Be Gone By The Time I Get Back

"Jesus Christ, sir. That puts a whole new light on my wife."

"Yes, it does, Captain. Yes it does. Gives you something to think about."

"It certainly does. Well, thank you, Colonel and thank you for calling."

"You're welcome, Captain, and we think you can safely assume that your wife was drugged."

We ended the call. Holy shit. What do I do now? The answer was: Nothing. I had no idea what to do, so I did nothing.

The following week I gave up and called her parents. Her mother answered. "Hello, Mrs. Roy. This is Curt Langfield. Do you have a number where I could reach Janet? I'd like to talk to her."

"I have no intention of giving you her number, and she couldn't talk to you even if I did. You or those other Army people."

"Couldn't talk to me? Or them? Why?"

"She's in the hospital, thanks to you."

"Hospital? Why?"

"Why? Because of you, that's why."

"Mrs. Roy, there are some things she and I need to discuss."

"Go through her attorney." That was the end of that conversation.

She was in hospital? How long? For what? What did she mean Janet was there thanks to me? Janet's brother's number was still in my phone so I called him and asked about Janet.

"She had a nervous breakdown about a month ago. We didn't even know you were getting a divorce. After she told us she went to court for the divorce she had her first breakdown. She was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and we thought she was getting better, but we had her walking around outside and some soldier in uniform walked by and she lost it again. She slumped down on the ground and started sobbing. When we got her in bed, she curled up in a little ball and cried non-stop for hours.

"Last week we put her in a hospital that could take care of her. She seems to be getting a little better, but it's going to be a struggle." He paused. "Did you cheat on her?"

"I give you my word I didn't cheat."

"Then what happened?"

"You need to wait until she's well. Then ask her." We talked a little longer before I asked. "Do you think I could see her?"

"I don't think so, but you have to ask Mom. She's taken over and nobody does nothin' without her okay." He paused. "I will ask her for you if you want me to. You're not one of her favorite people right now."

"I know. I just talked to her."

He called the next day. "Mom says okay to the visit, but she wants to be there. I'm warning you, if you upset Janet in any way, Mom will take that little pistol she always carries and blow your brains out. She said meet her at the front door at one in the afternoon. Janet will have eaten by then." He gave me the address.

Janet's parents met me at exactly one. They both glared at me. "This could set her back, you know, and if it does, it's the last time you will ever see her. Do I make myself clear?" Her mother asked.

"Yes ma'am." I answered meekly. I watched her right hand go into her jacket pocket. I had no doubt that's where her pistol was. Janet's door was open, and her mother went in first. Janet was staring blankly at the ceiling. Her mother went to the side of her bed and with the hand not in her pocket, picked up one of Janet's. Janet continued looking at the ceiling.

"Hi, sweetie." Said her mother. "How are you today? Did you eat? Your father is here." Janet's eyes kept looking at the ceiling. "And someone else is here to see you. It's Curtis. Do you remember Curtis?"

At the mention of my name her head jerked first to the right then to the left. When she saw me, her eyes got big for just a second, then tears started and a very frail "I'm sorry" came out of her. Her parents and I talked for some time. I saw Janet's mother take her hand out of her pocket and I breathed a sigh of relief. The only words Janet spoke were "I'm sorry", but her eyes followed me everywhere I went. The nurses came in to do whatever it was nurses did and we had to leave.

"What's taking them so long?" asked her father. "It usually takes no more than five minutes." He fumed and fussed until the door opened and the nurses came out smiling. The three of us went in and her mother was first to comment. "My, don't you look nice." I looked and she had makeup on. The nurses must have done it. Like before, her eyes never left me. I looked at her and smiled. She smiled back and wiped two tears away. She didn't want her makeup to run I guess.

There came a time when nobody had anything to say, so her parents just left the room. I stood close by the side of her bed. She seemed content to just look at me.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

The same soft voice spoke. "I will be. Thank you for coming." She slowly reached for my hand and touched it. She didn't take it to hold: She just touched it, and kept touching it. After a while, I sat on the edge of her bed and took her hand and held it. She closed her eyes and, again, tears formed in their corners. She opened them, reached for a tissue, but couldn't reach it so I handed her one. I was still holding her other hand, but by then she had a death grip on it.

