No Fool Like an Old Fool

Fuck Ted, this was as much his fault as hers, if he wasn't prepared to take the consequences, he shouldn't have played the game. There's no fool like an old fool she thought.

She tried calling her daughter the next day, because she really wanted to talk to someone outside of the hospital. At first she thought that she'd dialed the wrong number, but after doing it three times, she was sure she hadn't. Her daughter's number was no longer in service. Megan had probably missed too many phone bills and the phone had been shut off. She called Meg's cell phone with the same result.

Helen was getting antsy, because after three weeks in the hospital she wanted to go home. She'd found out that they had been ready to release her a couple of weeks ago, but Hiram convinced them to have her stay for another week. She wanted to get home and get into her bed with her husband. She was sure that they were going to make it through this. Over the last few weeks except for a few hours a day they were always together. She loved it, and she loved Hiram. When no one else had been there for her, there he was. He was the person she had hurt the worst, and yet he was the one there beside her. If that wasn't love Helen didn't know what love was.

Hiram had waited in the lobby of the apartment building nervously. His phone began ringing and he answered it.

"He's on his way, I'm going to bullshit with him for about five minutes, be ready by the front stairs."

Hiram moved towards the front stairs, he waited for a while and when he heard the sound of someone coming down the steps quickly he dropped a large plastic bag on the stairs and pretended to look through his mailbox.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Thom coming down the stairs and notice the bag. Hiram went out the back door and up the back stairs to Kelly's floor.

Thom picked up the bag and noticed a large quantity of drugs and vials in it. In addition to the obviously hospital quality drugs there were several different street drugs as well. "What the hell had that old bastard been doing with this much shit?" he wondered as he stepped onto the street.

Before he even completed his thought two police cars pulled up, and the officers in them jumped out at him with their guns drawn. One officer snatched the bag from his hand and looked into it.

"You're going down for a long time mother fucker," spat the officer. Another policeman handcuffed Thom and put him in the back of a police car.

Upstairs Kelly hugged Hiram as they watched through the window.

Two days later Aaron saw Kelly walking down the back stairs the way Helen used to. It had been a long time and he missed that skanky old whore. She'd let them do anything to her. What a freaky old bitch. But maybe this was a newer and better version, he decided to follow her and find out. The bitch skipped down the backstairs like she owned them. And went into an apartment on the second floor that wasn't hers, he looked in before she closed the door and saw all kinds of electronics in a cabinet in the living room. Kelly raised her skirt a little bit and then went back out and forgot to lock the door. The door was still wide open. He followed her wondering where she was going. She went up to the fourth floor and met that doctor, Helen's husband. She kissed the old coot and closed the door behind her.

No wonder the old woman was fucking him and his friends. Her husband was banging the hottest bitch in the building and the old bag of bones had just felt left out.

Aaron was no fool, let them fuck all they wanted. He ran back down to that apartment on the second floor. The door was still open and he noticed that it had been jimmied. He stepped inside and looked around. He was taking the DVD player, and maybe that small plasma with him. "Oh my fucking God," thought Aaron. There on the table was an absolutely beautiful Glock 9mm. He picked it up. The clip was in it and full. He looked down the sights and whispered, "Pow."

Boy were the guys going to be jealous of him. At least Henry would be. That dumb ass Thom had apparently got arrested for something.

Just as he thought about how stupid Thom was he heard loud voice saying, "Drop the gun Punk."

Aaron looked up and there were four cops in the room with him with their guns drawn. When he got to the station, he was charged with breaking and entering, possession of an unregistered weapon, and all of the recent burglaries in the building were being pinned on him. He was going to jail for a long time.

Some time earlier that day, someone had knocked Henry in the back of the head, and loaded him on a freight train headed out of state. When he woke up he found twenty dollars and a note in his pocket. The note explained to him that if he ever showed his face in the state again, what happened to him would make his friend's fate seem light.

Helen finally realized what her problem was, there was something wrong with her phone. At first she thought that her daughter had changed her numbers, both of them, and maybe her sister had too. But when she tried to call Thom, and Aaron and Henry to tell them that they couldn't see her anymore, and she needed a little favor from them, she couldn't get in touch with any of them. There had to be something wrong with her phone. There was no way that all five of them had changed their numbers or not paid their bills.

She had decided that there was one thing preventing her from repairing her marriage and it was that little bitch Kelly. Her original idea was to talk to Kelly and ask her to stay away from Hiram. She would remind Kelly that her own parents had been through a rough patch and were able to make it through it, so Helen and Hiram could too.

All she needed was for Kelly to leave Hiram alone. If Kelly wasn't willing to do it then Helen would have to set the boys on her. She was sure that Thom, and Henry and Aaron could threaten Kelly into staying away from Hiram. She would hate to do it, but she would.

