Was I First?
By
LittleOneWon
CH 01
Roland Wilson, who’s known as Rollie, and his wife, Ann, have a son named Randy. Charlie and Mandy Nestle have a daughter named Marie. The parents became related by law when Randy and Marie were joined in marriage. As of now, there are no grandchildren.
Both parental couples were in their upper thirties when they were blessed with their child and as of today, both couples are newly retired.
Ann and Rollie had never met Charlie and Mandy before their children started dating. After their kids tied the knot, the parents became good friends. Out of necessity, they attended lots of family functions together; but they also began voluntarily socializing as couples.
They found themselves spending many hours together. They dined together at numerous restaurants. They attended plays and musicals, cheered at sporting events, and watched movies in theaters and on TV.
Everything was going fine until Mandy’s behavior began to change. She became forgetful and argumentative, especially with Charlie. As she continued to deteriorate, Charlie finally convinced her to get medical attention. She was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, better known as FTD.
Their time together began to dwindle. Mandy gradually lost her ability to socialize. She became both vocally and physically abusive to Charlie. Needless to say, Ann and Rollie tried to maintain their relationship with Charlie and Mandy, but Mandy continued to go downhill, and eventually, she was confined to a nursing home. She continued to deteriorate there even though she was getting the best medical attention available. Before two years had passed, she didn’t recognize Rollie and Ann when they came to visit her. Shortly thereafter, Charlie tearfully admitted that she no longer recognized him.
Charlie was beside himself in agony. He was losing the love of his life to something he couldn’t understand. He was reluctant to accept that she didn’t know who he was. They were both in hell, but at least she didn’t know it. He could feel a destructive fire lapping at his soul. When he thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. His daughter left too.
She left kicking and screaming, but she had to go. She cried uncontrollably when she had to leave her mom and dad sitting together in that depressing room in that dark place.
It was one of those good-but-ill-timed events that often occur in life. Randy had been promoted and transferred by the company he worked for. The couple would be leaving the Midwest and relocating to New York. It was a big promotion that would mean fewer financial concerns for them, but the family separation would be hard to take.
Marie knew that it would be difficult to get back for visits with her folks. She knew it might not happen until her mom died. There were tears in many eyes as the kids left to embrace their relocated life together. Everyone joined Marie in suspecting that when they returned, it would be to attend Mandy’s funeral.
It was two weeks before Christmas when Marie and Randy returned. It was, indeed, to say their final goodbyes to Mandy. After the funeral, the kids tried to get Charlie to join them in New York. He insisted that he couldn’t take another change in his life just then. He promised to consider it later.
Rollie and Ann had been inviting Charlie over for meals as well as for some limited socializing ever since Mandy entered the nursing home. Now those invitations increased as they began to encourage Charlie to reclaim his interest in life.
Charlie followed their advice and began a reevaluation of his present circumstances. He realized that he needed to move on. He remembered spending quite a bit of time singing before he married Mandy. Back then, he had an exceptional voice. He sang in the church choir and performed solos for weddings and funerals. He even spent some time singing with a local band. He gave that all up after he shouldered the responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood. He still had a good voice. He still loved to sing.
He located a voice coach and began taking lessons. As he progressed, his coach began booking him for parties and various other functions. Charlie’s voice was still very melodious and he became somewhat popular locally.
Rollie and Ann attended most of Charlie’s performances. He was good but he was upset that he couldn’t find a band to sing with. He had to use karaoke background music during his appearances. Sometimes it was hard to find karaoke music for the songs he wanted to sing. Some of the ones that he did find were not to his liking. Most importantly, he considered singing along with recorded background music to be unseemly and unprofessional.
Charlie knew that Ann had played piano when she was younger. She had kept her piano and played for her own amusement throughout her adult life. Charlie had heard her play and knew that she was a better-than-average pianist.
He began bringing sheet music with him when he visited the Wilsons. He and Ann always managed to perform a few songs together. One evening he brought a spanking new Korg keyboard with him. Ann was super impressed with it. He told her it was hers if she would agree to begin appearing with him as his accompanist. She agreed to that on the spot.
After Charlie left, Ann realized that she had made her decision without consulting her husband. Perhaps that’s why he went to bed without a word to her right after Charlie left.