She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. "I'm happy to see you and glad you came, but why?"

Some of her hair had made its' way to her face so I reached and brushed it back. "I don't know why exactly."

"How long will you stay?"

"I'm not exactly sure about that either."

"Will you come back?" I looked at her and didn't say anything so she spoke. "Let me guess. You're not sure, exactly." Her voice was getting stronger.

I nodded. Then she really got talkative and curious and asked lots of questions about what I was doing. It seemed like we were alone in her room for just a couple of minutes, but when her parents came back in I looked at my watch and they had been gone over an hour.

We stayed another hour or so and left. It took some doing to pull my hand free of hers. She didn't want to let me go. Her mother took my arm as we were walking out. "I don't know why your marriage failed, but I want to thank you for coming today. She acted almost like her old self."

I said nothing until we arrived at their car. "Mr. Roy. Mrs. Roy. You have to trust me now. You had a visit from an agent of the Army CID. That means Criminal Investigation Division. They want to talk to Janet and you have to let them."

"Why?"

"I can't tell you, but it has to do with a criminal investigation in Germany."

"Did you or she do anything wrong?" Asked her mother.

"No ma'am. I give you my word, but I also give you my word that if you let her talk to them, she will feel better."

"I don't know," said her mother. "I think we need to talk to Janet about it, first."

"I promise you that at this very moment, she knows absolutely nothing about what they want to talk about. It won't be clear until they talk to her and even then she may not remember, but like I said, she will feel better."

"Goddamnit, Curtis. Why can't you tell us?"

"It isn't my place to tell you. That will have to come from Janet. It's her story to tell." They just looked at me. "Do you still have the card the agent gave you?"

"Yes."

"Call him, please. You won't regret it, but be advised that they may not allow you in when they interview her."

"You're making it difficult for us to let them talk to her."

"I understand, but I can't overemphasize the importance for her."

"Okay. We'll think about it," said her mother. "Now, are you coming back to see her?"

"Do you think my coming helped?"

"Oh my goodness. Of course it helped. I was skeptical at first."

"Okay. How about next Saturday?"

"That would be great." Said her mother. "If you get here before lunch. You can eat with her."

The whole next week, I wondered if they called the CID Agent.

Her mother called me on Friday and told me that she and Janet's father weren't going Saturday, so if I went I would be by myself. "I called last Monday and told her you might be coming to see her Saturday. She asked me to bring her a red dress she said you liked, so we took it Wednesday when we went. Don't disappoint her, Curtis, please."

"I won't. Have you called the agent, yet?"

"No, we haven't. We think we want her to be stronger first."

"Okay, but you have to understand that this is time sensitive and it should be taken care of immediately.

I arrived at eleven Saturday morning. She was sitting by the window when I went in. When she saw me the only word I could think of was "beaming". It looked like she was actually beaming.

"Hi," she said. "I've been waiting for you." I wasn't all the way in the room yet and she stopped me. "Wait. Don't come any further." She stood and was wearing the red dress we bought for her on a trip to Paris. She twirled around like a little girl showing off. "What do you think?"

"It's beautiful." I said truthfully and there was that beam again.

"Come and sit," she said. There was a small table with two chairs that weren't there the last time. She sat and I followed suit. Out of nowhere appeared a nurse with two cups of coffee. "It's decaf. Do you still drink decal?" Janet asked.

"I do, but I've begun to like a bit of Bailey's in it."

"Maybe we can have Bailey's next time." She said a bit uncertainly.

"Maybe," I said. There was silence as we both sipped our coffee. About an hour later they brought her lunch which included a Reuben sandwich for me. Reuben's were my favorite. It took a long time to eat. When we finished, I asked her when she thought she might go home.

"Soon hopefully. They say it's pretty much up to me."

"What's keeping you here?"

"Honestly? Depression mostly, and I don't know how to shake it. Couple that with a guilty conscious and it gets pretty bad sometimes."

"Does medication help?"

"Not so much." She looked out the window for several seconds then back to me and smiled. "You have no idea how nice it is to see you," she said. "I have so much to apologize for and I'm afraid that when I do, you'll go away and I'll never see you again." As soon as she opened her mouth to speak, her brother and his wife came in.