Over these past few weeks Helen had come to realize that she would never allow anyone or anything to come between herself and Hiram again.

She needed to have that talk with Kelly today because she was going home tomorrow. She would be released on Christmas morning, what a coincidence. After nearly a month without sex she knew exactly the present she was going to give Hiram.

He'd been so cute yesterday, telling her that he was getting the house ready for her to come home to. He'd hinted that he had several presents waiting for her as well. Hiram was predictable as the sunrise. He would either have a small flat present from a jewelry store, with some kind of necklace or bracelet in it, or a big flat envelope with tickets and instructions for a trip or cruise that they would take for Christmas. But Helen wasn't complaining. Even if all he wanted to do was sit down with her and talk about their problems, she was willing. As long as they did it together, anything was fine with Helen.

Actually Helen wanted to have that talk to get it over with so they'd have no lingering secrets between them. That way he wouldn't find out about it 3 or 4 years down the line and divorce her then. Right now, while he was worried about her health and in a forgiving mood, was the best time. Of course she wouldn't tell him all of it, but enough that if it did come to light later it wouldn't seem like she'd lied.

When the nurse came in Helen asked if she could have Kelly from the pharmacy come up to talk to her. Helen was surprised and actually pleased to find out that Kelly had quit her job, just this morning. Helen's mind started working and she thought that she had worked out the scenario. Hiram had probably explained to Kelly that he wanted to give their marriage another shot, and Kelly had just come unglued. Kelly had been a fool to think that he'd throw away 25 years for just a couple of mistakes.

Hiram came in at dinner time and told Helen that he had a patient to take care of but that he'd see her later, or in the morning when they went home. He looked a little sad when he came in and Helen thought she knew why, but decided to fish a little bit.

"So are you going to get Kelly to help you get the house ready for our Christmas day celebration?" she asked, "I'm sure you don't want Ted there but are Megan and Nick coming? Is Tammy coming without Ted?" she asked all of the questions though she only cared about the answer to one of them.

"Helen I haven't seen Kelly today, I guess she has other things to do," said Hiram. "But we are all getting together for Christmas. It's been over a month. It's time we put all of thie behind us, and move forward with our lives."

Helen tried hard to cover her smirk, and nearly managed. Hiram kissed her goodbye but it was an awkward kiss. Instead of kissing her on the lips, he kissed her on the fore head. Oh well thought Helen, there'll be plenty of kissing tomorrow.

Hiram never showed up at the hospital on Christmas morning. At 9:00 a.m. Helen was signed out and giving instruction for what she should do and shouldn't do for the next few days. She noticed that there was nothing concerning sex. which meant she was free to attack Hiram, as she'd planned. Helen was told that Hiram had been delayed again for a patient. She really didn't mind, that meant it was pretty much back to business as usual, so she called a cab to take her home.

When she got to the building Helen was filled with a feeling of joy and happiness as she watched families going into and out of the building. Christmas was the most special of holidays and she had been given the most marvelous gift, though she didn't feel that she deserved it. She had really dodged a bullet; when it came to the boys Hiram seemed to be totally in the dark. Maybe if you looked back at all of the good things she'd done throughout her life, the universe had decided to spot her one, and let her keep the two things that mattered most to her, her husband and her marriage. Maybe in exchange she had to give up the relationship with her sister and possibly even her daughter, but if she'd been able to pick the ending to her story, this was the one she'd have picked. Maybe she didn't even have to give up the boys, but she would have to be far more discreet.

She got onto the elevator and decided at the last minute to try and talk to Kelly just in case. She stopped off at the girl's apartment and found that the door was sealed in that plastic that they used for the vacant apartments. Apparently Kelly had not only quit her job, but had moved on. Well good for her, she needed a new start. And better still for Helen.

Helen used her key and opened her door, and was a little surprised. Hiram hadn't done much decorating. He hadn't even put up their large artificial Christmas tree. He had thrown up a pathetic one foot tall tabletop tree. that had seen better times. Helen almost laughed because it was the ugliest, loneliest little thing she'd ever seen. It looked like the tree from a Charlie Brown christmas. He had strung one line of lights across the mantle over the fire place and when she tried to plug them in they sparked and popped and just went out. The apartment felt empty, and cold. she went into their bedroom and found what she'd expected. her presents. Three big boxes and a note. They were all arranged on the neatly made bed.

Helen started reading the note:

Dearest Helen, I'm sorry I'm not there with you, but I did leave you presents. Open the large flat box labeled one first, then read the next page of this note.

Helen excitedly opened the box and found nothing in it except the papers releasing her from the hospital and the bill for her hospital stay and medical expenses. She didn't understand it and thought it was one of Hiram's little jokes.

