Gone with the Wind

As the play started, I watched the kids say their lines and play their parts. And then, she came out onto the stage. I couldn't believe how much bigger she seemed in only five months. Her hairstyle was changed too. My heart burst with pride as my daughter flawlessly recited her lines and moved around the stage. At the end of the scene she was in the audience applauded loudly.

The show had two parts. The second grade did the first part of the play and the third grade took over after a fifteen minute intermission.

As the lights came up, I made my way to the backstage area and my reunion with my family.

It was a struggle to get there because so many people were trying to get backstage. When I saw them, I realized that the group was far bigger than I'd expected.

I saw my mom and dad. I'd lost contact with them over the past few months. My sister and brother in law were there as well. My husband Dave, whom I ached to be with, was there along with our son Kyle. I wasn't shocked to see the twins there, because they're Wendy's best friends, but seeing them with my family seemed a little off.

As I got closer I heard a man ask my daughter a question. He asked her who had helped her get ready for the play.

Her answer almost killed me. She told him that her dad had helped with the lines.

"And your mom did your hair and helped with the movements, right?" he asked.

"Well...I don't exactly call her mom," she said. "But she's the closest thing I have to a mom."

And then it happened. A woman stepped away from Dave. And I knew her. She was the twins' mother and that asshole Steve's wife. She stepped over and my daughter hugged her. The movement was so natural and unrehearsed that I knew they'd done it hundreds of times. When she let go of Wendy, my five year old son Kyle grabbed her hand back as if it was a life preserver.

Tears poured from my eyes silently as I staggered away to find a place to cry. I moved into corner where I could look around the area to find the nearest ladies room.

As I eased through the crowd I heard a voice. "Yeah that's her. Did you see those tits? Dude you should feel them. They're really soft. You can tell they're real. Shit, she'll probably let you feel them if you want to."

Then I heard another voice say, "Not me, man. I heard she gave a guy I know, named Bill, an STD. That bitch is the town whore."

"Dude, just put a condom on," said the first voice that I knew was Steve. "Besides, her fucking husband ruined my life. She owes me some."

Then Steve grabbed my arm and started talking to me. "Hey, Lisa. Long time no see. Do you feel as badly about this shit as I do? Maybe we should go somewhere together and ease each other's pain. My friend Rusty here can fuck your pussy while I get that tight ass..."

"Get away from me asshole," I said loudly. A few people in the crowd turned their heads towards me.

I am not going to be put off by the town whore," he yelled. "My wife is divorcing me. She won't even let me see my God damned kids. She got the house and I can't afford to pay a dime until I get a job and your husband got me fired, so you owe me, whore..." he was yelling and I think he was drunk.

Before he could say another word, he was yanked from behind. He lost his balance and landed on his back and suddenly Dave was pounding the shit out of him. At first he seemed to be struggling against Dave's relentless flurry of punches. Then he just stopped reacting. Someone pulled Dave off of him. I noticed that it was my dad. They threw some water in Steve's face to awaken him and he came to sputtering and spitting out water.

Even from where I stood, I could already see Dave's hands swelling up and blood coming from cuts across his knuckles.

"Why are you beating on me over that whore?" screamed Steve.

"Because she's still my wife and you have no right to disrespect her in front of a bunch of school kids and their parents," screamed Dave back just as angrily.

Then Amanda pushed her way over and reached into her purse and pulled out some tissues and began swabbing Dave's cuts. Steve's face was already swelling and his eyes were nearly swollen shut.

"What about me?" screamed Steve, when he saw what Amanda was doing. "I'm the one you're married to. He beat me up defending that whore and you take care of him?"

As she turned to look at him I noticed that my daughter's hair had been cut like hers. Amanda was a pretty woman. She didn't have my boobs, but her legs and ass were much better. And as she looked up at Dave and kissed him, I vomited. Everything in my stomach came up and I passed out. From the looks of things she and my husband were a lot more than just friends. For the first time I realized that I could lose him.

* * * * * *

Epilogue

Dave

Everyone thought that I was crazy to give Lisa six months to go out and find herself. I guess they all thought that I was, as usual, giving her anything she wanted. As usual, I called Amanda to tell her about it and we both listened to each other's worries. Some of our worries were very similar.