"Oh, my God, Sis. You look great. What did they do, change your medication?" She stood as he went to hug her. She hugged him back and looked over his shoulder at me.

"Well, I suppose I should be going." I said as I stood. Four people in that small room was a bit much.

She broke away from her brother, went around him and came to me. "Must you?"

"Yes. I'll see you again."

"Soon?" she asked.

I smiled. She looked like she wanted to hug me, but resisted.

I wasn't sure if I was happy about that or not. She looked great in her little red Parisian dress and it would have been nice to have felt her breasts crushed against my chest.

Her mother called the next Friday and asked if I was going back to visit the next day. "I don't know." I told her.

"Curtis, your two visits have done her more good than all the psychologists, psychiatrists, and medicines combined. Please don't leave her hung out to dry at this stage." She saw the look on my face. "I'll make you a deal. Keep seeing her until she comes home and I'll call the agent."

"It's a deal."

Her mother called me the next day. "Curtis, can you come to the house?"

"Certainly. When?"

"Now. That agent just left and Janet is breaking down and she wants to see you. We never should have listened to you."

They opened the door when they saw me coming. Janet was almost running around the room not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She saw me and ran to me. "It wasn't my fault, Curt. It wasn't my fault." She cried some more.

"What is she talking about?" asked her father.

"Let's get her settled down first," I said. I corralled her in my arms until she calmed down. She clung to me as tightly as she ever had. I patted her back and stroked her hair until she was as calm as she was going to get. I sat on the sofa and pulled her down with me. Her breathing finally got to almost normal.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She nodded.

Her mother sat on the other side of her. "All right," she said. "Tell us what happened.

It didn't take her long to make up her mind and she looked at me. "I'm going to tell them."

"That's up to you."

She stood. "Curt, would you sit over there, please?" She indicated an overstuffed chair across from the sofa. "Mom, stay where you are. Dad. Sit next to Mom." We all got where she indicated.

"Okay, here goes. Mom, Dad, Curt." She looked at each of us as she said our name. She had no idea I already knew what she was going to say and she wanted to make sure she had our undivided attention. "Curt and I divorced because I cheated on him. He didn't do anything to cause me to do it. It was all my fault and I don't offer any excuses." She looked at me. "Curt, there was a CID agent here earlier who talked to me. He wanted to talk to me about the man I cheated with. He is in jail in Germany for giving at least one other woman a date rape drug called Rohypnol and they are convinced he gave me the same drug.

"I know that doesn't exonerate me because I had no business letting him get close enough to me to give me the drug." She looked around at the three of us. "And I know I'm a disappointment to you, Mom and Dad, but that pales when I think of what I did to Curt." She came over and knelt on the floor in front of me. "I'm so sorry, Curt. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you if you let me. I pray that you do."

Her parents and I left shortly after.

The next day was Sunday, and I washed my car. I never wash my car. That's what car washes and rain are for. Thank goodness I came to my senses and didn't buy car wax.

That afternoon, Janet's father called. After the initial greetings, I asked about Janet.

"We're not sure. In one way she's pleased, but when she thinks of you, she breaks down again. She's trying to be normal and is even fixing dinner for us. She asked if it would be okay to invite you."

"I don't know if that's a good idea. In her condition, she might start thinking I want us to get back together and she could be heading for another breakdown."

"Her mother and I have discussed that and we realize the potential for danger, but we think it's worth a try." He paused. "But we need your help. Just treat her like a friend and don't give her any reason to believe you have any romantic ideas."

"That should be easy, because I don't." I told him.

"Okay, how about dinner tonight?"

"What time?"

Janet's mother opened the door and I smelled something wonderful. It was stroganoff, and Janet cooked it. I knew because she had made it before. She apparently heard my voice because she came in to say hello. She came up to me, touched my arm, and ran her hand up and down a couple of times. She used to do it when I walked in the apartment after work; It was a display of affection.

Dinner was very nice but the conversation was a bit stilted. Thank goodness for her parents because they kept it going when it dragged, and started it when needed. After dinner, the parents cleaned up while Janet and I sat on the porch. There were fireflies in Oklahoma and between watching them and listening to the horses, it was a quiet, peaceful evening.

There were two swings on the porch. I sat in one, Janet in the other. After about thirty minutes, I moved over to her swing and sat beside her. We both stared straight ahead.

