Quirk of the Brain

They were at the breakfast table one Sunday morning. Schedules allowing, Vicki made breakfast every Saturday and Martin did the same on Sundays. Martin had noticed that Vicki seemed anxious, distracted over the last couple of days, so when she put a newspaper article in front of him halfway through breakfast he was not entirely surprised.

"What's this, love?"

"Read it, please."

Martin scanned the article. It mentioned that a guy named Wayne Jessup was killed by police when they responded to a domestic disturbance call. The article was dated about a month before and gave some details about the rocky relationship between the deceased and his much younger girlfriend, who shared a 3-month old baby. It was a tragic story but meant nothing to Martin.

"Okay, I've read it. So?"

"Honey, Wayne Jessup is my ex-husband."

Martin realized they had never really talked about him, except that brief bit about why he left Vicki for a cashier or something.

"Wow. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"I was shocked, certainly. He'd never been abusive when we were together so it didn't make any sense. And I just felt so bad for this young girl having to go through that."

"I agree. But what does that have to do with us?"

"I didn't feel responsible but I felt...I don't know, involved, I guess. Like I should do something to help out."

"Okaaaaaaayyy," Martin responded, wondering where this was going.

"You know that the paper sometimes reaches out to me for research or statistics or whatever, for stories they're working on. So, I called in a small favor and asked them to reach out to her on my behalf. As a person and ex-wife, not as a mental health professional. I asked them to tell her I was Wayne's ex-wife and that I'd be happy to help her, and they gave her my contact information."

"I presume she called, reached out in some way."

"Yes, she did. I've been talking to her by phone, and even a couple of times in person, for the last few weeks."

"And you're just telling me now?"

"I'm sorry, baby. I met her the first time in secret because it just seemed like the best choice at the time. After that it just, I don't know, seemed like I would be betraying her trust. So, I treated it as I would a professional case. I knew I'd tell you eventually, and here we are."

"All right, what do you need to tell me. I assume this is the girl he left you for."

"Actually, no. That's girl's name was Amy and she dumped Wayne because he was pressuring her to have a baby, and apparently, she didn't want one for several more years, if at all. Carly, that's the girl I've been talking to, is the second girl."

"Okay, so you've been talking to her."

"Wayne started putting the pressure on her, too. She wasn't sure if she wanted kids either but she liked the idea of building a family, and she thought he really loved her, so she agreed. But as soon as the baby was born he started getting rough and abusive. Verbally at first and then physically. She let it pass a few times, thinking it was just the stress of having an infant, but it got bad this last time so she called the police. She assumed they'd take him to jail to calm him down and they'd talk the next day."

"Obviously that's not what happened."

"When he found out she'd called the cops he started yelling and cursing, and dug a gun out of his dresser. She says she never even knew he had a gun and hid herself in the baby's room thinking he meant to use it on her.

"The cops showed up in a couple of minutes and he went outside to confront them. Carly was still hidden but could hear pretty well. Wayne started telling them to get off his property, that everything was fine and they had no right to be there. They were trying to talk him down when he must have pulled the gun, because Carly suddenly heard them yelling at him to drop it. It wasn't long before she heard shots.

"Carly stayed hidden, not knowing what was happening. She came out when the cops started searching the house and yelling for her. No one would tell her anything but she saw a body just outside the door covered in a sheet and knew it must be Wayne."

"How traumatic that must have been. I'm sure she still had feelings for him, and experiencing that at all must have been very scary."

"That's what she said. According to the report, Wayne took a shot at something and even hit one of the police cars. They returned fire and that was the end of it."

"Tragic. Just tragic," Martin said, not knowing what else to say. "How's Carly doing now?"

"She's okay. She's getting some counseling, not by me since I'm too close, but I referred her to someone. I think she'll be all right."

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, mostly just some silent reflection at the tragedy that had unfolded.

"Martin, there's something else."

"Somehow I'm not surprised."

"The fact is, Carly doesn't really want to be a mother. At least not yet. But she's scared of just giving the baby up to the system."

"Infants get adopted very fast, Vicki. She wouldn't be there for long."

"We both know that but...okay, I'll just say it. Carly wants me, well us, to adopt the baby. Of course, I told her I'd have to talk to you about it. But Martin, God, I want this baby so bad."

Martin was incredulous. He never expected to be a father again, both because of his age and Vicki's inability to have kids. And here another child, an infant no less, possibly being dropped in his lap. Vicki filled the silence.

"I spoke to one of the social workers and one of the attorneys at the hospital. They said a planned adoption like this isn't very common but not unheard of, and is perfectly legal."

"You talked to others about this before you talked to me?"

"Martin, I didn't want to bring this to you if it wasn't going to work out. I wanted to have all the information before I talked to you."

"And what does this Carly want out of this?"

"No money, if that's what you're thinking, though I would like to help her get back on her feet. She did just lose her sole source of support after all. What she wants is just to stay involved. If not exactly in Ella's life like 'Aunt Carly' then at least some pictures and updates as she grows up."

Martin went silent for a long time, running this through her head. He understood each step Vicki had taken along the way, in terms of who she talked to and how she handled everything. He just would have liked to go through it with her, to have supported her along the way. And what about committing himself to another 18 years. He'd be in his sixties by the time Ella graduated high school. Did he have the energy for that? The patience? Even as he asked himself these questions, he knew he would never deny Vicki something she so clearly wanted so badly.

"Martin, talk to me, please."

Martin looked into the big, beautiful, deep brown eyes of his wife.

"So, what's the next step in adopting her?"

And so it was that Ella joined the family. It wasn't instantaneous, of course. There's lots of bureaucracy to be gone through but eventually the adoption was final and they were a family of 3...4 if you include Dallas, who adored her new baby sister.

Martin and Vicki helped Carly get a certification from a local technical college and she got a job working in a dentist's office. She started dating a young man that was a patient there and it looks like it might be serious. They all see each other a few times a year and Vicki sends pictures in the meantime.

Martin and Vicki remain happy and have no plans to pursue any other children. Vicki can take Ella to the hospital daycare when she's working, and stops in to see her several times a day. And somehow, Martin finds the opportunity to stop in and see his wife and daughter several times a week, as well.

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La Fine

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Afterword

Inspiration: I've been trying to make an entry into the 'hubby can't get an erection at all' category for some time now but was never happy with anything I came up with. I went through possible scenarios, usually some version of being paralyzed from the waist down, but I've seen many stories with that plot device so ultimately discarded it.

Eventually, stories I had heard in the past about people recovering from serious conditions came to mind. The brain is a pretty amazing thing and has been known to heal itself, or at least find a work-around to get the body going again so I went that way. I purposefully left the reason for the return of function unresolved because I thought it possible (and even likely) that something like that would not have a definitive explanation.

Permission: I hereby give my permission to anyone interested in writing a follow-up or alternate version of any one of my stories. Please just remember to give credit where credit is due. I'm not always very diligent about checking my email for permission requests.