At breakfast, she apologized for not including Rollie in her decision. She pointed out that they already attended most of Charlie’s appearance, so she didn’t see any conflict. The only difference would be her presence on stage instead of in the audience. There was a side benefit too. She would be making some extra money which would come in handy.
Charlie was a different person on stage after Ann joined him. She replaced his stilted karaoke background recordings with piano music designed to complement his voice. No longer did he have to search for songs with a karaoke version. Now Ann designed her accompaniment around his voice. The difference was immense. They began spending many hours together practicing and performing.
Before long, Charlie started taking bookings that took them to other towns and even other states. Rollie enjoyed hearing them and he continued to attend all of their performances. He watched as they steadily improved and became more and more popular. Charlie was finally living again and Ann appeared to be rejuvenated too.
As Charlie and Ann found a new purpose in life, Rollie began to feel left out. After pondering his feelings, he decided to revive an interest that had served him well back in the day. He would renew his passion for magic. He would, once again, become an amateur magician.
He was thinking that perhaps he could become part of the show. Maybe he could do his magic when Charlie and Ann took their breaks. He knew, however, that there were lots of new tricks and illusions that he needed to master. Also, better equipment was available along with updated presentation techniques. For those reasons, he found a recently retired magician and signed up for some tutoring.
All three of them were overjoyed on the night that they appeared together for the first time. It was at a party with lots of young kids present. Rollie was a very good magician and he made a big hit. You might even say that he stole the show. He was a natural and he loved doing magic. Very soon he joined his wife and Charlie as he turned the corner from amateur to professional status. He got paid, just like they did! He was so happy and enthused that he failed to see the displeasure that began appearing on Charlie’s face.
CH 02
As time passed, appearing together didn’t happen very often for the three of them. Rollie was being booked for school events, birthday parties, and other such functions. Rollie’s bookings soon exceeded those of Charlie and Ann. Still, Rollie attended as many of Ann’s appearances as he could. In turn, she saw most of his magic shows.
As both acts became more popular and their bookings increased, their performances began showing time conflicts. For the first time, performances by Charlie and Ann often didn’t find Rollie in the audience. Likewise, his performances were not attended by his wife and Charlie as much either. Before they knew it, they seldom saw each other perform. The main exception was at venues where both acts were featured.
One such venue was a private party. Charlie and Ann went on first. The party host introduced them by saying, “Tonight, we have Ann and Charlie Nestle to bring us some good music, followed by their good friend, Rollie Wilson, who will baffle us with his magic.” Upon hearing that introduction, Rollie glanced at Ann. She gave him a halting smile while shrugging her shoulders. She, like Charlie, made no effort to correct the host. It hit Rollie like a ton of bricks.
After that, Rollie began to notice some other things that had escaped his attention previously. Little things, like some unusual touching between his wife and his friend during their practice sessions and some laughing at things that they failed to share with him. Also, at the end of their performances, Charlie would motion for Ann to stand up. After she was standing, she would walk toward him and he would put an arm around her waist and give her a quick kiss. Rollie had always dismissed it as a part of their act, but now he was not so sure. No wonder that party host assumed that Charlie and Ann were husband and wife!
Through all of this, however, the sex life that he shared with Ann didn’t suffer in any way. When they were home together, she was as attentive as ever in every way. If anything, she became even more adventurous.
He remembered one night when she was riding him cowgirl. It was something they did often. He liked seeing her tits bounce. Unlike ever before, she suddenly turned around and continued riding him but facing away. When he questioned her about it afterward, she said it was called “reverse cowgirl” and she just wanted to try it.
Another time, she asked him if he had ever thought about anal sex. He told her that he didn’t see what she would get out of it. It had to be a painful experience for the woman. That hole was not designed for two-way traffic. She surprised him by revealing that she had bought some lubricant to make it less painful. She told him that the pleasure should outweigh the pain.
Both of those things became a regular part of their sexual activities, but not before he asked her where those ideas came from. She told him that sometimes Charlie reminisced about making love to Mandy. “He mentioned doing those things and how much they enjoyed them. He made them sound so good that I thought we should give them a try.”
Rollie said, “I can’t believe that you and Charlie spend your time talking about sex! Do you tell him about what we do together?”