Since Steve wasn't paying the bills Amanda needed to find some kind of job to help take care of the kids. I told her that I could probably help her with that, if she was willing to accept it.

"Are you about to suggest that since our spouses had sex that we could do it too and you'd pay me," she laughed.

"Of course not," I sputtered.

"Damn," she said. "Not that I'd charge you but..."

"Manda!" I said.

"I like it when you call me that," she said. I could imagine her face smiling even as we spoke over the phone.

"My assistant just left to go and marry her fiancé," I told her. "Would you like to interview for the position?"

"Dave, you're an angel," she said. "But I don't think it'll work. I don't know much about office procedures or formatting documents or any of that stuff."

"So what?" I said. "I'm pretty sure you'll get the job. I give a long term on the job training package and you can just do it until we find you something you're more suited to. At least you'll be collecting a check while we figure things out."

The next evening it was her turn to help me out. I was distraught when I found out that Lisa hadn't even waited twenty-four hours to go out on her first date. I guess I'd hoped all along that she'd just spend some time thinking about us and come back, but that wasn't going to happen. Amanda actually came over to the house and cooked dinner for us while the kids played. We talked and had a glass of wine on my deck while we watched our children screaming and running around the yard.

There were things that both of us had neglected to think about when we'd made our decisions. Even if Amanda took the job as my assistant, it wasn't going to be enough. If I put her at the top of the company's pay scale for assistants and made sure she got lots of over time, she'd barely make a dent in her back mortgage payments. Then she'd still have all of her other bills to pay. She'd still have to buy food and clothing for her kids. And if she was going to be working all of the time, there was the question of who'd watch her kids. I also had to deal with the question of who'd watch my kids.

"We can definitely share a sitter," she smirked pointing at the kids who'd all fallen asleep in a tangle of arms and legs on the soft grass near the end of the deck.

"Amanda, you're my best friend," I said. She smiled and it warmed my heart.

"Can I loan you the money to get your mortgage current?" I asked. "I can afford it, especially since I don't have to pay Lisa anything until we're actually divorced."

A tear rolled down her face. "I'll pay you back as soon as I can," she said. Then she just started crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "I thought this was a good thing."

"It is, Dave," she said. "You don't know how worried I was about losing my house. It's not even the house. I was worried about being able to put a roof over my girls' heads. The house is just a box to put our stuff in, but it stands between us and the street."

"You're crazy, Manda," I laughed. "As long as I have a job, you and the twins will never be on the streets."

She reached up and kissed me then. It was the softest, most gentle kiss that I'd ever gotten, but it knocked me for a loop.

Over the next few weeks, our two broken little families began to meld into one. I helped Amanda deal with her bills and her divorce. She helped me with my kids. And we both propped each other up emotionally.

Amanda's divorce was far worse than mine and deep down inside I blamed myself for a part of her problems.

The court awarded the house to Amanda and also gave her spousal support and child support. The problem was that Steve wasn't working and couldn't get a job anywhere.

Even with us saving money everywhere we could the long term outlook was bleak. But for some reason it didn't seem to bother us.

My kids loved Amanda and the twins seemed to really like me. We were always at one house or the other. When Father/Daughter night came up at the girls' school, Wendy and I always went and had a great time. Usually Lisa would go out and buy a dress for Wendy and we'd go all out.

This year, without losing a beat, Wendy asked Amanda to take her out to buy a dress. When I came home that evening Wendy showed me the dress that Amanda and the twins had helped her pick out.

"That looks great Wen," I said. "Can I see the others?"

"I thought she only needed one dress," said Amanda.

"She does," I said. "Don't I get to see the twins' dresses? I just thought that since I paid for them I could see them too."

"But...!" she said.

"Melinda, Belinda, don't you guys want to go too?" I asked. They smiled and shrieked nodding their heads.

"But they've never..." said Amanda.

"There's got to be a first time for everything," I said. "You still have the credit card right?"

She nodded.

"Okay tomorrow, more dresses." I said.

She continually wiped her eyes for the rest of the evening and kept staring at me.

