Joe Ambles
And
John Midden
happyhugo
Romance
41,799 Words
Copyright (c) 12/14/09
Readers score 7.77
Joe has a young man come to work for him in his auto repair
shop. The boy looks just like him. Tracing the boy's mother
takes on various ramifications, some with heartbreak and
disappointments. Much of the story involves the second
generation told by John Midden. Things seem to work out
“Hey Joe, I just hired a kid that looks just like you. Younger, of course, but your spitting image. I didn’t know you had any family. You didn’t spread your seed around about nineteen years ago, did you?”
“Nope, never happen, Pete. What’s the kid’s name and where is he from?”
“John Midden, and he comes from upstate near Bright Springs.”
“Do you have a next of kin listed in his records?”
“Mother, a Mrs. Jonathan Midden. According to what he says, he also has a sister who is a couple of years younger than he is. I almost turned the kid down for the job because he is so young, but he begged me for a chance. The vehicle he was tested on wouldn’t start. He had it running in ten minutes. He made some adjustments in the next fifteen. I put it on the computer. The car runs like a top and everything checks out. I’m going to keep him on even if he does look like you.”
“Okay. Your business anyway who you hire. I hope he works out for us.”
My name is Joe Ambles and I am the son in Ambles and Son, Auto Repair. I own a string of four automotive shops. My father, Joe Senior, is retired and has been for five years. Before that we were partners for ten years and before becoming a partner, I was learning the business. Three of the four repair shops are totally my new acquisitions since Pop turned the business over to me.
I am now through with expanding, as I have the city covered with a shop in all four quadrants of the city. That was my goal and I reached it a year ago. Business is good and I am fast becoming a rich man. Nearing forty years of age, my next goal is to find me a wife.
I did have a wife many years ago named Stacy, but I was concentrating on learning the auto repair business and didn’t pay enough attention to her. She was from money and couldn’t see the sense of me being so work-oriented. Maybe the problem was her folks. They looked down on the boy/man who married their daughter. They made sure that my wife got invited to all of the do’s uptown as they climbed the social ladder. She resisted at first, but I urged her to attend, not wanting her to have to spend time alone evenings while I was learning the business. That was a big mistake.
Before I knew it, those functions became more important to her than I was. When I tried to call a halt to her going out so much, I found it was too late. She had established a lifestyle and had a group of friends she wouldn’t give up. We parted on terms that were not exactly amicable. I resented the fact that she couldn’t see my side of the situation. After some contentious arguments, I was served. The divorce was arranged by her parents and I didn’t even bother to attend any of the proceedings. They moved out of town shortly after the papers were signed.
We hadn’t been married long enough to accumulate much in the way of material goods, and for signing off on the divorce, what was left came to me. Since the divorce, I have never had any contact with Stacy. I still live in the same apartment that we leased together, although I can now afford one much more lavish. That change is on my list of things to do sometime in the future.
Did I ever think back to the time and to the woman I married? Sometimes, but only to the fact I wondered how her life turned out. Was she glad that she had divorced me? Did I wish sometimes that her life had turned to crap? Sure, that would be normal, and I was about as normal as a person could be. Still, in odd moments I missed her, even after this long a time.
I left Ambles Auto Shop-Main and headed over to the Ambles Auto Shop-South, where this kid had been hired by Pete, the manager of this particular shop. Curiosity, I guess. I mean what guy can go and see a younger version of himself? On the way, I tried to fit any possibility of this kid into my past life. What if Stacy had been pregnant when we divorced? That would seem the most probable answer and would make me the father. Maybe I could find out by asking the kid what his mother’s given name was ... discreetly, of course.
Pete was all smiles when I entered the office. “I wondered how long it would take you to get over here. Stand by the window where you can see him. The kid is working on the red car in the third bay. I’ll tell you Joe, that boy is a natural mechanic. I guess his father was into hot rods and taught him a lot.
“His old man left his mother for another woman, she thinks. He is pretty bitter about it. Not so much as how he treated the mother, but in how his father left him and his sister. The kid had plans to go on to trade school to become a mechanic, if not more. I don’t know if it is necessary, he is that good. He is having to work and help support the family now. He told me all of this in confidence, so don’t blow it for me.”
“No I won’t. God, he does look like me, doesn’t he? Take me out to meet him. I have to have a closer look.”
John looked up as we approached. The kid was neat and well-groomed. The shop coat he was wearing was cleaner than those worn by the other mechanics. He put the wrench down that he had in his hand, wiping it with a clean shop rag. “John, I’d like you to meet our boss. This is Joe Ambles and he owns this shop as well as some others. He started much like you are doing twenty years ago. Of course he had the advantage of working for his father. Still he is a first-rate mechanic ... or was. Now he just runs around giving everyone orders.”
“I’m pleased to meet you, Sir. I want to thank you for letting Pete hire me.”
“Not my doing. My managers have full control over who they hire. The downside is they sometimes have to fire someone if they don’t turn out well. Pete tells me you are doing fine. Welcome into our little world.” I shook his hand and turned to Pete. “I have some figures I want to go over in the office.” I turned back to John. “We’ll be seeing each other off and on. Again, welcome.” Pete and I went back to the office after I went down the line of cars being worked on. I knew everyone by name and I spoke to each as I came to them.
When we reached the office I said to Pete, “Give me what you have about where he lived before. His father and mother’s names and their old address. I think I’ll look deeper into the family. Maybe he is a cousin or nephew or something. I’ll hit Pop and my uncles after I find out more. Maybe one of them jumped the fence.”
**********
“Lisa, this is Joe. How are you doing, cousin?”
“Fine Joe. You’ve never called during office hours before. Is this a friendly call or do you need my services?”
“I need your services.”
“I don’t have an operative available right now. Is it something you need immediately?”
“Nope. I wish you could handle it personally though. Nothing may come of what I want, but I want it kept as discreet as possible. You might even be involved slightly.”
“How so?”
“Can I take you out to dinner tonight so I can tell you all about it?”
“Wow, this must be serious if you are springing for dinner.”
We made a date. Lisa was my cousin. She was in law enforcement for awhile, but finally went to work as a private investigator. She married the owner of the agency and they were the top ones in the city.
After dinner we sat down and planned what I wanted her to do. “Lisa, Pete just hired a kid as a mechanic. He looks enough like me to be my son. His name is John Midden. There is a younger sister who I haven’t seen and a mother named Mrs. Jonathan Midden ... no given name. Their home address is over on Spruce Street and I don’t think they have been in town very long. Originally they came from somewhere near Bright Springs, up in the northern part of the state.”
“Why the interest? They say everyone has a double somewhere.”
“You go into South Shop tomorrow. The kid has the third bay assigned to work in. When you see him, that will be the answer to that particular question. I guess I want to rule out that he isn’t family and that is why I want him checked out. Take as long as necessary. I think I have given you enough to start with. The trouble is, this will be all the information I can get without asking questions myself.”
“Okay, I can take a look at him tomorrow. It may be a week before I can start as we are pretty busy right now. Let’s see, I’ll spend two or three days finding out what I can here and then maybe a week tracing his background somewhere upstate. That’s only if I think he looks enough like you so I can’t shoot you down on this. I’ll call you in three weeks for sure if I can get any information to give you. Anything else?”
“You might ask around as to what happened to Stacy. The thought came to me that she might have been pregnant when we divorced.”
“You still carrying a torch for the bitch?”
“No, nothing like that.” I understood Lisa’s derogatory comment and sentiment. At the time I was courting Stacy, Lisa was more than half in love with me herself. Being cousins, it couldn’t go anywhere and we knew that ... but admittedly there was an attraction between us .... still is. Lisa was perceptive enough to know that Stacy and I were too much different for the marriage to work back then. She saw it, where at the time I didn’t. Man has to learn from his mistakes.
“Hah! I bet. You’d take her back in a minute if you found out this kid was yours by her.”
“No. Think about it. There is no stretch that this John would turn away from the mother who raised him to a woman that discarded him. Right now the kid is helping support his mother. That’s the woman who raised him. There must be a lot of love between them.”
“I guess you are right. I’ll get on things as soon as possible. You’re buying dinner again in three weeks. Invite Matt too. He claims I’m out too much alone at night.”
I heard from Lisa the next evening. “I went in and saw your son. Honest, Joe, he has to be. I’m starting on your case as soon as I can get a couple of things cleared up at the agency. I’ll keep in touch. Love you, bye.”
I didn’t go near Ambles Repair Shop-South as often as I normally would. It was too upsetting thinking I might have sired a son about twenty years ago. Of course the chance that he wasn’t, outweighed the possibility that he was.
Lisa called on the fourth day. “Joe, I saw the mother and the sister. They work in the mall on Maple Avenue. The girl looks nothing like either you or the boy and I got a real good look at the mother when I struck up a conversation with her at lunch time. She’s a talker. I do know she is raven-haired and not blonde. She is still married, but not living with her husband. He left the family three years ago. I’ll have to go farther back into their past to find out what happened. I suspect it was another woman. By the way, the mother’s name is Annalee. I’ll keep you posted. I’m heading north in the morning.”
I surmised that it would be a week before I heard from Lisa again. Would she have information? She would have something, because she was good at what she did. I hoped what she came up with would answer all of my questions.
I still did not go often to Shop-South. I didn’t want the boy to know I was showing any interest in him. My dealings with Pete, my manager, were done over the phone and if I needed to meet face-to-face, I called him into Ambles Repair Shop-Main.
I did meet the mother, Annalee, and it wasn’t at my instigation. I was having a sandwich one noon at the mall when I noticed this woman staring intently at me from three tables away. There was a young woman with her and there was a family resemblance between the two. I ignored the women at the table when I went out.
I was back the next day. This time there was no hesitation. The two women came to my table before I had little more than sat down. “Sir, may I interrupt your lunch for a minute? You have been described to me and I think we have a common acquaintance. Do you know John Midden?”
“Yes, I know who he is. He works in one of my repair shops. How do you know him?”
“He is my son. My name is Annalee Midden. This is my daughter, Brenda. Would you join us at our table?”
“Umm, have you ordered yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Why don’t you join me, then?”
“We couldn’t impose.”
“No imposition. Sit down, please. You know who I am if you are John’s mother. I have only had a chance to speak to him once. Pete, my manager, is impressed with his automotive knowledge. It’s unusual to find that much expertise in one so young. Tell me about him.”
“John is intelligent. His father, Jonathan, was into building hot rods, but not very successfully and sometimes to the detriment of feeding and supporting us. He left me three years ago. John immediately signed up for auto shop as soon as he was eligible in high school. He received straight A’s all the first year and actually helped the teacher his last year. He was hoping to go into automotive engineering. Not much chance of it now.
“I work as a clerk here in the mall. Brenda works part-time in a fast food place. Between us we make out pretty good. John is the only one earning good wages.”
“You are divorced, I assume?”
“No I’m not. I am saving up money so I can get one and I’m half-way there.”
“No chance of reconciliation?”
“No!” This was an explosive exclamation.
I had been observing this woman as we were speaking. I would say she was a year or two older than me. She was tall for a woman ... maybe five-ten. She did have a pleasant face and was well proportioned. With her raven hair and with a better choice of clothes, she would be striking.
“What did you do before you moved here? I don’t mean to pry. I’m just interested.”
“That’s okay. I worked as a receptionist, parts person, and did some estimating in an auto body shop. I was laid off and lost the discount that my husband used to buy car parts. That is when he decided to look for someone who had better prospects than me. Since that time I have worked wherever I could. Most often at minimum wage. Someone that worked for you years ago was a friend of the teacher in John’s class, and he told John about your shop down here. John came down and was hired. Brenda and I followed.”
“And why did you feel free to approach me today?”
Annalee’s face got red and she paused before answering. “John described his big boss as someone that looked remarkably like him. He was puzzling over how that could be. When I saw you yesterday, I just took a chance because you do look so much alike. John has known that he was adopted as a week-old baby. Are you John’s father?”
“I don’t think so. I was married years ago and divorced, but if my wife was pregnant at the time, I didn’t know it. Do you know the name of the birth mother?”
“No. That is something I have tried to find out and haven’t been able to. John will have to do it and he can now that he is nineteen. Hopefully he can pick up her trail. You must have seen the resemblance between you and John. Hasn’t it made you a little curious?”
“Yes, of course. Would you trust me to tell me what hospital John was born in? That might give me a start in finding my ex-wife so I can ask her if I have a child by her.”
“Yes, only it wasn’t a hospital. It was a doctor’s home. The doctor has been dead for many years. I don’t know if there are any records still available. I’m not sure there was even a birth certificate filed. Jonathan and I had trouble getting John a SSN. We had to find two people to give a deposition that there was a baby born at the doctor’s home on a certain date before the government would issue a number. We have searched the county records and couldn’t find anything. It is a mess.”
“This sounds as if it could be a dead-end. John doesn’t have much chance of finding his birth mother from any records that are available. I guess the problem should be attacked from another angle. Would he agree to have his DNA checked?”
“I think he would. I’ll talk to him tonight. Look, Brenda and I both have jobs. We have to return to work. Will you be lunching here again?”
“Yes, I’ll be here tomorrow.” I stood and moved the chairs out for the two women. Brenda flushed, for she had never had a chair held for her before. Annalee just murmured a thank you. I watched as they wove their way between the other patrons. They paused at the entrance and looked back. I acknowledged that by a slight inclination of my head and a smile.
I sat back down and ordered another coffee. On impulse, I called Lisa’s cell. “Hey Cousin, how is it going?”
“Not well. I can find records for Jonathan, Annalee and Brenda. I can find school records for John, but nothing before kindergarten.”
“That’s because there may not be any. Annalee approached me today and has just left me a few minutes ago. John is adopted just as we surmised. He was supposedly born in a doctor’s home and his birth might not have been recorded. It has caused a lot of problems for the family. Look, the mother came to me and is being very open. I think I can find out most everything about the family that is known from her.
“Would you change direction and see if you can find where Stacy is located? Her parents must still be alive. That would be Harry and Amy Singleton. I think I am going to be able to get John’s DNA. That would tell if he is related to me. To give John his birth mother we will have to find Stacy or her parents and make a DNA connection there as well.”
“Wow, you’re really moving on this aren’t you? Is there anything else?”
“Yes. Check into Jonathan Midden and where he is located. He walked out on his wife and kids three years ago. This is just for my information and not to be shared. Someone from his home town must know where he is. Annalee might know, but that wouldn’t be anything she would think was my business. She is still married to the man. She is looking to divorce him and has some money saved for that purpose.”
“Give or lend her the money. Then you both would be divorced and free to start a relationship.”
“No, I’m not going to become involved in a woman’s divorce. I’m not saying that if and when she is free, I might ask her for a date.”
“Smart move Cousin. I was just trying to determine if you had lost all of your marbles yet.”
“Lisa, I really appreciate you doing this for me. I dropped a check in your office this morning. Matt was there and objected, but I really do want to keep this on a business level. Of course, if John turns out to be my son, that would make him your second cousin and I’ll want a rebate. Call me when you have something. Love you, bye.”
I had a lot to think about tonight. If John was my son ... and I had convinced myself that he must be, what was my duty to him, if any. I tossed and turned most of the night. In the morning, I was useless at work and I finally just went for a three hour drive outside the city through the countryside.
I was early to lunch. I stood as Annalee and Brenda came toward my table. I seated both and sat opposite. “Joe, you look like hell. What is the matter? Not sleeping well?”
“You could say that. The biggest problem is, if I find out that John is my son, I don’t know what my responsibility to him is.”
“Joe, we have kind of pushed ourselves onto you. John is just thankful to have what he calls a great job at his age. If it turns out you were the sperm donor, he will be happy to know that. He will not make any demands on you whatsoever. That said, I have two samples of his DNA with me. I also have a swab to take two of yours. I think we should send the samples to two different laboratories. I have the addresses with me. You pay for one and I will pay for the other.”
“No, please let me pay. Now, I don’t know much about DNA, but I might have a sample of my ex-wife’s baby hair. Whether it would be any good, I don’t know. The hair must be nearly thirty-eight years old. Stacy would be forty next week and she said it was a sample that her mother put in this locket when she was two years old.”
“Is that your age, thirty-nine?”
“No, I’m a year younger.”
“That makes you a year younger than me.”
I smiled broadly. “Remember, I didn’t ask your age. I was curious though.”
“I suspected you might be and too much of a gentleman to ask. You gave me the perfect lead-in so I could tell you.”
It was silent around the table until Brenda spoke. “Why don’t you take Mr. Ambles’ DNA sample, Mom, and may we have a little of your ex-wife’s hair? That way my brother would know both of his biological parents.”
“Of course. It was my intent to divide it. Remember I’m involved. If Stacy is his mother, then I have an issue with her for not letting me know I fathered a son.” Annalee reached across the table and swabbed inside my mouth. She deposited one into a glassine envelope, putting it on the table. She handed me an envelope and took another sample for my test. Then we divided the hair from the locket and put this into envelopes. Last, she removed the swabs that she had taken from John and gave me one.
She had forms that we filled out. I questioned, “Where did you get these?”
“I went to the library last evening and downloaded them from the Internet. Both labs had the forms online. It is advised that we send the samples and the forms by registered mail. The answers will come back to us the same way. One lab says it will be three weeks and the other only two.”
“How do we pay?”
“We can send a check or a money order. If we send a check they won’t start processing until it clears. I’m sending a money order.”
“I will do that then. How costly is it?” Annalee gave me the figures. “You are going to be using your divorce money to pay aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I feel this is more important.”
“I think you should let me pick up the cost. I’ll tell you why. What you find out about John’s parentage isn’t going to change anything one way or another for you. You two will still be his loving mother and sister. With me, this may be a life changing moment on a couple of fronts. Please let me do this.”
It was Brenda who answered. “He is right, Mom. If you use your divorce money, you will just have to start over saving. The way Dad has treated all of us, you need to divorce him as soon as possible so you can start over and find some happiness.”
“Brenda is very bitter. John feels the same. Jonathan was the one who insisted we adopt after only a year of trying to have a baby. Brenda came along naturally two years later. Then when John was sixteen, Jonathan stopped paying any attention to either. Brenda, up until that time, was his little princess. We found out within a couple of months after he left he was seeing another woman.
“The hot rod that John was helping his father with was in our garage and almost finished. One Saturday morning there was a car carrier backed up and was loading the hot rod. I questioned what was going on. He said since I was laid off and wasn’t earning any money, he was selling it for what he could get. He went on to say that he was following the hot rod to get his money and would be home the next day. That is the last time I saw him.
“There was a letter that came three days later stating he wasn’t coming back. He didn’t apologize to me and there was no mention of good-bye to the children. From that day on, we have put him out of our lives.” Tears were in her eyes. Brenda was crying too. “These tears aren’t for missing him, but for the injustice of how we were all treated by him.”
“My heart goes out to you. I’m hoping your life will improve. In fact, if you need anything that I can help you with, would you let me know?”
“There is nothing right now I can think of. Picking up the tab for the lab tests is a real help as far as my financial situation is concerned. I thank you for that.” We parted much as we always had, they leaving for their work and me having one more cup of coffee.
**********
I didn’t get to do lunch during the next week. I did send word of a sort to Annalee, by going by John’s work station, telling him I had met his mother and sister and I was terribly busy. It was ten days after our last meeting when I had a chance to make it to the familiar lunchroom. Brenda was there by herself. I was informed that Annalee had to cover for an absent co-worker.
“Mr. Ambles, we have missed having lunch with you. Mom was worried that you were avoiding us.”
“No, not at all. I have four different places of business and I get tied up in details sometimes. Is your mother coming in for lunch later?”
“No, she is eating where she works. She will be sorry she missed you.”
“Will she be here tomorrow? I have something I would like to discuss with her. This isn’t about John, but about a position she might be interested in. More in her previous line of work and it would pay better than what she is earning now.”
“I’m sure Mom would be interested. I will tell her.”
“So, you are going to be a junior this year in school. Do you play sports?”
“Basketball. With my height it was inevitable in my last school. I imagine the competition will be greater here, but I do want to play. I certainly am going out for the team. I would like to earn a letter and maybe apply for a scholarship next year.”
“That’s planning ahead. I hope you make it. Brenda, there is a club here in the city that does a lot with young people. The ladies sponsor a father-daughter banquet. I am often asked to participate and stand in for a girl who has no father. If your mother approves, may I submit your name for consideration as you are of the right age. I realize you have a father, but he isn’t available. It would give you a chance to meet girls your own age who you will be going to school with. Actually submitting your name is just a formality. My mother is the chair lady and that is why I get to go to these things.”
“I don’t know. I don’t have anything to wear to something like that.”
“Not to worry. I’ll have a cousin take you in hand and get you outfitted. I took one of my nieces two years ago when her father was in the hospital with appendicitis. She’ll tell you all about it. The banquet isn’t for a month. It happens just before school starts.”
“I’ll talk to Mom. I hope she will let me.”
Next day; “Joe, tell me about this thing you invited Brenda to. I don’t know as I like that very much.”
“Okay. First, my Mom is the ultimate do-gooder. She came up with this banquet a few years ago for girls fifteen to seventeen who don’t have a father to take them out. I’ve been roped into it for the last five years. There are about fifty dads and the same number of girls chosen each year to attend. This is the first time I have invited a girl on my own, but I did get my mother’s approval before I asked Brenda.
“My cousin Lisa is out of town at present and when she gets back, I’ll have her get together with Brenda. I think she will be home next week which will give the two plenty of time to pick out a dress and do all of that woman stuff. You will be involved as well, as I’m sure you want Brenda to be at her best. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.
