The Wednesday Couple

Katie could feel the muscles in her back tense. Her own anger was close to exploding all over this... this thing sitting in front of her.

"Yet you kept seeing him all through your marriage."

It was Mandy's turn to shrug and a hint of a smile escaped her lips.

"My husband had the children he always wanted, so I decided to have something I always wanted: Charlie's cock. It really is amazing and fits so well. But I allowed myself that pleasure only twice a month; after all, any more than that and I would be cheating on my soul-mate, and that would never happen."

Katie realized that as soon as this woman left she would have to bleach the whole porch. She couldn't allow John and Patti to become infected with whatever this loathsome creature had. She realized that Mandy had said something: her ears may have picked it up but her brain refused to listen. Mandy noticed that look of confusion and spoke again.

"He will want children from you. I can see in your eyes that you love him as much as I do, and you will do just what I did to make that man of ours happy. You may fight it longer than I did because it's your nature, but you know now that he's sterile. Even with the love you have for him you will give that man what he wants, and that is a happy home life and children."

Mandy stood and moved towards the porch steps. Katie knew by the look on her face that she had one more parting shot.

"Men like him glow in that environment. Believe me, I watched him puff his chest every chance he got. He's a natural father, and he will love the children you give him with all his heart. It is a big heart, so pick your sperm donor with great care and make sure they look like him. Just make sure that you don't get too involved with the sperm donor. Remember more than twice a month is cheating on him."

Even as she watched Mandy walk towards her car she just knew she couldn't move. No wonder he left her; no wonder he had hated anything that had tits attached to it. No wonder it took her so long to get him to ask her on a date. Ten years with that sociopath of a wife.

*******

"Katie, honey, KATIE! Are you OK, sweetie?"

Marlene nudged her friend once more, worried that this wasn't the Katie she knew. She hadn't even acknowledged her when she walked up the path and sat next to her. Katie's eyes seemed locked on the gate and the vacant parking space beyond. A solitary tear trickled down her cheek. Marlene dabbed at the tear on her friend, and she was scared. All through high school this girl had more cojones than most of the men, and here she was staring off into space crying to herself.

"I saw the devil today, Marlene. It had a pussy and tits, and for ten years it was married to my man. No wonder he was a basket case the day he came here. That bitch played with his mind, his hopes and his mental well-being."

She took a deep breath and finally broke her stare, looking instead at the porch and the spot where that woman had sat.

"I need to bleach the porch, Marlene. I can't let that woman infect us all."

Marlene both helped and watched over her friend through the coming days. As each succeeding day came and went, Katie's spirits seemed to return, and eventually the whole incident became nothing more than a blip in history.

*******

"It's another sunny day out there! Yes, folks, that's the weather forecast for this Tuesday morning, courtesy of Clarksville Radio! And Daniel, honey, this is for you."

As Katie dropped the power to the microphone and upped the power to the record, the phone next to her flashed in silent ringing. Katie picked it up, her attention now divided between the music and the voice of her friend.

"Hey Katie."

Even those two words put her on alert. Marlene was totally see-through where she was concerned; something was up. It still took a moment for her friend to proceed.

"Katie, honey, I have a man here that says he has to talk to you."

"Marlene, why is some man standing in front of you and hasn't come over here to talk to me?"

The pause was longer this time and Katie was even more intrigued.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I asked him the same question, and all he says is that Mandy sent him and he was only to contact you through me."

Her stomach felt like it was going to lose its breakfast.

"Stick him in the corner, Marlene, and can you make sure you give us some room."

"Will do honey. And Katie? He's wearing a suit."

As the song wound down Katie placed another disc into the machine, and her voice went out over the airwaves as though the drama in her life at the moment wasn't even happening. It took her a minute for her eyes to adjust to the room's lighting, as Marlene pointed to a man sitting in the furthest corner of the diner. Katie's own voice came over the radio as she walked towards the table.

The suit stood as Katie got to him, his hand already outstretched. Katie held onto the chair, not even caring if she was being rude. The suit could clearly see the woman was thinking the worst: perhaps she had every right to.