She answered, “We’ve only discussed sex a very few times. He’s the one that starts the conversation. I don’t object since I think that he needs to embrace those memories of Mandy. He gets into more detail than I like, and I’ll admit that some of his stories make me uncomfortable, but I never tell him about us. I think that he would consider what we do to be drab and unimaginative. Anyway, I ignore most of what he says but a few things catch my attention. The anal thing and the reverse cowgirl position are a couple of cases in point.”
“Ann, I don’t think you should encourage him when he starts talking about sex. It’s a step too far for a happily-married woman to allow.” She said that she never encouraged him to talk about sex and that she would never let it lead to anything other than talk. She told him to quit worrying about it.
CH 03
Then came the time when Rollie suddenly began having nosebleeds. He went to a specialist who cauterized several places in his nose and prescribed a spray to use for any unexpected bleeding. Rollie kept the spray with him at all times.
It had been months since the three of them were booked at the same venue until both acts were featured at the state fair. They reserved rooms at a hotel near the fairgrounds.
On the evening that they arrived, they ate together at a restaurant called “Harps,” which was located adjacent to their hotel, The food was good, so they decided to skip the hotel-provided breakfast and eat at Harps again the next morning.
When morning came, Rollie got another one of his nosebleeds. He used the spray but he was still experiencing some intermittent trickles of blood. He told Ann that he didn’t want to risk going to Harps. He said it would be better to just get the hotel-furnished breakfast and bring it back to the room.
Ann said, “But we promised Charlie to have breakfast with him at Harps.”
Hearing her say that, Rollie bristled. He couldn’t believe that she was ignoring his bleeding! Instead of commiserating with him, she was worrying about a previous arrangement with Charlie. Expressing his anger, his voice rose as he said, “You can go with him if that’s your choice, but I’m going to try bringing some coffee and a roll back to the room where I can keep an ice bag on my nose. I need to get this stopped before my performances.”
“Ok, Rollie. That sounds like a good plan.”
Saying that, she walked out the door. Rollie was flabbergasted! What was happening to their marriage?
Right after she left the room, Rollie heard a loud squeaky noise. He knew what it was. He had heard that noise coming from Charlie’s door when they were bringing in his luggage. Charlie’s room was right across from theirs. That noise told him that his wife had just entered Charlie’s room.
Fifteen minutes later, he heard the squeak again. Then he heard his wife and Charlie laughing in the hallway as they left to have breakfast together.
As Rollie continued to ice his nose, he began remembering something else that had bothered him.
The three of them drove Charlie’s car to this first stop on their respective tours. After this fair appearance, Charlie and Ann would continue driving it and Rollie would get a rental for the rest of his appearances. Anyway, while they were together, Rollie was sharing the driving chores with Charlie.
It turned out that when Charlie was driving, Ann sat in the front passenger seat and “navigated” for him. When it was time to change drivers, she vacated the passenger seat and sat in the back with Charlie. Rollie had to do his own navigating. He tried adjusting the rearview mirror to see what was going on in the backseat, but he made no discoveries.
Later, when he complained to Ann about her one-sided navigating, she said that she was helping Charlie make some changes to a few song lists that needed to be updated. The only time they could do that was when Charlie wasn’t driving.
Rollie’s thoughts were interrupted when heard that squeaking noise again. They had been gone for over an hour. Then, twenty minutes went by before he heard that noise once more followed immediately by Ann entering the room and asking about his nose. He was furious, but he didn’t say a word to her.
She handed him a foam box containing some eggs, bacon, and grits. He sampled the food. Then he got up and threw the box into the waste basket.
She was taken aback. “Why did you do that?” she screamed.
“Because the food was as cold as ice,” he countered.
“I’m sorry, Rollie,” she muttered. “We stopped to make some last-minute changes to today’s performance schedule. I should have microwaved the food for you. I got you grits because they have such good ones and I know how much you love them. My bad. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean by ‘you stopped?’ Where did you stop long enough to let food in an insulated container get cold?” he yelled.
She admitted that they had stopped in Charlie’s room. She explained that the changes took longer than she had anticipated.
At that point, he told her that he didn’t have a fair show to do until late afternoon so he was going to stay in the room and keep icing his nose until then. He would take the hotel shuttle when he was ready since it stopped at the fairgrounds.
She told him she was sorry that he couldn’t go with them. As she walked out the door, she insisted that he give her a call when he was ready to leave so she could drive back to get him. He didn’t get a chance to tell her that there wasn’t a chance in hell for that.
