Valuable Lessons

On this one I bundle a few tropes together. The primary motivating one that inspired me to write this story, was the one about the family intervening to save a marriage after infidelity. The other ones should become apparent as the story goes on. I'd like to say that what happens here was based in part on a real incident (as many of the elements in my other stories are), but what transpires here has never, ever, happened... as far as I know. The characters though, are inspired by personalities I've run across over the years.

I met my wife Linda by a quirk of fate. I also found out she was cheating on me by a quirk of fate. Although the events were separated by years, those two things occurred at the same location. That location was at my place of business in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The business I started came about by accident. I'd gone to the University of Hawaii with every intention of getting an MBA and then landing a job at a Fortune 500 company. Even with in-state tuition, I still had to work to put myself through school since my family wasn't exactly loaded. I had developed a fascination with how computers worked in high school, so in order to get extra money in college I parlayed my acquired skills into repairing computers for other people.

Eventually, I started building my own and selling those at a cheaper rate than someone would find walking into a Best Buy. I got my bachelor's degree, but decided not to go to graduate school. I had started my own business, so why would I want to work for somebody else? I realized in college that I didn't play well with others. That lesson was as valuable as my degree.

I met Linda's brother Don before I met her. He had a computer issue, or rather his father's. He'd brought in his dad's old Intellivision gaming console. This was an obscure piece of gaming hardware going back to the 1980s. Don's father was nostalgic about it and Don wanted to have it restored for his father's birthday. The thing hadn't worked in over 10 years, but Don discovered it in an attic or a basement or something.

Don Eldridge was built like a brick. His chest was close to a rectangle. Solid. He'd played football as a defensive tackle in high school and college. Back then he'd let his curly brown hair grow long and wild and had a beard to match. Add in a very large nose (which could have been called a trunk), combined with his name being Don, and it was inevitable someone got around to calling him, "The Mastodon." That name stuck, although it did get sometimes shortened to "Mastodon." Every time he made a great play fans would make an elephant noise. While physically the man was imposing, his demeanor couldn't have been friendlier.

Don was always the guy who gave a hand to pick up a player he'd just leveled. He had a sense of fair play as well as some fearsome skills on the football field. Had he not blown out a knee in his final year at the University of Hawaii, he might have made it to the NFL. The Mastodon was Hawaiian royalty. Even though I'm not athletic in the slightest, I'd always followed the Rainbow Warriors. Yes, that is a real team name, assumed by our mutual alma mater, long before rainbows were cool.

Don came in with the gaming console/relic and said, "I hear you can help me with a thing." The man wasn't exactly eloquent, but he did have a knack for communicating.

While I had decided continuing in college wasn't for me, I had a bit of loyalty to the place I'd spent four years learning what I didn't want to do with the rest of my life. I was a bit fan struck. "Mastodon! I can't believe Hawaii's most eligible bachelor has come to my place. Oh, I'm Ryan, by the way. Ryan Nowack."

He gave me a friendly slap on the back that almost dislocated a shoulder, "Well Ryan, I won't be a bachelor much longer. For some reason a woman has accepted my proposal to marry my ugly ass. My sister is the attractive one in the family."

That wasn't setting the bar exactly high. I quoted him my price, which was at a discount (read breaking even), because of my appreciation for the man. I did ask for a signed photo of him that I could display if he was satisfied with my service. I wasn't going to let that marketing class I took go to waste.

Two weeks later I did meet Linda when she came to pick up Don's restored Intellivision, because he was doing a local commercial or taking tourists out on his boat for "Mastodon Tours." I was smitten. She had the same curls in her long brown hair that her brother did. Her nose was not quite so prominent, and she was quite a few inches shorter. In essence, she had a lot of the same features in a much more attractive and diminutive package that also included breasts and dimples. She wasn't a knockout, but she was certainly attractive and had a girl-next-door kind of sex appeal. Think Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing.