"Miss Whitmore, I'm here at the request..."

"I know who you represent, and I ain't buying what she's selling."

The man sat down and waved at the seat Katie was hanging onto.

"Please, Miss Whitmore, hear me out before you..."

This time Katie leaned over the chair, her eyes giving away the pure anger she felt right at that moment.

"No. You tell her to go to hell."

"She's already there, Miss Whitmore, or pretty close to it; maximum security, in fact. Doing twenty to life: it's why I'm here."

The anger quickly evaporated, to the point she felt her own legs grow weak at the revelation that Mandy was in jail, and she had to sit down. This time the suit introduced himself, and for the next hour he talked and occasionally placed his hand into his case to pull out a file to show her. Marlene would notice her friend's facial expressions, and made it her mission in life to keep them both topped up with coffee and keep everyone out of earshot.

Katie finally stood up. The suit held out his hand and she shook it before he left. The urge was there to ask, but Marlene had known Katie all her life. Katie would tell her when she was ready, and not before.

*******

I was out back when I heard Beryl talking to someone, then the familiar voice that was attached to the love of my life was leaning against the door to my workshop.

"Hey, lover! I'm going to be heading home soon, so I just thought I would pop in to see you before I left. I have to go out of town for a couple of days; something came up that I have to attend to."

The sound of Katie's voice in the middle of introducing another song came over the radio as I watched the owner of the voice look at me. My first instinct was to wrap my arms around her: she looked sad, and yet tried her best not to show it.

"Are you OK?"

Katie seemed to think about the answer before saying. "It's been a real long day, and I just can't see it getting any better for awhile. I have to go see Daddy before I pack."

"Then go see the judge. I will let Beryl go early, and she can swing by our place and make us dinner."

The voice that floated in from the front of the shop made even Katie smile.

"I'm not your God damn slave! If you're letting me go early then I'm going home to cook for my own, not for you."

As Katie moved away from the door, the smile still on her lips, she came over and kissed me. As our lips parted the smile was still there, but seemed forced.

"You two are going to go too far one of these days. Just remember she can kill you with her bare hands."

Beryl's hearing was as sharp as ever.

"Won't be worth it. I would be out of a job and his life insurance expired last week."

Katie giggled on the way out the door, the two girls talking, or I should say whispering, for a minute before she left. It took about five minutes before I got up and walked over to the door. Beryl was still moving stuff around on the shelves.

"If I asked, would you tell me what's troubling Katie?"

Beryl paused, but refused to turn around. Eventually she went back to shifting things on the shelf. The voice that left her lips was the softest I had heard from her since we had known each other.

"Nope, that's down to her to do. But that girl loves you as much as I love my man."

Once Beryl had finally put what she had in her hands on another shelf. She turned and looked at me, then her hand went to her hair and she pulled it away from the side of her face, exposing the burn all down one side of her face and neck.

"My scars are all on the outside. At the moment Katie's are on the inside. But when they come out you better love her all the more for what's she's doing."

I never did see Katie when I got home. She left a note saying she couldn't wait, and that time was against her. I read that damn note several times over the evening, but it still made no sense. Over the next couple of days she would phone, but the conversation between us seemed a little forced, even though we always ended the conversation with an "I love you," both knowing that we did.

The judge disappeared three days later. That was the talk of the town for a day or so; Judge Whitmore hadn't left town in over ten years. He told everyone that he had everything he needed here, so why would he leave? Beryl's time at the shop increased by a couple of hours, even though the work hadn't increased, so I got the feeling that she was keeping an eye on me while Katie was gone.

When I asked Katie on one of our phone calls she laughed and called me paranoid. The next talk of the town was the judge coming back two weeks later. For the first week of his return I didn't see him. He told everyone that he had a backlog of work to do, and locked himself in his office.

This was Clarksville, and crime for us consisted of one town drunk that the Sheriff let sleep it off in the cell on Friday and Saturday nights, and a bunch of college kids that took a wrong turn on the freeway and stopped at the diner for something to eat before moving on. One was brave enough to slap Marlene's ass on the way past, and the townsfolk in the diner at the time got upset about it and decided to help Marlene out.

