typing into a keyboard that was Bluetooth connected to an e-Tablet. Working here was a pleasure because the eye-candy, high fashion ladies - along with wannabes and pretenders and an occasional one of interest - paraded by him. This mall also offered relief from 'cabin fever' that he felt sometimes when stuck in his Condominium working for long periods of time. As a bonus the sound of shoppers talking drowned out obnoxious, currently popular music streaming from cheap, tinny sounding equipment. In a coffee shop he had found that the music was piercing - but not here. Moreover, when in the mood to talk to someone, he would simply strike up a conversation with a mall walker resting nearby. They almost always are very glad for Human company - albeit all they can talk about is what they saw on TV or Facebook.

The 44-year old consulting mathematician Jere Jenkins solves technical problems for Biotech firms on a fee basis to earn his living. He also was a recent Nobel Prize winner and appeared on a local Community Affairs TV program - Read: there were few viewers but fortunately his estranged daughter, who just spoke to him, caught the show.

He looked up at the sound of a voice never quite forgotten but had gone unheard for 8 years and recognized his now young adult daughter. He calculated her age in his mind and thought, "Hmm She is 22 but what on earth is her problem? She looks awful. And what is she doing back in Boston?" He then said to her, "Hello Kathy, I hope you are well." Trying to make their conversation light he continued, "Hey! You have a remarkably close resemblance to me now that I have seen you again after 8 years. So, I obviously was the sperm donor when you were conceived - no DNA test is required. Heh heh." But she maintained her tense look of having to force back tears rather than chuckle. Remembering 8 years ago when she was a Ninth grader, her hair was Punk purple, and she had hardware rings piercing her face. So today he said, "How pleased I am that your hair is now its normal black and the ring hardware is missing from your face. Have you had lunch?"

"No, and I didn't have breakfast either."

He gave her twenty dollars and asked, "Would you like to go get some food and lets visit?"

She smiled for the first time and left, returning with a full tray and sat down opposite him and began eating, as he turned off the e-Tablet.

He was suddenly very angry with her mother who destroyed the mind of their daughter, since Kathy now looked simply awful, and he thought, "Poor food quality, I would guess is responsible for her looking so horrid. Her clothes are rumpled and she appears to purposely dress to run off young suitors who might consider her 'pretty.' " But he felt no affection because he suddenly remembered what he had painfully forgotten about her since the last encounter. He recalled to himself, " I dutifully paid child support and college costs right up to her 22nd birth day. Her Mom had spirited her to California after our quickie divorce when our daughter was in the 5th grade. I flew from Boston out to visit her a few times, but the last time was when she was a high school freshman who 'hated school,' so she said. That was the time she had become a wannabe punk and, according to my daughter at the time, said 'I also have a ring in my pussy,' as she gave me the finger and told me, 'Go away.'"

The Laureate said, "So tell me about yourself and how did you happen to be watching a Community Affairs program on an obscure local channel in Boston that has almost zero viewers compared to the other channels?"

"I live with Mom in Quincy and she can not afford cable TV. Mom follows your career and told me you would be on the program, so I stayed home and watched that TV show with her. "

Shock must have shown on his face as he said, "Kathy, I wasn't aware that she was back in Boston either. And, how is she doing nowadays," still trying to keep the conversation light?

"She is sitting about 20 feet away hoping you will invite her over. You can see for yourself. May I motion her to come here?"

He thought, "No, I don't want to see that Bitch and I have a tight deadline on this project but it has been 8 years. "Yes, Kathy, you may, if you would like."

An almost unrecognizable woman approached the table after Kathy motioned. He was surprised that he had even forgotten how his ex-wife looked because of the passage of time. The makings of a beautiful woman were still there, however, she obviously was going through a rough spot right now. To put it bluntly, she would have worked wonders with outstretched arms standing in a cornfield guarding it against crows.

He spoke up as a long ago repressed sharp pang hit him that her Mom routinely lied with a straight face and said, "Kathy, I would like to chat for just a moment with your Mom - you don't need to excuse yourself because you are 21 - You O. K. with that?"

Kathy, surprised that her Dad would be that considerate, said, "Yes, I will be fine and just eat the lunch you treated me to. Since I can not eat all the food I bought, may I offer Mom some of it?"

"Of course," as I gestured with my hand.

I looked across at the ugly woman and said, "Greetings Megan. Want to sit down and tell me what's going on in your life?" He leaned forward and raised his voice slightly before she had a chance to respond, "But, you are warned: I remember that you have a history of indiscriminately lying. So, the ground rules for a conversation is that if you tell me one lie our conversation is over. Read my lips! No Lies. Having said that, you know about me as it all came out on the Community Affairs TV program, but I know nothing about your and, more importantly, our daughter's history. So would you like to tell me the highlights of the last 11 years?"

She smiled and blushed because she had forgotten his bluntness and that he didn't suffer fools but then she calmed her mind and said, "Hello to you, dear ex-husband. Thank you for talking to me. First my legal name is once again Jenkins, and I am lecturing at a couple of the smaller colleges in the Boston area. I rent a room from a former colleague from the old days. Kathy is temporarily living with me while she gets settled in her new Starbucks job and saves some money and meets some possible Roomies."