She read the next page of the note:

Helen open the second box now.

Helen was sure that this would be her trip manifest or her cruise brochure. She was wrong it contained a bunch of legal documents. One of which she recognized as a copy of the pre-nup she had signed over 20 years ago. She couldn't figure out what was going on here and she needed her glasses to read these documents but suddenly she didn't feel good.

She didn't bother reading the note she just tore open the small box. It didn't contain a necklace or a bracelet, it had a DVD in it. She put it into the DVD player and hit the play button.

Helen almost gagged, there on the screen she saw herself being used by the 3 boys. She had never seen herself on TV before and this didn't at all look the way it felt. She saw a wrinkled, fat old woman with banana tits hanging down nearly to her waist, being used by three rough looking young men. There was nothing romantic or exciting to it. She looked like some homeless old whore. She almost threw up while she watched it but mercifully the scene changed.

Hiram came on the screen, he was sitting down in his chair in the office looking straight at her. My God that man was handsome, I'm so lucky he married me thought Helen. This is obviously his way of letting me know that he knows and forgives me.

He fumbled around trying to look into the camera and then said, "Thanks sweet heart."

What the hell was he thanking her for? Helen heard another voice on the screen, he hadn't been talking to her. Who the fuck was her husband calling sweetheart?

Hiram on the screen looked straight into the camera and began speaking.

"Helen, Merry Christmas," said the Hiram on the screen. "Well, wait a minute, I never got to do Thanksgiving with you. Okay, for thanksgiving, I was thankful for a lot of things some good, some bad," said Hiram. "I was thankful for the over twenty years that I loved you above all else in this world. I was also thankful that I finally found out what a cheating whore you turned out to be, so I could move on with my life."

Helen was having trouble breathing, it felt like someone had kicked her in her sixty year old stomach.

"Helen, after Thanksgiving I had every intention of trying to work towards fixing our marriage, I still loved you above all else but I felt betrayed and hurt. I was sure that we could work it all out if you just stayed away from Ted. You had played me for a fool, but I really wanted to work past it. But Helen, I fooled you too. You were a fool if you thought that after Ted I'd trust you again. You see Kelly told me about her parent's reconciliation.

We all thought that they got back together, and they really tried but it just didn't work. They were never the same. Her mother spent years always wondering where he was, and with whom. There was no trust left between them, just as there's none left for us. Eventually she needed someone she could turn to, and she had an affair too. He wanted to try again, but she just couldn't trust him and ended up marrying the guy she had the affair with. Helen, I didn't trust you either so I had the apartment wired, I guess you saw the video. So you know that there is no hope for us. I've filed for divorce and found someone new.

According to our prenuptial agreement, you are entitled to 20 percent of my current net worth in the divorce. I've left you two hundred thousand dollars in our formerly joint checking account, that is now in your name only. all of your credit cards that were in both of our names have been cancelled. You'll have to set up new ones. Helen you also get to keep our luxury apartment since the thought of being in that building sickens me. I know there were a lot of good memories there but I'll make new ones. Helen, please be careful with your money, your extended stay in the hospital was not covered by our insurance, so you'll be billed for the last three weeks of your month there. the medical expenses alone are probably going to run you about 35,000 dollars. In addition to that there was a private investigator here looking for you. He wanted to know where you were because you apparently left the scene of a crime."

Helen watched in horror as Kelly came around the desk and sat in Hiram's lap.

She looked up and kissed Hiram deeply and then smiled into the camera. They both waved bye. And the screen went black.

Helen sat there on the bed thinking she'd been a fool. suddenly someone knocked on the door. Helen thought it was her daughter or her sister but it turned out to be a couple of police officers. They arrested her for the hit and run accident she had a month ago. She was charged with reckless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. Helen spent Christmas day in jail. she used her phone call to call Tammy having forgotten that her sister's number had been changed and she didn't have the new one. Helen had no other choice she called Hiram, and she'd thought that he wouldn't pick up but he did.

"Hiram please, I need your help, I'm in J..," she began.

"Hi Helen, " said Kelly, "We're at Tammy's house with Megan and Nick. Your grandson is adorable. I think Hiram and I are going to have one just like him. He'd better start trying to get me pregnant quick, because I'm already in my thirties. Well it's been great Helen. I'll tell Hiram you called to wish us Merry Christmas. He's outside talking to Ted. I think they may be able to become friends again. There was after all only one silly old thing for them to argue about, and neither one of them wants you," with a click, Kelly hung up the phone.

I was a fool, thought Helen. And now I've lost everything. Kelly has my husband, my sister hates me, my daughter hates me. Even the boys have deserted me. I was a fool, plain and simple, and there's no fool like an old fool.