That day was the first time the Sheriff had to pull his gun out of its holster. I thought that was going to make front page news in our town. Clarksville radio station was still broadcasting; young Emmett Bowden took over from Katie. For the first hour the power went to his head and he played all sorts of stuff; he called it Garage and Rap. We all thought he was talking about where we put the car at night, but he calmed down when Beryl said she needed to go out for a minute on an errand.

She came back with a smile on her face and Emmett started playing stuff we all knew. Beryl still phoned him once a day, and within ten minutes her song to Jordon would go out over the airwaves. When Emmett calmed down he was actually really good, but he wasn't Katie, and everyone in town was missing her. Me more than anyone, of course, but I'm selfish - after all, she loved me and I loved her right back, so in my mind I missed her the most.

The evenings were the hardest. I trusted Katie, but that still left me wondering what was keeping her away from us for so long. She did eventually put me out of my misery when she told me that things were finally going her way and she would be back home in a day or so. She lied: it was actually three days. Beryl brought her boy in with her that day, though she got a call about mid-day and told me she was taking the rest of the day off.

Things were on the slow side, so I didn't complain. Katie came into the shop two hours later, stood in the doorway, and said the words that I believe should be made illegal.

"Honey, we need to talk."

She emphasized those words by turning around and moving the sign across the shop door so it read "Closed." For someone who wanted to talk she kept her mouth shut until she was out back and had me sitting down. Even then she kept pacing and wringing her hands until I told her to stop walking around and spit it out. She smiled and eventually agreed with me, since she grabbed a chair on her last turn and placed it in front of me.

Once she sat she glanced at me, her pain easy to see. That worried me; I had been where she seemed to be at the moment. Finally she grabbed my hands and held on.

"A lot has happened over the last month to six weeks. I just hope you can hang in there and not come unglued."

Instinct made me want to pull my hands away. Katie clamped her hands tighter.

"Oh no you don't; this we have to get out in the open. I'm right in front of you, honey, and I'm not going anywhere. But things have to be said and settled right now."

It was only when Katie felt me relax a little that she did the same. She forced a smile to her lips, and I eventually nodded my head for her to continue.

"Your wife came to see you about six months ago. How she found you I don't know, but Marlene intercepted her and sent her to me. You were over in Chester Grove helping Walter out for a couple of days while his son was at the hospital. In her heart she knew you weren't going back to her. I think all she was doing was letting you know she knew where you were."

Katie once again gripped my hands when she felt me start to shake, but she just kept on talking. She told me the conversation she had had with my wife, and then she looked really hard at me.

"Daniel, it was a childhood illness and, now you know that, you'll have to live with the consequences for the rest of your life. You may be sterile, but that takes nothing from you as a man."

The anger left me when I saw how much pain Katie was in. Every word that left her lips caused her to hang onto my hands even harder. Someone like Katie hated this conversation, yet she felt it had to come out. Her eyes and facial features seemed to be working overtime as she recounted the visit of my wife and the events that lead her to leave in such a hurry.

Katie had debated telling me about my wife's visit, but decided it was best not to. Then came the visit from the lawyer.

"Mandy is in jail, Daniel. She killed her lover."

While I sat in shock at this piece of news, Katie talked. It seems that when Charlie found out I had left he tried to take up the space left by me. Mandy wasn't having it, and told him their deal still stood and that the children were still mine. When Mandy returned empty handed from wanting to bring me back, Charlie went full on. When he realized that Mandy was not going for a divorce he sent his own lawyers in to take his children away or, at least, his son.

Mandy put up a fight with her own lawyer, and for a while things went her way, but money talks and Charlie had a lot of it. When she knew she would lose them she walked up to Charlie in the foyer of the Paradise Hotel, called him a bastard, and emptied a fully loaded gun into his chest.