After she left, he found her luggage and for the first time in their married life, he searched it for signs of infidelity. He gave special attention to the sack of soiled underwear. He finished his search with only one discovery, he found a key card!
He wondered why she would keep a key card in her luggage. On a whim, he walked across the hall to Charlie’s room and gave the card a try. It opened the door!
Eureka! He entered the room and searched through every drawer and piece of luggage. Not a single nook or a cranny escaped his search. He came up empty. There was no incriminating evidence in Charlie’s room.
Back in his room, he called his son. They talked for nearly a half hour. After that, he called the State Fair office and informed them that he was forced to cancel all of his shows due to persistent nosebleeds.
The bleeding was getting worse so he called the front desk and told them he needed to get medical attention. He immediately found himself in a wheelchair heading to a private shuttle that took him to the ER. They packed his nose and gave him some pills to reduce his high blood pressure and settle his nerves.
He asked them if he would be able to make the drive back home. They told him he would be alright as long as he left the packing in place and took his medication. They advised him to see an ear nose and throat specialist as soon as he got home.
He made the drive home without any problems. There were several incoming calls from Ann, but he ignored them. He wasn’t ready to deal with her yet.
CH 04
Ann found herself disinterested in performing that day at the fairgrounds. She was experiencing a lot of guilt for not helping her husband deal with his nosebleed. She realized that he was very upset with her. That caused her to have some fear about the future of her marriage.
She replayed in her mind the conversation about her one-sided “navigating” during their trip. She felt that Rollie didn’t accept her explanation. She also regretted having that breakfast at Harps while Rollie remained in their room literally shedding his blood.
She could see that quite a few of her recent actions with Charlie could be misinterpreted by lots of people, including her husband.
It all began when Mandy got sick. Ann couldn’t help but feel sorry for Charlie. He was lost. Mandy was his life and his life was slipping away.
Ann began trying to include Charlie in things that she and Rollie used to do as a couple. She invited Charlie over for holidays, sporting events, and other happenings that she knew he used to enjoy with Mandy. One thing led to another until there was seldom any function that she shared with only her husband. It culminated with her deciding to play piano for Charlie when he began his late-in-life singing career.
Looking back now, she began to see things through Rollie’s eyes. She had made it her mission in life to ease Charlie’s suffering. In doing that, had she just transferred the hurt from Charlie to the only man she’d ever loved with her whole heart and soul? Had she taken her Florence Nightingale behavior too far?
What was so spectacularly peculiar was that she hadn’t ever liked Charlie all that much. She had always considered him to be a selfish braggart that was way too full of himself. She often wondered what Mandy saw in him.
Why did she make it her mission to soothe his hurt? Now, she wondered if his hurt was just an act. Was she too late to the realization of reality?
She turned her thoughts into action as she picked up her phone and called Rollie. She got his voicemail. That was odd. Her next call was to the hotel front desk. They informed her that he had been rushed away for medical attention. When she asked where they took him, the desk clerk offered the assumption that he was taken to the ER at the hospital.
She found Charlie and told him what had happened. She told him that she needed to leave immediately to find and be with her husband. Charlie told her that since Rollie was getting medical attention, she should quit worrying about him. They had a show to do! He said that Rollie would get better and be at the fairgrounds soon to do his magic shows. She should just stay there and perform as usual. “The show must go on,” he offered.
She glared at him while saying, “Fuck you, Charlie. I need to be with my husband!”
She was debating with herself about whether to head for the hospital or go to the hotel. Before she could make a decision, her phone rang. It was her son, Randy, calling. When she answered, he hit her with both barrels.
“Mom, why have you abandoned Dad for that egotistical bastard that wouldn’t make a pimple on dad’s ass? Why did you leave Dad with a nosebleed that ended up having to be packed in an emergency room to keep him from bleeding to death? Was it that important to have breakfast with your insufferable lover? Why have you thrown your marriage away?”
At that point, Ann shouted her son down saying, “How did you hear about your dad’s nosebleed and that breakfast.?”