He asked, "How long have you two been back in Boston?"

She continued, "Only a month and a half, and things are tight for us right now, but they are better than they have been in that I am now lecturing 6 classes a week." She paused for a moment thinking if she really ought to tell the complete truth. She said truthfully, "Jere, you predicted when I left you for another man that my red hot romance wouldn't last a year. Well, my new husband insisted on an open marriage 14 months after I fell for him. I refused to do that and he left me. But shortly afterwards I found another who I really cared for while awaiting my second divorce to finalize. In time I married husband number three, and that lasted two years before he left and he didn't contest the divorce I filed. At that point I changed my name back to Jenkins because of Kathy and have given up that love and marriage is possible for me."

He said, "But Megan, that doesn't explain why you are back in Boston renting a room?"

She replied as tears were streaming now, "O.K. No lies! I allowed my night school adult student who I knew to be married to seduce me after my third divorce. The student's wife - a member of a Black Women's activist group - asked her organization to go after me and my position at the community college with a vengeance. They pressured the college board to dismiss me actually producing glossy photos that showed me and my lover having sex with his wedding ring prominently displayed - and the board promptly dismissed me unceremoniously. By the way, in my defense, I learned later that I had been set up for they perceived that I had grown 'soft' on the hottest fad in academia right now, Multiculturalism. Kathy and I returned to Boston right away - also, my parents still live nearby. I think I am the only PhD English Professor in Boston academia living like a pauper because all I can get in this crowded market are lectureships."

He said, "Megan, that is a stroke of bad luck for sure because adultery and fornication is the norm in academia and all other fields too, I guess. But your poor father worked two jobs so you could stay in graduate school and earn your PhD. Does he know you no longer have a career track job and are now lecturing?"

She replied, "No. He is old and ailing and I don't have the heart to tell him, but I plan to later." She shook her head and blew her nose and continued, "You know, Jere, everything you warned me that would happen to me when you plaintively ask me not to destroy our family has happened. I especially recall when you pleaded with me for us to start over. Every disastrous thing you predicted seems to have happened - I still grimace when I remember that my moving out was the only time I ever saw you cry. I distinctly remember your exact words were, 'There is no happy ending with my hot new lover or the exciting life I was going to pursue in California.' You even warned that my red hot romance would last at most a year and I thought you were nuts at the time."

"Megan, I didn't then and I don't now seek revenge, and I am sorry you have hit bottom at barely past 40 years old."

She replied, "I know, its not like you to ever have cared enough about me to seek revenge, but you observe your revenge in spades, anyway." Looking at their daughter she continued, "The collateral damage was that I destroyed the mind of our daughter in the process of mindlessly jumping on to the hot academic bandwagon movement at the time and the hot lover who was a stalwart spokesman of that movement. Words like this at a time like now sound trite, Jere, but truly I am sorry for not only nearly killing Kathy as well as gravely hurting you in the process."

He said, "Me? Yes, my pain was severe, but it was short lived. So will you tell me about your plans for the future?"

She said, "My first order of business is learning to live with myself again, having full knowledge of my treachery. But I started to be on the mend when I watched you on TV."

He said, "That is good news although I can not imagine what statements I made to which you refer. So tell me more details about your plans for the future, if you would."

She replied, "For starters, the one bit of good news is that I am free of the ten most common sexually transmitted diseases," as she opened her purse and held up a charity clinic test results. She continued, "And, for what it's worth, Jere, this is the first time in recent memory I have spoken ten sentences in a row without lying once - either directly or by omission. Once I complained because you were an unfeeling 'hard-ass.' How stupid I was and how glad I would be now if I could find another hard-ass of my own."

"Megan, thanks for deciding to tell the truth and please continue truthfulness whenever you speak or think. The fact is, however, that neither of you look well - you both radiate very poor mental and physical health. I would be interested in knowing the preliminary rehabilitation steps and future plans for your life, if you would like to share them today."

She replied, "The former colleague I bunk with is a disfigured old widow who lives alone in her home place. The home is one-half mile from the subway stop - my rent is prepaid for four months. I will probably grow old with her in that home. Also, Gym memberships are 10 dollars per month and it's walking distance from my rented rooms. I will start working out this week. I will continue to lecture full time - lots of students attend the required courses I teach - while quietly staying on the lookout for a tenure-track teaching position. For companionship I will do volunteer work with babies, and to look for love I intend to have some one-date Internet dates while I look for a 'you'll-do' type companion. Thanks also to watching you on TV I think I can now spot the players vs those who search for a meaningful relationship with a woman."

He replied, "Basically, I think your plan is sound. But the Internet is full of mixed-up people. You sure you now can differentiate the real from the fake - since you are well aware that the fake don't even know they are fake themselves?"