*******

It was just too much to take in at once. Katie just held onto me, waiting for everything to sink in. Neither one of us could clearly see the other through our tears.

"Where are Sarah and Mark?"

Katie was waiting for my question; her answer explained why she was away from me for so long. Mandy's lawyer came to see Katie, and told her everything at Mandy's insistence. Katie went to see Mandy in jail, and Mandy told her that she needed the children to be kept safe. Charlie was a self made man and had no family.

Mandy knew that the only reason he wanted the children was for them to take over from him and continue his bloodline. To Mandy that was unacceptable; in her eyes they were, and always would be, mine. So between Judge Whitmore, Mandy and her lawyer, and a judge in my old home town, the paperwork was pushed through.

"They are safe. Beryl is with them, and her boy has new friends to play with."

This time the pressure on my hands left me and Katie stood. She held out her hand, but I couldn't move with so many questions still pounding in my head. Finally she sat on my lap, wrapped her arms around me, and buried her head into my neck. Her voice was muffled slightly, but I could still hear and understand her.

"You can run, but you can't hide for long, honey. You have years of your life invested in those children. You're also sterile, so we can't have any of our own. I won't ever betray you like Mandy did, but Mandy has also given you three gifts on the condition that you never try to visit her in jail."

I pulled my head away from hers so that I could see her more clearly.

"She has to deal with her life in jail now, and said that she will refuse any visitors from now on. The three gifts she gives you are Mark, Sarah and an uncontested divorce, so that we can marry and get the children back into a stable family life as soon as possible."

Katie still sat holding me. I'm not sure what sort of reaction she expected; I didn't know myself. With all the inevitable thoughts and fears jumbling around in my mind, the only thing stopping me from bolting home to see the kids, or losing my lunch in the bathroom, was that the love of my life still sat on my lap, constantly talking. It seems that Mandy became suspicious of Charlie and decided to keep an eye on him herself. She followed him to Mark's school, where he sat outside and watched her neighbor collect him and her own son.

Charlie even followed them on to Chuck E. Cheese. Mandy believed then that she had no choice, more so since Charlie had made a point of telling Mandy a few days earlier in their last confrontation that he wanted his son, but she could keep the whiney girl for all he cared. So, under the guise of reconciliation, she asked to meet him at the hotel. I could see the irony of the meeting-place; the Paradise Hotel was the one place Charlie's guard would be down. Once she had killed him she even threw the gun at him before sitting down and waiting for the police.

"She made me emphasize this point, Daniel: they are your children. In your haste to hate her you simply forgot that you are all they know as a father. They don't carry your genes, agreed, but you snuggled up to each of them when they were ill. You were the first to clap when they did something well."

This time Katie did get up and hold her hand out.

"Come home, Daniel, we both have work to do. Those two children need us both from now on, and living in Clarksville is going to help them. They are insulated now. Other than Daddy and Beryl, we are the only ones that know their past. When you get around to asking me to marry you, I will of course ponder on what I'm giving up." She grinned. "But I've been with those two children for the last three weeks, and lived with you for the last year, so I know what I have to gain."

*******

Walking through the door at home brought a mixed bunch of emotions. Both the children were hesitant to begin with, and who could blame them? I hugged Beryl and thanked her before she left. Sarah dived at me, and clung to me like glue. It took Mark a while longer, but we all had over two years of life missing from each other. We talked and talked to catch up, and finally even Mark came around. Mandy's lawyer came by two days later with the paperwork; the judge looked it over and told me to sign.

We left everything as it was for a month while the divorce went through and the children settled in, but both Katie and I knew we had to go back and sell the house and close everything down when we got there. Beryl and Jordon offered to look after the children, and Emmett leapt at the chance to look after the radio station.

Goodwill became real busy for a few days as the house emptied after the "For Sale" sign went up, reducing Katie and me to inhabiting sleeping bags in Sarah's old room. I popped in to see my old boss to thank him, as well as introducing Katie to him. Within two weeks of walking into my old house we were driving away with ten boxes of clothes, photos and paperwork all stacked neatly in a U-Haul.