“Now, did Brenda tell you that I might have found a position that will pay more than what you are earning now?”
“She mentioned it, but she is so excited about this other thing she didn’t say much.”
“The job is in an autobody shop doing estimating and ordering parts. The shop involves two lines. One is for repair of high-end autos that have collision damage and the other is repair of wrecks bought from insurance companies and reconstructed. It is a full service shop with frame straightening, wheel alignment and, of course, a paint shop.
“The owner called me yesterday asking if I had anyone working for me that was qualified to do this. His regular person had a heart attack and won’t be returning. I thought of you. I gave him your name and he is expecting you tomorrow at eleven. If you aren’t interested, this is his number. Call and cancel the appointment sometime before ten, if you decide not to apply.”
“You don’t know anything about me. Why would you give me this chance?”
“From talking with you ... your husband, your son and you have been involved in the auto industry. You told me what you did, so I gave the man a name and it seems to be a fit. You have to get the job on your own and I haven’t influenced him in any way. He has been in the business a long time and he will know before the interview is over how much you know about the business. All I can say is good luck. That is if you decide to apply.”
“I will apply. Thank you.” Annalee paused, then her face flushed and she stammered out a question. “Joe, I know I’m out of line, but do you have a woman in your life? I know you have been divorced for twenty years. You couldn’t have gone that long without a relationship of some kind.”
“You are right. I have a friend whom I visit. She is older than I am and I have at different times proposed to her. She isn’t interested in marriage due to family and religious constrictions. That said, when and if I find someone that accepts a proposal of marriage, I will discontinue any relationship with her, except that of friendship.
“The woman I propose to will have to tolerate this woman as my friend, knowing that we have been intimate in the past. I would like to think that my wife would become her friend as well, and thank her for keeping me free to be able to propose to the woman I choose when she finally appears.”
“I can understand why people are attracted to you. You watch out for your friends and in return your friends watch out for you. That is so beautiful. Today Joe, it is my turn to pay the tab. I feel so rich when I am near you.” Annalee abruptly stood up and made her way to the cashier. A coffee came on a tray after she went out. Must be Annalee was informed that is what I ordered when sitting alone after lunch.
I didn’t hear from Annalee during the next day. I expected to. Was I being childish? I thought I should have notification on whether she was hired for the position. It was six-thirty that evening and I was feeling very put out. My door bell chimed. “Joe.” Annalee stepped by me into my apartment. When I closed the door and turned to face her, she was in my arms hugging me. “Joe, I got the job and I have been working. I have earned a half week’s pay today. I’m flying, I’m so excited.”
She let me go and I had her sit in my living room to tell me about it. “I took the whole day off and went into the shop when they opened. I went into the office and was told I wasn’t supposed to come in before eleven. I told the boss that I wanted to see if I could handle the job before I was interviewed at that time. He let me wander around observing the repairmen. There were several snafus that needed tending to.
“By ten, I was on the phone to a supplier working on straightening out a wrong parts order. It is being over-nighted and will be here in the morning. At eleven I presented myself to be interviewed. The owner handed me some estimation forms and a flatrate guide. He showed me a Volvo and a Cadillac. One had front end damage and the other had been sideswiped. I went so far as to demand the Volvo be raised with a scissor jack so I could look at the frame. I found it bent slightly and it would have been missed if I hadn’t taken that step.
“In the afternoon I had the parts for both ordered, looked at the schedule he had posted for what was in the shop, and marked down when work would commence on each. The last thing the boss had me do was call the customers and tell them when they could expect their vehicles to be returned to them. That was my interview and I was paid for it. I guess you can tell I’m really excited.”
She got up and paced around the room. This was the first time I had seen Annalee in anything other than conservative attire. The jeans she was wearing gave me a sense of what her figure was really like. “Joe, may I use your bathroom? I just haven’t had time to go.”
I pointed to where it was located. I decided this called for a little celebration. I asked through the door, “Wine or beer?”
“Beer! Us auto guys always drink beer. None of that light stuff either if you have it.” I chuckled and waited for her to come out. She had changed her blouse into an auto body logo tee. It was a size too small and she flushed, saying, “I guess this would fit Brenda better than me.”
“Maybe, but I like it on you very much.”
“This will be the last time I wear it, though.”
I led her to the kitchen table where I had the beer poured into steins. “Have you called John and Brenda? They must be wondering where you are.”
She shook her head that she hadn’t. I pointed to the phone. “I’m at Joe’s apartment. I came by to thank him. I got the job at the autobody shop. I’ll be home in a little bit.” She listened to something said. “No, I’ll be home shortly. I’m having a beer with him and then I’ll be home.” She hung up.
“Joe, I’d like to become one of your friends. With the money I’ll be earning, and as soon as I can find my husband, I’m going for a divorce. The minute it becomes final, I will feel I can start a new life.”
“Yes, of course. Would you use my attorney? He will even wait to be paid.”
“Yes I will. I’ll talk it over with John and Brenda tonight. Oh, I’m finishing out the week at my present job and starting full time Monday at the auto body shop. I guess I had better leave. Would you come for dinner on Sunday? I know you have been hesitant to socialize with John because he works for you, but I want him to see what a great guy you are.”
“I’ll be there.”
I had news for the Middens when I arrived for Sunday dinner. I just didn’t know how to present it to them. My coffee after a meal ... Annalee wanted me to know she remembered that. As I was drinking it, I said to Brenda, “Would you go out and get the registered letter that is on the seat in my truck. I haven’t opened it yet and I think we should all do it together. I have been tempted to open it ever since I received it Friday afternoon.”
We waited as Brenda did as I asked. I handed it to John. “This affects you the most. Would you do the honors?” There was no ripping or tearing. John used a pen knife to slit it along the top edge. He unfolded the piece of paper and scanned the whole sheet as we all waited.
Very seriously he looked at me. “I do believe, Joe, that according to the results here, you are my biological father.” He burst into smiles. I stood and clasped him to me. I was speechless. John then handed the results to me.
Annalee and Brenda did not speak as this was between a son and his father. There was more. According to the diagnostics on the baby hair furnished, there was a positive match between the male subject and the female hair that was sent to be tested. This showed that the female was the biological parent of the male. To further verify this, a match was presented garnered from the DNA databank stating the hair belonged to one Stacy Singleton, married name, Ripton.
It was definite. Joe Ambles and Stacy Singleton Ambles had a child together. It was difficult for me to get my mind around. I sat silently contemplating this momentous event coming nineteen years after it happened. It would have remained unknown except for the coincidence of John hearing about a repair shop that might give him employment. He acted on it, which brought us together here today.
There were going to be many ramifications extending from this knowledge we had gathered. Did John want me to recognize him immediately? Was John going to demand that I do so? I waited for him to share his thoughts.
“Joe, I’m ecstatic that you are my biological father. However, I wish I could keep the name I’m living with for awhile. I don’t mean to keep our relationship hidden as much as not making an issue out of it. I don’t want to be known as the boss’s son. I’m happy working as just plain John Midden.”
“That’s fine, with you still planning to work for awhile. However, I think to reach your full potential, you should go on to the university and study for a time. Then if you want to join me here in the business, it won’t take you as long to learn to manage as it did me. I spent ten years before my father felt I was ready to take part just a small bit.
“That reminds me, you are now part of a very substantial family. Not only are your grandparents alive, but you have two great-uncles and one great-aunt. Almost a dozen cousins of all ages go with the family as well. We’ll have to have a wingding and have you meet them. If you prefer you can meet them one on one over time. I’m not going to push you on this.”
“Joe, am I going to lose my son? You aren’t taking him away from me are you?” There was fear lurking in Annalee’s eyes.
“No, I wouldn’t do that. I’m hoping we can all get closer. With this much family, which I consider you a part of, you will be surprised how much fun we can all have. Brenda will come under our family umbrella seeing as she is John’s sister. Life will get easier for you, I promise.”
“With my new job that you set up for me, I don’t see how it could get better.”
“I didn’t get that job for you. You did that on your own. Wait until I tell the family how you went about getting it. They’ll respect you for it.”
“I think maybe I would like to meet your father and mother first. I’ll decide after that how to meet the rest of your family.” I looked at John. He was thinking of what he had just said. “I mean, the rest of my new family.” I was beginning to like how this kid thought. Oops, I mean how my new son thought. This was going to take a lot of getting used to.
After a bit, we were all uncomfortable. “I think I should run along and get used to the idea of this. I can do better when I’m alone. Don’t misunderstand me, but it is a lot to think about. John, I feel I could turn handsprings. Can you understand that? You have had a father, but I have never had a son. It is a strange feeling, that is all.”
“Sure Joe, I understand. I really am happy this has turned out the way it has. I’ve always known I was adopted. Now I know who my biological father is. I don’t know as I feel the same about my birth mother even now when I know her name. I have a feeling that she didn’t treat you right or me either, dumping me as soon as she could. It is a wonder she didn’t abort me, but then I’ll probably never meet her and that’s okay. I love the mother I have, not some unknown person. I don’t need more.”
“It could be her religion. I do know she and her parents were against abortion.”
“Still that is no excuse for dumping me.”
“If you meet, you will have to ask her. It isn’t necessary to meet now that you know she birthed you.”
“It may be. Remember there is no record of my birth. That needs clearing up. She is apparently the only one who would know of any records.”
“We will find her then.” Annalee was feeling very left out. I wanted her to know she wasn’t. I went to her as I was leaving. “Annalee, I want you to know I think you are a wonderful mother. You have done a superb job of raising John. I’m almost as proud of you as I am of him.”
“Thank you Joe. Your saying that means a lot to me.” It seemed natural to kiss. Nothing sexual and on the cheek, understand, just another thank you.
**********
Lisa was back from her travels. She was waiting for me at my apartment when I pulled in. “I just got in and stopped by. How is it going? I have some news, but not as much as I would like.”
“I have news too. Mine first. John Midden is definitely my son. We confirmed it through DNA. I have just come from sharing the lab results with him.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised. Stacy has to be the mother then.”
“Yes, we confirmed that as well with a locket full of hair I still had. Her name was in a national data bank. This must have been entered fairly recently for her married name was listed as well.”
“Great. That will make it easier to find her. I found her parents. If she doesn’t live in the same city as them, they must know where she is. You know, I did find Annalee’s husband, Jonathan Midden. He has done a lot of traveling in the last three years. He dumped the woman he ran away with and I have talked to her. He actually isn’t that far away from here. He works for a team at one of the Nascar tracks. This is the third race track he has worked at.”
“Good, Annalee is looking to divorce him as soon as possible.”
“Joe, and then what?”
I gave her a lopsided grin. “Lisa, I was married once and you know how that turned out. I guess the closest I have come to loving anyone in the last eighteen years is you. You know that as well as I do. I’ve marked time waiting for the right woman to come along and what do you know ... I finally found one that tops you.”
“What about Sarah, the friend you have been associating with these many years?”
“She understands; I have talked to her already. I have even mentioned her to Annalee. I haven’t pushed Annalee, for she feels the same about cheating on a spouse as I do. She is waiting until she is divorced before making any plans. Also I am not involved in her divorce. I have given her no money and made no demands on her.”
“You paid me to find this Jonathan Midden. That seems as if you are involved.”
“I have a right to find the man that adopted my son when he was a baby, wouldn’t you say?”
“You’re splitting hairs, Joe. Look, I’ve been gone from home for almost three weeks. I need to see Matt and he needs to see me. If he didn’t like you as much as he does, he would be pissed. Before I go, tell me Stacy’s married name. I found her folks and ten to one she is nearby. I can find out where she lives, I’m sure. I’ll keep in touch. Good luck and I’m happy you now have a son.”
**********
I went by Ambles Auto Repair-South and drifted over to John’s work station. He looked up and then looked around to see if anyone was near enough to hear us speak. “Hi, Dad.” There was a happy shit-eating grin on his face.
I answered, “Hi Son.” We felt like co-conspirators. “How’s it going?”
“Fine.”
“John, when I suspected you might be related to me, I did something I’m hoping you won’t mind my doing. I have a cousin who is a detective. I asked her to find your father so I could ask him if you were adopted. It took her awhile, but she did find him. This is his address if you want to contact him. I know your mother does as she has indicated she wants a divorce. Also this is the address of my attorney, Sam Grover, if she wants to use his firm. If she does retain him, he will advise her the best way to proceed. I have found him most effective.”
“That will tie up one more loose end in my life. Joe, would you mind if I came over after work tonight and hung out for awhile? I really want to get to know you. Brenda may be with me. Is that okay?”
“You bet. Anytime. See you tonight, then.” I went along down the line and watched the different cars being serviced by the mechanics. I was more comfortable having John call me Joe than Dad. I think he preferred it as well, and it would be fun for a bit.
John and Brenda arrived about seven. Brenda was very quiet while John and I talked about our lives. John said he had been interested in cars his whole life and was really crushed when his father left. If his mother hadn’t been involved with vehicles, he might have gone off the deep end. She kept telling him that his father wasn’t the only one that had interests in cars.
In fact his father wasn’t the best mechanic there ever was either. To compensate, she made sure some of her former co-workers came around to mentor him. When he was able to get into the auto mechanics program at school, the feeling of loss disappeared. That’s where he heard about Ambles Auto Repair and headed this way as soon as he could.
“I hate to disappoint you, but you may have more interest in cars than I do. For me, it has always been a business. My old man made sure I knew the workings of most autos, but I was primed from the first on taking over from him. I’ve done well and expanded beyond his fondest dreams. I have my hands full with the four shops and don’t expect or want to take on more. I want a little time to enjoy myself and I certainly have enough income to do most everything I want.”
The doorbell chimed. Brenda said, “That is probably Mom. She said she was going to stop by and we could go home with her.”
“Not for a bit, I hope. It is early.” I went to the door and ushered Annalee in.
“Hi Joe. John said you found out where my husband is. I came by to get his address. I called your attorney and I have an appointment during the noon hour on Wednesday. I used your name. He said he did all of your law business. He also said he was your godfather. I told him what I was going to require for services and he informed me that the firm could handle it.
“I gave him a bare-bones outline and when he found out that you had found a son you didn’t know about, he really warmed up. I tried to ask about fees, but he put me off saying for me not to concern myself about them at this time. You didn’t get him to say that did you? I want to stand on my own in this divorce.”
“No, I haven’t talked to him in weeks, but do follow his advice. I have never known him not to help our family. Dad and my uncles helped him when his firm was getting established. You are under our umbrella because you are the mother of my son. Don’t worry, he will send you a bill and will expect you to pay it. It is the terms he will set for payment that you will appreciate.”
“I most certainly will pay. So, what have you been talking about?”
“Not much, Mom. Just whatever came to mind.”
“Good, you both have a lot of catching up to do. Joe, you mentioned a father-daughter dance. When is Brenda going to meet this cousin you said was going to help her get ready for it?”
“In a couple of days. She still has ten days left before the date. Lisa is just back in town from a two and a half-week assignment. She loves to shop and she is looking forward to getting Brenda set up. You will be getting together with her yourself. She is the detective that found your disappearing husband. She has some information about him that she will want to pass on to your attorney. The more information Sam Grover has, the easier for you to get your divorce.”
“Who paid for all of her work?”
“I did. She started looking into the possibility of John being my son. At first I didn’t even know he was adopted. I suggested she find your husband to answer questions. I have also asked her to look for my ex-wife. Actually you and I have found out for certain that she was John’s birth mother. Lisa is still looking for my ex-wife’s address. We found out what her married name is. From now on it should be a piece of cake.”
“Do you really need to find your wife?”
“Yes. She may have some knowledge of why we can’t find a record of John’s birth. It is a detail that needs correcting.”
“I guess. What happens if you find her and it awakens the love you once had for her? After all you do have a son together.”
“I don’t feel I have. You are John’s mother. I’d like very much for John to consider me as his father. I’m not really trying to replace Jonathan as his dad either, but I am hoping he can draw on the best of both of us and have a good life.”
“That is very generous. That is what I admire about you, Joe. You never seem to badmouth anyone. Kids, I think we should leave now. I have a Caddy Escalade coming in tomorrow for an estimate. The insurance company wants to total it and the owner wants to have it repaired. It will be up to me to get the figures right. Joe, I’ll call you Wednesday after I speak to the attorney. I do want a divorce and as soon as possible. Wish me luck.”
**********
“Hi Joe, it’s me. I talked to Attorney Sam Grover today at noon. He is going to help. He thinks I can get free of Jonathan without too much trouble. I gave him all of the information about how young Brenda and John were when we were abandoned by Jonathan. Abandoned ... that was the word Sam used.
“If I thought I could recover any child support, he would take him to court. If I thought that I wouldn’t be able to collect, he said in the interest of a speedy divorce, maybe I should forget Jonathan and move on. I’m inclined to go that route. My husband would just disappear and I would still be married if I tried to take him to court. What do you think?”
“Annalee, I can’t advise you. Talk it over with John and Brenda.”
“Joe, I have another problem. If I go for the fastest divorce, I will have to leave the country for a week. I just secured this job at the auto body shop. I hate to get fired after only two or three weeks. I love what I’m doing and the people I work with. What can I do?”
“Talk to the owner. He will understand. You have helped him a lot already and he has called to thank me for sending you to him. Where do you have to go to get this speedy divorce?”
“The Dominican Republic. I have to be there for only twenty-four hours, but it is better if I’m there longer. The prosecutor who handles the divorce complaint has three days for paperwork and the judge has three days to verify what was brought before him. I do come home with the decree in my hand and it is recognized here in the states. Sam Grover tells me he can handle everything except appearing before the judge. I have to physically be present to swear. My spouse doesn’t have to be. He can have another person hold his power of attorney. It will go through as long as the interested parties all agree beforehand.”
“Would you like me to travel with you?”
“No, not really. This is something I have to do alone. I feel as if I tied myself up with these bonds and it is up to me to get them released. You have helped so much by pointing me to people that can facilitate matters. I’ll be ever grateful.”
“Thank you. You let me know if I can do more.”
“I will, I promise.”
I did make a call to Sam to find out more about the process Annalee was starting. Sam thought Annalee was a wonderful person and he was going to do all in his power to make sure she was free to find happiness.
I arranged for Lisa and Brenda to get together for a shopping trip. They hit it off immediately. I received a call from Lisa telling me how delightful she found Brenda. That same evening Brenda called telling me what a great time she had with my cousin. “Lisa loves you, you know.”
“I know. It is no secret among our family and even her husband knows we love each other. That is why we are so open about our love. We let everyone know so we don’t do anything foolish and act on it. You are just the newest person to become aware of our love.”
“How can you stand it?”
“Not easy, but think what the alternative would be. It would be a scandal in the family and among our friends. This way there is just two people hurting. If we did more, think how many people it would affect.”
“I know one more person who is hurting. I’m hurting for both you and Lisa.”
“Thank you, Brenda. I’m glad to know you feel that way and it helps. Compassion from someone as sweet as you is always welcome.”
“Joe, would it be okay if I shared this with Mom? I think she should know and I bet she will feel the same way as I do.”
“It is no secret. So tell me, what did you buy today? Something beautiful if I know Lisa.”
“It is the most beautiful gown I have ever seen. She wouldn’t tell me how much it cost and said I was going to be able to keep it after the banquet. I’m going to have my hair styled the day of the party. I’ll be so beautiful you won’t know me.”
“I’ll know you.” I would too and I wondered. How in hell could a father ever give up a person such as this ... his own daughter? The man must have been crazy. The mother was beautiful but the daughter was exquisite! I decided right then that she should have a father to replace the one who threw her away.
**********
“John, would you come into Pete’s office?”
“Sure Joe, I’ll be in, in a moment.” I watched through the window as John picked up his tools and washed his hands. Most other mechanics would maybe have wiped their hands, but would not have taken the few minutes to pick up. “What’s up?”
“John, I want you to do something for me. I want you to apply for a passport so if your mother decides to go to the Dominican Republic for her divorce, you can have everything in place to escort her. Would you do that?”
“Sure. Why don’t you go though?”
“She wants to terminate the relationship with Jonathan before starting another one. I can see her point and I am staying in the background. I’m just praying that when she is free she will turn to me.”
“I’m sure she will. I’m thinking with you being so nice to my sister, it is the way she is thinking already. Brenda is the one that was the most hurt by Dad leaving us. We still don’t understand why he left.”
“Well, don’t dwell on it. Most likely he was feeling trapped with little income coming in and didn’t know which way to turn. I’m sure he regrets leaving.”
“Why didn’t he come back to us then? We all would have welcomed him.”
“I can’t answer that. Maybe he doesn’t even know you would have. You may find out more when your mother and her attorney meet with him.”
Sam set in motion the divorce between Annalee and Jonathan. It was going to take awhile. In the meantime, I had a lovely creature to take to a banquet and dance. Mom and Dad had the Midden family in for a dinner on the Friday before the dance. Both of my parents couldn’t keep their eyes off of John. He was quiet, but answered the questions they put to him without embarrassment.
I was impressed for he gave his mother credit for guiding him in growing up. Then they turned to Brenda. She was somewhat more shy at first, but quickly warmed up and bubbled about the upcoming banquet. Annalee, when questioned about her life, answered with just an outline. She didn’t whine about what life had been like for her. She did say that her life had improved since John had gone to work at Ambles Auto Repair.
Mom and Pop knew more details of her life than what she explained. I hadn’t been secretive about hiring Lisa. Sam, although he couldn’t give out any details, had let it be known than he was her attorney. Both Mom and Pop talked to me later that night. “Joe, Annalee seems like a good solid individual who has had a rough time. I think you are right in helping her. She has done well with John, and Brenda seems like a nice girl. I’m glad you suggested inviting her to the banquet.”