We started dating and that's how I met her best friend, as well as her brother's wife, Candice. Candice and Linda had grown up together since elementary school. Candice had had a crush on Linda's older brother (by four years) Don, ever since she'd hit puberty. Eventually Candice bloomed into a woman and Don noticed his sister's friend and courted her. Or something like that. That's the saccharine version I was told.

I'm pretty sure what happened was Candice turned into a hottie. She's one of those Hawaiian women that you see on tourism ads. A mix of Asian and native islander with God knows what other piece of attractiveness thrown into the recipe. There was no doubt in my mind that she set her sights on him and he was powerless to resist.

I was the odd man out when we all got together. The three of them all had shared memories that I wasn't a part of. Eventually I settled in though. One thing that came up was Candice was never called by the obvious nickname "Candy." She shut down any attempts at that nickname and one night when I asked her why, she responded with, "Candy sounds like a stripper that's an airhead. That is not how I ever wanted anyone to think about me."

Don and Candice got married, and Linda and I did soon after. Linda and I had two children. For the sake of this story, their names are "Thing 1" and "Thing 2." Don was firing blanks and he and Candice both wanted kids, so their route was adoption. Don and Candice adopted two. They adopted each child at about the same time Linda had given birth to our own. Adoption does take time, but it was like we were all in sync with each other.

It was great to be part of a strong quartet. We loved being around each other, our kids played with their kids, and we were just in each other's lives on an almost daily basis. Naturally something that perfect can't last. The gods hate perpetual happiness in our lifetimes.

I had grown my business so much that Linda didn't have to work. Not only was I repairing and building computers, I was also restoring old arcade games and home gaming systems. I thank Don for that particular piece of inspiration. I could repair an Atari 2600 or could restore the "Journey" arcade game back to perfect working condition. Some people will pay a lot to play a substandard video game as long as the music of Journey is in the background.

The change that came was when our kids were both old enough to go to school. Linda wanted a part time job. I had no issue with it, why would I? I didn't want my beloved to be bored. She took a job for a credit card company in their call center. It was four hours a day and she was always able to send the kids to school and be back before they got home. I was happy, she was happy, we all should have been on a poster for how families are supposed to be.

It was Candice that inadvertently revealed the fact Linda had been cheating on me. It was a typical day at work for me when Candice called me up and said, "Ryan! I really need you to work on my computer! It's an emergency. I need it right now!"

The emergency was that her laptop was a hunk of metal that wouldn't even start up. Candice was an aspiring novelist and her stories were only in that laptop. I assured her I'd do my best, after giving her a lecture about the need to back up one's work on a thumb drive, then dug in.

It wasn't really hard to recapture the data. Candice had let her virus protection expire so she got shut down by visiting or downloading something she shouldn't have. Curiosity getting the better of me, I looked for the culprit. It turned out it was a picture Linda had sent in an email.

That email contained a photo of a very good looking man with his shirt off. I would find out later his name was Hunter Sampson. Linda's text that accompanied the photo was, "This is my boss!"

The photo plus the exclamation point made me explore Candice's email exchanges with Linda. Without going into specifics, Linda's boss had sent her that photo and she shared it with her BFF.

I'll say this for my sister-in-law, she interrogated Linda about what had happened. What had she said that her boss felt free to send a picture to her of him showing off his magnificent abs? She was merciless in that email exchange when Linda tried to put it off as it was just a picture of him surfing he sent because she was interested in seeing a photo of him surfing. Candice really let her have it and told her in no uncertain terms that she was very close to crossing a line. Linda backpedaled and agreed. She made all the right noises and said she wouldn't encourage something like that again.

It all looked good. Still, I was suspicious. Had it ended there after Candice chastised her? I couldn't be sure so I looked at Linda's laptop. Knowing that she was aware of what I did for a living, I knew she'd be smart enough to delete any damning emails and also be smart enough to empty the trash can if she had sent anything that shouldn't be seen. What she didn't delete, was her "Sent" messages. That trips so many people up.