When the weekend arrived and the dance came up, I took turns dancing with each of my girls. Finally we lost track of whose turn it was and we just all gang danced together. We ate and played games and took all kinds of pictures and videos for Amanda who was at home with Kyle.

When I got home with three tired girls, Amanda hugged me like there was no tomorrow. "Dave," she said through her tears. "Anything, any time, ever...all you have to do is ask. After we put the kids in the car she gave me another one of those kisses and I thought that my toes would curl up and I'd spontaneously ejaculate."

The next night I stopped off at Toys-R-Us on my way home and got one of those huge obscene blow-up pools that are big enough for a family to fit in. I set it up right next to the deck, or tried to, while Amanda cooked and four eager kids paced back and forth in their swimsuits.

After I finally got the pump and filters installed and started to fill the pool from our garden hose, I realized, based on some quick calculations, that a pool that size would have to fill up over night and a substantial part of the next day.

As soon as the water was ankle deep the kids started splashing around in it and Amanda and I took up our station in the lounge chairs on the deck.

"They're a bit disappointed," I said.

"Nah, they're still having fun and they have tomorrow to look forward to. But the pool is here and they know they're going to have fun all summer now that school is out."

Then she stopped talking. "Well maybe Sunday or Monday," she said.

"Unh huh?" I said. "I promised them they could swim in their own pool tomorrow."

"Dave, your in-laws are coming tomorrow, remember," she said. "They're driving all this way, to spend time with their grandkids. Don't worry about it. The twins and I aren't going anywhere. We'll be back, Monday. After you took them to that dance I'd probably have to kill them to keep them away from you."

"No!" I said.

"Yeah, I would," she said. "Trust me Dave. My girls think a bit more highly of you than they do their own father."

"No I meant, I want them and you, here tomorrow just like we always do," I said.

"But your..."

"My in-laws are coming to see their Grandchildren. They'll get the bonus pack," I said. And there was that smile again.

"What are you looking at now?" she asked. "You look like the kids, watching the water like you can't wait until the pool is full."

"Well I am a little disappointed myself," I said.

"Dave you're an adult," she laughed. "You know the water will eventually fill the pool and..."

"Oh I'm okay with that," I said.

"Then what are you disappointed about?" she laughed.

"I was kind of looking forward to seeing you in a swimsuit," I said. She turned red and looked away from me.

The next day my in-laws arrived at about noon. They took seats on the deck and got wet as my kids rushed them and gave them long wet hugs. My mother in law actually looked in the closet and pulled out a pair of Lisa's shorts and joined them in the pool splashing and playing with them.

Amanda made lunch and tried to stay out of sight. I dragged her out of the house and out onto the deck. My father in law immediately engaged her in a conversation about the sauce she'd made and the salad. "You're the mother of those two adorable red-headed twins aren't you?" he asked. She just nodded shyly.

Mark as usual was very open and very demanding with his questions. It took him a while but he finally managed to find out exactly who Amanda was and how we'd met.

"I'm so sorry for my daughter's part in ending your marriage," he told her. "You're a lovely woman and you deserve better."

The kids were playing in the pool and it was almost predictable when it happened. Belinda and Kyle were both trying to grab the same float and bumped heads. Kyle got out of the pool and ran for the deck.

"Grandma, I bumped my head," he yelled.

"Come on, Honey. Let me rub it for you," she said. "That's why God gave grandmas knees. She perched him on her knee and rubbed his head. A few seconds later, Belinda came over. "Grandma, I bumped my head too."

"Belinda, Honey, she..." began Amanda.

"Lisa's Mom, Rose cut her off in mid-sentence.

"That's why Grandmas have two knees," she said. She immediately perched Belinda on the other knee and rubbed both of their heads.

And that was the way the summer went. The in-laws visited whenever they could. We spent all of the summer holidays together and Lisa's sister and her husband even came over a couple of times.

The only time that we weren't all together was when Lisa wanted time with the kids. Usually on those times Amanda and I took the twins somewhere, so they didn't feel left out. By mid-summer I noticed that Wendy and Kyle had lost all enthusiasm for their time with their mother. It also didn't help that her visits became both fewer and farther between.