“Are you going to take up with her after she and Sam come back from the Dominican Republic with her divorce papers in her hand?”
“Pop, I have promised myself to ask her for a date at that time. I am taking it slow. I rushed things twenty years ago and we know how that turned out. Also, she hasn’t had the most enjoyable experience with being married these last few years. I do have to work with her finding out where and when John was born and why we can’t find a record of his birth.”
Lisa and Annalee were fast becoming friends, working together in getting Brenda ready for the banquet and dance. Lisa promised me I would have a lovely looking girl to escort. They were giving her pointers on deportment and even worked with her on some dance steps. Lisa was calling me often and I got onto the fact that I was getting as much information about Annalee as I was about Brenda.
“Lisa, what’s with all the talk about Annalee?”
“Joe, I have finally found someone that will make the rest of your life happy. Of course not as happy as I could, but under the circumstances, Annalee has got to be the one. Listen to me. I love you and want the best for you. She is the one. Your life is half over and outside of working all the time, I can’t see where you have had a chance at happiness.”
“You sound as if you are sorry for me. It hasn’t been that bad.”
“I suppose, but it could be so much better. It isn’t that you haven’t had what sex you need. You’ve had that, but there is so much more. What traditions have you been able to build? When you are tired, you come home and talk over your day with your wife, take a hot shower, maybe have a cocktail and fall asleep on the couch. She is there, she wakes you up to tell you it is time to go to bed. Maybe you don’t wake all the way. You roll into bed and turn over and snuggle a little and fall back to sleep. I tell you Joe, it can’t get better than that.
“The next night it could be her turn and you do the same for her. There is that feeling of security and closeness ... yes, and completeness as well. Joe I will tell you I have loved you all my life. I wouldn’t trade what I have with Matt to go to you. Not after what he and I have had together for so many years.”
“I know that Lisa. You think Annalee is the one for me then?”
“Yes I do.”
“You’ve been pushing pretty hard. When it comes time to propose to her, I’ll even let you do that for me.” I was being facetious.
“I don’t think I will have to. I think if you two get married, Annalee will handle the proposing herself.”
“What chance do I have?"
“I would think, not much. None would be more like it.”
Giving it some thought, maybe married life wouldn’t be so bad. Certainly better this time, especially with the woman that had raised my son for me. Brenda was a bonus. If I was going to have a daughter, I would want it to be Brenda.
Brenda was seventeen. She was tall and Lisa had picked a simple dress, not quite sheath, of pale mauve. It was a little longer than what I knew the rest of the young ladies would be wearing. Over her left breast there was a white panel with a golden urn embroidered on it. A single orchid was pinned so that it looked to be growing from it.
The dress allowed just a hint of cleavage. With Brenda’s breasts being what they were, it was only a short distance from her willowy neck. A stone in a gold pendant (I found out later was a zircon) nestled in the cleavage, suspended from an almost invisible chain.
The dress was gathered just slightly at the waist, which accentuated the flair of her hips. There was another embroidered urn on a white panel just above the hem on the right side. This one showed a stitched flower with rhinestones springing from the urn. Her shoes were white with gold accents.
Her hair had been shortened and the raven locks had been highlighted with gold and lavender colors. It was still styled for a young person, giving the impression that this was a girl dressing up as a sophisticated woman.
Brenda was worried that she would stand out too much in a crowd. “No, you won’t. The mothers of these girls go all out when they learn their daughters are invited. There is no doubt in my mind that you will be one of the most beautiful, but you will see some girls there that are as pretty as you. Even the girls like you who have another man standing in for their father will look very nice. Mom sees to that.
“Please relax and enjoy yourself. You will be seeing a lot of proud fathers tonight. None will be any prouder than I am though. Mom is going to point out one girl who she knows plays basketball at the school you will be attending. That way you will have a friend on the first day of school. There will be others you will recognize from seeing them at the mall.”
As we entered the banquet hall a young woman, fully as pretty as Brenda, came up and hugged me. “Hi Joe. I’m here tonight with my new step-dad. He is as nice as you are.”
Introductions were made. When the girl and her new father left us, I explained to Brenda. “Josie’s father divorced her mother when she was fourteen. Two years ago when she was first eligible, she was invited and I stood in for her father. It looks as if there is happiness in that family again.
“She was pretty bitter and unhappy at that time. I have kept in touch with her and her mother and encouraged both to not let it sour them on life.”
“I bet you have done more than that for them.”
“Not really. Maybe I arranged for the mother and the step-dad to meet, but that is all.” Brenda broke into a brilliant smile and it was directed right at me.
Mom was at her best at arranging things so that everyone had a good time at the dance. There were always some fathers that didn’t, wouldn’t, or couldn’t dance with their daughters for some reason. I was one of the cadre that Mom had for backup to dance with the wall flowers. I didn’t neglect Brenda, but I did have to explain. Brenda was fine with my extra duties and did her part as well. She even went so far as to find one girl that was having a miserable time because her father wouldn’t dance and made friends with her.
Brenda spoke to Mom, and as I was busy, Mom found another father to come and talk to the two girls standing together. The unhappy girl was asked to dance by the man Mom had furnished. Brenda pulled the father to his feet and commanded him to dance with her. When the set ended, the father and daughter danced together, Brenda returned to me and the man Mom furnished went back to his own daughter.
“That was fun. I’m having a great time.”
John and Annalee were both up when I brought Brenda home, wanting to hear all about how the evening went. I stayed for coffee, not caring that it would keep me awake. As I left I received many thanks, a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Brenda. John shook my hand, happy that his sister had such a wonderful time. Annalee walked me to my car. “Joe, thank you for giving Brenda such a great time this evening. May I kiss you? I hope we are friends forever.” The kiss I received was more than what a mere friend would receive.
**********
Sam Grover finally had all of the paper work necessary to have Jonathan Midden served with divorce papers. He also had papers suing for abandonment of spouse and two minor children some three years in the past. More, he had a suit for child support for said children. Annalee was to retain full custody of the one remaining minor child. Included in these papers was a bill from a private investigator who tracked him down so these suits could be served.
Jonathan was found at the racetrack in Dover, Delaware. This was first thing in the morning and Jonathan was met as he came to work. Sam and Annalee accompanied the process server. Annalee was dressed conservatively and stood behind both Sam and the process server. After receiving the papers, Jonathan glared at Annalee.
He was somewhat belligerent. “It took you long enough to find me. There is no way I can pay any of this, you know. I don’t make that much. I guess we will have to stay married.”
“Jonathan, I figured that would be your reaction. Would you talk to a lawyer and have him advise you? I have a proposal for you that will let you off the hook for most of this.”
“I bet. Attorneys cost money. You just want me to dig myself into a deeper hole.”
“Would you listen to my attorney explain and then you can go to your own attorney with your thoughts. It really will pay you to listen and maybe it will make it very simple for you to agree. Otherwise, in a divorce settlement, I will be awarded thousands of dollars.”
“Your dime ... talk.”
It was two that afternoon when Sam and Annalee were ushered into Jonathan’s lawyers office. Midden’s attorney asked several questions. He had never dealt with a divorce resolved in the Dominican Republic before. Sam had with him all the laws that pertained. There wasn’t any alternative for Jonathan except to agree to the terms as set forth. Jonathan gave Sam the power of attorney that was necessary for the divorce to go forward. When it came to the charges for the private investigator, though, he balked at this.
“John and Brenda will cover it if you won’t. They both have had to work and they have been more than willing to help me out and survive you abandoning us.”
A bitter tone had crept into Annalee’s voice as she said this. The two attorneys excused themselves to the other office to give Annalee and Jonathan a few minutes alone.
The kids had not been mentioned yet by name from Jonathan. He looked sheepish and asked how they were. “They are fine. It is mostly their idea for this divorce. I have a picture taken last week of them. Brenda was invited to a dance and I had John pose with her just before she left for it. Would you like to have a copy?”
Jonathan was silent as his eyes examined the picture. “You have done well by them, Annalee. Better, I suspect, than if I had stayed with you. Do you think it would be okay if I wrote to them? I guess I owe them an explanation and an apology.”
“Write anyway. I don’t know how they will take it. They both loved you and you let them down. Do you have an explanation for me as well?”
“Not much of one. I just fell out of love with you and had to get away. It probably wasn’t the best move I ever made, but I don’t really regret it. I feel free now and if something doesn’t go right, I can just pick up and go somewhere else. This was the way I was meant to live.” He paused and looked at the picture of Brenda again. “She is beautiful isn’t she? Makes me a little sad. What is John doing?”
“He works in an auto repair shop and is doing fine. The owner may send him away to school to get more education, he is that impressed with his work.” Annalee started gathering her things. “I guess we better get going Sam. Jonathan, I guess I’m not going to miss you. It has been too long apart for us.”
“Good-bye, Annie. I hope you don’t have any problems getting what you want. For me, I’m happy about the divorce and I thank you for making it so easy for me.”
Annie was a pet name. She used to love hearing it from her husband. That was in the past now. The thought crossed her mind, followed immediately by an unspoken hope. Would Joe ever call her Annie, or would it be someone else? She would soon be free to look for love again. Two days later, Sam, John and Annalee took flight for the Dominican Republic.
**********
There was a message on my home phone that next evening. “Joe, the divorce has been granted. I do have to wait for the paperwork. John and Sam have insisted that I wait here for it so I can bring it home with me. I really would like to be back in town where my job is. My friends too. I have to add that. I’ll see you next week. Bye.”
Twenty minutes later the doorbell chimed. “Hi Joe. I was feeling lonely. May I come in?”
“Sure Brenda. Your Mom left me a message that she received her divorce. Have you talked to her?”
“Yes, just a short while ago. I was informed too. Also more about her meeting with Dad in Delaware. She cried a lot when she came home from there. I think she was feeling lost and unwanted knowing her marriage was almost over. I think Mom and Dad did love each other at one time. I’m glad that John was able to go with her for support. She wasn’t crying tonight when I talked to her, though. In fact she said Sam and John were taking her out to a dance club.
“Joe, she would hate me for telling you this, but your name came up several times while I was talking to her. I’m worried that she may throw herself at you and you won’t want her as your friend.”
“Don’t worry about that. She will always be my friend ... maybe even more. That is in the future though. In one way we will always be close. Remember, John is my son.”
“I wish I was your daughter. John has two fathers and two mothers although he doesn’t know one of them.”
“Give your mother time to find someone. In the meantime, I’m here for you in every way. After all you are John’s sister. That is pretty close to being my daughter.”
“I was hoping you would say that. Could I stay here tonight with you?”
“Yes I guess so. I don’t know if it is the proper thing.”
“Mom has already said I could if you said yes. My overnight bag is on the steps. I don’t have to work tomorrow and I can watch television until you come home.”
“Better yet, you can go with me to look at houses. I’m going to buy a house and give up this apartment. The Realtor has five houses to show me, so it will take most of the day.”
“Wow! I’m glad I came over. I’ll even make you breakfast. What kind of house are we looking for?”
I caught the “we” in her question. It was unconscious, I was sure. A discussion followed of what I thought I would need in a home.
“I’m looking for a ranch with three or four bedrooms, a two or three car garage, not too big a lot for I have never had to do yard work and don’t think I would enjoy it that very much.”
“Maybe not, but you might change your mind. Just because you have never done something, doesn’t mean you won’t ever like it.”
“I’ll think about it, oh wise one.” This brought a set of giggles.
Lisa called and said she had found where Stacy was residing. It was a medium-sized city not far from Chicago. She was into city government, married with three children and wanted to advance into state politics. Her husband was a little older and owned his own accounting firm.
There was nothing immediately I wanted to say to my ex-wife so I just filed away the facts that Lisa gave me. Sometime I might discuss this with Annalee and set a course to get John’s birthright straightened out.
School was to start in another week. Annalee would just be getting home when Brenda went to her first class. “Do you have your clothes all set?”
“Yes, Mom saw to that. One of the girls that I met at the banquet is going to show me where all the classrooms are in the school. I’m so glad you took me to the dance. It is making things so much easier for me.” I stayed up and watched the ten o’clock news. Brenda was bored with it and decided to go to bed halfway through the program.
When I was ready for bed myself, I opened her door just a little. She lay there in bed so sweet and innocent looking. For once I regretted I didn’t get married again and start a family after Stacy divorced me. I could have had a daughter just like Brenda. Too late now. I might just become a surrogate father to this girl. I had one night of her here with me, and I enjoyed the feelings it gave me.
Breakfast was a disaster. Brenda tried too hard, that is all. The coffee was weak. The toast burned and both egg yolks were broken. She was near tears. “Joe, I wanted everything to be perfect as a way to thank you. I’m sorry.”
“No problem. Tomorrow morning we will make it together.”
“I can stay another night?”
“Sure, I don’t see why not. You have to work. Sunday, we’ll go out for dinner. In fact I may have another lady join us. She is a special friend.”
“Is she pretty?”
“At one time she was considered a great beauty. She is still one of the most attractive and elegant women I know. You will love her, I promise.”
We met Mrs. James, the Realtor, at nine-thirty in the morning to view the first house. The lot was too narrow with another residence too close on one side. We didn’t even go into it.
The second one was at one time an extremely nice dwelling. It was now owned by an older couple who were moving into an assisted living community. It needed much work to bring it back to its previous glory. The third house had many features that both Brenda and I liked. Then Mrs. James took us out for lunch after saying that the owner might accept less than the quoted price.
In the afternoon, it seemed that I might buy the third house we had seen as I was shown something that didn’t interest me at all. Mrs. James said, “Mr. Ambles, I have one more to show you, but it is about twenty percent above your price range. It is a beautiful home and well worth the price. It is also a little bigger than the others you have seen. Would you take the time to view it?”
“Sure. It is early yet. I kind of like the third one you showed us this morning, but I haven’t decided anything yet.”
The next house was nearer my folks than the others and was of a more recent vintage. The architect that had designed it had done a masterful job to disguise the size. The two car garage with doors and the front of the dwelling had a matching facade of brick. The house itself had a common living area, with the kitchen, dining and living rooms in the first portion nearest the entrance.
Behind that it spread out into a “Y” with two separate wings surrounding a patio. This was roofed over with an enclosed ceiling. Just beyond that there was a swimming pool. “The only fault I can see is it should have been built with at least one more space to garage another car.”
“It was. Follow me.” We walked around the end and there were two more garage doors opening in from the side. “Let’s go into the house and see the layout. It has four bedrooms, two in each wing.
“It has a full cellar or lower level underneath with a playroom, bar and two more small bedrooms that have never been used. The laundry and the room that houses the heating plant, etc., is down there as well. Also it has its own entrance to the lower level.
“This house took the Better Homes award for excellence ten years ago. Really, it is a bargain at the price I quoted you. Divorce between the couple that had it constructed is the reason it is on the market.”
I turned to Brenda. “What do you think?”
“Oh Joe, it is beautiful.” She paused. “It is awful big though.”
“I know and way too big for a single person. Mrs. James, thank you for showing us the properties. I still like the third house the best. I will get back to you on that. If you have something more listed, we can get together again.”
“I’m sure I will have something you will like, eventually. Too bad you don’t have a family. I can see how much you liked the last house.”
That evening Brenda asked me if I was thinking of buying the third house we looked at. “No, seeing the last house we looked at has spoiled me for that one. I think I will wait until I find something similar.”
“I guess you are right. It was so beautiful, though. It would be so much fun to live in a home like that. Don’t get me wrong. Mom has provided the best she could under the circumstances. I just can dream a little, not only for me, but for her as well. Now tell me about this woman we are going to dinner with Sunday.”
“Not much to say. We have been friends for a little more than ten years. She is somewhere in her late fifties, but you won’t believe it when you see her. She has a son that is a rabbi in a synagogue. That makes her a different religion than I am. Her beliefs are stronger than mine so that is why we never married.”
“You are lovers then?”
“Yes, although we severed our relationship sometime ago and are just friends now.”
“Was it because she is so old?”
“No, definitely not. We were compatible in every way but other things came up and we thought it best to terminate that part of our life.”
“Does that make you sad?”
“Of course. But we are still great friends and I think our feelings and friendship for each other have deepened. We still talk to each other once a week and speak about what is going on in our lives. That is one reason she wants to meet you. I have told her about you. I planned on John meeting her at the same time, but we will do that later.”
“I’ll try not to embarrass you then. What is her name?”
“It is Mrs. Sarah Gimble and she is addressed as Sarah---always and by everyone. Just a quirk she insists on. She’ll tell you when you meet her.”
Breakfast was much better in the morning. I gave Brenda cab fare to the mall as I was leaving earlier than she did. I thought much about her and how impressed she was with the house. I had watched her when she looked at the empty pool and when she went into one of the bedrooms in the east wing.
On the spur of the moment I called Mrs. James at the Realtors. “How insulted would your client be if I made an offer of twenty percent less than the asking price?”
“Well, you go ahead and make your offer, Mr. Ambles. You understand I am working for them, but it is my duty to bring any offer that is made. So far there hasn’t been any offers for me to present.”
I made the offer and to show I was serious I went by the Realtors and gave Mrs. James a five percent binder on the offer. That afternoon I received a call saying they couldn’t accept that little. However, they would accept fifteen percent off the asking price. Knowing that Mrs. James would receive a commission of six percent, I wrote a check that combined with the earlier amount was ten percent.
I wanted the closing to be as early as possible, but I was held up as Sam was out of town until next week. I was promised that the papers would be ready for him to look over when he returned. I had other arrangements to make to be sure I had the funds available. I was selling the building I had lived in for so many years. No one knew other than the fact that I leased an apartment, when in actuality I owned my apartment and the seventeen others contained in the complex.
The company that had been managing it for me had made a standing offer a few years ago and I had given them an option to buy if and when I sold. That time was now. I would be pocketing money over and above what the new house cost me. Short time, I used my auto shop credit line with the bank until it all came together.
Brenda was waiting for me at the mall in the afternoon. I took her to her home to get ready. “Wear something simple. We are going to be eating in this evening at Sarah’s request. She doesn’t often appear in public with me, which I’m sure you can understand.”
Brenda looked puzzled for a few minutes. Then she blushed. She put it in a nice way. “The public doesn’t need to know how close you are. Is that it?”
“Something like that. You are very perceptive. Thank you.”
We were ushered into a quiet home by a servant. I addressed this person by name and received a brilliant smile, for she knew that when I came to visit her mistress was happy for days afterward. When we entered the sitting room, Rabbi Timothy was standing and came forward to greet me, kissing me on both cheeks.
He immediately led me to his mother who was sitting in a comfortable straight chair with arms. Straight, but beautifully carved mahogany with a gold brocaded back and cushion. She arose as I extended my hand and I kissed her on the cheek. “Welcome Joe, I’m so glad you could come to sup with us tonight. Please introduce me to this lovely young lady.”
I made introductions and we soon went in to dine. Timothy explained that rabbi meant teacher. There was a large community of Jewish people in the city and he taught not only church lore, but was a well respected math teacher at the high school level. Brenda was curious and asked several questions about the religion, including the skull cap he was wearing.
“Yarmulke is what it is most commonly called although there are other names for it.”
Sarah was a slim, vibrant woman that looked nowhere near her actual age. Brenda kept looking at both of us trying to see any evidence of our love. This was something that Sarah and I had dealt with before and had been able to hide from guests that I had met in her home and the same when she dined with my family. Timothy, of course, knew of our relationship and approved.
It was a comfortable evening and we left before nine. “Brenda, if you have any spare time, do come visit even if Joe is busy. My family ran to sons and I didn’t have a daughter. I have two young granddaughters only, but they are still children. I am always free on Sunday mornings and that would be the time to call.”
“Thank you, Sarah. I promise I will. Thank you for inviting me tonight. It has been wonderful. Joe has been so good to me, I want to meet his friends and make them mine as well.”
“You are a dear. Sometime I would like to meet your mother and brother. I’m sure I will shortly. Joe, thank you for coming. I miss you when I don’t see you.” There was a partially disguised message here. A little pain as well, and barely hidden.
Before we entered my apartment Brenda asked, “How soon before I can visit Sarah?”
“I would think a week from this Sunday would be about right. Call the Thursday evening before to ask if she is free. That is called protocol. It is something that is being forgotten too often nowadays and means a lot to someone like Sarah.”
“Joe, I think you are a teacher much like the rabbi.”
Annalee called me to tell me she would be home in another three days. “I can’t seem to reach Brenda. Do you know where she is? I’m worried and I need to talk to her.”
“She is here with me. I’ll give you the phone.” I handed it over and then went into the kitchen to give mom and daughter some privacy. Brenda talked almost continually. I heard snippets---enough to know that she had told about going house shopping with me and tonight we had been dining with my former lover. Then I heard some arguing with Brenda very upset about something. I thought it best I remove myself from hearing any more and went into my bedroom and shut the door.
It was a half hour later that Brenda said Annalee wanted to talk to me again. “Is Brenda causing any trouble staying with you? I said she could visit, but I didn’t expect she would move in.”
“We are getting along fine. Did she tell you about making breakfast for me?”
“No. What happened?”
“I’ll let her tell you about it when you get home. At least I’m alive to talk to you tonight, so you can say I survived.” Brenda was listening and I was twisting her tail a little. Then she went into the bathroom while I continued my conversation. “Annalee, please hurry home. I want to talk about John and about some further education for him.”
“Is that the only reason I should hurry home?”
“Nope. I want to tell you what a great job you have done in raising your kids. I’m so impressed with Brenda. She is so adult for a seventeen-year-old.”
“It is just that you bring out the best in everyone.”
