Tracey

"So you have a clear field" she said.

"Only one small problem with that. I'm still married."

"I've heard that there is a cure for that. It's called divorce."

"It is looking more and more like things are headed in that direction."

"If you would like to take me out on my next night off I can promise not to try and take advantage of you. I will respect your status as long as you want me to."

"Sounds like it might be fun, but I need to wait and see how things go for the next couple of days."

"You know where to find me."

The next morning when I got off shift I had breakfast and read the morning paper while I waited for Tracy to head off to work. At ten I swung by the house and checked the recorders. The one on the phone line had a bunch of calls and conversations that meant nothing, but there were three of interest. The first one was Darnell calling Tracy and telling her that he had talked to me and that I'd told him I was divorcing her. She broke down and started crying and said:

"He can't. I love him. He can't divorce me. I have to talk to him Dar. Find him for me. Please find him for me."

"I'll try babe, but I'm not making any promises."

The second call was from someone named Mel and wanted to know if things were still on for that afternoon and Tracy said that they were.

The third was from Darnell asking if he could stop by that evening and Tracy said yes. This normally wouldn't have raised an eyebrow because "Uncle Dar" was always coming over. What made this one different was that to my knowledge Uncle Dar had never come over when I wasn't at home. But then I was finding out that there seemed to be a hell of a lot I didn't know.

There was nothing on the kitchen recorder except cooking and cleaning noises and Tracy talking to the kids over dinner. They kept asking where I was and she told them I was on a business trip and would be away for a while.

The living room recorder was pretty much the same. Normal home life noises for the most part, but there was one interesting section. The door bell rang and a moment latter I heard Louie holler out that Uncle Dar was here. Then there was 'Uncle Dar" talking and playing with the kids until Tracy told them it was time to go to bed. There was the sound of the TV while Darnell waited for Tracy to put the kids down and come back to the room.

"They are in bed. We will give them a few minutes and then we can go into the bedroom. Have you seen him? Talked to him?"

"Not since the night at the bar. I'm having trouble locating rooming houses. Most are not businesses, just homes that have rooms for rent and there must be a thousand of them here in the city."

"You have to find him Dar. I have to convince him that I love him and don't want to live without him."

"I'm trying babe. That's all I can do is try."

"Come on. Let's go to the bedroom."

The recorder in the bedroom was a mine of information.

The sound of the bedroom door opening and then closing and then Tracy saying:

"Hurry up; I need it."

"I'm hurrying as fast as I can."

Then there was the sound of the two of them having sex with Tracy making all of the noises that I knew so well. Finally it was over and Darnell said:

"Things aren't looking too good babe. I guess we read him wrong. We thought that he loved you enough that he would take it and roll with it like he did with the first three. We shouldn't have tried to get cute. We shouldn't have done the Boyd thing. We should have stayed with the plan that worked so well the first three times. We should have just set up some other turkey for Walt to take it out on."

"How is Boyd?"

"He lost both testicles, but other than a missing tooth and a few loose ones he's okay."

"I'm so sorry for him."

"Don't be. He knew what was likely to happen when he agreed to the plan. Besides, the cancer is going to take him down in the next couple of months anyway."

"Still, it shouldn't have happened. All you had to do was tell Walt that I was being good and not seeing anyone after I told him about the pregnancy."

"We needed to put his mind at rest. As long as he was thinking about you and other guys he would always have wondered if you were going out and playing behind his back and he might have started checking up on you and we couldn't have that. Setting Boyd up as the father of all the kids should have taken care of that angle. We just miscalculated. We had no way of knowing how he would take one man being the father of all four. And it is all my fault. I was behaving like a best friend was supposed to behave and telling him stuff like he should get rid of you because of what you had done and how could he ever trust you. I only did it because I knew he loved you and wouldn't do it. I should have just kept my mouth shut."

"Now he is gone and it all just seems so stupid."

"Maybe, but what if he decided to get a private detective? How long would it have taken a detective to find out all about what we have been up to?"

"Not long I suppose."