"I have to tell you what happened and how I screwed up," she said.

"I'm not ready. The image is still too painful." I told her.

We sat for another hour and I stood to leave. We walked to the edge of the porch and stood on the top step. "Good night, Janet. It was a nice evening."

"Thank you. Would you consider doing it again?"

I looked at her. "I would."

She stepped closer to me. "May I hug you?" she asked.

I opened my arms and she stepped into them. We stood like that for several minutes. I could feel her breasts moving against my chest and against my wishes, my dick started to stir. It was time for me to leave.

I spent the next week in the field on a training, so had a few days for my brain to clear. I received two calls from her parents, but couldn't answer them. We came in from the field on Friday afternoon and I called them to see if anything was wrong. They just wanted to thank me for the previous Saturday. I had forgotten to say goodbye to them.

I had to do some serious thinking. I thought I might be able to think clearer if my balls weren't full, so I started looking for a piece of ass. I didn't want a long-lasting relationship, just a piece of ass. I went barhopping. The first night wasn't any good, but the second night I found someone whose goals were the same as mine: Find someone, get fucked, go home. I found her at a Country and Western Bar in Lawton. Actually, that's almost all Lawton had was Country and Western Bars.

Her name was Stephanie, but she was happy with Steph. We danced several times, had a couple of drinks, and dry fucked on the dance floor.

"Let's continue this party at my house," she said.

We were in her livingroom kissing hot and heavy when I noticed a picture of an Army First Lieutenant on the wall.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"My husband." She answered blithely.

"You're married?" I asked.

"Yeah, but he's in the field for another week. Come on, let's fuck." She said as she started taking off her shirt.

I almost got sick to my stomach and hurried out of the house.

At home I went over in my mind what had happened. She was out looking to get laid while her soldier husband was in the field. What a despicable piece of trash. Then I thought of Janet. Did she go to the club looking for someone to scratch her itch?

All of a sudden I was anxious to talk to her about it. Most men get women drunk so they can fuck them. I decided to get Janet drunk so she would tell me the truth about what happened.

I called her parents and asked if they would object to my taking Janet to dinner one night. They thought it was a great idea and I should ask her, so I did. It took her less than a second to accept, so on Friday evening I picked her up and took her to the club. Dinner was fun and we laughed a lot after we both got over our nervousness. Then we danced. All the while I was making sure her wine glass stayed filled. I knew from experience that three glasses would be all that was needed to get her drunk.

I took her home with me and poured her another glass. She looked at me. "Curtis, if you want to fuck me you don't have to get me drunk. I'm yours anytime you want me."

"I told her the truth. "I don't want to fuck you. I want you to tell me about Jameson."

She took along drink of her wine before she started talking. "I was at the club one evening having dinner and he asked if he could join me. I saw no problem with it and said yes. I would enjoy the company. He sat and we had dinner. He was a perfect gentleman and he was funny. He had a joke for everything and we laughed. It was easy to relax with him. When he didn't have me laughing, I was feeling sorry for him. His wife had recently died and he was alone." Her words started to slur so I knew the truth wasn't far behind. "He wanted to buy me a drink and maybe dance a while and I let him. The drinks were sweet and he was a very good dancer. Better than you. We danced several times and each time I could feel him pressing himself closer to me, but the drinks had gotten to me and I pressed back, but caught myself and went home. A couple of nights later it was the same thing, only that night I was with our neighbor, Lucy. She and I were having dinner at the club and he asked to join us. We both said sure, so like the other time he sat and we had a nice evening, the three of us. We drank and laughed and danced. Both Lucy and I felt comfortable with him."

She took a long sip of her wine and continued. "I was at the PX (Military Walmart) one morning and ran into him. He was in civilian clothes, so I figured it was his day off. He asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee. I told him no. Then he asked me if he could help me carry my packages upstairs to the apartment. I had some heavy bottles, so I told him, sure. Inside the apartment, he started talking and joking again. His sense of humor and personality were infectious. I laughed so hard at one of his jokes, I was in tears and almost falling down. He grabbed me and held me. Being in his arms then was not like being in his arms dancing. There was no music. Pretty soon, we opened a bottle of vodka. The next thing I remember was being splashed with water.