There was a lengthy pause. I didn’t want to declare my feelings over the phone. I was curious about what Brenda and Annalee were arguing about as well, but didn’t want to ask. Finally I said, “I’m looking forward to the date you promised me when you were free of commitments.”
There was another pause from Annalee. Then, “We will talk about dating when I get back. Joe, I’ve been on the phone long enough so I’m going to be hanging up now. Goodnight. I’ll be seeing you in three days. I’m anxious to get back to work.”
Something had changed. I had the feeling something was going on that I didn’t know about. I thought I had noticed that Annalee had some very warm feelings for me, but as I hung up they weren’t there. This was reinforced when Brenda came out and sat on the couch next to me. She had been crying, but wouldn’t say what had caused it.
For some reason the evening had soured. When it was time for bed, Brenda went into her room. Ten minutes later she came back out and asked a question. “Joe, do you think I am too young for you even if we wait until I am of age?”
I knew she was totally serious and wasn’t looking for a flip answer. “I don’t know. There is a lot of problems in loving someone with as much age difference as there is between us. Look at Sarah and me. She is eighteen years older than I am. Just to name one problem, when and if we go out, she spends hours trying to cover up the ravages that time is laying on her. I’ll wager she spent a lot of time tonight before we went to meet her.
“If we became a couple, when you are thirty, I will be fifty-two with the wrinkles to prove it. I might even be bald. I’m not saying love couldn’t survive it, but would it be fair? I’m not shooting the possibility down. I think you are a lovely, sweet, young woman and I love you. If I wasn’t the man I am, I would try to seduce you right now, because I do have feelings for you.
“All of this is about what you were arguing with your mother about tonight, isn’t it? I suspect she has told you not to say anything to me. That is okay. She probably thinks it isn’t any of your affair even if it affects you a lot. I’m sure she is more worried about your feelings than about mine. We’ll go on just as we have been. She didn’t tell you to go back to your apartment did she?”
“She did and that is what some of the fight was about. I said I wouldn’t. I want to stay here with you. You are the nicest person I have ever known and I just can’t bear to be away from you.”
“Okay. I think you are one nice person too. I’ll talk to your Mom tomorrow night and make sure you can stay here. She will be calling won’t she?”
“I don’t think so. John will be home in the morning since he won’t stay with mother any longer. He isn’t supposed to say anything either. I think you can figure out what has happened. I’m sure you have heard that lawyers aren’t to be trusted. It proves to be true in this case.”
“Brenda, it will all work out. Let’s go to bed. It is late. I’ll make breakfast in the morning. Even with the disappointments I want to live awhile longer.” This brought a smile to her face as she turned and went into her room.
I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. I had some hate for Sam Grover too. Well he would have to face the family and have some explaining to do. After all I was his godson. But maybe he didn’t know how I felt about Annalee. He must have as he had been to dinner at my parents’ house after the Midden family had dined with them.
And Annalee. What was I to think about her? She knew what my feelings are---were. She claimed she hadn’t dated while still married to Midden, and she turned down a date with me and I was her son’s biological father. More than that, her daughter looked on me as father. Well, up until a short half hour ago anyway. I hope I disabused Brenda of thinking of me in a way that would bring us together into a closer relationship.
Then my mind hit on another little item. I had been so sure I was going to romance Annalee and make her my wife, I had gone out precipitously and purchased a million dollar home. To top it all off I had agreed to sell this building for cash to pay for the other. Well that part wasn’t all bad. I had been thinking about selling this place and I had got top dollar for it. One broken dream and two million in the bank. Some people wouldn’t think that a bad deal. I lay there in bed alone smiling---until a tear rolled down onto the pillow.
**********
“Did Brenda talk to you? She probably has as she can’t keep a secret even when she promises to.” This was John, back from the Dominican Republic at Auto Shop-Main the next morning. I was alone in my office.
“She didn’t give me any details, but I can pretty much guess what has happened. She is very broken up over what your mother has done. I’m pretty hurt over Sam. He is my godfather and I have always looked to him even though he is only nine years older than I am. John, I hope this isn’t going to change things between us. I want to keep you as my son. I feel the same about Brenda even though she isn’t related.
“I am---was---very attracted to your mother and I thought for awhile she felt the same. Evidently she didn’t, and that is between her and me. Brenda is bitter, but don’t either of you feel like that. Your mother has had a hard three years. I’m glad that she has found happiness.”
“Don’t you want to know how it progressed to where it is now?”
“No, definitely not.”
“Will I still be working at Auto Shop-South for the company?”
“Maybe. I was going to discuss a higher education for you with your mother when she came home. You are of age. Now I’ll just talk to you. I have enrolled you in a program where you can learn about engine design. That’s just not for only auto engines. It would concentrate on all types of combustion engines. Basically you will learn first about metals. It is a new type of school with few students. I think there are only seven students in it with two teachers. It will be a team concept learning program. As you need to know something and advance, teachers will be found to further your studies. Are you interested in something such as this?”
“It sounds expensive.”
“It is, but right now I have the funds available. I expect some day there will be some pay back. I will receive a percentage of any money from the patents that the team develops. It may be that the engines you develop will be powered by hydrogen. Who knows where these scientific experiments will lead.”
“This sounds more like an on-going life’s work than just a higher education.”
“It will be. Are you interested?”
“Yes, of course. Where is it located?”
“In a city not far from Chicago. Only an hour-and-a-half by plane from here. I will be visiting quite often. Son, I have just found you and I don’t want to lose track of you.”
“I don’t want to lose you either. What are you going to do about Mom and Brenda?”
“Not too much with your mother, but I hope that Brenda will still be a friend.”
“She will be. She had her heart set on being able to call you her dad.”
Strange and picayune, maybe, but I took the paperwork that I had taken to Sam Grover’s office to complete, away from there, and hired a new attorney. This was before Annalee and Sam returned. All of this was in one folder and I don’t think those in his office knew what was contained in it. His office was shocked at my request for the return of the folder and asked for an explanation of my actions. “Sam will explain. Just give me what I have asked for.”
I suppose I could have backed out of both contracted agreements on the two pieces of real estate, but I had liked the house---Brenda had loved it. There had to be some woman, somewhere, who would enjoy living in a four-bedroom house with a four-car garage. I was feeling just perverse enough to buy it anyway.
Brenda cried the last two days before her mother came home. I tried to cheer her up. She wouldn’t go home to their apartment, wanting to stay with me. John came over and stayed on the couch the last night before his mother returned. I expected Annalee to be there at the door when I went home from work that evening. She was waiting for me as I drove up.
The first thing she said was, “Brenda is in your apartment and she won’t let me in. She acts as if she hates me. She has never acted like this toward me before.”
“She is disappointed in you. She will get over it.”
“What has she got to be disappointed about? I’m finally going to be able to give her the things she has been lacking all of her life. She should be happy.”
“Come in anyway.” I unlocked the door. Brenda was in what she now considered her room.
Her first words, “Mom, how could you? You knew Joe was in love with you. You go and get divorced and jump into bed with the first man you see. I hate you. A damned old lawyer to boot. There ought to be a law against them. John has told me all about how you two were suddenly all over each other the minute you left the court. He got sick of it and came home.
“I’m staying here with Joe and you can’t make me leave. I am not going to be around any old fart that you go to bed with.”
“I can make you leave. Joe is nothing to you and you can’t stay here. Get your things and get in the car.”
“Joe, can’t I stay here?”
“Brenda, I need to talk to your mother for a minute. She is right. You can’t stay here without her permission. Please, would you go sit in the car so we can sort this out?”
Sullenly Brenda went out. “What has got into her? We have always been close. I have never seen her like this. Tell me what I did wrong.”
“Annalee, I guess this is mostly my fault. I thought I was going to have a chance to date you and I wanted you to fall in love with me. I let it be known to both Brenda and John how I felt about you and what I was hoping for. That was the reason I took Brenda to the banquet and dance. I have done things with her just as if she was my daughter.
“I swear you were sending me signals that is what you wanted. You never gave me a chance. You come into my lonely life and bring me an intelligent boy that is my son. You have a lovely daughter any man would be proud to have fathered and you indicated that is what she was to become. You’re beautiful and smart yourself. I gave you every chance to get back on your feet when life hasn’t been that good to you. I wanted to do more, but I restrained myself and did things just the way you wanted by not making any demands on you. I didn’t offer you any money or come on to you asking for thanks for what I did for you.”
I paused. I didn’t really want to say hurtful things to this woman, but I couldn’t help myself. “Do you want to know what Brenda did when she found out that you had paired up with Sam? She came to me and asked if people with twenty-two years of age difference could have a happy life together. She was offering herself to me to assuage the hurt she knew I must be feeling about losing you.
“I am hurt, but this isn’t the first time I have been hurt by a woman. I just didn’t think it was going to be you who did it. All of this time I have played fair. I have gently turned Brenda down when she was willing to do something I knew she would regret in the future. I truly love Brenda and there is nothing perverted in that love. I hope you can understand that. I don’t want to come between a mother and her daughter either, so I will do or say anything to prevent you two from becoming estranged.” I decided I had said enough. “Why don’t you leave, but before you go, would you give me five minutes with Brenda? I will see if I can dispel some of the anger she feels toward you.”
I hadn’t given Annalee a chance to say anything. She went out and in a few minutes Brenda came back in the door. “Hi.” I only said that to calm down, not knowing what I was going to say to her.
“Mom is crying. She apologized to me for not being aware of how much her falling in love with Sam would hurt you. She hugged me and said I could stay the night here. She really thinks you are a great guy. Should I go with her or stay here with you?”
“I think your first concern should be your mother. If she has found true love with Sam, I guess you should be happy for her. Up until now, I thought he was a good guy and I know he will be fine for her. I would like to keep you as a friend, though. You can still be my almost daughter and I would like it if you and John did stay with me sometimes.”
“Okay I will go home with her. You might live longer with me not here to make your breakfast for you.” I knew now she was going to be fine. This was the joke we used to let the other know we were cool. She came into my arms for a hug. “I still think you are the best, Joe. Goodnight, I’ll keep in touch.” There were tears in her eyes when she closed the door.
**********
School started for Brenda on Monday. Sunday, she visited Sarah. I guess my former lover became Brenda’s confidant for Brenda was often at her house. I sometimes would be joining the two women for Sunday afternoon tea.
John was going to be leaving in ten days for his new studies in the west. I got on my new attorney’s case because I wanted two things done before he left. John was to have ten percent ownership in my new home. Brenda was to have the same. Knowing she couldn’t own it in her own right, I had John and myself named trustees to hold her share. I never even informed Annalee. As far as I knew she didn’t know about my new purchase at all.
John was surprised that he had suddenly become a property owner. Brenda was ecstatic and for once didn’t tell everyone about her business. She and John picked out the rooms they wanted to have for their own. Neither would be staying there much. John was leaving and I knew that Annalee wouldn’t agree to Brenda staying alone with me.
I went west with John to find quarters for him to live in and to meet with the two teachers and the rest of the team. I spent three days with them. I was concerned that maybe John wouldn’t be as knowledgeable as he should be, but he had his strengths and fit in very well.
As we were coming into O’Hare, I had said to John, “John, there is another reason I picked this city for you to attend school. Your biological mother is presently Mayor here. According to Lisa’s report, she will be trying to capture her party’s nomination for state representative. That will kick off in the spring. She is in the public eye, so you can see and observe her pretty much as you want to. Whether you want to make yourself known to her is up to you.”
“What would you do?”
“I think I would observe her as much as possible without getting known myself first.”
“That’s what I will do. I’ll keep you posted. You are curious about her aren’t you?”
“Yes, I suppose I am.”
Sam Grover was waiting at the apartment when I got home from the Auto Shop. This was two days after leaving John. “What the hell are you pulling, Joe? I keep my eye on the real estate sales. I see that you and John Midden bought some property. More to the point, there is a Brenda listed as owning some of the same property. This place is listed as having been sold as well. Explain!”
“I don’t have to explain shit, Sam.”
“Joe, I’m an interested party in Brenda’s well being. I wish I wasn’t because she is a miserable acting little bitch. She insults her mother and if she isn’t ignoring me, she is calling me an old fart. That’s to my face. It is worse when she talks behind my back. You seem to carry some weight with her. What are you doing? Are you screwing her?”
I didn’t hesitate. I hauled off and let him have my best shot. I missed his chin but I got him just under the ear and I guess this spot was as effective as the chin. It put him on the ground. It didn’t put him out. He lay there unbelieving. “Call the cops, Sam. Put me in jail for hitting you, if you can. I’ll do it again if you so much as lay your tongue on Brenda. She is a good girl. It could be she just doesn’t like you. It happens, so live with it.”
I turned and walked into my apartment. I didn’t hear his car start. Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. “Joe let me in. I want to apologize for impugning Brenda’s morals. Yours too for that matter.”
I opened the door and let him come past me. “What’s happened to us, Joe? Christ, I’m your godfather. This is all about Annie, isn’t it? You love her and I won her and you are making things difficult for everyone. That’s it isn’t it?”
“Sam, some of what you say is true. I admit I had a dream, but I never did anything but kiss her on the cheek. You won and in a way, I’m happy for you. There is one less lonely person in the world. It just isn’t me so I have put Annalee out of my mind.”
I stopped to look at Sam to see if he was listening. “Brenda is a different matter. John came to work for me. I hired Lisa to track down his parentage because we look so much alike. It has been proven that he is my son. Annalee and Brenda were both involved in proving that he is. John and Brenda are as close as siblings can be. Why can’t Brenda be the same to me as John is? I feel the same toward her as I do to John.
“You think there is something wrong for Brenda to own property with me. There isn’t, but you label me a pervert because I’m treating her just as I treat her brother. It is odd that all the while Annalee was away getting a divorce, it was okay for Brenda to live here with me with her mother’s permission. The minute Annalee found a boyfriend, that same behavior isn’t acceptable anymore.
“I’m not trying to split Brenda and Annalee up either. Brenda would run away and come here if I didn’t tell her it wouldn’t be right and she can’t.”
“Joe, I think they are already split. Annie is frustrated with Brenda and Brenda won’t listen to a thing she says. I don’t say anything. I’m afraid I am going to lose Annie so I’m as frustrated as she is. That is what Brenda wants and then Annie will be free again and she will turn to you.”
“It wouldn’t work. I couldn’t date her now after my disappointment and her taking up with you. That would be like me taking your leftovers.”
“Brenda doesn’t know that. I don’t know how this is going to play out. Joe, I’m sorry I said what I did. You can’t know how bad my head is aching right now.”
“Maybe I struck too fast. I felt not only me, but Brenda too, was insulted. I can’t have that.”
“I can see that.”
Sam left with nothing resolved. I set about preparing something to eat. My back was to the living room. I felt a presence and turned to see Brenda standing there. “Hi, you must be hungry. I take it you’ve been here ever since I came home.”
“I let myself in. I went into the bedroom when I heard you and Sam come in. I also was looking out the window and heard what happened before you came in. You stuck up for me. I knew you would.”
“I thought it necessary at the time. You know we are going to have to figure something out and resolve the things between all of us. You heard me tell Sam that I couldn’t live with your mother even if she left Sam.”
“I heard. That narrows my options, doesn’t it? It looks as if I’m going to have to live with Mom and Sam even when I hate him. He wants Mom to give up the place where we live and move into his house. Mom wants to do it immediately. What is going to happen to me, Joe? I feel worse than I did when Dad left us. Can’t you figure out some way I can live with you?”
I served up the stew I had been heating and sliced some Italian bread. “I don’t see how. I’ll talk to Sam again. He really is a smart lawyer. I don’t know the law concerning minors, but he does. Brenda, there is not much I can do because I’m not family. Getting right down to cases, neither one of us has any rights. Does your mother know you came to see me?”
Brenda shook her head. “I don’t tell her anything anymore.”
“Brenda, don’t you love your Mom? You know she deserves a life too. Your father did her wrong and she has suffered for three years. Now she has a chance for happiness. Do you really want to take that away from her?”
“Joe, how can you take her side? She dumped you.”
“She didn’t dump me because I never had her. That seems to be the whole problem. Look, can’t you be a little more tolerant of her? I know she doesn’t want to lose your love.”
Brenda continued eating. “It’s hopeless, isn’t it? She stacked the soup plates and went to the freezer compartment for ice cream. “I suppose I should call Mom to come and get me. She probably wonders why I’m not home to eat.”
“I’ll call if you want. That way if she screams at anyone, it will be me.” This brought a smile to Brenda’s face.
While we were waiting for Annalee to arrive, I checked to see if John had sent an e-mail. There was a fairly long one waiting to be read.
“Joe, I hear from both Mom and Brenda. I take it that things are pretty unsettled. I knew Sis didn’t like Sam. I was kind of disgusted with Mom when she and Sam jumped into bed together. Sis and I thought you had the inside track with her. I do love Mom and I guess she has the right to choose the one she falls for. I can see Sis’s point too. You have treated her just as if she was your daughter and she doesn’t want to lose you.
“As long as I can’t have a car here with me because I can’t find a garage for it, I think I will give it to Sis. She doesn’t have a license, so maybe you could help her get it. Mom should allow you to do so.
“Some of the problem that Sis has with Mom and Sam is that they haven’t been very discreet about where and when they are having sex. Sis has inadvertently walked in on them twice and she can hear them in Mom’s room at night. This might even be illegal as Sis is still an unrelated minor as far as Sam is concerned.
“Mom tells me that she is going to give up the apartment and move in with Sam. This upsets Sis because she hates Sam and yet she is going to have to live in the same house with him. If she has a car to drive, she can spend more time with her friends or visiting you. That will give Mom and Sam some freedom to be alone as well. In less than one year, Sis will be eighteen and then she can live where she wants to. She can even move into the house with you that you have so generously given us a portion of ownership.
“I know it may not be your place, but if you talk to Mom, tell her she does have the right to do what she wants with her life. She also has to remember she has a big responsibility to Sis as well. I wish there wasn’t this trouble at home because I have to really concentrate on my studies. On another note, I have seen my biological mother on the local television when she chaired a meeting with the city council. I’m glad I grew up with the Mom I have. It was a fractious meeting and I’m not impressed with Mayor Stacy Ripton.
“I love you Joe, and am thankful everyday that I moved south and went to work at Ambles Auto Shop-South. I don’t think Sis is too bad off either, although she may think she is. E-mail me anytime. John.”
Looking over my shoulder, Brenda was reading this at the same time as I was. “Am I that bad a person, Joe?”
“Looking at it from your mother’s point of view, probably. I could name a half dozen times in my own life when I have felt the same as you do in this situation. But the anger and frustration does pass. You never forget it, though. I think I will let your mother read John’s e-mail. He has been very sensible and thoughtful about this problem. I do need her permission to be able to arrange for your driving license. You are going to have to tone down your belligerence. I am still not going against your mother’s wishes.”
“Okay Joe, I’ll try. I still think Sam is a sneaky bastard though.”
**********
I did share the e-mail from John with his mother. She could see that everyone wanted to resolve the problems that had cropped up suddenly with her going to bed with Sam. Brenda did her part by at least being civil to Sam after they moved into his house. She was not much in residence, though.
With her license and the car that John had given her, she was on the road to visit someone. My cousin Lisa, my former lover Sarah, and of course, me. With basketball looming, she was often with the friend she had met at the banquet. She was again giving her mother some respect---not as much as before, but she would stop and listen to her.
I moved into my new home. It was very lonely being way too big for me, but I had the feeling that someday that would change and I would be happy with my decision to purchase it. The pool was an attraction. I decided to have it covered against the cool weather coming and then I went ahead and installed heating units so the water could be heated.
This brought Sarah occasionally to my home. Something she had never done before. Brenda commented after seeing this older woman in a swimsuit, why I could consider her as a companion. Sarah had the figure of a woman twenty years younger. Not as trim as that, but still something to admire. Also, Brenda had a bunch of friends her age, both male and female that were welcomed.
I still went to work everyday. At this point in my life, it wasn’t necessary, for the managers I had hired could well handle everything. I could meet once a week with them for policy changes and updates, but it wasn’t a have-to meeting. Annalee, she now owned the auto body shop that Sam purchased for her as a wedding present. I guess she was wedded more to the business than she was to him. He often complained about her giving more time to it than she did to him.
Occasionally Brenda would relate the latest row her Mom and Sam had. In the back of my mind, I wondered if maybe I hadn’t escaped a bullet and my savior was Sam Grover. With Annalee’s permission, Brenda traveled with me out to visit John for the Thanksgiving holiday. I harked back to when I had first found out that John was my son and Brenda was, I thought, going to be my step-daughter. We had a great time going into Chicago to a musical show one night.
That was on a Friday night. Saturday, he promised to take us to a local club where many young people hung out. Especially the rich and famous of the city. “You might even see my half-sister, for I have seen her in here twice. It is only normal for this is the club to come to for them.”
“What is she like and what is her name?”
“Sandy Ripton. She isn’t as pretty as Brenda, although about the same age. She carries more than a few extra pounds and her face still shows some zits. I think she is kind of wild, although this club doesn’t allow things to get too far out of line.” She wasn’t in so I didn’t see my ex-wife’s elder daughter. We returned home after a wonderful relaxed holiday. John was coming home for fifteen days at Christmas time.
It was two weeks before he was due that I received a frantic call on a Friday night from him. “Joe, I have Sandy Ripton here in my apartment. She is drunk and passed out in my bed. What am I going to do?”
“First, you better explain how she got there.”