“I just got off the phone with him. They’re holding him in the hospital until they know for sure that they have correctly identified and fixed the hemorrhaging blood vessel. He told me about his nosebleed problem and a lot more. Things I never thought I would hear about my parents. I thought you two had the best marriage ever. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I’ve often dreamed of the day when I could show my future children — your future grandchildren — my room in the happy house that I grew up in. All of that just went up in smoke. Now, my children will be denied the opportunity to visit their grandparents in that house! Instead, what will it be? Perhaps it will be Thanksgiving with you and Christmas with Dad in your respective apartments. My God, woman, who are you, and what have you done with my mom?”
“It’s not like that, Randy. We may have drifted apart for a while, but our marriage is still strong. Never fear, we will be right there in our house for you, Marie, and our grandchildren.”
“Mom! Are you listening? Dad is going to file for a divorce when he gets home. He made that very plain. Your marriage is over!”
“You must have misunderstood him, son. We have a good life together. There won’t be any divorce. What will happen next? You will get a phone call from your dad apologizing for flying off the handle and upsetting you. It will be alright, Randy.”
“Mom, I wish you were right, but I think not. What do you expect when you leave your husband bleeding and go away to play piano for a pile of horseshit? I think what will happen next is that Dad will leave you. After that, you will be served with divorce papers. In a few months, it will become final. Then, life as we knew it disappears. That’s what I think after talking to Dad.”
“Son, why would he want a divorce? I’m lost here, Randy! Please fill me in on all of this.”
“Let me try to answer your question as to why Dad would want a divorce. I don’t remember all of the things that he mentioned, but I’ll give you the ones that have stuck in my memory. Please just let me finish before you attempt a rebuttal.
“Dad mentioned that the host of a show where the three of you were appearing together introduced you two as Mr. and Mrs. Nestle. Then he introduced Dad as your friend. You heard it and your dick-wad heard it. Neither of you bothered to set the record straight!
“Also, on the way to your present gig, when Numskull was driving, you sat in the passenger seat next to him. When it was Dad’s turn to drive, you sat in the back with your piece of trash.”
“Also, you and Pukeface often perform at the various Oklahoma state parks. When you stay there, you get a single cabin and register as husband and wife. Do you even comprehend how Dad interprets that?
“You also played a venue in Lincoln several times. You stayed at the Embassy Suites and registered as husband and wife. Dad assumes, and so do I, that you act like a husband in wife in more ways than just registering as such!
“Once while you were traveling, you developed a female condition that required immediate attention. Your dummy went in with you when you saw the doctor, who referred to the asshole as your husband. You didn’t enlighten that doctor.
“You didn’t change your schedule to allow being with your husband on the day of your anniversary. For the first time in your marriage, you spent that special day apart. Dad was at home and you were on the road with your moron.
“Then there’s the whole thing about your birthday and Dad’s birthday. Quite a difference in how they were spent
“There’s more, but I think you get the picture. Dad says he won’t take any more. He’s throwing in the towel.”
To her credit, Ann didn’t make any attempt to interrupt until hearing the remark about “throwing in the towel.” At that point, she asked where Rollie got his information. She said that aside from that show host that introduced Rollie as a “friend” and that thing about navigating in the car, she wondered how Rollie could have learned about all that other stuff. She asked if she was being followed by a PI.
Randy informed her that Jackass himself was the source for most of that information. He had passed it along during a lunch that he scheduled with Dad to “talk about the future.”
Randy continued, “I’m guessing that you didn’t know about the lunch, so you didn’t know that your idiot hinted to Dad that you were not a faithful wife. He backed it up with those details about the cabins, the suites, and all the rest. There were quite a few other things too. I can’t recall all of them right now, but there were plenty more. Dad said that your hero displayed a haughty demeanor while he executed his ‘big reveal’ with a smarmy smirk on his face.
Ann couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. She shrieked, “I can’t believe Charlie did such a thing! I never heard about any lunch with your dad. Anyway, none of that information is what it seems.
“Yes, we have stayed in those cabins when we played the Oklahoma Parks, but we’ve never slept together. Charlie always sleeps on the couch and lets me have the bed. We register as husband and wife for obvious reasons. It is easier to do, it requires no explaining, and we get better rates. Here’s what’s important, while we might register like that, we don’t behave like a husband and wife in the cabin. It’s the same with the Embassy Suites. How we register does not reflect our behavior in the room.
