Nobody Done No Wrong

Well

This was actually a pretty bland tale. Both husband and wife had different priorities in life and the marriage didn't matter. Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

After all these years....

JPB has been publishing unfinished and poorly finished tales by the hundreds for years now. He's finally gotten to the point that he's submitting character studies without an actual story.

It may have been a character study...

...but I liked the character.

I personally would call it a slice-of-life tale with little snippets of the guy's life over a period of years.

i expected more

i really did expect much more of a story than this unfinished drivel, maybe you need to take more time with a story and think it through more because i always read your stories but they seem to be going downhill.

sad

sad tale but happens a lot when "I" takes over from "us"

You are right

a slice of life... an excellent look at a relationship thanks 5

HE STILL HASNT LEARNED ABOUT LIFE

EZ COME---EZ GO.....let-em know Its Over...after George's song listen to Roy Orbison and Freddy Mercury. TK U MLJ LV NV

That would be

Thank you for your new works!

I liked it...Not really a story, but...

I liked it...Not really a story, but fragments of part of a life...He and his wife got lost in their married life...the "No fault no blame, nobody done no wrong.", it's not tatally true...they were both in fault...3*

4*s

First time in a year or more , a complete story . Not just a scene . Not a ' make your own ending' story.
Believable characters , good dialogue . Enough sex . An interesting conflict .
I enjoyed this so much, you got 4*s . It reminds me of the well written, completed stories you used to post, JPB .
Thank you so much.


AMerryman

Soild

A good outline of a story, can't wait to see how you flesh it out and too see the final product

Ok

Okay to live like boyfriend and girlfriend and fuck, but that is not a marriage. It is a circular relationship. It does not go anywhere. For the most part, marriages are planned by women. They are more likely to have and follow a life plan based on marriage than a man. Men or more likely to focus on a career plan. When you have two people focused on careers instead of the marriage - you have no reason to stay married. It is a dead end. I have never understood couples that do not have children either by birth, adoption or at least foster care. Caring for children is one of the most basic instincts and one of the most fulfilling.

depressing

I want to go hang myself in the broom closet after reading this.. sheesh,.

Well writen

But the ending just drops off a cliff. Please finish this story.

after a lifetime of confusing good sex with love....

he finally realizes he has never known "true" love at all. The thinking point of this tale is SO subtle that it is hardly mentioned. Would kids (i.e. Sugna's now-famous POV) have made the difference for this marriage, or not? It is a blessing that kids were not involved in a relationship that was destined to fail? Or if kids had been a reality, would that have changed the priority focal points, and perhaps bound them closer, allowing the marriage to persevere? JPB doesn't offer the answer, but say what you will.....he DOES prompt you to ask the question!

From Pauline French to XYZ Corp., the comfortable nature of a JPB tale insured that this would be the first (and turns out ONLY) story I would read from the new LW listing today. I said it before, but THANKYOU very much Bob for continuing to contribute here. Maybe some will slam this effort, but you never struck me as one who cares about scores. In anycase, don't forget that I think in more cases than not, your efforts really ARE appreciated! Keep 'em coming!

We wish you would hang yourself anywhere dear anony anywhere!!!!!!

5 for a good read and effort. Thanks for the story!!

Kind of a lie, really. It was his fault. He wasn't looking deep enough, and for the right character traits.

Your male character was really into the quality of the sex his girl friends brought to his relationships. Maybe he should have been a little more into the quality of the person? How about her soul, her character, how she demonstrated respect, dignity, ethics, compassion, and self-sacrifice? Since JPB hates psychoanalysis of cheating and betrayal, we have no idea why his relationships failed. Only that he found himself being betrayed by women who ended up being selfish cheaters with no love or respect for him. But, hey, they fucked really really good.

Now really, how hard is it to discern a woman who does not really love and respect you, and thinks more of herself than her partner? In fact, its easy. Most guys who get betrayed never had the nerve to test the person or the relationship, and accept that the test results indicated a low probability of success. My God, a woman gets the dream promotion of her life, and she goes out to celebrate with her girl friends instead of her husband? And this distant cold relationship was news to him? And she never acted this distant or disinterested before now? Bullshit. He wasn't looking, didn't care, or was so disinterested in her and her career that she wasn't really part of his day to day thoughts and concerns. This drifting and separation doesn't happen over night.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times, or more? He's been fooling himself all along. And that's his fault.