“You know that club I took you to. I was there with three of my teammates. She came in with some older kids. She was pretty loaded and had a bottle of vodka in her purse that she kept swigging on right out of the bottle. The girl with the others kept egging her on to drink more and she was going to have a lot of fun later. By the time the bouncer asked the group to leave, Sandy was having to be held up.
My teammates and I followed them outside to where they were putting her into the passenger seat of what I assume is her car. The other kids left in another car and told the man to follow them. He didn’t go immediately and was feeling her up. He had her blouse half off and her bra undone when we pulled him out of the car. My buddies pushed him onto the ground and I drove off. When we got here I carried her up and put her into my bed.”
“Where is her car now?”
“My buddies drove it a block over and left it in a store’s all night parking lot.”
“Why didn’t you just drive her home?”
“Joe, her parents would never believe any story I could have told them.”
“You should have left her in the car and called 911 or the police.”
“I couldn’t, after all she is my sister. Joe, I know this isn’t your problem and I’ll figure it out. I just had to speak to someone. I’ll let you know what I decide to do. I can hear her being sick. I’ve got to go. I’ll call.” I just hoped my good Samaritan son would not get into too much trouble. He was young and had to learn things for himself. I chuckled to myself at the strangeness of the situation.
**************
Switch Characters to John Midden in the Chicago area
**************
John Midden
I hung up the phone to Joe Ambles, my Dad. I could hear my half-sister through the open door to my bedroom, barfing. I rushed in with the dish pan, but I was way too late. She had made a mess of the floor. At least she hadn’t got the bed clothes too dirty. Just a little on the top coverlet. Her eyes opened when she lay back from the side of the bed. They didn’t focus though. She relaxed and went to sleep. There was no stress to her breathing, so I guessed she would be okay.
I set about cleaning up the floor. That was not a fun job. I had done this before while in my last year of high school with a former girlfriend who had gone to a party without me. I went out and laid down on the couch. It wasn’t a restful sleep I was having.
I worried about how I was going to get rid of this girl in the morning. I wished I had talked to Joe before we had moved her car. That would have solved the problem. But then, I was curious about this sister of mine, and wanted to know more about her. What I saw of her so far, didn’t do much for me.
I made coffee because I was up early. I looked in on my sister. She looked a lot younger asleep than when she was tying one on in a club with a bunch of older black kids. I fried me an egg and put a slice of bread in the toaster. Eventually the girl in the other room would wake.
I heard a noise and I glanced up. Sandy was standing there looking at me. “I don’t know you.” It was a statement.
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“Did you do me last night?”
“Nope. You’re still a virgin.”
“Ha. I haven’t been a virgin since I was fifteen. Do you want to do me this morning?”
“Again, no. I like my women sweet smelling and you are far from that. Why don’t you go take a shower? Dig around in one of the bureau drawers and find something to put on. Throw your clothes out and I’ll wash them downstairs in the laundry.”
“Have you got some aspirin? I’ve got a splitting headache.”
“In the bathroom.” Her clothes were on the floor when she went into the shower. I took them and the coverlet downstairs to the washer.
It took several minutes before I got back upstairs. She came out of the shower drying off on a towel. Over the few minutes it took to become dry I saw every part of her---front and back. “I smell better. Do you want to do me now?”
“Still, no.”
“What’s your excuse this time?”
“Do you want an honest answer?”
“You might as well tell me. Everyone, including my folks, lecture me. So tell me.”
“Okay, but you aren’t going to like what I have to say.”
“Tell me, unknown man. Maybe I’ll listen to you.”
“I saw you at the club last night getting drunk as fast as you could. You were hanging out with one white chick a little older than you. There were five young black men with you. When you were asked to leave, they practically carried you out and put you in your car. One black guy got in and was undressing you. I drove you here and put you into my bed. In the middle of the night you were sick all over the floor.”
“That’s why you don’t want me?”
“Some of it. You have admitted that you have been having sex for a couple of years. The crowd you were with tells me that you haven’t been very careful of who you associate with. Do I want to stick my thing in you under those conditions? I guess not.”
I continued, “Do you know what a skank is? It is a woman that sells herself for sex. One that is on the bottom with nowhere to go. I don’t know what you get out of what you are doing, but I’m not having any. Look in the mirror. You still have teenage zits. That tells me you aren’t eating the best food or exercising. Being the Mayor’s daughter, I know you can afford to eat right and of the best food. Look in the mirror again at your body. You’ve got at least fifteen pounds of baby fat. That makes you obese in my book.
“Why you are like you are, I don’t know you well enough to know. Christ, your mother drags you out into the public often enough to support her position. Isn’t she giving you any advice?”
“I get plenty of notice and advice when I screw up and it is brought to her attention. Otherwise she doesn’t have much to do with me. Dad isn’t much better, but that’s because he is fifteen years older than Mom.”
“So you pull stunts like last night just to get noticed? Is that how you handle your problems?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it like that. Are you sure you don’t want to do me?”
“Still no. I could be your friend, though. I don’t mean a fair-weather friend. I mean a real friend.”
“What are you? Some kind of priest?”
“Nope, just a student. By the way, my name is John Midden. I’m here studying. I have a sister about your age and she has problems, so I can sympathize with you a little.”
“You know a lot about me. How come?”
“Someone that knows your mother told me a lot about you and your family. I don’t think he likes your mother very much, for he feels she did him wrong some years ago. But he won’t mind if you become my friend.”
“Mom has a lot of people that feel like this person does, I’m sure. John, could I have a slice of toast? I think I can keep it down and I feel better after taking the aspirin. You can tell me more about yourself.”
“Okay, but first I’m going down and put your clothes in the dryer. That towel doesn’t cover much and I would hate to go back on my good intentions.”
“I think you like skanks no matter what you say.”
“Sandy, you wouldn’t have to change much to get me to like you. I will say one thing and I’m dead serious about this. I am never going to do you. So would you stop with the flirting and suggestions? Can’t you be just like another sister to me?”
“Okay, I will for now. I don’t even like sex most of the time. Hurry back, I might even have an egg if you would poach it.”
**********
Before the day was too far into the afternoon, I had learned much about Sandy’s home life. I wasn’t surprised that Sandy was acting as she did. No one seemed to get along with each other. There wasn’t much love in evidence between her father and mother. All the kids were ignored and brought up more by the servants than by the parents. Sandy thought her father was a pretty good guy, but was too busy to notice her unless she was in trouble, which was now getting more and more frequent.
“Tell me about him.”
“I said he is older than Mom. She has always been ambitious and he has always had money and the ability to make bundles of it. I think having a nanny for us was the same way he was raised. The only thing is, he loved the one he had and he never found one for us we liked at all. I guess I’m lost to him. The twins still do some things with him. We own a camp not too far away and he takes them there when he goes.”
“You don’t go with him?”
“I used to but he grounded me one time and wouldn’t let me go. Screw him. I just won’t go now.”
“So it is your fault you don’t go?”
“I guess.”
“Would you like to start going again? Your sister and brother would like to have you with them wouldn’t they?”
“Yes.”
“Well, ask your father to take you next time.”
“He’d win then.”
“Wouldn’t you both win?” Sandy didn’t answer but I could see she was thinking. I changed the subject. “Won’t your parents be worried about you not coming home last night?”
“Not unless the police call them and tell them they have my car. Even then they won’t worry much because the police have returned it before when I have left it somewhere.” Boy, I thought, my new sister was a piece of work!
“Would you call them and tell them you are at a friend’s house?”
“If I get Mom, I will. If I get my Dad, maybe I will have him come and pick me up. Would you like to meet him?”
“I can if he doesn’t think I have done his little girl wrong.”
“I’ll just tell him you are gay and hate the thought of sex with a woman. His brother-in-law, my uncle, left my aunt for another man and they are still good friends. You’ll have to meet my Aunt Rita sometime. She is the only one in the family that I can honestly say I love all the way. She supported my uncle leaving even though she still loves him. She is one of these people that understands. She is much like you, now that I think about it.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m not gay though.”
I did meet Spencer Ripton. Sandy asked to be picked up at my address. I invited him in, asking if he had time for a cup of tea. Sandy had clued me in to what he preferred for a beverage. He was pleasant and listened to Sandy’s explanation as to how she came to be in my apartment. I would hate to swear in court that what she told him was the truth, though.
Her car had been returned just as she suspected it would be. The Mayor’s daughter’s car was well known about the city. I gave him a little information about myself, just saying I didn’t drink, was a student and was often tapped to be a designated driver for my friends who did. I had brought Sandy to my apartment because I didn’t know where she lived. Her car had been stolen and I thought it could be sorted out in the morning. She had been definitely in no condition to drive even if her car was available.
“I worry about Sandy. Thank God someone took time to take care of her. Some of the things she does I don’t think too much of. Especially when she raids my liquor cabinet before she goes out.” He turned and gave a disgusted look to his daughter.
He was surprised when I asked, “Would you mind if she came over and visited sometimes? I promise I will respect her in all things. There are sometimes I can’t have her here because I am carrying a heavy work load at the school. She should call first and I would hope she tells you when she is coming over.”
“Young man I think that is a great idea.”
I called Joe to tell him what I had done. “John, I think you have done a great job. Don’t expect miracles though. Maybe talking with her father will help her straighten up. Did you see any affection between them?”
“It is hard to tell. At least he didn’t chide her about getting drunk. He was even subtle when he mentioned the bottle of vodka she took. I’m looking forward to seeing her again. I’d like to meet the twins too. Maybe we will become friendly enough so she will bring them with her.”
“How old are the twins?”
“Fourteen. They get along better with their father than Sandy does. I guess their mother ignores them all unless she needs a photo op to further her political aspirations. I can’t say I am too anxious to meet the mother even if she did bear me.”
Wednesday evening I received a call from Sandy. “Can I come over tomorrow night? Dad said it was okay. He told Mom about you. All he got back was a ‘whatever.’ I have an idea I want to hit you with. If Mom doesn’t care about me, maybe I should concentrate on Dad. I actually have been sitting with him for a little while after dinner each night. The twins are there too. So, can I come over?”
“Sandy, I am awful busy and have a test coming up before Christmas. If you would promise to keep your visit to under an hour I’d love to see you.”
“I’ll bring something to eat and we can talk during our meal. Maybe you can extend our time together a few extra minutes if you don’t have to put a meal together.”
“Okay, I get here about five-thirty. See you then.”
Sandy was something besides the drunken slut I had brought home a few days previously. She had on a neat dress. She returned my compliment by saying, “I may be a skank, but I don’t have to dress like one.”
“I said that to shock, you realize, don’t you?”
“Yes, but it was too close to the truth to be ignored. Let’s eat. I brought Chinese as it is mostly vegetables. I decided I was eating too much fried food.” She flushed, because she was bragging a little about changing her diet. I squeezed her hand, not saying anything. She knew I approved of her efforts.
Later, “John, do you think it okay if I join my father at the health club he goes to? There are women that join their husbands in exercising but no one as young as me.”
“Wow, why are you asking me?”
“I don’t know. You are the only one I could think of to ask. I’ve got one other thing to ask about as well.”
“What would that be?”
“I was thinking of maybe going to my father’s office and asking him for something to do.”
“Well I don’t know how to answer. Are you going to the health club to hang onto your father or are you going there to shape up and lose a little weight? Going into your father’s office, where are you planning on starting if he gives you something to do? If it is at the top or if it takes too much time in training you to be productive, I’d say no. If you want to lose weight, be serious about it. In the office, start near the bottom. You know, shredding documents or something.
“I warn you, losing weight is a slow, very boring process. Shredding documents or delivering mail is as, or more, boring. The staff will be watching you. Once you say you can’t or won’t do it, that will shame your father, if he has given you a chore. You have to decide. If you succeed in what you set out to do, your father is going to be very proud of you and then he will give you all the love and attention you desire.”
“What about you, will you be proud of me?”
“Yes and someday you will know exactly why.”
“Will you like me?”
“Yes to that as well. There is always a but in something like this. Sandy, please don’t ever get the idea that I am going to, as you say, do you. I can’t.”
Sandy searched my face and saw that I was serious. “Okay, I guess. I will say you have done a lot for my self esteem. I can’t figure it out either for you have called me terrible names and yet I don’t seem to mind. It is as if you were my brother or something. Well, I promised I wouldn’t stay very long. Am I going to see you before Christmas vacation? You said you were going home.”
“Not this week, but Saturday night next, would you join me here for dinner? I’m going to fly out on Monday. I like to cook and I’ll have time to fix something special. Better yet, come in the early afternoon and we can fix it together.”
“I can’t cook.”
“My sister can’t either, but we always had fun in the kitchen.” It was a date. I thought about Sandy a lot during the week. I hoped she hadn’t reverted to going out and resumed her slutty lifestyle. She was a junior in high school and had revealed to me that she was just barely passing her courses. Also those courses were ones that were put in place for the poorer performing students and just meant to get the student graduated.
Friday before our date, Sandy called crying. “Mom and Dad demand that I stay home tomorrow night to be with Peter and Patty. They both have to go out and there won’t be any servants here. I can’t come over. That means I won’t see you for another two weeks. Boy, are my parents going to pay for this.”
“Sandy, do you really want to do that? Look how bad you were messed up the night I met you. I don’t want you to get like that again. You could get really hurt.”
“Probably, but it would be their fault. I so wanted to see you.”
“Is your father home and can I speak to him?”
“He is here. Just a minute, I’ll get him.”
“Yes, who is this?”
“This is John Midden. Sandy and I had a date for tomorrow. She tells me she can’t come.”
“That’s correct. I hate to disappoint her, but she has to show some responsibility to the family. We don’t ask her to be with Pete and Patty very often. She has been so good this past week, I hated to ask it of her, but there is no other alternative.”
“I have a suggestion. Would you mind if she came and brought her brother and sister with her? I’d like to meet them.”
“That’s going to cramp your style isn’t it? I’m aware of what Sandy does on her dates. Lord knows she throws it up to us when things don’t go her way.”
“I hadn’t planned on being intimate with Sandy, so as you say, it won’t cramp my style.”
“You’re serious aren’t you?”
“Yes. All I planned to do was for us to prepare a dinner and hang out. I can do that with three as well as one.”
“Sandy may not like it having to drag her brother and sister along on her date.”
“Not much alternative is there? I’ll let you talk to her and she can call me back.” It was only fifteen minutes later before Sandy was on the phone.
“I guess you are going to have a crowd for dinner. I get to see you after all, but I have to drag my sister and brother with me on this date. I don’t believe I’m agreeing to this. Oh, I’m supposed to ask you if I should bring anything.”
“No, I have the team van here and if we need anything we can go shopping for it.”
“What time can we come over?”
“Anytime tomorrow. I am going out in the morning for small presents for my father and mother. I’ve got to get something for my sister too. I suppose I should get a gift for my new step-dad as well. That would make my mother very happy. I’ll be home by noon, so anytime after that.”
“Okay, we’ll be seeing you. Thanks John, for setting this up. I really didn’t want to do something to make my dad mad at me again and I’m certainly safer with you than I am going out with my own friends.”
Eight-thirty in the morning, there was a knock on my apartment door. “Hi, you said we could come over anytime. We thought we would go Christmas shopping with you. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Would it matter if it did?” I was smiling as I asked this.
“Nope, I usually get my own way.”
“I have noticed that. Come in and let me get to know Peter and Patty before we go.”
We went Christmas shopping. Peter and Patty were close and I guessed that was from being twins. They took to me right away and I hoped they would continue when it was revealed that I was actually a brother to them. As the afternoon wore on, questions flew among all of us.
I was surprised to find out that Sandy shared many of her adventures and secrets with them. I was shocked when Peter asked me how come I hadn’t done his sister yet. This was asked right in front of both of his sisters. I remembered something Sandy had said the first morning.
I had my answer and looked right at her. “It is like this, Sandy tells me she has had many sexual encounters. She also said that she doesn’t like sex all that much and has to get drunk to do it. I’m not going to get her drunk and I’m not having sex with her just so she can say she has done it with me.
“To me having sex is a big deal and should be reserved for someone you really care about. There are other considerations too. You and Patty are very close. She is your sister. I can’t believe you would have sex with her even though you love her very much. See, there are many reasons not to have sex.”
“Being gay is another reason. I know, because my Uncle Ralph is gay. He left our Aunt Rita for another man. Sandy thinks you are gay. Am I going to have to watch out for you?”
“No, I’ll be as good about you as I am with Sandy and Patty. We don’t need to talk about sex. Look if we are going to eat dinner this evening, we have to get things started. I have enough swordfish steak. I am making scalloped corn and cheese casserole. We’ll make some potato wedges to go in the broiler just before we put the fish in. I baked a dish that my mother makes that is quick and simple and doesn’t cost much. It is made with Jiffy and fruit.”
“How come you know how to cook?”
“When I was growing up my mother and father didn’t have much money and sometimes they were both working. I might be the only one at home and it was up to me to put something on the table. Later my father left my mother and we all had to work. It was three more years before I met the man that is my biological father. He is the one that is sending me out here to school.”
“Does your mother love him?”
“No, she ended up marrying another man. It is pretty confusing and some day I’ll explain the whole situation.”
It was getting time for the Riptons to leave. The phone rang and it was Spencer Ripton. “John, if it isn’t too inconvenient, could the kids stay at your apartment for tonight? Stacy and I can’t get home. There has been a home invasion not too far from where we live and the invaders haven’t been found.”
“Yes they can stay. The girls can sleep on the bed and Peter and I will make do on the couch the best we can. I was just ready to take them home. Will you be picking them up tomorrow?”
“Yes, I’ll be there by eleven. I’m sorry about this. How old are you, anyway?”
“I’ll be twenty next month.”
“Well you certainly are mature well beyond your years. That is why I trust you. Thanks for doing this for me. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Hey guys, it looks as if you are stuck here for tonight. Sandy you and Patty get the bed. Peter, there might be room for you there as well. No one will be getting undressed, so I guess it will be okay.” We watched Saturday night live and then the three kids went to bed. I put myself down on the couch.
**********
It was sometime after I had been asleep for awhile that I felt the zipper going down on my jeans. I came awake and jumped up, upsetting Sandy who was on her knees beside the couch. I made the decision. “Sandy, you never give up, so go wake Peter and Patty. I’m not having sex with you and I’ll tell all of you why.” I zipped up my pants and got some items from the table drawer that held my personal papers. Peter and Patty came out, barely awake.
“Sandy, I guess you will be the one to read what is on this report. Read it out loud so Peter and Patty can hear it.”
When the DNA report was finished, all three looked at me. Peter exploded, “You’re actually our brother.”
“That is correct. I didn’t want you to know until I got back after Christmas, but Sandy has kept on pushing toward something I can’t do. Now, I have to leave tomorrow morning and you are going to be wondering about it all the while I’m gone.”
“Mom was actually married to someone before she met Daddy? I don’t think he knows that she was.”
“I don’t think he does either. My father has had a private investigator find out what she could. There are a couple of coincidences that have occurred. The biggest is my finding Sandy and getting her away from her friends a few weeks ago.”
“Why hasn’t your father approached Mother about you? Does he hate her that much?”
“I don’t think he hates her. In fact he didn’t even know he had a son until early last summer. She was pregnant when the divorce went through and she never told him about me. Then she gave me to another couple to raise and apparently my birth was never recorded. If there is any paperwork concerning my birth, your mother must have it. Actually I’m a non person. Legally, I have never existed. But I was legitimate because your mother was still married to my father when I was born. The final divorce decree occurred six weeks after my birth.
“It is me that should be the most angry. It was a coincidence that I went to work in my father’s business and I look almost exactly like him. I would never have known him if I hadn’t. He and my mother sent in the DNA sample and confirmed I was actually fathered by him.”
“I’m confused about all of this talk about fathers.”
“It is confusing, Sandy. A woman and man, Jonathan and Annalee Midden received me when I was five days old without any paperwork. They raised me until I was sixteen. Two years after I was adopted, a girl Brenda, was born. That is my sister. Then my father Jonathan abandoned us all and disappeared. Just this last year, when I was nineteen, I went to work as a mechanic.
“The owner of the business is my biological father. My father, Joe Ambles became attracted to my mother and Sis and I thought they would get married. First the man who adopted me had to be found, so my mother could divorce him. Joe helped find him and sent his lawyer with my mother to have the divorce processed. I was there with them to substantiate everything presented to the divorce court. Long story short, Mom and this attorney got into bed together before they came home.
“This caused all sorts of problems for Joe, for he was greatly attracted to my Mom. It caused even more for my sister, who had bonded with Joe and looked on him as father already and wanted to become his daughter. Mom has since married Sam, this attorney, and Brenda hates him. I’m upset, but I want Mom to be happy, so I can live with him being my step-dad. I suppose Stacy Singleton Ambles, married to Spencer Ripton, would make your father my step-dad too. I can live with that as I am beginning to like your father a lot.”
“John, how awful for you to have a sister like me. I’m going to change. I really am. I’m glad you are living here close where you can make sure I live up to you.”
Peter and Patty were staring unbelieving at me. “What are we going to tell Daddy when he comes to pick us up tomorrow?”
“I wish you wouldn’t say anything to him yet. I’m having trouble getting used to you as my sisters and brother. Isn’t there anyone you can discuss this with if you find you have to talk about it?”
“Aunt Rita will listen to us. We are spending most of Christmas vacation with her. Mom and Dad are booked for an eight-day cruise.” Patty was the one speaking. “Sandy, why don’t you lay on the bed with John and try to make up for being such an ass since you met him. He must think you are awful. That’ll teach you for being such a whore these last two years.”
I did go in and lay on the bed with Sandy. “John, I’m so ashamed. I have had a family for all of these years and I didn’t appreciate it. Honest, what I did tonight while you were sleeping, I was only trying to be nice to you for you being so nice to me. I did it the only way I knew how by offering myself to you.”