"Yes, because I learned from you! How did you put it, let me think: 'Be very frightened when a candidate lover 'just' feels right - or even a candidate employee job hunting, for that matter, if I ever get into management.' Going back eleven years, it's horribly funny that I had a real problem trying to figure out how you found out about my affair that had just gotten seriously underway - you took no pictures, used no detectives, amassed none of our joint assets for yourself and I was very careful to maintain the status quo with and around you. But, one day I was getting ready to go to my former campus and was served your divorce petition while you were giving a paper in a conference at Texas A&M. Then, last week when watching you on TV it sunk in just how important thinking is for matters of relationships - i.e., smoke-and-mirrors mean nothing for someone who has a presence of mind 24/7 and who never acts on feelings. That is my plan for the future also. Of course I am also aware that a 'you'll-do type' might read me as some hollowed out, used up Bitch crippled with iceberg moral conflicts and will say 'no' to a committed relationship with me. If so that means that I will have to settle for bed hoping for companionship — and that is the reason I said I probably will just be another old maid because I have done enough of the latter for one life time."

Jere suddenly was tired and disgusted even talking to his ex-wife but, like any Human, he wanted to reach out and help her. Standing up for the first time and shaking her hand, he said, "You know your English Language trade very, very well, Megan - when you were a tenured professor you worked wonders teaching Lit and Essay writing to students badly in need of remedial English. Be confident that you continue to have that skill and every year the new crop of students entering college need people with your skills even more desperately than the year before, and you can help them. Good luck to you, Megan, and thanks for introducing me to my daughter again. Would you mind excusing Kathy and me so I can catch up with her plans for the future?"

As she stood, Megan said, "Thanks for listening to me and for being nice about sharing Kathy's food."

"No promises, Megan, but you just might get a query about your internet dating site from a member named, 'Jere.'"

At that she was gone and he was left with his frustrating thoughts.

Jere had noticed that Kathy's tears that had continually flowed lightly during her Mom's and his conversation were now pronounced. He said, "It looks like your Mom ate your food so let's take a pee break. Then why don't you get me a cup of coffee with a cookie and you get whatever else you want, and then lets chat for a while," he said handing her another twenty dollars?

His daughter smiled for the first time, which brought a burning sensation in his eyes as he forced back tears. She said, "Thanks, Daddy,"

After they had settled back into their seats, Kathy told him a tale of woe that she had brought on herself - including her two abortions, drug rehab, being a herpes victim so that she intended to have no sex ever again because of her very pronounced and painful outbreaks, and that she had wasted the college expense money her Dad had paid. She said, "I graduated near the bottom of my class with a useless degree. Worse, that degree rendered me unemployed and unemployable in any related field." An hour and a half later she concluded, " I will start cultivating relationships so I can find a couple of roommates and move out on my own. You should know that I have learned a similar lesson to the one that Mom has learned from you and will start to 'plan my work and work my plan' as of today. Do you remember, Dad, that that was the last piece of advice you gave me as a 9th grader before I told you to, 'go away!' and gave you the 'finger?'"

Remembering the incident vividly, he stood up and was silently crying for the first time. A part of him wanted to embrace his estranged daughter so much, but he dared not send a signal she was in no position to read yet. So he asked in stead, "Kathy, would you like to have lunch with me here every Monday so you can tell me about your progress rebuilding your life, and, more importantly, we can get to know each other again?"

"Oh yes, Daddy. Thank you. Thank you," as she walked off.

When on his way back home he decided to stop off at his store-more rental and take home the box of photos gathering dust there.

At home the first thing he looked at was their wedding pictures. He was shocked at how beautiful his bride was, and even took a magnifying glass and examined her eyes carefully to see if there were any signs he had missed indicating she might go off the rails: but there were none. He still felt coldness when recalling their intimate moments during the first decade of their marriage, "You had to be thinking with your cock, Jenkins!"

Next he looked at Kathy's baby pictures. He suddenly felt very depressed remembering how enamored he had been of that infant. He just took over the care and feeding of her thinking - "I suspect I changed her diapers, bathed, and fed her 90 percent of the time." He thought at the time that his wife was busier than him, but it dawned on him today that she really wasn't busy and was only floundering: "But why did she insist that we have a child?" As he closed and resealed the box again he thought about his ex-wife and said, "Good riddance to you, Bitch!"

——

For the 7th weekly luncheon meeting of Kathy and her father, he had invited her to come to his condo where he would fix a lunch and show her his three bedrooms and office home. In the interval since the first luncheon they had met again each of the Monday meetings and they gradually morphed into excitement for both as they looked forward to the food court meetings. Her complexion and personality had improved remarkably and apparently she had bought some cosmetics so she looked more presentable. Their laughter was heard frequently now and the unspoken agreement was that neither would discuss her mother. He agreed to pick her up at the nearest subway station from his condo and deliver her back there after the lunch meeting.

He pulled up to the subway station drop off parking area and saw her waiting. She really started to look like her father now, he noted with pleasure, and smiled because a young man dressed in a suit was trying to start a conversation with her. For the first time it dawned on him that she was quite beautiful, as he was sure the would-be suitor noticed as well.