“As to that visit to the doctor, I got a yeast infection and it was driving me nuts. I tried some OTC stuff but it didn’t work. I was hesitant, for obvious reasons, to put that visit on your dad’s Blue Cross card, so Charlie went with me and wrote them a check. It was an understandable mistake by the doctor and trying to correct his mistake would have been an embarrassing chore, as you can imagine.
“I regret missing the day of our anniversary, but I didn’t forget it. When I got home, your dad and I had a delayed celebration at the steak house downtown followed by a night to remember.
“As for the birthdays, yes there was a big difference; but there’s also a valid — if convoluted — explanation.”
“Let me ask you this, Mom, what did Dad do to celebrate your birthday?”
She recited how Rollie had always dreamed about appearing at the Magic Cave in a nearby city. It was the pinnacle of success for a magician. They called and offered him a prime spot in the show to be held on Saturday of the following week.
She continued, “When Rollie noticed that it was on my birthday, he turned it down. He had already made plans with me to celebrate my birthday in Branson and had bought tickets for my favorite shows. He told me that there would be other chances to appear at the Magic Cave. It was a sweet gesture on his part.”
At that point, Randy asked his mom what occurred on his dad’s birthday. She seemed reluctant to talk about it but he was insistent. She finally relented and admitted that it was quite a mess. When he asked her to describe the mess, she did.
She was in the middle of a group of appearances with Charlie. Preparations for the tour had consumed her and she had forgotten about Dad’s birthday. She was reminded about it when she looked at her phone calendar on Tuesday morning. His birthday was the next day!
Their Wednesday performance was in a town nearly 150 miles from home. She called Rollie and encouraged him to make the drive by promising him a memorable birthday celebration in her room after the show. It would be a birthday to remember! He accepted her invitation.
Meanwhile, Charlie barely made it through their performance on Tuesday evening. He was coming down with something. He was coughing quite a bit and said he was having trouble breathing. He self-medicated and went to bed early.
Come Wednesday morning, his condition was no better, so she took him to the closest ER. The doctors needed to make sure that he was not suffering from a dangerous virus that was going around. They took a nasal sample and sent it to the lab. In the meantime, they put him in a room and started giving him oxygen. He slept most of the time.
The lab was very busy so it was late in the afternoon when the results came in. It was not the dreaded virus so they started him on an intravenous antibiotic as a precaution and elected to keep him in the hospital for the night.
It was only when she was calling to cancel that night’s show that she remembered her birthday promise to Rollie. She called to tell him that the show was canceled because Charlie was in the hospital. It turned out that Rollie was already in the town where they were supposed to perform.
Upon hearing that Charlie was staying the night in the hospital, Rollie asked how serious his condition was. She said the overnight stay was just a precaution.
Upon hearing that, Rollie proposed that he could drive to her hotel and let her keep her birthday promise of a memorable night in her room.
At that point, she said that she couldn’t do something like that with Charlie sick in a hospital bed. She said that she planned to spend the night in his hospital room. There was a recliner there so she could catch some winks while being near in case he needed her.
She said that it was at that point that Rollie just dropped the connection. It was only then that, knowing he was upset, she realized it was not a very wifely thing to do. He had already driven nearly 150 miles and she hadn’t even wished him a happy birthday. She tried reaching out to him, but all her calls went to voicemail.
She said, “Son, I told you it was a mess and I regret how it went down. All of these things might seem bad, but they don’t rise to the level of being grounds for a divorce.”
He told his mom that even if every word she said was true, she needed to see things from Dad’s standpoint. “Do you expect him to believe that you stayed many times in the same cabin or the same hotel room as your man-slut, but nothing of a sexual nature happened? What are you two? A priest and a nun? Whoops, maybe the priest reference wasn’t a good one. Anyway, unless you two are nominees for sainthood, your story doesn’t add up. You are human and so is Lamebrain. The way that humans avoid sinning is by avoiding situations that lead to immoral misdeeds. You have certainly not done that.
“Getting back to Tinyprick, I take it that the dimwit survived his brush with death, thanks to your attentive nursing.”
She said, “It was almost miraculous! When he woke up the next morning, he was as good as new. We were able to do the rest of the tour with no problems!”
