On the Road Away From Her

I look up to the sky as I leave my house at 5:45 AM Friday November the 18th and don't see any stars which tells me it is very cloudy. The cloud cover must be the reason there is no frost on my truck or the blanket that covered the windshield. I begin the sixty mile drive to the construction site where I'm a journeyman electrician. Lanie, my wife of six years, won't be home until 7:30 AM from the twelve hour shift she had to work in the ER of our local hospital. I hate that she has to work alternating days and nights every other week as an RN since the new administrator at the hospital changed everything around six months ago. I'm thirty miles down the road before I realize I left my cell phone on the charger in the living room of our double wide. I proceed to work and hope that Lanie understands when I don't call her when I leave the jobsite for the day. I can't call before then knowing she'll be trying to sleep to be able to go to work that night.

The building we are constructing isn't under roof so when the rain comes at 10 AM, we all rush to the company's storage trailer to get out of the weather. The foreman checks the weather forecast on his computer about 10 till 11 and sees that the rain has settled in for the day. He gives us our paychecks and tells us to go home. I drive toward home and stop at my bank to deposit my check in our joint checking account keeping out the hundred dollars I'll need for the next week.

I see a strange car parked in the drive behind Lanie's and wonder who and why someone is at our house at that time of day. I pull into the drive that leads to the barn lot beside our double wide and cut across the open field between it and our home. I unlock the back door as quietly as I can and hear the oh-so familiar squeal that Lanie makes when she's coming. I step softly into the kitchen and look through the window in the wall that separates the dining room from it. I can see Lanie riding a chocolate colored man in the mirror of the dresser beside our queen sized bed. She calms from her orgasmic bliss and lays on the man's chest where they begin to kiss and talk to each other. I can't hear what they are saying and when they begin to untangle, I ease over to the side so I can still see them in the mirror but hopefully they won't see me. Lanie gets on all fours and the man gets behind her to take her in that position. I see it is Dr. Carter, the new ER doctor that the new administrator hired to try and get more of the black population to come to the hospital's ER.

I turn and slip out the backdoor closing it just as softly as I opened it. I don't realize that I'm crying until I reach the cab of my truck. I sit and cry for five minutes before the thought that they might finish and Lanie would see my truck came to me. I turn in the barn lot and drive away from our once happy home. As I pass my mother-in law's house a mile from the double wide, I almost lose it again. Since the death of both my parents, she has been my second mom. I will not only lose a wife, but also another parent in the divorce. I drive to the bank and withdraw five hundred dollars from each of our joint accounts. I drive to the neighborhood I grew up in and sit in my truck outside my old home place and remember how happy I had been when I introduced Elaine Granderson to my family when we became serious in our relationship. I then begin to think on what I'm going to do.

After about an hour of thinking and crying, I decide on a plan. I call my foreman and ask him to call Elaine and tell her I have to work over because the excavator had torn out the underground temporary feed to the building and the other trades would need it for Saturday. I tell him I will explain everything on Monday and he agreed to do the favor for me. I drive to the three liquor stores in our town and get as many empty boxes as they have.

I return to the double wide at 7 PM knowing Elaine is at the hospital. It takes me two and a half hours to pack all my work clothes in the boxes. I lift the hatch on the protective shell on the cargo area of my truck and load my tools into the bed up next to the cab, strapping them in so they won't slide around. I load my clothes, a couple pairs of sneakers, the extra pair of work boots, and my dress shoes into the bed of the truck. I throw in a sleeping bag and an inflatable mattress at the rear of the bed then back my truck up to the pop-up camper we had used for hunting and fishing trips. I break down and cry when I realize I've lost the best buddy I've ever had after the camper is secured to the truck. I drive away from the home I had envisioned living in for the next fifty or sixty years for the last time.

"Hello, is that you Dar? Where are you and why is the camper gone?" Elaine asks me the next morning when I call her cell phone from the pay phone of a convenience store thirty miles away.

"NO! You don't get to call me that, you black cock slut! How long have you been fucking Dr. Carter, Elaine?"

"What, what are you talking about, Dar? I'm not fucking Dr.Carter!" Elaine manages to say after her gasp from hearing my black cock slut remark.