"I always said that he should have been brought into it back in the beginning."

"Get serious Dar. You know him as well as I do. Can you really see him watching me do gangbangs and taking part? No way Dar and you know it. I love him and the only way I could keep him was to hide that part of me from him."

"That brings up something else. Do you want me to find a replacement for Boyd or will the five of us be enough?"

"No, we need six. I need three to be resting up and recovering. I can make do with five for a while, but I really do want six."

"I've got a guy who would be interested. He saw us having lunch one day and he told me that he thought you were hot!"

"Can he be trusted to keep quiet about it?"

"He's a cop and I know I can trust him. The only thing is that he is black. Are you okay with that?"

"I've never had a black man. If you are vouching for him I guess it will be okay."

There was a pause and then Tracy giggled and said, "Is it going to turn you on seeing black meat driving into my white pussy? Oh look! The thought does to turn you on. That or something has gotten you hard."

More sounds of sex and when it was over and resting Tracy said:

"What am I going to do Dar? I love Walt and if I lose him I'll die."

"No you won't and you know it. You have our four kids to take care of. You will miss Walt, but you will still have your babies."

"I don't want to miss him Dar. He belongs with me. What can I do?"

"Wait and see love. I know he loves you and if we give him some time he will realize it and come home."

"But what if he doesn't? What if he does divorce me?"

"Then I'll marry you like I've always wanted to. Then we will be a family. You and me and our four kids. I can finally be the daddy to them that I've always wanted to be."

"I love you Dar, but nowhere as near as much as I love Walt. I was meant to grow old in Walt's arms and that's what I want."

"All I can say love is that if doesn't happen I'm going to be around and I'll step in and help you pick up the pieces."

"I need to talk to him Dar. Find him for me. If he won't come home I'll go to him. I have to show him how much I love him. I've got to get him to come home."

"I'll try lover. But for right now I'm about ready to go again. Your magic mouth would hurry things up."

There were more sounds of sex, but I turned the recorder off. I had what I needed. I rewound all of them and then left the house.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I didn't want Tracy to know where I was staying so I decided to finish things. I called Darnell and asked him to meet me at the house at six and then I called Tracy and told her I would be home to talk with her at six. I hit the bank and took half of the money out of checking, took all the savings, closed the savings account and then I drove back to my room and set the alarm for five.

I got up at five and showered and went to the restaurant to get a bite to eat. I asked Judy if she would meet me at O'Malley's when she got off work and she said she would be there.

I got to the house at five to six and Darnell was already there and he and Tracy were sitting at the kitchen table when I walked in. Tracy broke out in a smile and started to get up and I told her to stay seated.

"I'm not going to be here long. I have a short piece to say and then I'm out of here. Darnell, I've known you most of my life and I had always considered you the brother that I never had. I would have taken a bullet for you and in fact I did when I took the hit so you could go to the academy.

"Tracy, I loved since the since the seventh grade. I loved you more than life itself and up until a day or so ago I would have willingly died for you. I loved you so much that I let you stick me with another man's babies just so I could make sure that you would stay with me. Both of you meant the world to me and then I find out that I wasted years on a faithless whore and even more years on a back stabbing son of a bitch."

I pulled a recorder out of my pocket, set it down on the table in front of them.

"When I leave here I do not -- I repeat -- I do not want to lay eyes on either one of you again. I do not want to speak to you ever again. I don't want a birthday card, a Christmas card from you. I don't want an email or any other kind of communication with either of you. As far as I am concerned you are both dead to me and there is nothing that you can say or do that will change that. I pressed the 'play' button on the recorder and stood up, turned and headed for the front door. As I was opening the door I heard:

"Hurry up. I need it" and then I was out the door and gone.

+++++++++++++

Judy was in a booth at O'Malley's when I got there. I'd no sooner sat down than a PBR was set in front of me and the waitress said that it was on the house. I looked at Judy and she said:

"I told my brother that you were special to me. Stay on the good side of me and you will drink free in here. You look like you need it. Why the glum look chum?"