Then Randy told his mom how Dad had handled something similar to what she and Blockhead faced when they masqueraded as husband and wife. He said, “Dad’s agent, as well as many other magicians, kept telling him that he needed to hire an assistant. They knew that a magician without an assistant was limited to tricks and illusions that could be done solo. Hiring an assistant would give him a chance to add lots of new tricks and illusions to his repertoire, which would lead to more bookings, which would equate to more money.”
He elaborated, “As everyone knows, magician assistants are usually beautiful young women. Dad refused to hire one because just the appearance of traveling around the country with such an assistant might prove to be detrimental to his marriage. Can you believe that? He sacrificed a career improvement just for the sake of appearances. You and Donkeyshit, on the other hand, broke every rule with reckless abandon.”
“Son, all of this looks bad, but don’t worry. Your dad and I will get past this. I’ll talk to him and explain everything. He will understand. You’ll see!”
With that, she knew she needed to jump into action before Rollie did something stupid. She found Charlie and explained everything to him. She said she was going to rent a car and drive home to save her marriage.
He placed a drink in her hand and told her that she needed to give Rollie a little time to cool off. He said, “We have just over a week left on this tour. Nothing will happen in that length of time and Rollie will have had time to think things out. When we get home, we will both sit him down and explain away his doubts one by one. To her worried mind, that was a lifeboat worth clinging to. She agreed and a few hours later they were back on the road.
Yes, she stayed with Charlie. They finished the tour, thus delaying her confrontation with her husband.
When the tour was over and they arrived at her house, Charlie volunteered to come in with her to talk to Rollie. She said it would probably be better if she went in alone. She entered the house and found everything different!
Rollie’s den was empty. All of his magic equipment was gone. In the living room, some pictures were missing from the walls and Rollie’s chair was gone. As she went from room to room, she saw more of the same. In the master bedroom closet, all of her husband’s clothes were gone. In the bathroom, only her toiletries remained. When she analyzed it, everything that would serve to remind her of her husband was gone. She staggered to the couch and placed her hands on her head.
There was a knock on the door. She knew that knock! Rollie was back! She ran to the door, but it wasn’t Rollie standing there. It was a guy that she didn’t know. He handed her an envelope and then she heard the words that she had never, in her wildest dreams, expected to ever hear: “Ann Wilson, you have been served!”
CH 05
The days passed in a blur. She found herself sitting at a table in a room filled with bookshelves. There were four other people there. One was Rollie’s attorney, one was her attorney, and one was a secretary. The other one was the only person that mattered, her husband.
Rollie was sitting there with a solemn look on his face. His attorney turned to Ann and said, “Per your request, we are here to let you converse with your husband. This is purely a courtesy that I advised against. It was my client that acquiesced. I must warn you that my secretary will be recording our words today. The floor is yours, Ann.”
She turned to her husband saying, “Rollie, I don’t want to even think about a divorce. You know in your heart that I’ve never had sex with anyone but you since the day that I became your wife. I’ve made some bad choices recently, but I was never unfaithful. Please keep that in mind. I will do anything you ask to save our marriage. Please give me a chance.” She was crying despondent tears.
“Ann, I’ve never accused you of adultery. All of the evidence says that you probably have done the things that Charlie brought to my attention, but I’ve never said that you did.”
She interrupted, “You referred to Charlie as my lover.”
He said, “I beg to differ. Others may have said that. I’ve heard our son say that, but I haven’t. I do, however, find it hard to believe that you slept in the same room with Charlie on numerous occasions without having sex with him, but whether or not you did, that’s not why I want a divorce.”
She jumped up saying, “Sure it is, Rollie! It’s most certainly why we’re here discussing a divorce. What can I do to convince you that there is no reason for us to be contemplating a divorce?
“I’ll take a lie detector test, honey. You can furnish the questions. You can choose the examiner. I will prove to you that while I slept in the same hotel room or cabin as Charlie, I didn’t commit adultery. I didn’t do anything sexual with him. I only kissed him as a part of our performances and it didn’t mean anything at all. It wasn’t a passionate kiss. It was less than nothing. I will answer every question and prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that I’ve never betrayed you.
“Rollie, can we do that and put all of this behind us? Please, honey. Please let me do that to clear the air once and for all.”
“Ann, all of that would make sense if I was divorcing you for adultery or even for infidelity. I’m not charging you with those things. To make it plainer, I’m not doing this because of what you did or didn’t do sexually with Charlie. To make it simple, I think that each partner in a marriage must put their spouse above everyone else. What does that mean? Let me tell you what I think.