"SO, I guess that was your evil twin I heard coming on his cock yesterday about 12:30! Or maybe you're like Sybil and have multiple personalities and one of them was fucking him in our bed! I read your little note on the table. I guess I spoiled your plan to humiliate me by having me eat his come out of your pussy before I got sloppy seconds. How many times has that happened, bitch?!"

"NO Dar! I would never have done that to you! I always cleaned myself extra well and douched before you came home!" I hear her gasp again as she realizes what she has said. "Dar, baby, I love you and only you. Please, it was only sex for God sakes! Dr. Carter doesn't mean a thing to me! Please come home and let's work this out between us! I promise it's over between him and me anyway! I won't do anything like this again, I promise! Please Dar, come home!"

"I told you not to call me that! You're right about one thing; you won't do anything like this again to me because I'm gone!" I slam the handset down onto the cradle and start walking to my truck and ignore the ringing of the phone behind me. I'm sure it's Elaine trying to call me back.

I drive to a camp ground ten miles from the jobsite and pay cash for two nights. I'm at the foreman's trailer at 7 AM Monday morning and tell Rick the whole sordid story between crying jags. Rick and I go and retrieve the tools I had left at the jobsite and I tell him to have the company mail my last check to my old home. I climb in my truck and head south toward Florida.

I stop at a camp ground in Georgia when my eyes get too heavy for me to drive any farther. I get the camper ready and fall into the sleeping bag and surprisingly fall asleep right away. I awake with the first rays of sunshine breaking over the horizon. I have to wait until 8 AM to pay for my night's stay. I'm on the road by 8:15 and drive until I reach another camp ground outside of Orlando. I pay for a week's stay and set up my camper. I don't sleep much at all that night and am out in my truck at day break. I go to nine small electrical contractors before I find one who will take me up on my proposal. I explain to all of them that I'm hiding from a cheating wife and don't want to be found. I will work for fifteen dollars an hour cash money and twenty dollars an hour for overtime. The contractor who finally agrees with the deal is still paying his cheating whore of an ex-wife alimony from his divorce and is more than happy to help me.

I work for him from December until April and decide to move on. I have ten thousand dollars in cash when I decide to leave and head farther west. I call my brother, David Glazer; collect from the camp's pay phone.

"Hello David, it's your brother, Darryl. How's everything going with you and your family?"

"Dar! Where the hell are you?! Lanie is going insane and nobody knows what happened between you two! Dar, Lanie's four months pregnant and the double wide is about to be foreclosed on. You need to come home now and straighten this mess out!"

"Where I'm at is not important! What has Elaine told everybody about me leaving?"

"She said you all had a big fight and you left with the camper to cool off. She thought you'd be back in time to go to work by Monday. She fell apart when you didn't come home that Sunday. The holidays really sucked around here with you gone and Lanie moping around crying one minute and cussing you out the next. Come home, Darryl."

"I'm not coming home to a cheating, lying whore; Dave. I caught her fucking Dr. Carter that Friday before I left. They didn't know I was there. Dave, you know I've never lied to you so you have to believe me. Elaine is on her own."

"But what about the baby, Dar? What if it's yours? You're not the kind of man to abandon your own child."

"It could also be Dr. Carter's if she's four months along. That's how long I've been gone. I'll not support her and another man's bastard kid. I only called to let you know I'm still alive."

"Darryl, I'm begging you to call Lanie! She's in trouble! Don't you care even a little about her? Please call her!"

"Okay, I'll call her. Is her cell phone number the same?"

"Yes, she's kept it hoping you'd call! Thank you, Dar, and I believe you on why you left."

I drive toward Alabama and stop at the welcome center to use the pay phone.

"Hello, you black cock whore! It's me, the poor bastard whose heart you ripped in two when you cheated on him!"

"Darryl, where have you been the last four months? Nobody knew where you were! Darryl, I miss you and I need you to come home. I'm pregnant and the bank's going to foreclose on the double wide."

"Do you miss me or the money train I was before I caught you cheating on me?! I'm not telling you where I'm at, where I've been, or anything else. Have you started divorce proceedings yet?"

"NO! I don't want a divorce! I love you and want you back! I'll do whatever you need me to do if you'll come home!"