"I ended it with Tracy a half hour ago. I should be glad that I'm rid of her cheating ass, but it isn't that easy. I loved that woman to death and I thought that she returned that love and then I found out that she is a cheating slut."

I told Judy what I'd found out.

"It was a shock and it is going to take me a while to get over it. I know I said we would go out on your next night off, but I don't think I'm going to be good company for a while."

"Nonsense Walt. Right now is when you need someone to help you get by things. I'm here to help so let me, okay?"

I knew she was right so I nodded a yes.

"What will you do now" she asked.

"Get a lawyer and look for a place to live. A motel room is great for a couple of days, but I'm going to need to find something more permanent."

"There are some open apartments where I live. It is a pretty nice place and it has a pool and an exercise room."

I found out where it was and decided to check the place out the next day. We sat and talked until it was time for me to head off to work.

When I got to work I turned my cell phone back on and saw I had five voice mails and eleven missed messages. Eight of the missed messages were from Tracy and four were from Darnell and I cleared them off the phone and then listened to the voicemails. Four were from Tracy professing undying love and begging me to come back home and talk to her and the fifth was from Darnell and simply said that we needed to talk. Unfortunately for both Tracy and Darnell I'd meant what I'd said. I did not want to talk to or see either one of them ever again.

++++++++++++++++++++

The next day when I got off work I went over to Judy's apartment complex. I liked what I saw so I signed a lease and paid for the first and last months rent and the security deposit. It turned out that Judy's unit was just above the one I rented.

I rented a trailer and Judy went with me over to the house and helped me move out what I needed to furnish the apartment. The absence of what I took would drive home to Tracy that I was gone and that I wasn't coming back. The only thing I needed was a bed so we stopped at a furniture store and I bought one. By one I was moved in and Judy left to go to work.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking, setting up the computer and making a list of what I was going to have to buy. I needed pots and pans and some dishes and of course I was going to need some groceries.

I had dinner at the restaurant and Judy said we should skip O'Malley's that night and just go home. We talked and played cribbage until it was time for me to go to work. I'd had my cell turned off while at home, but I turned it back on when I headed for work. Six missed messages from Tracy and one from Darnell and there were four voicemails, three from Tracy and one from Darnell, and I listened to the same old shit before I deleted them.

I had two more days to work grave shift and then I would be going back to days and could consider taking Judy out on a date. The next day Judy went with me to Wal-Mart and we bought the items that I had on my list. We were just pulling out of the parking lot when I heard the "whoop whoop" of a police car and I looked in my rear view and saw the flashing lights. I pulled over and saw a black man in a suit get out of the police car and walk toward me. The suit was the giveaway and I turned my head and saw Darnell sitting on the passenger side of the cop car. I opened the glove compartment and got out the cassette recorder that I had there, turned it on, set it on the seat beside me and rolled down my window. The black guy walked up, bent down and looked into the car and then said:

"Please step out of the car sir."

"Why? What did I do? Spend too much money in the store?"

"Please get out of the car sir."

"I don't think so. I've already told Darnell I do not ever intend to speak to him again and a phony traffic stop isn't going to make it happen."

"Just make everything easier on everybody sir and step out of the car."

"You must be the cop that Darnell said he was going to recruit to fuck my about to be ex-wife."

"Are you going to step out of the car as I have requested?"

"No I am not" I said as I put the car in gear and stepped on the gas. I hung a right at the corner and then led the following cop car -- lights flashing and siren wailing -- toward police headquarters. I was not at all surprised when the cop car shut off their noise maker and attention getting lights about three blocks from the station and then drove on by as I pulled up and parked in front.

I told Judy to take the car, find a parking spot and wait for my call. I ran inside, turned and watched Judy drive away and then headed down the hall. I'd been there before to visit Darnell so I knew the layout and I headed for the closest men's room. I took a whiz, washed my hands and then called Judy and asked Judy if the cop car was still around. She told me that it had kept on going and so I told her to pick me up out front.

When Judy and I got back to the apartment I fixed us lunch and then told Judy about why what had happened had come down.