Thank You for a thought provoking story, but it was kind of stupid, like. . ., well, I already said that.

love JPB

as some others have said, its great to have you back posting stories ! Just look at the rest of today's posts in LW, need I say more !

Only Three Stars

I disagree with "no fault/no blame".

For her to blow off their TENTH ANNIVERSARY dinner to celebrate her promotion, and not even THINK of inviting him to celebrate with her, then to be mad at HIM for being upset is unforgivable!

She deserves to be made to split the divorce costs, and if she is making more she should have to pay alimony, just as he would if the positions were reversed.

Thats it?

"Thud!" The sound of an incomplete tale hitting the dirt. The retrospective aspects should have led somewhere interesting and compelling. But no, you left us in the lerch at the building crisis.

Glad

to see the return of the infamous Pauline French. Will she ever get a bigger role? Needed more/better tags.

fireworks

I was hoping there would be some more fireworks. The way it started out by being dumped on so many times seemed like a build up for when he got married.
Then again you always had a way of putting a bit of a twist into some of your stories.

Good and realistic.

Would have been better with some more emotion at the end.

anon.1

Basis of the Song

Happened to meet the songwriters who wrote that song and the song was based on the demise of one of the writers divorce which had recently taken place. (The other writer proudly pointed out that he contributed the "vaya con Dios" to the refrain.)

oh my god

did I just read that the man actually paid for a divorce . in most of JPB stories the male characters would rather suffer than paid. other than that it was good read

Marriage

Marriage is something you get out of it what you put into it. Period. I've been marriage for almost 40 years for a reason.

But I absolutely love telling my wife about JPB's Pauline French! Her response? Every community, every school, has a Pauline French!

Not with a bang but with a wimper

Sad, realistic, and an interesting read. About Annabelle? No! I had more fun reading about MA. That had emotion, tension, and conflict.

When you ran through the rest of the girls, they were mere afterthoughts. I wished that part of the story was longer.

The end...we had the wind up, we had the pitch...and...it was a bunt. We got a single!

And what does the crowd do for a singe? Waits for some action.

A mandatory read (it IS Bob) and better than the last two stories, IMO. Still, it didn't scintillate the way many of your gem stories do.

Thank you for the effort, and I like most of your stories and love an large percentage.

Come on.

Weak ending. You spent more on his high school and collage years then after that and they were married ten years. It needed a better ending.

Is that all there is, JPB ( stupid question on my part ) ?

Then let us keep revising . The crucial conflict read more like a ever increasing in down hearted blog then story. The comments' depth of thought far surpass the narrator's capacity for introspection. Sharks don't live in the past and neither does this çharacter.

Terrific

What an unbearably sad story. A marriage that just sort of wears out from lack of attention. Thanks, JPB. Everyone who's married could learn from this one.

Always a good day when JPB posts a new story.

No fireworks in this one. Just a couple that's more interested in their careers than their marriage. Happens all the time. Well done, albeit sad, story. It would have hurt him to ask for a divorce and have her only comment be "okay". That really is ending a relationship with no fuss, no muss. I wonder if he went back to looking for an "M" girl? More passion there I would assume.

Except for "Vaya con Dios" it was fine

"Not with a bang, but a whimper!"
(The way the World ends)

No longer 'adventurous,' - now Sweetie is 'ambitious!'

Another Tragic Tale

We thought that finally he would get it correct. But he does seem to produce emotional reactions in the opposite sex. Everyone quietly walks away without protesting that they are getting a raw deal.

The future

1. I read a comment from JPB from about 2005. He wrote to a story to complain about the story had not end and it was too short. Yes JPB does not like to write an end to his stories it may be he learned from that author?
2. Here the abrupt end worked well. JPB wrote a very good thought provocating story. His character did well to divorce and his mistake was he did not divorce earlier.
3. More and more young graduated men in the States postpone the marriage plan for the distant future. The % of the married men among the 25-30 years generation decreased into a very low level. It may be the next generation graduated (and non graduated also?) men will start the married life about 40 years old age? Will these 40 years old generation men look for spouse candidates among women who want children prompt after the wedding????????????

true to life

A depressing view of life and relationships. Telling it like it is.
sadly

The Real Deal****

Good read Bob. Thanks for sharing.

Never give up a woman who likes both Dixieland and Bluegrass!

I mean, you can overlook everything else.

Did you suffer a stroke?

Get an editor, man. This is not up to your usual par, and it looks like you're slapping stuff out without proofreading.