"I want to ask you a question and I want an honest answer from you, Elaine. How many times have you gotten laid in the last four months?"

"Why do you need to know that? I told you it was over when you called that Saturday morning."

"Because I've gotten laid zero times in the last four months! The first couple of months I had to drink myself to sleep and sex didn't even enter my mind. Now whenever I get the urge, I dredge up the memory of hearing you come on another man's cock or the sight of you riding him in the mirror beside the bed and the urge goes away like a snap. Now answer me!"

"About four times, Dar!"

"I told you you can't call me that anymore! I'm not your Dar! You threw the right to call me that away when you gave another man what you promised only to me! I'll make you a deal! I'll come back to East Tennessee in five months if the baby you're carrying doesn't come out black AND if you can stay celibate for the next five months. You'll have to have someone I trust verify you've been celibate though because I can't believe a word that comes out of your mouth right now. We got a deal?"

"What about the double wide and my doctor bills? Darryl, please I need you, I miss you, and I want you. I can't help it if you don't believe me, the sex with those other men doesn't compare to the sex I had with you. Please come home now!"

"I'm not coming home now! You heard my deal! Take it or leave it! I'll call you again in five months! GOODBYE!" I again slam the hand set down on the cradle and stumble to my truck with fresh tears in my eyes.

I sit in the cab of my truck in a daze until the heat becomes unbearable. I grab a cold bottle of water out of the cooler I had bought to store food but mostly beer in four months back. I didn't lie about the drinking myself to sleep in the early months and the owner of the company I was working for had to threaten to let me go if I didn't straighten up. I also hadn't lied about getting laid. I was still a married man and I took my vows seriously. Until we were divorced, I have vowed to myself not to be with another woman. I go over to a picnic table in the shade to think.

"Do you still love her?" I think to myself. "Yes, but she cheated on me and hurt me bad! "It was only sex!" She dared to say to me. I can't trust her ever again, I'll always be wondering what she's doing when I'm not with her, and I'll always be thinking about why she did what she did. I don't want to know though so I can't ask her. I can't have sex with her again because every time she squeals in orgasm, I'll remember hearing her do it on another man's cock. I'm not going to pay her another red cent though either. She cheated on me and I shouldn't have to pay anything to her for that. I'll not get cheated on by her and the legal system. I'll live off the grid as long as I have to before that happens."

I drive to Brownsville, Texas and find another owner who had been raped in his divorce that would give me a job under the same conditions as the ones in Florida. After a couple of months, I get tired of trying to sleep in the heat of the pop-up and find a used RV that I buy without having to do any paperwork on. The contractor I was working for used my money to buy a bigger truck with a fifth wheel attachment that would pull the RV. If I move back to Tennessee, I have to register both and then I will be found.

I call Dave from a pay phone 300 miles from the camp ground I'm staying in when Elaine's baby was due.

"Dave, it's me Darryl. How is everything with you and yours?"

"Dar, thank God you called! Elaine had her baby last week!"

"Oh yeah! How black was it when it came out?"

"How did you know it was going to be black?"

"I didn't know for sure, but the chances were fifty/fifty that it would be and since Dr. Carter fucked her last, I figured he would be the father."

"Well you were right. To be as light skinned as he was and with Elaine being white, everyone was surprised at how dark Elaine's little girl was. She gave the baby up for adoption, though. Dar, she really misses you and she's been celibate like you ask her to be. Will you come home now?"

"So she told you part of the deal I made to her. I guess the part of the deal about her baby not being black wasn't important enough to mention. I'm not coming back!"

"Will you at least call her and tell her yourself? I don't know what you're thinking, but you need to start thinking about the future. Elaine lost the double wide, lost her job, and is living with her mom. If you call you'll have to call Glenda's because Elaine lost her cell phone when she couldn't pay for it."

"I'm thinking Elaine needs to divorce me so we both can move on with our lives. In three months she can file under abandonment and this nightmare will be over."

"It's not that simple, Dar. There are outstanding bills that need to be paid, Elaine's care that needs to be secured, and other obligations that need to be met."

"Dr. Carter knocked her up, so let her go after him for the outstanding bills. I told you before that Elaine was on her own. My obligations to her ended when she broke our marriage vows which you were a witness to and your signature is on our marriage certificate. I'll call her, goodbye Dave."