"Darnell and your wife? All of these years?"

"Yep and I'd never have known if you hadn't made that tramp comment the first night at the restaurant."

I went on and explained the entire sorry story to her.

"Four babies and none of them yours and you accepted it?"

"I was hopelessly in love with Tracy and I wanted her to be happy and having kids is what made her happy. That was before I found out about Darnell though. That killed everything. Still want to hang around with me now that you know how stupid I am?"

"Stupid isn't the way I would look at it."

"How would you look at it?"

"I see a man so devoted to and in love with his mate that he would do anything for her. Most women would kill to have a man like that and would treat him like he was made out of gold. The stupid one here is Tracy. How she could risk losing what she had in you is just plain out and out stupid."

She looked at her watch and said that she had to go to work and I asked if she would have breakfast with me in the morning when I got home from work and she said that she would.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

At the end of my shift in the morning the day shift supervisor asked me:

"You and the wife having problems Walt? Not talking to each other?"

"As a matter of fact we aren't talking. Why?"

"She was outside waiting in the parking lot for you at the end of day shift yesterday and the day before."

"I go back to days tomorrow so I guess I'll need to find a way to avoid her."

"Good luck on that."

I was in the kitchen making breakfast when the door bell rang. I was expecting Judy so I just opened the door with a smile on my face and found Tracy and Darnell standing there. I was shocked at how quickly they had managed to find me, but I quickly recovered and stepped aside to let them in. They walked into the room and then I stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind me and ran for the stairwell. I went up to the next floor and rang Judy's doorbell. When she opened the door I held a finger up to my lips so she wouldn't talk and I quickly stepped inside her apartment.

"I need a place to hide."

"Why? What's up?"

I told her and she laughed. "You do know you are going to have to have it out with them sooner or later."

"I'll settle for later. Much latter."

"I guess you won't be fixing me breakfast after all. I guess we will have to see if you can stomach my cooking."

While she worked in the kitchen I sat by her front window and watched the parking lot. I spotted Darnell's car, but didn't see Tracy's so I assumed they came together. Judy called me to the table and as we ate I asked her what she wanted to do latter on that evening.

"Tonight?"

"We did have a date for your next night off right? And that is tonight isn't it?"

"I'd forgotten, but yes we do. I'd like Mexican for dinner and country western dancing after."

"You got it. Come for you around six-thirty?"

"That will do nicely."

Darnell's car was still there when we finished eating breakfast so I shrugged my shoulders, took a deep breath and said:

"I guess I'll take your advice and get it over with."

"They still here?"

"Darnell's car is still sitting there. Call 911 if you hear gunshots."

"You're kidding right?"

"Never know. Darnell is a cop and he does carry a gun."

Judy walked up to me, hugged me and gave me a scorcher of a kiss. My first one from her.

"That's incentive for you to behave and not do something that will make him pull that gun."

I smiled at her said, "Six-thirty" and then headed for my apartment.

They were sitting at the kitchen table eating what I'd been fixing for me and Judy.

"Why don't you just make yourselves at home" I said sarcastically."

"Didn't know when you would be back and didn't want it to go to waste" Darnell said.

"What was it about I don't ever want to see or speak to you ever again that you didn't understand?"

"You were hot under the collar and pissed and we figured that you have had enough time to calm down."

"Why are you here?"

"To talk you into coming home where you belong" Tracy said.

"You would be wasting your breath. I meant what I said. As far as the two of you are concerned you are both dead to me."

"You can't mean that" Tracy said, "You know I love you and I know you love me. Okay, we do have some talking to do, but we can get by this."

"No we can't Tracy. Not after me finding out that you are a fucking punch board for a bunch of guys and have been since high school."

"I guess I miscalculated and should have brought you in back then, but I loved you and I didn't want to lose you and I thought that if I tried to get you to join in and you wouldn't I'd lose you. I couldn't take the chance Walt. I knew even in high school that you and I were meant for each other. I just couldn't lose you baby. I just couldn't."