Chapter 9
Leonard Melton had once confided to a friend that the two days preceding the birth of his son were the longest he had ever endured. Forty-eight hours of on-again, off-again labor, frantic packing and unpacking and harried, late-night calls to the obstetrician until finally Anna bore them their son.
But those days spun by dizzily compared to the two Leonard spent before Friday night.
Almost exactly forty-eight hours had somehow slipped by since Anna returned from her rendezvous with Jake Ralston, and now, as Leonard sat alone in his office at the trucking company, a half-hour past closing time, he was as far as ever from knowing what to do....
He had not looked up that evening as his wife turned the key in the lock and entered the living room. Richie was playing in nis playpen and the television rolled in muted silence, the volume nearly switched off.
"Leonard ... I'm back." Her voice sounded strangely calm and undisturbed to his ears. He had expected-hoped for?-anguish and remorse at least. But Anna was not upset at all!
"Is that all you can say?" he asked finally, his voice quiet and faltering.
"What do you want me to say, Leonard?" she asked irritably. "Would you like it better if I threw myself at your feet and asked for forgiveness? If I cried and sobbed and said I'd never get over this as long as I lived? Well, I did feel like that for awhile ... but not now."
Leonard stood up and looked at her face for the first time since she had returned; her eyes pained him greatly for they glimmered with that glazed-over look every schoolboy knows from memory ... the just-been-fucked sparkle. "So you enjoyed it, is that what you're trying to say? You went to bed with another man and I'm supposed to congratulate you, right?"
"I didn't hear you pleading for forgiveness after you screwed Connie Ralston. Remember, you got us into this mess, not me! If you'd spent more time in bed with your own wife, maybe it wouldn't have been necessary for me to ... to...."
"To fuck Jake Ralston, why don't you say it?"
"Oh, all right, to fuck Jake! It's okay when you do it, isn't it? But when I do it, it's a capital crime!"
"Damn it, Anna, it's not the same, you know that!"
"I don't know it, Leonard. All I know is I got screwed this afternoon and ... and ... I enjoyed it! For the first time in months, I don't feel like I'm sitting on hot coals! Is that so awful!?"
Leonard's face reflected the whole range of sudden emotion, from disbelief to pain to lingering anguish; and for the first time in their years together, he struck her. Not a closed-fist punch, but an open handed slap that sent her reeling over the end of the coffee table and sprawling onto a" chair that happened to be handy.
"I-I'm sorry, Anna!" he blurted out, even before she had caught her balance.
His wife said not a word, but merely looked at him pitifully and shook her head. He slept on the sofa that night, not by any agreement, but from his own desire, and the next night as well. And the words that passed between them could have been counted on two hands.
If there was any hope left for their marriage, Leonard could not see it. Anna had not told him until this morning of the party at the Ralston's, and that was the crowning blow, the last crushing weight he could stand heaped on him now. She actually wanted to go! She knew what kind of things would go on there and she wanted to go anyway ... Anna, his Anna!
He had felt for two days like he was caught in a vise, not wanting to go to work and dreading coming home in the evening. The pressure from Jake Ralston had been worse yet. He had expected the filthiest kind of taunting and crude remarks, but Jake had obviously decided to take another, more punishing, course. He had ignored the fact of his adultery with Leonard's wife altogether. Just as if nothing had happened!
Jake strolled into the office a half-hour late that next morning and dumped some traffic reports on Leonard's desk, remarked about the need for some repairs at the number three loading ramp, and then calmly proceeded to go about his day's business.
Leonard was flabbergasted at first, but then he saw through his boss's tactics ... let me simmer in my own juices, that's it! He knows I'm not going to say anything about what happened, he just wants to watch me squirm!
So from that moment, Leonard began to fight fire with fire. Any casual observer would have noticed nothing out of the ordinary around the front office those two days-just a terminal manager doing his job and a management trainee humming through his work like any young executive in one of a hundred thousand offices anywhere.
But the pressure was on just the same.
Inside, where it hurt the most. A screaming, fists-up confrontation might have netted him a few broken bones, but it would have at least been out in the open. This was murder, like smoking cigarettes sitting on a keg of gunpowder, and today was Friday and some decision had to be made.
Jake had left just after lunch without comment, though he had heard him comment to one of the girls that he had to help with getting ready for a party.
A party, all right, Leonard thought, with my wife there for dessert!
The office was deserted now except for a cleaning woman far across in the bookkeeping section; Leonard could see her as she made her way from desk to desk, emptying the trash baskets into her larger bin with wheels. For the fifth or sixth time, he reached for the telephone, only this time he completed the call.
It was simple, he assured himself. I only have to tell Anna that we're not going to that party. Sure, she wants to go, and probably I could even go myself if I tried.
Why not? Didn't I fuck Jake's wife already? It's a small leap from screwing the boss's wife to swinging at a swap party, isn't it? But we're not going to go, and that's got to be final if Anna wants to stay Mrs. Leonard Melton. It's not even the sex any more, it's something else more important. Anna's changed now, turned into a woman I hardly recognize, but even that's not irreversible. One thing though will never change, not as long as I'm under Jake's thumb ... he could still write me up for moral turpitude, it would be his word against mine and I'm still a nobody with the company. No, I'll never agree to go as long as I'm just a glorified gofer and Jake's playing God! I'm a man, goddamnit, and I can only take so much pushing before I fight back! He might have a hundred pounds on me, but if he pushes me hard enough, one of us is going to fall! And if it's me, it might as well be right away before I've got nothing left to fight over!
An older, only slightly familiar voice answered the phone. "Uh, Anna, is that you?"
"No, this is Janet, Mr. Melton, I'm babysitting. Anna said you might call ... she said to tell you she'd meet you at the party."
"She ... she said ... what?"
"She'd meet you at the party. She said you'd know the address."
"Thanks ... I do know the address. G'bye."