I really couldn't fault the kids because I didn't spend much time with Lisa either. I'd heard things about her and even then, I just didn't think that we could ever get back together. I was glad that she was enjoying her new freedom. It only served to show that maybe we hadn't been right for each other anyway. The surprising thing though, was that I didn't miss her. I guess I expected that there would be some degree of emotional pain. But my heart was clear.

A few weeks before the kids had to go back to school, Wendy's birthday came up. Amanda and I planned a big party for her. We had all of the things that little girls who are turning eight want to have at their parties. We had a pony and a clown and face painting and music and games and food and the pool and we even rented one of those jumpy things.

I think the thing that Amanda was the most afraid of, was what would happen when Lisa got there. Kyle was the youngest of the kids, and as such, he was the one who needed a mother the most. Over the course o the summer he had bonded with Amanda and she was worried that Lisa might be offended.

I told her that Lisa had no right to be offended, because she never came to visit the kids anymore. But as it was, Amanda needn't have worried because Lisa never showed up. Wendy had so much fun being the princess for a day that she never noticed that her mother hadn't come to her party.

Lisa's absence, didn't escape her parents' notice though. Mark was really angry. Amanda tried to calm him down by making him the Irish coffee he liked and adding extra Irish in it. It was Mark's ranting that finally reminded Wendy of her mother not being there. She just shrugged her shoulders and got another piece of cake.

It was the twins, who separately, let us know where we stood.

"Wendy, don't worry," said Belinda. "You can share my mommy." Wendy just smiled and nodded.

I felt someone tugging on my pants legs.

I looked down and picked up Melinda. "Is it still warm in September?" she asked.

"Most of it, Honey," I said. She leaned over and whispered in my ear. Then I put her down and she ran off to be with all of the other kids. There were at least forty kids from the school there and a few parents who'd hung around too.

"What did she want, Dave?" asked Amanda.

"She told me that she didn't like having to wait in line for the jumpy thing, and she was afraid of the clown. So for her birthday she wanted me to get two jumpy things and no clowns," I laughed.

"So what did you tell her?" she asked linking her hand in mine.

"I told her the clown scared me too, so okay," I said. Amanda just shook her head.

"You do know that Belinda likes clowns," she said.

"But she doesn't like them as much as she does the pony," I said. "Belinda and I watched a magician on TV the other day while the other kids were in the pool. So I figure we can cancel the clown and replace him with a magician and more time for the pony."

"Got it all figured out do you?" she asked.

"Pretty much," I said.

"You did forget one thing," she said. I just looked at her.

"You forgot this," she said and she gave me another one of those kisses and this time it lasted far longer and she pressed her whole body against me. I could feel her soft breasts flatten against my chest and her arms reached around me. None of the kids paid us any attention but the adults there definitely noticed.

"Whoah," someone near us said. And Amanda pushed herself away from me like we were on fire.

"Dave, I am so sorry," she said. "I just got caught up in the moment and forgot that we weren't alone."

"Manda, you don't need to be sorry. Sometimes, most of the time in fact, when we talk, I forget that anyone is around us. Or maybe it's just that I don't really pay attention to anyone except you." She turned red again and headed into the house to bring out more hot dogs.

A short time later when all but the hardiest of the guests had left and our kids were getting tired Mark and Rose came over to me. Barbie must have been a really popular gift that year because Wendy got three of them. She gave one to Melinda, one to Belinda and she kept the third for herself. They were playing with the dolls together, as the party wore down. Amanda was carrying Kyle and about to put him to bed when Mark and Rose called her over too.

"Dave, what do you think of the idea of Rose and me taking the kids to King's island next weekend?" Mark asked.

"Well, I don't know..." I began. "Because it just..."

"Amanda, I know we don't know each other that well yet, but it isn't just up to him," said Rose.

"You mean all four of them?" I asked.

"Of course, they're kind of a set," said Mark. I looked at Amanda and she nodded her head.

"Okay," I said.

"We'll pick them up Friday evening," said Mark. "We're taking the RV."

"So what will we do for a weekend?" asked Amanda. "And please don't say you're going to wash the Mustang."