That folder was a cavalcade of enlightenment. A lot of her messages were a reply to a previous message, so I got a pretty good picture quickly. By a picture I mean, Linda sent him a picture of her tits. She hadn't sent one of her pussy, even though Hunter had asked. She told him she'd send one when he sent a picture of his penis. He just told her she'd have to have to see it in person because no photo could do it justice. After that, the later emails got worse. Yup, they'd fucked after that. They both raved about how good each time they met was and couldn't wait until the next time they got together.

I did the thing any normal person would do after going through his wife's personal email and discovering what I discovered. I decided to confront her that night. It was going to have to be handled delicately since it was a Wednesday and the kids had school the next day. Having the neighbors call the cops was not how I wanted the night to turn out. Kids tend to remember moments like that.

So when I got home that night, I responded to her when she said, "Hey dear, how was your day?," with, "Let's talk about it later."

She got the feeling I was troubled. I guess I have a terrible poker face. She didn't press me and we had dinner and put the kids to bed.

We went to the couch and she looked at me and said, "Whatever is on your mind, I hope you know you can talk to me about it." She looked at me expectantly.

"I'm so glad I can. It can be hard for a man to open up with his feelings. You've really made me feel comfortable that I can with you right now." I placed my hand over the top of hers.

Linda seemed touched, "Of course you can honey. I am your safe space."

She squeezed my hand and I squeezed back as I looked her directly in the eyes and said, "Thank you for that. I'm really bothered that you've been fucking your boss. So I'd really like to talk about how we handle the divorce so it doesn't hurt the kids."

She pulled her hand away from mine as though it was radioactive. Then her face went white and she made a noise that sounded like an animal dying as she exited out the front door, got into her car, and drove away. That didn't go exactly as I thought it would. I had this whole speech prepared to give and her leaving thwarted that. That was a transgression worse than the cheating. I mean, I'd really rehearsed so many choice comments in my head.

So much for confronting things head on, it had just gotten worse. Now I had to get the kids ready for school in the morning, and that was so not my thing. I didn't get my chance to vent or get an explanation and I was suddenly a single father with two kids.

Linda was maintaining radio silence for the next two days. I had no idea where she was or what she was thinking. She'd just disappeared. Explaining where she went to the kids was a stalling tactic. Until I heard from her, I had no idea what to say without traumatizing them. So I told the things something I thought they could understand without worrying. "Momma is visiting Aunt Candice and Uncle Don."

As it turned out, that was true. Linda was staying with her BFF and her brother. I learned that through a phone call from Don who invited me to his home to talk it out while all the kids were away, with Linda present. I love Don and Candice. This was clearly an intervention. Curiosity had me agreeing, as well as a desire to finally be able to deliver my speech. As an added bonus, all of our kids were going to spend a weekend with the grands. That meant there could be yelling.

The intervention happened in the home of Don and Candice. Don and Candice were sitting on a couch, a united couple. Linda and I were sitting in comfortable chairs facing the couch. Thinking back, it was a good arrangement. It's like Don and Candice weren't taking sides, it was more like we were both on trial.

Don started the conversation with, "Ryan, I love you. You've been a great husband to my sister and I will always adore you for that. That said, I know my sister has hurt you. It's hurt me too brah, I want you to know that. I feel pain for both of you."

My fingernails gripped the arm rests of the expensive chair I was in when I said, "Well thank you Don. I'm glad you feel my pain. I'm glad you can empathize. I sure wish Hunter also shared my pain. I mean, he did have a role in causing it. I'd like it if he felt pain all over his body, because that is how I feel right now."

Candice chimed in then, "I hope you are not thinking of physical violence."

"Just a bit. I want to whack him with a cricket bat."

Candice said with a bit of a smile, "Why not a baseball bat?"

"Because I don't want to go to jail for assault and I think a cricket bat is likely to cause fewer injuries. I also like the visual of that flat bat smacking his ass and beyond. I want every part of his body to be so painful it hurts to put on clothing or take it off."

Don said, "That is not practical for two reasons."

"Why not?'