"Hello Glenda, can I speak to Elaine?"

"Darryl, is that really you? Where are you? Elaine is such a mess. Darryl you need to come home and take care of your wife!"

"She stopped being my wife when she let another man have her body, the one she promised to me on our wedding day. I'm not telling you where I am and I'm not coming home! Can I speak to her, please?"

"Darryl, I've been waiting on your call for the last week. I had my baby and it was a little girl. I gave it up for adoption though. Darryl, please come home, I miss you! I've been celibate just like you said. You can ask momma, you know she's never lied to you."

"I'm not coming home! You forgot about the baby not being black as the other condition for me to come home. I can never trust you again, Elaine. You promised to be mine and mine alone forsaking all others and you broke that promise. I can't believe anything you say after what you did to me. I can't live with a woman wondering where she's at and what she's doing when I'm not around. You cheated once and no matter how many times you say it, I'll always wonder when you'll cheat again if I come home. In three months it'll be a year since I left and you can file for divorce using abandonment as the reason for it. I'm not going to help you get back on your feet after what you did to me. Elaine, you're on your own from now on so get the divorce and move on with your life."

"But Darryl, I don't want a divorce! I still love you and I want you back with me. I swear I'll never hurt you again. Please Darryl, give me another chance!"

"You didn't hear a word I said did you, Elaine? I can't trust you, I can't be with you, and I'll never love you the way I did before you cheated on me. Yes, I still have a tiny bit of love for you, but it's not enough for me to overlook the hurt and sorrow you brought into my heart. I'll never be with you ever again, Elaine!"

"But what about all my bills? How am I going to pay them?"

"Not my problem, Elaine! Get Dr. big black cock to pay any bills related to your having the baby since she's his! Take bankruptcy for the rest! I don't care what you do about your bills! I'll burn everything I have and kill myself before I pay anything to you or for you! You caused this mess when you took another man into our bed so you have to suffer the consequences for doing that! GOODBYE!"

I don't slam the hand set down like I had in the past after talking to Elaine. I drive back to the camp ground and begin thinking about what my next move will be. I can't leave Texas until I register my truck into my own name. When I do that, anybody looking for me will know where I am or will know what my new ride looks like. For my plan to work I have to stay off the grid and it only takes one piece of paper with my name on it for my plan to fall apart. I talk to the owner of the electrical company I'm working for about anyone he knew who might go for the proposal I've been working under but far away from where I am now yet still be in Texas. He makes a few calls and finds an owner in Lubbock that I can work for. I thank him for his trouble and drive to Lubbock.

I work for the new owner for the next three months then drive 300 miles back into Texas to call home. I call Dave first.

"Hello Dave, are you ever going to tell me how you and yours are doing?"

"We're doing fine, Dar. It's Elaine who's having trouble. I know you told me she was on her own, but she's really gone downhill in the last three months. She never leaves Glenda's house, she hardly ever eats, and her health is deteriorating rapidly. She did get Dr. Carter to pay the bills related to the baby, but the bank is still after her for the balance of the loan on the double wide after they sold it below what was owed."

"How much is it, Dave? I said I wasn't going to help her, but my name was on it too. You tell me how much it is and if I can I'll take care of that debt, but that's the only one I'm going to pay!"

"If it's pay within the next thirty days, it's eleven thousand dollars. How are you going to pay that?"

"You go to Western Union tomorrow and it'll be there waiting for you. You take it to the bank and pay the debt. Elaine doesn't get to touch it understand!"

"Yes Dar, I understand. Are you going to call Elaine?"

"Yes Dave, I'll call Elaine. Bye, I love you bro!"

"Hello Glenda, it's me Darryl. Can I speak to Elaine?"

"Darryl, thank God you called! You have to come home, Elaine is wasting away pining for you. Darryl, I'm afraid she's going to die, she's gone down so far. You remember how she was! 5'10", a healthy 135 pounds, full 36C breasts, flat stomach, nice ass. She's not like that now. I swear I think she's shrunk a couple of inches and if she weighs over 95 pounds, I'll kiss the pope's ass. Her breasts have shriveled up to almost nothing and her ass is gone. Darryl, if you care even a tiny bit about her, please come home!"