“I knew that and I thank you for the offering. If you weren’t my sister, I would have taken you up on it. I really am not gay. The reason I stopped you was, if we went ahead, then I couldn’t ever admit you were my sister. I do want you for my sister. I think the twins are tops too. Let’s try to get some sleep. It won’t be long before it will be time to get up and get on with our lives.”
**********
I flew into my home town, arriving Monday about six in the afternoon. Brenda met me, driving the car I had given her. “We are staying with Joe for the holidays. I’m there a lot, but never alone overnight with him. I could, it is safe enough. What Mom had isn’t catching. I do love Joe with all my heart, just not like that.”
“I heard differently. I heard you were inquiring about May and December marriages.”
“I did, but I was pissed at Mom at the time. Your latest e-mail says you have some news about your siblings. Tell me.”
“Not yet. I want Joe to hear everything about yesterday. Just to titillate you, I spent some time on the bed with my sister Sandy. She has been trying to get me to be intimate with her ever since the night I first brought her home. She tried again last night.”
“Don’t stop there, tell me all of it.”
“Nope, but just remember how I treat you and you aren’t even a blood relation.”
“Whew, I thought for a minute you did the bedroom tap dance with her. John, I’ve missed you so. I am so lonely sometimes. Mom tries to pay attention and when things aren’t going too well with Sam, she cries on my shoulder.”
“How bad is it with them?”
“Well, if Mom would ease up a little and not be so involved with the auto body shop, I think they would be fine. She has always been in charge. She finally found something that makes a lot of money. She doesn’t realize that Sam is rich and she doesn’t have to earn the last penny out there.”
“Maybe she is afraid Sam will walk away like Dad did.”
“If she doesn’t back off, he might. You’ll talk to her won’t you? You know if Sam does leave her, Joe won’t fill in. She had her chance with him and I agree that he is right.”
“Anything that Joe does is right with you. It is so obvious. Are you still a virgin, Sis?”
“What an awful thing to ask your sister.”
“I know, but my other sister has been screwing around for two years. She is a slut if there ever was one. Maybe not anymore though. I’ve got her working on being a better person. I think I’m making some progress too. I hope so. I don’t want my sisters to be sluts.”
“I don’t know as I will ever become a slut. I’m still technically a virgin, but that is going to change New Year’s eve. I’ve promised this boy I have been seeing since you went away.”
“Does Mom know? How about Joe? If you haven’t talked to them about it, I’ll bet you have with someone.”
“I have talked to someone. I bet you can’t guess who?”
“I can. It’s Sarah.”
“How did you guess?” She paused thinking. “Joe. Joe has been discussing it with her and she told him. That’s okay. That means I won’t get interrupted. He’ll give me time and space to work it out. John, I’m so glad you moved south to work for him. Oh, I did something. I mailed our real dad a card on his birthday. I signed your name as well as mine.”
“Did you hear back?”
“Yes, I got a card thanking me. He wanted a picture of both of us. I sent him an enlarged snap of us taken just before you went out west to school. I haven’t heard anything more from him.”
“That was thoughtful of you. I’m glad you did. So, who is making dinner tonight?”
“Joe, of course. I am getting better at making a meal, though. I’ll try some out on you before you go back to school.”
“I’m so blessed with sisters that can’t cook. Three of them to be exact.”
“You’ve met the younger sister? What’s her name?”
“Patty. Yes, she was on my bed Saturday night for awhile too.” I received a slap for not saying more.
We arrived at Joe’s home---mine too, now. Mom and Sam were there. Sarah and Rabbi Timothy were present as well. My sister’s boyfriend, Dean, I met for the first time. He was kind of geeky, but hey, I was too. Joe’s mother and father, my grandparents, came in followed by Lisa and Matt. I said I wanted to talk to Lisa for a minute when I could.
Joe had a steak dinner ready and we sat down almost immediately. The Christmas tree was huge, up and lighted. Christmas eve was tomorrow night. After dinner we sat near the tree and I told everyone what my team and I were working on. I wasn’t only studying, but we had some planned projects in the works as well. One that looked promising was to tweek another patent that was already granted. It wasn’t too much different, but enough so our team might get one of our own piggybacked on the granted patent.
I then announced I had met my three half siblings and their father, all of whom I liked so far. I hadn’t met my biological mother yet. I looked at Lisa and said I wanted to find out everything about Stacy. What she remembered about her and what she had gleaned when Joe had her investigated. “Joe, I want to know all that you know about her from the time when you were married to her.”
I explained to them that nothing I had garnered from the media made me want to draw close enough to call her my mother. I had only met the twins for a total of twenty-four hours, but I enjoyed their company totally. “They are as close as twins can be. If one starts to say something, the other is apt to finish the sentence. It is like carrying on a conversation with a person with two voices.”
“What about the older girl, Sandy?”
“I guess you could say she has been off track for the last couple of years. She has been running wild and has done everything you can imagine a wild child does. She isn’t as pretty as Brenda. I’ll qualify that, as yet. She hasn’t taken care of herself either in lifestyle or diet.
“I blame her parents for this. She is a person that needs attention and the way she found to get it is by being obnoxious. Most of her peccadilloes have been covered up because her mother is a public figure. I’ve met her father and he is aware of what has happened with her and is working on helping her get back on track.”
“How is he doing that? If he let her go bad once, won’t he forget and have it happen again?”
“Brenda, don’t forget she has a new brother to steer her in the right direction. I’m great in telling my sisters what they should do when they misbehave. You are an example. To help them, they have an Aunt Rita that they all like and I’m hoping she will step in and guide the kids.
“The aunt hasn’t been much help for awhile because she is just divorced. Her husband left her and is living with a male friend. My understanding is that the two kids they have together are their first consideration. All this makes me think that there aren’t any safe and stable marriages anymore.”
Thank God, talk turned away from me and turned to other family matters and what everyone was doing. I went down to my room after awhile to unpack my bag. Sam Grover followed me in. He was looking pretty gloomy. “John, do you have any influence with your mother? We aren’t getting along that well and we have only been married a short few months.”
“Probably not as much as I used to. What is the problem?”
“You know I have plenty of money. I bought the auto body shop for a wedding present for your mother. That was a big mistake. She spends all of her daylight hours there including some on Saturday and Sunday. When she is at home she is working on stuff she should leave to her employees. It is as if she thought the place was going to fail. It was a viable business when I purchased it. She has expanded it in all areas and the money is rolling in.”
“Do you still love her?”
“Of course I do. You could say I lost the close friendship of a good man when I went after your mother. I knew Joe was intending to court Annalee, but I wanted Annie then and I want her now. I do want Annie now, but I don’t have her. The business she owns has replaced me.”
“Brenda told me about it. I promised my sister I would talk to Mom. I don’t know if it will do any good, but I’m willing to try.”
“That’s all I can ask. I know both you and Brenda were or are unhappy about me marrying your mother. I know I can make her happy if she will just give me a chance.”
He went out and five minutes later Mom came in. “Sam crying on your shoulder about me working too much?”
“Yeah. Mom, what are you going to do? Do you like living alone without a man by your side? Sam’s alone more now than before he married you. At least then he could go out on a date occasionally. Remember I was there when you went after Sam. You crawled right into bed with him and showered him with love and affection. Now you aren’t giving him much of either. Also, you certainly can’t count on Joe to look at you again.
“I think you went after Sam because you knew Joe wouldn’t give you free rein to run the body shop. Sam compounded his problem by buying it for you, so if he walks away he has done himself in. You could be making half the money you are and still call it a successful business. You could give it away and Sam has more money than you can spend.”
“Is it that bad? Is Sam giving up on me? I wanted to show him that I can be a successful businesswoman.”
“You have shown him that, but you have gone too far.”
“I don’t want Sam to leave me. You and Brenda would be ecstatic, and throw it in my face, saying I should have married Joe.”
“At first maybe and maybe we thought Joe was a more suitable father for us, but that was then. Right now we are hoping you and Sam make a go of it.”
“What can I do?”
“I hate to mention Joe, but why can’t you model your business after his, now that you have made a success of it. Joe lost the wife he had, because he was too work oriented.
“It took him a long, lonely time to get to where he is now. He has four managers, one for each shop. Now he can take off and do things that he should be doing with a family. But he is alone with no wife. I would suggest you hire yourself someone to manage the auto shop. If you feel you have to go in every day, make it for only a couple of hours. That’s just to put the money that your manager earns for you in the bank.
“Sam still has an agency to run. Make your hours that he is free, your free hours. You both will be happy. You think about it. Now I want to go out and meet Brenda’s boyfriend. We’ll talk more before I go back to school.”
“John, one more thing. I’m worried that Brenda is going to be having sex. She has a steady boyfriend and it could happen.”
“Hell Mom, she told me she has been having sex with him since their first date. You don’t have to worry anymore. She isn’t acting as if it is bothering her is she?” I was chuckling as we left my room together. I had better tell Brenda what I had said to Mom though.
Mom and Sam left fairly early while I was talking to Timothy and Sarah. I wouldn’t be seeing the two Jewish people on Christmas eve. I caught Brenda alone for a minute and related to her what I had said to Mom about her and Dean. She flushed and then she got a speculative gleam in her eye.
My grandparents left next after telling me how proud of me they were. Lisa promised to give and tell me everything she knew about Stacy Ripton. “I have been watching you. You are so much like Joe was at your age. I loved him then and I think I love you now.” I got a very affectionate hug and a kiss with Matt smiling and looking on.
I was tired and I could hardly stay awake. Joe was telling me about the auto repair shops. Finally I excused myself and went to my room. Dean was supposed to sleep in the same room with me. Brenda had her own room in the other wing. When I went to sleep, he hadn’t come in. At 3 a.m. he wasn’t in the other bed yet.
I heard him come in after I was awake and laying there debating if I should get up and make breakfast. Neither he nor Sis made it for the morning meal.
Joe said something about it to me. “I think the two decided that Christmas is a time for presents. I believe the two exchanged them last night. Are you okay with that, Joe?”
“Yeah, you?”
“I even might have pushed it along a little. Yeah, I’m fine with it.”
Joe went to his family for Christmas dinner. I went over to Sam’s and had dinner with him and Mom. Brenda had been invited but had opted for Dean’s parents. Mom was disappointed, but contained her feelings. I guess the problem of Mom’s business had been put on hold for the holidays for Sam was more upbeat than he was two nights ago.
Brenda and Dean came in and Sis came right to me and gave me a big hug. She did the same with Sam, which surprised him no end. I whispered to Mom. “I wonder what made Sis so happy. What makes you the happiest, Mom?” The moment passed and we sat around not talking about anything much. Sis and Dean went into her room, but she was smart in leaving the door open. Mom checked.
Friday, I went with Joe and visited with all the mechanics that I had worked with, joking that they had a much easier job than going to school. I went over to Mom’s body shop and found that she had taken the day off. Hey, maybe there was hope for Sam’s and her marriage after all.
It is odd, you are anxious to get home and renew old friendships and meet the people you once knew. But when you get there, you find they have moved away from the way you remembered them. I was lonely until I found Sis and we fell into the camaraderie that we once shared.
It was Sis who brought up the fact that she wasn’t a virgin anymore. “John, thank you for saying what you did to Mom. Just knowing you were okay and stood as a buffer between me and her helped a lot. Losing your virginity can only happen once. Mom couldn’t say much if she thought it happened months ago and it hadn’t changed me. How about you? You haven’t said anything about having a girlfriend.”
“I don’t, but I’m so busy studying it doesn’t bother me. I do go out and I’m always the designated driver because I don’t drink. I could have screwed my sister. She offered it to me enough times. I have seen her naked even. Now she knows I am her brother and that knowledge has shamed her so I think, say hope, that she will be a good girl.
“I’m going to tell her and I’ll tell you the same. There is a difference in making love five times a week with one person and having sex with five guys one night a week. That’s what she was doing. The night I rescued her, that was what was on tap. She was having sex for the wrong reason as well. I’m not going to hold it against her. You know I blame her mother for how Sandy acted and that makes me think I don’t like my birth mother very much.”
“That’s sad. I wasn’t very happy with Mom for awhile, but I still love her. You showed me that she had a life beyond us and deserved one. We are getting along pretty good recently. Of course I have Dean now.”
“I suppose you are of a mind that Dean will be your life partner. You know that might not happen.”
“I know and we’ve already talked about it. We have agreed that if we want to split up, we’ll talk about it before we get too serious with another person.”
I was watching television that night when the phone rang. “John, this is Rita Murdock. I’m the Ripton kids’ aunt. They have told me a far-fetched story about them having a brother that their mother and my brother don’t know anything about. Can you fill me in on this?”
“I can. Stacy would know that there is a brother to her children out there somewhere. I’m that person and I have that proof in my apartment. My father who Stacy was married to, is sitting across the room from me right now. Would you like to speak to him? He can tell you more about your sister-in-law than I can. I was only five days old when she passed me on to someone else. I guess you could say I have never met her.”
“What is your father’s name?”
“I’ll let him introduce himself.” I motioned to Joe. “Joe, this is Rita Murdock on the phone. Stacy’s sister-in-law. She wants to know all about Stacy and you.”
Joe was on the phone for more than an hour and I swear before he hung up, he was flirting with her. It came as no surprise when he hit me with, “John, I invited your siblings to visit. We are going to have house guests for three days next week The aunt, Sandy, Peter and Patty are flying in tomorrow night. They will be staying here at the house with you and me. I guess Rita always takes them on a trip for a few days when Stacy and Spencer leave them with her. This year, they are coming here. You don’t mind do you?” He was all smiles.
I grinned. “Who is she coming to meet, you or me?”
“I guess both of us. I did say you would keep the youngsters occupied one night so I could take her out to dinner. She wants to have your sister stay here also. Sandy told her aunt you talk about her all the time.”
“I guess we can handle the extra people, don’t you think?” I paused before adding, “Dad.”
Joe grinned, “I knew I purchased this big house for a reason. I think I’ll start the pool heating, as someone will want to go swimming. It will be worth it with so many here.” I looked at Joe. I had never seen him as excited as this about meeting someone before. I’ll bet it wasn’t because of my half siblings either.
**********
It was ostensibly me that these people were coming to visit. I met them at the airport just after six in the evening. Sandy and Patty ran to me and gave me a hug. Peter shook my hand. Aunt Rita was hanging back until this was done and then stepped forward to be introduced. “John, I’m so pleased to meet you. These kids talk about you as if you were Santa Claus. They also claim they haven’t told their mother and father about being related to you.”
“I have met Spencer. If he didn’t know that Stacy was married before, I didn’t feel as if I should be the one to break it to him. Maybe you could help with that?”
“I could. First, though, I want to get to know you myself. Sandy says you have a sister.”
“Yes, her name is Brenda. We are very close even though I am adopted. I think she is the same age as Sandy. They will get along great. They can share experiences.”
“You can’t mean that John, can you?”
“Why not, Sandy? It is all part of growing up. Let’s get loaded up. My father is anxiously waiting to meet my new family.” We got into the van. I could see Sandy in the rear view mirror sitting behind me. It struck me, she didn’t have nowhere near as many zits as when I first met her about a month ago. She looked happier now than she did then, too.
I tried making conversation with Aunt Rita sitting beside me. “You are much younger than your brother?”
“Yes, seventeen years. I was my Mom and Dad’s mistake. Spencer was married before I started high school. We have been close, though, and he has been there for me through my divorce.” She stopped speaking and I glanced at her. I could see sadness.
“Sandy tells me you have two children.”
“Two boys, Brian and Gordon. They are with their father this week. She probably told you why we aren’t still together. That doesn’t mean we don’t have affection for each other and are raising our kids the best way we can.”
“Sandy and the twins tell me he is a great uncle to them. Life tosses us all a curve sometimes and you don’t always see it coming.”
“You are very perceptive for one so young. I think I am going to like you as much as Sandy and the twins do. I know one thing, you have been wonderful for Sandy. You have given her something to live up to and a reason to change her ways.” I glanced back at Sandy. She was blushing and when she caught my eye, I received a big smile. Then she stuck her tongue out at me. Sisters!!!
I drove up to the front of the house. We had a white Christmas last week, but the sun had come out and there was only a little left where the house shaded it. Joe had the lights on, and you could see the lighted Christmas tree and decorations through the windows. There was one bush in the yard that Brenda had loaded with white lights. Too many for the size of it, and it looked more like a light bulb than a bush.
Joe came out and I quickly introduced our guests. He asked everyone in saying it was cold. I said I would bring in the bags. Sandy stayed behind to talk to me. “You will see Aunt Rita all dressed up when she takes off her coat. She has never traveled like that before. What did you say to her to get her to come for a visit?”
“I didn’t talk to her. I just passed the phone to Joe when she called. They were flirting before the call ended. He then said he had invited all of you for three days.”
“I’ll bet it is for more than three days. I heard Aunt Rita talking to Uncle Ralph and he said he would keep my cousins until Saturday if she wanted.” Just then Brenda came out and I introduced her to Sandy. So much for getting help with the bags, as my two sisters went in without even looking back at me.
Peter and I were going to sleep downstairs in one of the rooms next to the playroom. Aunt Rita and Patty were going to have my room and Sandy and Brenda were going to share Brenda’s.
My sister and Joe had a dinner all prepared and it was as good as only Joe could make one. Brenda was given most of the credit, stating she didn’t do breakfasts, though. This was a standing joke and it had to be explained about how she had tried to make one when Joe and she had first met.
I finally had a chance to observe Aunt Rita. I could see where Sandy got some of her features, for they had the same coloring. They both were blonde like Joe and myself. Rita was buxom without being blousey, and about five feet-five inches tall. She looked to be about thirty, although she must be thirty-six or -seven. I deduced this because I knew Sandy’s father to be in his early fifties.
Aunt Rita and Joe were totally wrapped up in getting acquainted, almost ignoring the rest of us. Brenda and Sandy did the same with each other. This left me with Patty and Peter to entertain. “Have you guys been swimming lately?”
“It’s winter dummy.” This was Patty.
“Maybe, but I think I can find somewhere to get wet. Come on. Brenda, in anticipation, found suits for us and Joe heated the pool and the pool area.” We soon had a game of “catch me if you can” going. Patty won hands down and admitted she was on her school swim team. Only fourteen, this bit of womanhood was going to outshine her older sister in beauty quite easily.
It was after ten o’clock when Aunt Rita and Joe came looking for us. It didn’t take much to cajole the two older persons to put on suits and join us. I suspected Joe wanted to see Rita in the two piece bikini that Brenda had one in inventory. Rita’s eyes were taking in Joe and I smiled as he was strutting just a mite.
We never did see Brenda and Sandy until breakfast the next morning. They looked as if they had been awake and talked all night. Brenda mentioned she was going to pressure her boyfriend to find Sandy someone so they could double date. I looked at Sandy, worried for the moment that she might revert to her wild ways. She read my mind and when we were alone for a minute, she said, “I’ll never humiliate you, John. It will just be a movie date and we will be back early. In fact, if you had a girl you can come too.”
“I do trust you. It was just a momentary thought, that is all.” Rita and Joe had a date for the day. He was going to tour Rita around all four of his repair shops---some date. But then I thought it was just something to do so they could be together.
All of us young people met at Mom’s house for lunch. Brenda had already collected Dean and he was busy looking for someone that would go out on a double date with Sandy. Mom was happy to meet my half siblings and Sam positively glowed when I introduced him as my step-dad. I observed him and Mom, and I guess they had come to terms on her working so much. I knew she hadn’t worked today because I had called the auto body shop earlier and they said Mom had only been in for a few minutes last Friday. She had been in for a minutes this morning to wish everyone a Happy New Year, as it was only a half day of work.
There was a horror marathon running in one of the cinemas for New Year’s eve. That is where Brenda and Sandy were going with their dates. Joe said that he was taking Rita out to a party and they asked if I minded watching Patty and Peter. I didn’t, but it was difficult for me to know how to entertain them.
We wanted to watch the ball drop in New York on television. Finally it was decided the three of us would go to the same cinema as the girls. We would be home before ten and then we could swim for awhile. We didn’t expect anyone else to be home until later. I said after we went swimming, I would make popcorn and we would watch the festivities on the tube.
The movie playing on the screen wouldn’t have scared an eight-year-old and we were glad when it ended. Shortly after we arrived home and were swimming, Brenda, Dean, Sandy, and her date, came in and joined us in the pool. I was surprised, but Sandy said that they had spotted us at the movies and so came home to join us.
I found a sad love story on television that had been playing and Peter and Patty watched it with me. We could hear the others playing in the pool. It was a quarter to twelve and we all came together waiting for the New Year and the show from New York.
I guess on New Year’s eve you can kiss your sisters. I received one from all of mine. The most fervent one was from the youngest. “John, I’m so glad you came into our lives. I used to worry about Sandy so much and what she was doing. Pete feels the same way. We don’t worry so much anymore. You get two kisses from me because boys don’t kiss. I wish you could be with us all the time.” Patty had waited until Sandy and Brenda were out in the entry way saying goodnight to their dates, before the kiss.
“I know and I’m beginning to feel as close to all of you as I do my own sister. I still have to approach your mother. I don’t know if she will recognize me as her son. That could have some bearing on our family relationship.”
“At least Dad and Aunt Rita like you. Mom has never shown much affection toward us kids. It seems she loves having kids but then after we start school she passes us on to a nanny to care for. We feel it immensely. Sandy set out to do something about it by being bad to get even. Now she realizes, after you pointed it out to her, that she was just hurting herself.