"We live on an island where no one plays cricket. So where will you find a cricket bat?"

Don had a good point. "The second reason?"

"Violence never solved anything."

"I disagree. It stopped fascism in Europe."

"You can't compare Hunter to a Nazi."

"Well you're right there, there is no comparison. A Nazi never had sex with my wife."

Linda finally contributed with, "I know the worst part of it for you must be the lies and the deception. That violation of trust is going to be hard to repair."

I was silent few a few seconds. Everyone looked at me expectantly to see how I'd react to her overture. I said, "Actually that's not the worst part. The worst part is you had sex with someone other than me."

Linda tried to save what she thought was a chance for me to accept her sincere and remorseful admission,"I only had sex with him seven times."

I nodded. "That's a relief. Thank God it was only seven times and not some sort of unforgivable number. Since you all seem to be the experts on this, what exactly would that number be?" I looked at everyone in the room.

Nobody answered that question; I wasn't expecting anyone to, since the question was rhetorical.

Don took point on evading the question. "One time, two times, a hundred times. That's not what is important. What is important is that Linda wants to repair your marriage and is incredibly remorseful."

Candice backed him up before even a second had passed, "That is so true. Can you be sure the problem you have moving past this, just isn't your ego?"

I didn't even have to think about how to answer that. "I can answer that unequivocally, Candice. Of course it's my ego. I just can't believe you are all here trying to minimize that."

Don said, "Listen to me bro, your ego is the something you have control over. No one is trying to minimize it. You can empower yourself by conquering your ego. Why let that stand in the way of true love? Look at it this way, forgiveness is a gift you not only give to another person, but to yourself."

I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone, or Los Angeles. I asked Linda, "So if I had an affair with a woman seven times over a three month period, you'd forgive me?"

"Oh yes, yes, and yes. I'd hate it. It's the worst thing I could imagine, but I'd take you back. I'll prove it to you. Have an affair, get even with me. I deserve it. I want you to have an affair. Please do it if it will bring us back together. It can be with anyone you want. My best friend or worst enemy or a total stranger."

I'll admit she was saying all the right words. Those words didn't answer the question as to why she'd done it in the first place, so I asked the question, "Linda, why did you do it in the first place?"

"It had nothing to do with you, Ryan. When Candice and I were double-dating, she always got the attractive one and I got the less attractive friend. I never got the hottie. This was the one time the hottie was interested in me."

That didn't help my mood. I know I'm not a hottie. What surprised me was Candice seemed more pissed than I was. She went off, "Are you really blaming this on me, you bitch?" I was worried that Candice was going to claw her face off, but Don restrained his wife.

Linda rose up off her chair and said, "I'm not blaming you at all. I was just jealous, oh please don't think I'm blaming you. You are my sister. It was my insecurity. I don't want to lose our friendship."

Candice quit struggling in Don's arms and said,"You'll never lose my friendship. We have always been, and always will be sisters. I'm sorry you didn't get the hotties. You deserved one, although none of the hotties measure up to my Don. I wish you had one early, to know that looks are not the most important thing."

I was feeling like the conversation had somehow gotten away from me, and right then, I was most concerned about me. I tried to get it back on track. "Candice, I know you love your best friend and you say I am a good friend as well. If I cheated on Linda would you be equally forgiving? Would you still encourage me your best friend to reconcile with me?"

Candice somehow pivoted from the emotional moment earlier, and said, "Yes I would. Here's why, she was able to compartmentalize it. What she did had nothing to do with you. She was living two separate lives."

I said, "That sounds like such horseshit."

Candice said, "I know it's hard for men to understand, but all women have the ability to do that to some degree."

That was also unexpected. I turned to the only other man in the room to get his opinion. "So let me get this straight Don, if Candice cheated on you over a period of three months, you'd forgive her?"

Don looked at me in an affronted manner, "That's a ridiculous question. Candice is not some kind of dirty slut who would betray her husband and spread her legs for some man whore and risk her marriage."

Linda started sobbing. The waterworks and vocals were impressive.