Fizzled

I get that nobody done nobody wrong on this occasion, but the story just fizzled out into a 3 star piece of work.

At least she could have paid him alimony or something, being the super rising star VP and all. No emotional cost for her, but no reason not to have some financial pain.

Could make a good regrets follow up story for her --- no love, no kids, and no life. If you are not more that your career, then you are really nobody and you just don't realize it yet.

Plot? Missing.

The ending wandered off into a swamp and died.

****

Good read till the end.
That died worse than the relationship.

Oh gosh...

This was a good, though unhappy, story.

Our hero seems to have wasted ten years on the wrong woman. I got the inference he was interested in kids; gee, the ten year deferral would put a bite on that. She sure savaged his pride, broke his heart, hurt his feelings, and revealed her primary focus. Maybe it was time to move on. Do the "walk like a man" thing.

On the other hand Annabelle wasn't being sexually unfaithful, just unfaithful and indifferent in other ways. Jake might have accepted the circumstances and stayed married. He seemed to be getting enough sex. He could use his time to enjoy other pursuits. Jake could've bought a boat. He could've bought a cabin by a lake. He could've gotten season tickets to the opera. He could've bought a horse, bought a condo at the beach, learned to fly, or sky dive, or build a car like Stang Star, or mountain climb. He could've done a lot of things with other people, even other women if he was discreet.

Let's remember he'd been burned a few times already. The worst that could happen was for Annabelle to find another man, but Jake had already been there. Yeah he could've ridden that pony till she either dropped dead from overwork, found another guy, or decided to settle down.

Yeah kind of cool. She has an accident rushing from one meeting to the next. She becomes a paraplegic. Jake spends the next twenty years the loyal husband sending her emails with pictures showing her where's he vacationing. "Oh gee Annabelle. Did I miss our anniversary again? But don't you remember the card I sent you from... I really miss you, might even make it home for Christmas."

Thanks for the story Bob. You could've have had a little more fun with it though.

Jedd Clampett

You need so,ex help from Paul Harvey or FTDS.....

.....because that broke-ass, tired-and-don't-care-anymore ending, killed an otherwise excellent story!
Anytime a writer kills a story so abruptly, it suggests they've lost their way and don't know where to go next, or lost interest and just want it to go away, or they have some competing interest or demand that overwhelms the effort. In all cases, the result is a poor conclusion.
It's a shame, too. This guy had life experience of themic portent. Carrying that theme awhile longer would likely have made for a longer and probably even more interesting story.
You abandoned the theme about half way through his marriage and began systematically killing the story.
What's up with that?

Um, sex, right?

need more sex.

Keep Up the Good Work Bob

A different kind of marriage with different problems but the same result.

Carvohi complaining about Bob's work - really at least he finishes his. He doesn't make promises he can't keep. The clock is ticking on your unfinished works

responses responses

All too often we find people criticizing others for their efforts when there shouldnt be any. Look at the title it says it all nobody done no wrong. Meaning no one cheated and no one got hurt. So if you realize this, then why ask questions like he should have stayed married for twenty more years. Why stay when the real love was work. Not a person, work. Work is so much more a demanding mistress than any person could be, I have been there I know. Work 90 hour weeks and find time for sex, school or even a spouse. That is the story never told until this one. Good job.

@ xylem69

In fairness, JPB's gig of vague endings if not outright unfinished stories has just gotten old and boring at this stage. This one felt like he didn't even bother with the story part of the story. Thankfully there at least short.

Ignore Carvohi, he's full of shit. For someone who talks such utter bollocks about other authors characters and how the guy should man up and dump the cheater, he has yet to ever do it in his own WACC stories which pretty much just shit on the main character over and over and over again then have him take back the one who was shitting on him, just because.

Much too realistic to be thought provoking. Just another story about two people how did not understand each other and apparently did not recognise it for ten years. I'm sure we've all met them at some time.

Empty

That is what the title should be. And the husband is clearly a loser. She's been fucking someone else. Why wasn't he finding some strange. He must be sissy wimp. But again it was just so empty. Not sure what the point of this was except maybe he was a clueless loser.

Sad.

Empty is more accurate. I wanted to marry my first love, I was 20. A coworker asked me about her and later that week he told me something I haven't forgotten. Forever is a long time with someone you ar'nt in love with. Some time passed and we didn't get married. She's been married more than once, to a less than happy husband.