“I guess you wonder how I know all of this. Sandy talked a lot to us last week while we were at Aunt Rita’s. Aunt Rita caught us discussing you and that is when she called you here. John, do you think Aunt Rita and your Dad will fall in love? They have been together almost constantly since we arrived.”
“I don’t know. Joe hasn’t given up on finding someone to love. If he is interested, and it looks as if he is, he will rush her a little. The last woman that interested him, he didn’t let her know how much and he lost her. Be certain that he will be true and not push her beyond anything she is willing for him to do. It isn’t in his makeup. He was pretty disappointed when my mother didn’t date him. He waited on her and she then turned to someone else. He was hurt by that, but he hasn’t changed. He will do the same with your aunt.”
“Aunt Rita was terribly hurt when Uncle Ralph said he didn’t want to live with her anymore. I don’t understand it. They still love each other.”
“I would imagine it is now much like brothers and sisters loving each other. His choice has forced them into a different kind of love than they had before. Be assured he couldn’t help himself.”
“I know, but they have Gordon and Brian together.”
“At least there is still a lot of love among all of them. That is something a lot of people don’t have. I’m sure it will continue. Patty, Pete is almost asleep. We’ll go downstairs. You go to bed. Your aunt may be late, so crawl in bed and go to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning. Brenda is supposed to make breakfast. I want to see if she has improved any since I have been gone.”
“Goodnight John. I’m so glad we found each other.”
A sleepy, “Me too,” came from Peter.
My cell rang about six o’clock. “John, Rita and I didn’t make it home last night. We stayed at Lisa and Matt’s. There was a pause. “Just for your information, I didn’t sleep with Rita. Is everyone okay there?”
“Yes, we all came in around ten. We watched the ball drop. Dean and the other guy left just after that and we all went to bed. Brenda is going to make breakfast about nine. Will you be here by then?”
“Yes. How do you think the Ripton kids are going to feel about me keeping their aunt out all night?”
“They’ll be okay with it. They are pretty worldly. Tell them like it is and they will believe you.”
“Okay, we’ll be along in a little while.”
We were all just getting up when Joe and Rita came in. Aunt Rita collected New Year’s kisses from her nieces and nephew. She came to me. “John, thanks for taking over as parent. Your father and I partied until after two this morning. Lisa invited us in for coffee when we dropped them off. I’m ashamed to say, I fell asleep there.”
“That’s okay. We went to bed shortly after midnight. Let’s eat. Brenda has been working in the kitchen and she said everything is ready.”
The rest of the week flew by. Rita and Joe were almost a couple although I don’t think they had a chance or the inclination to be intimate. Well, maybe the inclination. She and the Riptons flew out early in the morning on Saturday. My flight wasn’t until Saturday evening. I wanted to fly with them, and we did try to get on the same flight, but couldn’t get my ticket changed. I was due in class Monday morning and, of course, everyone else had school too.
The last conversation I had with Aunt Rita was that she promised to break it to Spencer that Stacy had been married before he met her and the union had produced a child. It would be a few days though, she thought.
I made the rounds to my mother’s, whom I had neglected somewhat, because of the company at Joe’s house. I did see more of Brenda than I would have normally as she had stayed with us. She was to go back to Mom’s because she went to school from there.
Joe’s last words on my leaving were of Rita. “I don’t know, John. I’m really attracted to her and she is with me. We resisted starting a relationship, afraid it might not lead anywhere and one of us would get hurt. We are going to talk back and forth. If she didn’t have children, it would be simple. She could then move anywhere in the country. She doesn’t want to take them away from her ex-husband and she doesn’t want to leave them either.”
I didn’t believe it, but I said, “Something may change and you can get together. Remember too, she isn’t the only woman out there.”
“I know. You said that about your mother too, if I remember right.” I had.
I had a kick in the ass when I got to class. The teacher, the one that was the driving force on the team, had been killed in an auto accident during the holiday break. It was decided that this upcoming semester would end the program. If I continued my education, it would have to be in a more formal setting at a university.
That was on Monday. Wednesday evening, Spencer Ripton was waiting at my door when I arrived home. He was decidedly cool. “Okay, John I want you to level with me. I trusted you with my family. I understand that my sister visited you over the holidays. This was not just for her usual three day trip somewhere, but she spent six days with you. What’s going on?
“Not only that, but Patty says Rita has fallen in love with your father. How could Patty know this? She said it was because my sister cried all the way home on the plane from missing him. The thing is, all I get is the run-around to my questions. You must be at the bottom of this. I’ve left countless messages on her phone with no return, except one. That is she is going to meet me here with you in a half hour. So?”
“Mr. Ripton, I am at the bottom of this, but I’m not the one the most responsible. Come in. If Aunt Rita is coming over, then I’ll wait until she gets here to tell you. Is Mrs. Ripton involved in any of this?”
“No, she says if the kids were with Rita, it must be all right. But damn it, the John Midden name is all I hear from my kids. There is a Brenda Midden and someone named Joe too.”
“Brenda Midden is my sister. Joe is my father and yes, he and Rita are attracted to each other. That is all that happened between them and they haven’t started any kind of relationship. There is a lot more involved than that. Just be patient until she gets here. I’ll make some tea, that’s your preferred drink, I believe.” I just finished pouring the beverage when my doorbell chimed.
Aunt Rita came in. She hugged me before turning to her brother---then to me. “How much have you revealed?”
“Nothing really. I guess he suspects something. I told him that you are attracted to my Dad, but haven’t started a relationship.”
“Okay. John, you said you have some papers to bear out what you claim. I understand Sandy, Peter and Patty have seen them, but I haven’t. May we see them?” Spencer was intently following our conversation. I went to the drawer I kept my papers in and handed them to Rita. First there was the report of Lisa tracking Stacy’s location and where she had lived since leaving Joe.
Rita read it and handed it to her brother. He exclaimed, “This is an investigator’s report about my wife and for certain periods before I met her.”
He read further and could see that he and the children were named as well. There was a full page of what Stacy had made of her life since her marriage to Spencer.
There was a wrap up at the conclusion: Stacy Singleton, married at nineteen to Joseph Ambles, eighteen. Divorced at twenty and moved to Bright Springs. Pregnant at the time, but had never informed Joseph Ambles. She having a baby boy at full term before divorce became final. No clear record of birth. However, a nurse was found who swore that there was one such child and it was given up for adoption.
Moved to present location. Took back maiden name and met and married one Spencer Ripton, he being fifteen years her senior. She shortly became pregnant and birthed a female child. Three years later she bore him a set of twins, male and female.
Stacy Ripton has had some success as a politician. First as ward councilman, then as city councilman and at present mayor of the city. Will give up this position at the end of June next. Plans to run for state representative from her district November, next. Not much chance of her winning her party nomination as she has made enemies on her climb to the top. It is the studied consensus that if she wins the nomination, there is no way she will win the election.
About the family: Spencer, good solid citizen. Makes a good living as owner of an accounting agency and supports his wife in her political career. Sandra, oldest daughter, extremely wild, leading to a destructive lifestyle. Not expected to live out a full life if she continues in this vein. Peter and Patty, the twins. Sweet and very close to each other. They do love their older sibling and is told about her exploits by her. It is hoped that they will not follow in Sandra’s footsteps.
Much of this report was gleaned from the staff who are employed by the Riptons. Copy to Joe Ambles. Lisa, Private Investigator.
Spencer looked first at Rita and then at me. “Who are you? Your name isn’t mentioned. Why do you have this copy?”
“I’m the baby that Stacy Ambles bore. That makes Sandy, Patty and Pete my brother and sisters. The problem is, Stacy never told my father, Joe, that he had a son. Also, somehow the birth records were never recorded. I’m hoping that your wife still has them somewhere. It is as if I was never born.”
“That still doesn’t explain your name.”
“Jonathan Midden married my mother. They received a male baby from a doctor and chose to bring him up as their own. There are no formal adoption papers either. It has been hell just justifying I am a person. My social security number is only conditional.”
“How much of this can you prove? A good attorney could blow holes in this report.”
I handed Rita the DNA report. She glanced through it and then passed it to Spencer, saying, “This looks authentic enough.”
Spencer studied it, then looked at me. “So John, what is it you want?”
“I want verification that I was born legitimately to Joe and Stacy Ambles. Also I want a chance to know my siblings. You are the best chance for me to do that.”
“I suppose your father wants his pound of flesh because Stacy kept your birth from him. Is that it?”
“It might have been the case at one time, but he has me with him. I think we have bonded as only a father and son can. Rita has met him. Does he seem bitter?”
“No. Joe talked a lot about this situation. I didn’t see any sign that he wanted any form of retribution.”
“So, what do you want me to do? Confront my wife about having a marriage before we met and keeping it from me all of these years?”
“That is entirely up to you. I am curious how she is going to act when I surface. I don’t see how we can avoid meeting if I’m going to see my siblings. I do want to associate with them. It should be a right you can’t take away from me.”
“No, I wouldn’t do that. Let’s just make it simple. You are invited for dinner tomorrow night. Rita, I wish you would be there as well. John, have you met her children?”
“No, but the twins say they are a lot of fun and I am going to love them.”
“Okay, then I’ll expect you. Are you leaving with me Rita?”
“No, I’ll stay a bit and visit with John.” The brother peered at his sister, surprised at this before heading out the door. “Spencer, you really are lucky. Your children couldn’t have a better and nicer half-brother. I don’t suppose I can claim him as my nephew, but I wish I could. I spent almost a week with him and his family, and all are just as nice as he is.”
I smiled after Spencer closed the door, for I knew her thoughts were surely on Joe and not on me. “You and Joe really hit it off didn’t you? Are you going to continue?”
“I don’t see how we can. I do think about him a lot. You know, if he had asked, I would have gone further than I did, but he cautioned that we might hurt the other. I’m so frustrated because we live so far away from each other.”
“What does your ex-husband do for work?”
“He is a writer. His partner is too. They write mostly essays and articles for magazines. Both are published authors as well. Ralph writes westerns and his partner, Bob, writes non-fiction. That is how they found each other. Ralph was looking to set a story in New Mexico and the other was researching some carpetbaggers who settled there after the Civil War.”
“How is your financial situation?”
“Fine. I own a portion of Spencer’s accounting agency. Ralph is generous with child support and insists on paying me a liberal amount for alimony. He really was a wonderful husband. It was a shock to me when he came and told me about his proclivity for the same sex. It hurt terribly at first, but I want him happy. Now all I need is someone like your father to make me happy.”
I wanted to get away from Rita’s home life. “Tell me about Stacy. From all reports, I think I am better off with the woman and mother that adopted me than I would have been with her.”
“Hard to tell. We have never been close. I don’t know that she has made my brother particularly happy. He never complains, but that is my brother. She never has taken much interest in her children, but you know that. Spencer is just waking up to the fact that he has to become involved in their lives. He wants to be proud of them. That is one reason he likes you. You seem so together all the time.”
“Then it is a good thing that my mother chose someone other than Joe to marry. You didn’t see the disappointment I felt when she did that. So how are things going to work out when I meet Stacy tomorrow evening?”
“It is difficult to know. She may blow you away or just ignore you. Remember, though, you have the moral high ground. I’ll be there anyway.” I liked this older woman. She seemed interested in me and not all because of Joe either. She said she had to go along home. She gave me a hug as she left saying she would see me tomorrow.
The team van was being used, so I called Sandy, asking if she or her father could come and get me. “I’ll be there in a minute. The cook is preparing a roast. She was shocked when I went in and asked her to teach me to cook. You don’t need to hear this. I’m on my way.”
There was certainly no speed limit that Sandy was aware of. She even passed a traffic officer going at least fifteen miles over the posted limit. The officer must have been aware that her mother was the mayor, for he just waved. He didn’t look happy though. I commented, “When your mother becomes a citizen again without influence, you’re going to be in trouble.”
I received a smile and, “I know.”
I was shanghaied by the twins as soon as I arrived. They took me around to the staff and I was introduced as their long-lost half-brother. Spencer smiled at them when we came back to be seated in the dining room. “Stacy is just freshening up. She will be down in a minute. As far as she knows you are a new boyfriend of Sandy’s. It will take awhile. Rita is on her way with her two boys. They are eight and ten, if you didn’t know.
“You and Rita get along remarkably well. Tell me about your father? I sense that she has an interest in him.”
“To be honest, I haven’t known him very long myself. I guess all I can say is that I wouldn’t have him be any different than he is. He always thinks of others before he thinks of himself.”
“That is high praise.” He listened. “Good, Rita is here.”
I was introduced to Brian, eight years old and Gordon, ten. I was standing and they came and shook my hand. I immediately received a hug from Rita. I glanced over her shoulder. My birth mother stood there. I stepped away from Rita. “Hello, Mrs. Ripton.”
“Joe?” She looked ready to faint.
“No. The name is John Midden. Why did you call me Joe?”
“You look exactly like a person I used to know.” Still white and weak appearing, she wobbled to her chair. “I must sit down.”
I turned to Sandy as I sat across the table from my birth mother. “Sandy, just as soon as we finish dinner, I want to take you to my apartment and show you what my buddies and I are working on. You’ll be interested.”
Sandy and I had planned this on the way over and knew what I was doing. “I don’t think I had better. You guys get too fresh and I don’t know how much longer I can resist you.” She giggled as if it was she that was the one getting fresh with me.
“I forbid it! You are too young and there may be other reasons!”
“Oh, come on, Mom. You know how I am. I’m no virgin and haven’t been for years.”
“No, no, you can’t. He may be closely related to you. Where he came from and how he got here I don’t know. Spencer, speak to your daughter and tell that young man to leave right now.”
“Stacy, Sandy spent last week with him.” A look of horror came over her face and she first leaned sideways and then she slipped to the floor.
“Help me, John. There is a daybed in the next room. We’ll lay her on that. I’m not overly concerned. Rita, will you sit with her until she comes to? I promised John dinner so we might as well eat. Who’s idea was it to play this little scene?”
“Me, Daddy. I wanted some pay back for John because Mom dumped him as a baby. We’ll be good and apologize to Mom when she wakes up.”
“Sandy, she may not see any humor in the situation, although I don’t mind too much. She should have told me she had been married before.”
I had to note, I didn’t see much affection between Stacy and Spencer, or not yet anyway. Dinner continued. Rita had a plate fixed and sat in a chair beside her sister-in-law in the other room. The rest of us carried on as if nothing unusual had occurred. The twins were telling their cousins all about their week with me. Brian and Gordon wanted to know if they could visit me there sometime and go swimming even if it was snowing outside.
“Maybe someday.”
There was a commotion from the other room. Stacy came out breathing fire.
“What is your father’s name?”
It was my time to push back. “Jonathan Midden and my mother’s name is Annalee.” This gave her pause.
“Did they tell you that you were adopted? Where do you live?”
“Am I adopted, you mean? I grew up in a town named Bright Springs.”
“All right then, you are adopted. I know that for a fact.”
“Do you? Did you ever look at me after I was born or did you just bear me and then give me away? Legally I don’t even exist. There is no record of my birth.”
“I know that. I made sure of it. I promised that sick old doctor I would have the paper work recorded for him. I didn’t because I wanted no record of my past so I could start fresh. About two months after I bore you, I met Spencer and I have forgotten all about my life before I was twenty. I’m not sorry either.”
“What about Joe Ambles? Did you forget him too? He deserved to know he had a son somewhere. I haven’t known him that long, but he isn’t an easy person to forget.”
“Well, he might intrude in my thoughts sometimes. That’s beside the point. What are you here for? I’m not going to give you one damned thing.”
“I want one thing. I want those birth records that you took and have hidden from the world for twenty years come next Thursday. That’s my birthday.” My next statement dripped pure sarcasm. “Give me a present Mommy.”
She stared into my eyes. I suspected this woman who was my birth mother was trying to gauge if I only wanted what I asked for, or if I would demand more.
“Stacy do you have his birth records?”
Finally she made a decision. “Oh, I have them, Spencer. They are in that little locked box in the safe. Get it for me, will you? Give them to him and then he can leave and we can get on with our lives.”
Spencer was gone several minutes. Stacy went upstairs and came back with a key in her hand just as Spencer handed her a flat metal box. She opened it with the key. She took out an envelope and peered into it. “This is it. You can have it recorded. I’ll swear to their authenticity if need be as long as the media doesn’t get to know about it. Here, you might as well have the rings Joe gave me.” She looked at me. “Did he ever get married again after our divorce?”
“No, not yet, although he has had a full life. He is looking now and has found someone he is very attracted to.” She handed the rings to me. The diamond in the engagement ring was so tiny you could hardly see it. It was just what a boy of eighteen could afford who was starting out in life.
Stacy looked around at her family. “You don’t seem too surprised by all of this. How come?”
“Me and the twins have known John was our brother for more than a month. Aunt Rita has known for about two weeks. Dad has known a little less than that.”
“Stacy, I know you did this before I met you, but it seems particularly cold-hearted. Why on earth didn’t you tell the man he had a son?”
“I don’t remember. It was a long time ago. Now that his kid has what he came after, I think it is time he left.”
“Mom, no! He is our brother.”
“Maybe by blood, but that isn’t enough for him to stick around.”
“Stacy, the kids have bonded with John. I say he stays. If you only knew what he has done for me, or should I say---us. He has turned Sandy from a life of degradation to one of normality. I can finally say I am beginning to have some pride in her.”
“No, I want him out of here.”
“I’ll leave. Everyone of you are welcome to visit me. Sandy, would you drive me back to my apartment?” I headed for the front entrance. Spencer, the three kids and Aunt Rita followed me. I thanked Spencer for inviting me to dinner and I had his assurance that he would be talking to me at some later time. Rita said she would call and I was invited to her house sometime over the coming weekend.
Stacy had stayed seated, but could observe us in the hall, as the obvious affection for me was being displayed. There was no pleasure on her face. I caught her eye and it was like looking into her soul. I didn’t see any mother’s love in it as I turned away from her to go out. I was just ready to enter the car when Patty and Peter came rushing out and hugged me.
Sandy didn’t come in when we arrived at my apartment. Not because she wouldn’t have, but because I said she shouldn’t. I had only started my dinner and hadn’t been able to finish it. She apologized for her mother before she drove away. In the kitchen, I put out cold cereal and milk, opening the envelope that I had in my hand. I called Sam and asked him to take care of recording my birth when the papers I was sending arrived. Depressed, I went to bed.
Aunt Rita called shortly after I got home from school the next day. I was invited to Sunday dinner at her place. It was to be quite a gathering, her ex-husband and companion, all of the Riptons, except Stacy who refused, and myself.
“We have to make this up to you somehow. Spencer and Stacy had a horrible row after you left. When Sandy got back from dropping you off, she jumped right into the fray as well. She told her mother what she had been doing with her life before you came on the scene. She was damned explicit. Do you think she did all of those things?”
“Yes. If you could have seen her the night I met and brought her here to my apartment you would believe. She was one messed up teenager. How did Stacy accept what she was telling her?”
“Disbelief and called Sandy a liar. Spencer believes and your stock has gone up considerably. Not only that, he finds out it was you that convinced Sandy to go to the gym with him twice a week. She is hanging out with him at the accounting firm and that was your suggestion as well. She admitted that it was just to get his attention in a good way instead of the way she was acting before.”
“I hope I am not going to cause an irreparable rift between Spencer and Stacy.”
“No, it was coming in the spring anyway. Spencer is not going to provide money to support Stacy’s plans to run for district representative. First, because he knows she can’t win the nomination and second, she has been having an affair with her chief of staff. That’s not to be repeated, of course, and he hasn’t confronted her with it yet.”
“I’m sorry for him---the kids too, for that matter.”
“Don’t be. I think Spencer will end up with custody of the children. It may cost him considerable in the divorce, but he will feel it is worth it. John, I’m going to tell you something and I wish you would play along with it. Joe called me last evening after I got home from Spencer’s. He is coming out this weekend, ostensibly to see you. You are coming to my dinner and you will have to bring him with you.”
“He is really coming to see you, isn’t he?”
“Yes. I feel there are some changes coming up and I want all the parties involved to know each other. Joe needs to meet my ex and vice-versa. If they could become friendly, they might consider moving to the same city if I do. Another thing, don’t be too surprised if you hear that the accounting business we own, goes on the market. This has nothing to do with either Stacy or my possible move. Spencer has received an offer and is exploring other bids that might come in.”
“What is Spencer going to do if he sells the business?” I was worried that he might move out to the west coast or someplace where I wouldn’t see my new-found siblings.
“I have no idea. He will be moving away from here where Stacy has made such a fool of him. He is a proud man. Don’t look for him to trash Stacy though. The less known about her infidelity is what he wants and of course there are my nieces and nephew. He is too honorable to try to turn them against their mother.
“Just remember too, he feels he owes you something for your working with Sandy. The feeling is that you stepped in when he wasn’t being everything to Sandy that a father should be.
“I should have been more aware myself, and I would have been if I hadn’t had my own problems with Ralph. Nothing much is going to happen before you finish this year of school. I certainly am not taking Brian and Gordon out this late in the year and moving them. Spencer’s children won’t be moving either.”
Later that night as I lay thinking over everything, I chuckled. I thought how my moving from Bright Springs south to work had started something and it wasn’t ended yet. It was a move I would make again. There were certain things that still bothered me a little. Like Mom getting married to the wrong man. Maybe Sam wasn’t the wrong person for her after all. They seemed happy enough. Joe though, he wanted my mother, but didn’t advance his suit quick enough.