“It must be spouse above mother and father, spouse above siblings, spouse above every other family member. When all is said and done, it even means spouse above offspring.
“Let’s just say spouse above every other human being on this planet. It sure as hell means spouse above friends of every kind. That includes a friend named Charlie Nestle.
“That’s where you failed. You put Charlie, a friend, above me, your spouse. You did it repeatedly. I don’t need a lie detector test to prove it. I saw it with my own two eyes and heard it with my own two ears.”
“Rollie, I do put you above everyone else. I do! You are the most important person in my whole world.”
“Ann, just saying it doesn’t make it so. It’s not just the big things, but hundreds of little things too.
“I’m not going to dig up things from our past. Instead, I’ll mention things that happened recently. Things you should remember:
“Was I first when you let that show host introduce you as Mrs. Nestle? Did you jump up and set him straight? No!
“Was I first when you sat in the passenger seat and ‘navigated’ when Charlie was driving, but you forgot about ‘navigating’ and sat in the backseat with him when I was driving?
“Was I first when you checked into cabins and hotels as Mrs. Nestle?
“Was I first when you missed the day of our anniversary for the first time in our married life so you could perform with Charlie in a woebegone location with less than a dozen people in attendance?
“Was I first when you missed my birthday? I even offered to drive to your hotel, but you said you needed to be in Charlie’s hospital room all night. There was no shortage of nurses, as I recall. It was just that you wanted to be with him, not me!
“Was I first when you left me to handle a bleeding nose while you enjoyed breakfasting with Charlie?
“Finally, when you knew, because our son told you, that I was going home with divorce on my mind, what did you do? Did you break speed records to find me and change my mind? Did you race home to fight for our marriage? No! What you did was finish the tour with Charlie! Who did you put first? It sure as hell wasn’t me! It appears that even our marriage was second to Charlie. Need I say more?
“I could give you many more examples, but why waste my voice? I know and you know who was and is your number-one choice. We both know who topped me in every case. It was Charlie Nestle, that’s who.
“I hereby remove myself as an impediment to your heartfelt desire. I accept my number two status and bow out of your life. I wish the two of you the best.
“Starting today, my quest is to find someone that will never put me second.”
She moaned, “Oh, Rollie, I did some things that appeared to put you second, but I can assure you that you were always my number one. I never once said that you were number two. I know that you always put me first and I want to assure you that I put you first too. Please accept my words and drop this foolish divorce stuff.
“There’s another thing that you need to consider. Remember when we were both working? We both missed some special days because of work-related issues.
“I remember several times when you were on the offshore oil rig and missed an occasion. It happened to me a few times when I was attending a training course or participating in a convention. What I’m stressing here is that quite a few times, work came first. Out of necessity, we put work first.
“The reason I am mentioning these things has to do with something my attorney had me do a few days ago. He had me talk to a psychologist about our situation. After much probing and analyzing, the conclusion was that I saw my relationship with Charlie in a boss-to-employee light.
“Since Charlie was my boss, and since work had always been my first consideration, I continued to do that. I was putting work first, not Charlie. It just so happened that in our particular situation, Charlie represented work since he was paying me to be his accompanist.
“I hope you can see the reasoning here and realize that I didn’t put Charlie above you, I put work in that position just like both of us had in the past. It just so happened that I recognized Charlie as my boss. In my mind, he was my boss, not my lover or even my friend. I hope this insight will resonate with you, Rollie.”
“I see where you’re going with your analogy, but let me ask you a couple of questions. When you were working before retirement, was your boss ever introduced as your husband? If that had happened, would your boss have let it go or would he have corrected that misassumption at once? Also, how many times did you and your boss register as husband and wife and occupy the same room in a hotel or perhaps a cabin? I think when you answer these questions, you will see your analogy fall apart.
“Ann, as usual, your words are impressive, but where is the truth? It’s the truth that we need to identify above all else. Do you happen to know the truth that is above all other truths? Let me enlighten you. It goes like this, ‘ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!’
“Ponder that pinnacle of truth as you watch your husband and your marriage disappear into the darkness that is known as ‘The Realm of Second Best.’ Always remember, it was you that put both me and your marriage there! Not with words, but with actions.”
The End