My thoughts swung to Aunt Rita. (I thought of her as Aunt Rita, because Sandy and the twins did.) If she and Joe started a relationship, that would make her closer to me than a mere aunt to my step-siblings. She had her trouble with a gay man for a husband, but it seems to have been resolved by both working through their difficulties. I could see some hurt, but no bitterness. I finally slept.
Friday there was a meeting of the team with a conference call including all of the sponsors. Joe was one of them on the line. It was decided that the team would disband almost immediately. The sponsors would find placement for all of the members in their place of business or some other suitable business with someone they knew. It looked as if I was going to be heading home very shortly.
I didn’t want to leave the people and new relatives I had just become friendly with. Joe, of course, would put me back into one of his auto shops. I did miss working on autos, but maybe I had moved on some and I would feel as if I had regressed to return to auto repair. I knew Joe would call later and talk to me personally. When I reached the apartment about three, Sandy was waiting for me.
“Hi John, I thought I would hang out with you this afternoon. Lots of changes, huh? Let me ask you, does your age start counting when you leave the womb or when your birth is filed?” She went into gales of laughter.
“Come in Sandy. I’ve just had some bad news. It looks as if I will be heading home, maybe as soon as next week. I’ll tell you what happened. I’m going to miss you guys.”
Sandy was crying before I finished. Sandy looked at her watch. “Daddy is still at the office. I have to tell him about this.” Through the sobs she related what had befallen me.
I could hear Spencer consoling Sandy. “Daddy is coming over. He told me to wait for him here. Oh John, what are we going to do without you? I hated my life before I knew you and then you came. Now it is going to be so dark and dismal again.”
She was so sad. I had to bring her up out of the depths. “Listen to this. I can say the exact same words.” I drew a long face and parroted her words. “I hated my life before I knew you and then you came. Now it is going to be so dark and dismal again.” I screwed up my face as if I was crying.
She had to laugh. We were laughing together when Spencer came in. Aunt Rita was with him explaining she was at the office when Sandy called. “Tell me about this move of yours?” I did. “So what are your plans now?”
“Go back to work for my father, I guess.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
“I enjoyed it, and someday after school, I was going back. I just hadn’t planned on it so soon.”
“Will your father object if you do something else, temporarily?”
“Depends on what and where it is. Did you have something in mind?”
“Rita suggested you come in and work at the accounting firm. If you are in business in the future, it might be a smart move to know more about the financial side of things.” I knew why Rita had suggested this. She wanted Joe to have an excuse to visit her. I needed to know for sure.
“Where would I be living? I can’t ask Joe to support me and keep up this apartment if I’m not going to school.”
“You could stay with Rita. I would ask you to stay with us, but Stacy would object strongly. I think the guilt of dumping you as a baby is something she couldn’t handle with you in the house.”
“Okay, that is a great option. I’ll be speaking with Joe sometime this evening. I’ll repeat your offer. Would you stay for tea?”
“No thank you, and do think over our proposal for both working and the living arrangements. Rita has to get home to the boys and I have a couple of things to do. Are you staying Sandy?”
“I’ll stay just a little while. I’m coming right home soon.” When they left Sandy turned to me. “John, please, please stay here and work for Dad and Aunt Rita.”
“Is this for me or Aunt Rita?”
“It is for all of us. Honestly, the twins will be as devastated as I am if you leave.”
“Okay I will consider it. Maybe not so much for myself, but for Joe and Rita. You’re playing cupid aren’t you?”
“You are too, you can’t fool me.” I guess I was.
**********
It was the fifteenth of January when I moved my belongings into Rita Murdock’s house. Joe had arrived Saturday for the Sunday dinner following the breakup of the team. Sandy and the twins and I baby-sat the Murdock boys so Joe and Rita could go out. Ralph and his companion were in evidence for Sunday dinner. Ralph was movie star handsome. He didn’t give out any indication to any of us that his lifestyle was anything but heterosexual.
He did get the idea that Joe was more to Rita than just the father joining me at a dinner. I saw him speak to Spencer. As Ralph left he shook Joe’s hand saying he was glad to meet him. “I get the idea that you will be seeing more of my ex-wife. She is one of the finest people I know and I love her with all of my heart. I hope you treasure her as much as I do.” So Joe had the approval of one that could love someone, but with whom he couldn’t live with as man and wife.
Joe approved of my decision to remain close to the Riptons and the woman that he was attracted to. I went to work for the Ripton accounting firm on the following Monday.
Spencer paid me much, much more than I was worth to start learning accounting. By the end of the first month, though, I was contributing to the business in a gainful way. Sandy was coming from school and was learning along side of me. “John why do you try so hard?”
“Just because I’m here for a different reason than to learn accounting, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be productive. Besides, it is interesting and easier than working on cars. I notice that you are doing things that you wouldn’t consider doing three months ago.”
“I know, but I miss the hangover and the worry I might be pregnant or might have caught some disease that is going to kill me. I miss the zits and the fat ass too. Now all I have to look forward to is respect and lots of love from everyone. It’s all your fault and I’ll never forgive you either.”
During winter vacation, Brian and Gordon were to stay with their father while Rita went east to visit Joe. At first Sandy was going to be the mother figure for the two boys while she was gone and stay there with them. She objected, saying she deserved a vacation and it was decided she would go with her Aunt Rita and visit my sister at the same time.
Spencer said I could take the time off and go with them. I didn’t feel this would be looked on too well by the other employees, so I declined. Besides there was a young single divorcée that worked two cubicles down that I had become interested in. I hadn’t had any female companionship for over two years. With Rita’s house empty, it seemed like a good time to do some catching up. I had the promise by this woman that this get-together was only a temporary liaison. This suited me just fine.
It was the middle of the week and I received a telephone call while at work.
“Hello.”
“Am I speaking to John Midden? This is Mayor Stacy Ripton.”
“Yes.”
“Would you make time to receive me this evening at eight?”
“Yes.” The phone was disconnected from the Mayor’s end. Why would my birth mother be contacting me? Could it be guilt? At least she didn’t command me to meet her.
It was a few minutes before eight when the door bell chimed. I opened the door and stepped back for her to enter. Stacy was a beautiful woman and had a commanding presence. I knew her to be forty-one years of age. She was familiar with this house of her sister-in-law. She looked around and I caught that she was looking to see if I had made the premises disorderly. Rita was an impeccable housekeeper and hadn’t been here for a few days.
Actually, I had done some cleaning and polishing so it was in as good or better shape than usual. This was not to be a meeting sitting in comfortable chairs, for Stacy headed for the dining room and started to sit in one of the chairs there. She was surprised when she felt me hold it for her. “Would you care for a beverage? Coffee, tea, or something alcoholic? I can mix you something if it isn’t too complicated.”
“Tea, please.”
“Black or green?” I knew she could see me through the dining room door as I prepared the tea. It took a few minutes before the water was hot enough to steep. I brought in two cups and a small pot.
“Do you take sugar or honey? I don’t have cream so you will have to use a creamer if you prefer it that way.” I was being very methodical and unhurried. She preferred the beverage unadulterated. I poured when I deemed it steeped. I sat opposite her and waited.
“May I call you John?” I indicated that she could. “There are some things I would like to say. First I would like to have this meeting kept confidential. To be honest, I am not sleeping well. I worry that you will be going to the media with the fact that I was married and produced a son. I have been vetted and as a matter of record, Spencer has been my only spouse.”
“Not to worry. I don’t have any plans to come forward. I would ask for the same confidentiality.”
“You have it. What about Joe Ambles? He must be very bitter about the fact he sired a son and wasn’t made aware of it. Will he cause me trouble?”
“I can’t say for sure, but I doubt it.”
“That is a relief. I can now go forward with my plans to run for higher office. I’m giving up the position of mayor.”
“Your Honor, do you think that wise? You are solidly entrenched as mayor. I have heard that you might not even get your party’s nomination for representative.”
“Where did you hear that? My chief of staff says I am a shoo-in.”
“I think your staff is leading you in the wrong direction. Speaking as someone that shouldn’t care at all about you, but does just a little, would you read an investigator’s report about yourself?”
“If it is available, I’d like to, yes.”
“Do you remember Lisa Ambles? She is my father’s cousin?”
“Yes. She always hated me and called me a bitch. She said I wasn’t good enough for him. What has she got to do with me?”
“Lisa and Joe love each other. They have never acted on it, but it has given them a closeness that is unrivaled. Lisa went into law enforcement and later married a man that owned a private detective agency. She is her husband’s best operative. She was the one who found where you lived. Lisa spent a whole week running down every aspect of your life---private as well as public. Really, you should read some things about your life you aren’t aware of.”
“I’ll look at it. Do you have it?”
“Yes. I must caution you that both Rita and Spencer have read this.”
I passed the report to Stacy. The DNA results were included. I sat across the table from this woman who had given me birth---and denied it. I could tell when she came to the part in the report saying that her husband wasn’t going to support her run for higher office.
“Basically this says that I’m not a very good person, especially where my family is concerned.”
“Your Honor, I’m sad to say there are some things also that are not in the report that I am aware of. I can’t say more, because I have promised confidentiality to the one that told me.”
This really hit home with her. This was like me telling her that I knew of her infidelity. That was what I was speaking about, but as it wasn’t discussed, maybe there was something else as well. I thought she was going to pass out and I hurriedly fetched some cold water. It took a few minutes to where she revived enough to speak again.
Pleadingly, she looked at me. “Where have I gone so wrong?”
“I’m too young to know and certainly don’t know you very well. I could guess though.”
“Please do.”
“My Mom is a wonderful person and I love her dearly, but there was a while when I almost hated her. She was a caring, giving person and then all of a sudden she changed. Suddenly it seemed as everything was all about her and screw everyone else. Even those who loved her, came in for a hit. My sister and I wanted her to fall in love with Joe and she knew it. But she didn’t, she went to bed with the attorney that Joe recommended. Sam his name is. Sam gave her a business that he purchased for her wedding present. The business was something she apparently dreamed about. Sam, married only a few short months, was sidelined.
“Thankfully, Mom woke up and now they are happy. The business isn’t the first priority anymore. Sis and myself have decided he is a pretty good guy and the resentment we had for him has disappeared.
“To lay this all out with not much to go on, I think all your life it has been about you. Even coming over to see me tonight concerns you more than it does me. What you did to Joe. How you treat Spencer. How you ignore your kids until a photo op is warranted, indicates to me that it is Stacy first and everyone else has to make room.
“It is sad, your Honor. You have beauty, money and intelligence. You have achieved a high position, but whether you are, or ever will be happy---I have my doubts.”
“How can you talk to me this way?”
“Because you made a date with me using your title as Mayor, and immediately upon arriving here, you wanted to address me as John. Again, who is this meeting all about? I think that question has been answered.”
“You are one of the most upsetting, disrespectful young men I have ever met. I’m leaving.”
I was near enough to pull her chair back and when she struggled with getting her coat on, I helped with that. As she went out to her car, I said just loud enough for her to hear from the doorway, “Good night, Mother.” It was as if I had punched her between the shoulder blades. It was more than five minutes before she started her vehicle and drove off.
I wondered if Stacy would say something to Spencer about the meeting she and I had. Apparently not, for he was the same around me as ever when we met each other during working hours. Aunt Rita was due back in town on Saturday. I was to pick her and Sandy up at the airport. Brian and Gordon were home from their father’s and would welcome their mother back when we came from the airport. Peter and Patty had come over to watch them while I was gone. The twins, almost fifteen now, got along great with their cousins.
I collected Sandy and Aunt Rita. It would take us an hour to get from O’Hare to home. Sandy talked all the way telling me about my family. “ I can tell you everything, except about Aunt Rita and Joe. She can tell you about him. Aunt Rita has been a bad, bad girl.”
Rita flushed. “No I wasn’t, Sandy. I have heard that John told you when you were so wild that it was better to make love with the same man once a night five times a week than to get screwed one time a week by five guys. Well!” Aunt Rita giggled like a school girl.
“Sandy, were you a good girl all of this time when your Aunt Rita was occupied and she wasn’t watching out for you?”
“Let’s change the subject. What did you do while we were gone? I’m going to ask Jill how good---or bad, you were. I know you two had planned on dating during the week.”
“Changing the subject is a good idea. Don’t you be squealing on your aunt to anybody either. That’s her business. So Rita, did you make any plans this week?”
“No, nothing conclusive. I am going to talk to Ralph and tell him how I feel about Joe. I’ll tell you right now that Joe and I are going to find some way to be together.”
“I’m glad for you. Glad for Joe too.”
**********
There was some news on the local TV channel Monday evening at six o’clock. “Mayor fires long-time chief of staff. Her quote was that as long as she plans on being a better Mayor for at least the remainder of this term and maybe one more, she needs fresh blood to better serve the people of this fair city. This quashes the rumor that she planned on running for District Representative in the upcoming fall election. There was no statement forthcoming from Chief of Staff Peters. He was heard to say he would be devoting more time to his wife and family.
“John, would you come for dinner tomorrow evening? I promise that this time you won’t have to leave before you have finished.”
“Sure Spencer. Will Rita be there as well?”
“No, but there will be some discussion about her plans. This is mainly to explain something that involves Stacy and myself. You saw the news last night. That comes into this as well.”
“I’ll be there. You do know I’m not Stacy’s favorite person. How are you going to get by that?”
“Stacy says she would not be averse to you being here this time. That is another thing that needs explaining.”
When Sandy came into the office after school she came right to my cubical. “You’re coming for dinner tonight. I have no idea what is going on. Mom’s different, somehow. Quieter, anyway. Dad is as mystified as I am. One other thing, Mom quizzed me about visiting your folks last week, asking what I knew about you. About your father, Joe, as well. She wanted to know what your mother and sister were like. When I asked why she wanted to know about you, she just said she didn’t know anything about any of you and was curious.”
“I have no idea why she is trying to find out about me. Maybe she thinks I’m not safe for you kids to be around.”
“Yeah, right. You’re a saint compared to me. My past anyway. Can I ride to Aunt Rita’s with you and come home from there?”
“Sure, you can tell me more about what you and Brenda did for the week.”
“John, you have to believe we were good. I said what I did in the car just to save Aunt Rita some embarrassment because she was sleeping with Joe. They didn’t leave us alone all the time to our own devices either. We went skiing and we went out three evenings, once to the theater. I hope Aunt Rita and Uncle Ralph can figure out things about the kids so she and Joe can get married. They are so in love. Brenda loves her as much as I do.”
“Well, I think there are going to be some changes around here. I hope everyone ends up happy.”
“I’ll be happy if you don’t leave us. I know that.”
“Hey, I have work to get out and only an hour left to do it. It would be hell if your Dad fired me.”
“Ha, he’d as soon get rid of Mom as fire you.”
Everyone was ready and sat down to dinner together. Stacy didn’t speak to me when Sandy and I came in, but she nodded. This was the moment I had worried about because of the way we had parted a week ago. I didn’t see any anger or resentment in her countenance, so I settled in to enjoy the meal.
When the dinner was nearly finished, we heard Stacy give the housekeeper the evening off. The cook only worked days and had already left. Stacy came back and said, “Would you children please clear the table? I have a few things I would like to say to all of you as a family. You may wonder about me asking John to be present. I have accepted the fact that I am responsible for him to some extent.”
When the dining room table was cleared, she spoke again. “I must tell you that during the last week, I have talked to a person about my life. He pointed out that I felt the way I lived was all about me and not the others around me. Since that talk, I have had some life changing revelations. Tonight I am going to make some confessions. Whether it is too late for me to salvage my family as a unit, but I’m going to try.
“First, I have to tell you that I abandoned my first husband, Joe Ambles. I wanted the good things in life immediately. I couldn’t see that it takes time to acquire the worldly goods and status I was yearning for. I asked for a divorce, rather than being a partner to build on our marriage. I did not know until he agreed to my request that I was pregnant. I did not consider Joe’s rights as a father to the fetus at all. I did bear the child, but immediately handed him off to someone, never knowing how he would fare in growing up. Thankfully, he was placed where he has had a loving mother to care for him.
“In one way or another I have abandoned all of you. John’s life is the most glaring example of course, but each of you three children, fathered by Spencer, haven’t been so lucky as to have the loving mother that John has. I birthed you and gave you a start in life. I then abandoned you to others that I hired to replace me with the mothering you so deserved. I find out I almost lost my oldest daughter to what would have inevitably been disease and degradation. That situation has been reversed, and I hope not too late for me to regain her trust due to someone elses intervention.
“The twins, most likely would have followed in her footsteps, as I had abandoned them in the same manner.” Stacy paused and took a deep breath. “I guess this is the time to get to the crux of the family’s future. I make this confession to my husband. I have abandoned him most severely by being an adulterous wife. The infidelity has ceased, but the trust he had for me is gone forever.
“My future is in his hands and I will accept whatever decision he makes concerning me. This time it isn’t about me, but about my husband and family, as so aptly has been pointed out by this person I spoke with.” Stacy sat down. Bowing her head and not looking at anyone she said, “I’m so sorry. I can’t ask for forgiveness. That would put the burden on you and remove it from me.”
It was silent around the table. I was aware that Spencer knew of his wife’s infidelity and I wondered how he would handle her confession before us all.
“Stacy, I am aware of your indiscretions with another man. When I found out, and being angry, I took steps to get away from the humiliation. I have accepted an offer to dispose of the accounting firm here in the city. My plan is to remove myself and the children from your care.”
Stacy looked at Spencer She was crushed and tears were running down her cheeks. “I expected this to happen when I confessed. I didn’t know it was going to happen so soon. Is there any chance of reconciliation?”
“I don’t know. It is going to take a few months for the new owners to take control. We will speak about it privately. I think that with all that has passed here this evening, we should step back and see how we feel. Sandy, would you take John back to your aunt’s. Pete and Patty, maybe you could go to your rooms and study or something. I’d like to talk with your mother alone.”
“John, I hate to think Mom and Dad are going to split up, even though it is probably going to happen. Mom just went too far for Daddy to stay married to her.”
“Do you want your mother and father to stay together? If you do, tell him so.”
“How about you John? What do you think of your birth mother? Mom kind of apologized for what she did to you.”
“Yes she did. As far as your mother and father, that is something they will have to work out for themselves. From having my adopted father and mother divorce, it isn’t really the same, because my dad left all of us without letting us know what he was feeling. With your mother and dad, they are talking. They just have to decide if they are happier apart or by staying together. You three kids will enter into whatever is decided.”
“You give me hope. I hope Daddy forgives Mom, but boy, am I ever going to be watching her so that she doesn’t screw up again.”
The Ides of March, this was another day when momentous news occurred. I had been informed that Stacy and Spencer were not sleeping in the same room together. That was expected. Sis called me while at work and said there was a pregnancy in the family. I first thought from the way she told me that it was her that hadn’t been careful. She eased my fears after she stopped laughing. “It is Mom who is pregnant. You should be here and see how happy Sam is over the coming event. Mom is worried about how you will take it.”
“Not to worry, I’m happy for the expecting couple. Mom is on the upper end of her child bearing years so if it was going to happen, I’m glad it is now. Anything else?”
“Yes, but I don’t know what to make of it. Spencer has been calling Sam about something and Joe is involved in it somehow.”
“It must have something to do with Rita. She and Joe are on the phone every evening. If I answer the phone and it is him, I don’t even have a chance to say hi. I think they are in love. The two boys get to chatter away, talking to Joe more than I do. He has promised to have them there for spring vacation so they can go swimming.”
“You’ll be coming east with them, won’t you? I miss my big brother.”’
“Yes this time I will.”
That same evening Aunt Rita, Ralph, the two boys and myself traveled to Spencer’s. This was after dinner and we all found seats in the living room. Spencer directed his speech at me first. “John, the new owners of the business will be taking over the week after federal taxes are filed. You can stay on as an employee or make other plans. I have purchased a new firm in your home town. You may want to go with me when I take over. That would put you back into the arms of your family. Don’t make the decision tonight. There is plenty of time. Rita has some things to announce. Rita.”
“Joe Ambles has proposed marriage to me. I have accepted. We will be married before the school year is completed. Brian and Gordy will be staying with their father until the end of school. I will be leaving to be with my new husband. In the interest of the two boys, Ralph has decided he would like to be in the same city as I am so the kids can still be raised by both of us. Joe is finding him and Bob a suitable place to live.”
“What about Mom? Will she be going with us?”
“I can’t say, Sandy. Stacy and I still have some issues to work out.”
“But Dad, won’t they be easier to work out if you two are together than if you are several hundred miles apart?”
“You have a point. We will take that into consideration. Remember your mother has one more year on her contract as mayor of the city.”
“I’d rather have her as mother than as mayor. She hasn’t acted like she was our mother for very long, but I’m getting used to it. We all are and we like it.”
Tears of joy suddenly appeared in Stacy’s eyes. She turned to me to see how I felt. “I feel the same as they do,” and then added, “Mother.”
Epilogue
Jonathan, surfaces occasionally. He is pretty proud of his two kids, but not enough to hang around and watch us grow up. He comes and goes and makes no demands. He is just one of those people who hates to be tied to any one place.
I’m a third year student at the university here in Philadelphia near my home town. Brenda and Sandy are here as first year students. That is so we can go and visit all of our relatives. Boy, do they make a pair! One blonde and the other raven-haired, just don’t mess with either one. They watch each others back and hold me in reserve if needed.
I guess you knew that my Mom, Annalee, was pregnant. I now have a brother. Oh, Joe and Rita have a child together. That’s another brother. Spencer and Stacy---well they have twins again. Both girls this time. That’s great! I’m partial to sisters.
Life roils and riles with any group of people, just as it did with Joe Ambles and John Midden. That’s us, father and son.
The End
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