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No Fool Like an Old Fool

By: StangStar06



Oh Shit! I'm going to be late again. This was my thought as I rounded the last corner leading to my apartment building. It was 3:25 and my wife Helen, had told me to be home by no later than 3:00.

Her sister Tammy and her husband were joining us for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and they were bringing Helen's nearly 90 year old mother with them. Our daughter, Megan and her husband Nick were coming as well, and they were bringing my grandson Bobby too.

I had glanced at the contents of the thick manila envelope next to me. I had paid out nearly $6,000 dollars over the past month for basically nothing. Every picture, showed nothing. All of the incident reports said nothing. But my gut told me that there was something going on. Call it psychic powers, call it a male intuition call it kismet, but something about my wife and my marriage was not right.

I'm Hiram Walker, my mom named me after some old guy who had given her a job before she got married, and she'd promised to name her first son after him. I'm 54 years old but I keep my self in very good shape. I'm a doctor, with a small family private practice, but I do hours at a local hospital in town as well. 

Maybe that was part of the problem with my marriage, the number of hours that I work can't be great for my relationship, but in my business, it is very important that I be accessible to my patients. There was also the case that I love what I do, I just like helping people, and making them feel better when they're sick or injured.

My wife Helen is a different animal. We met and fell in love almost 25 years ago. I was working at the clinic that eventually became my private practice. She was a real estate agent and helped me secure the financing I needed, to buy the building that housed the clinic. She was a few years older than I was, but she was quite the stunner then.

Of course after we married, she kind of let her self go but I love her far more today than I ever could have back then. Our shared history, and all of the years we've spent together have linked me closer to her than I was to my own mother, but lately something is not right.

Why should I care you ask. Helen will be sixty in a few weeks. Her once proud breasts now sit low on her stomach where they once thrust outwards and upwards and caught the eye of every man who passed. Her ass is now wider than the seat in my Mustang which made it extremely unlikely for her to ever ride in the car with me. I guess there's the fact that like I said before, I love her. And I love her a little bit more each day. There is nothing I wouldn't do for Helen. 

It's kind of like being a pro Baseball player. You can have any glove you want. There are tons of companies offering you money to use their gloves, but you still love the glove that you've used since you first started playing the game. Every other glove you try may be newer, or have new features, but they're just no your glove. Helen was my glove.

As I drove down the ramp leading to my buildings under ground parking garage, the sound of the Mustang's potent supercharged V8 growl made me feel a little better. No matter where I was or what I was doing, that sound just resonated through my soul, reminding me of happier times.

It took me back before oil embargoes and $3:00 gas prices, back when I had no concerns and no problems.

As I got out of the car and hit the alarm button on my key fob, I saw Kelly Cullum, she was getting out of her car as well. Kelly worked in the same hospital I did as a Pharmacy technician. As a matter of fact I'd recommended her for the job and helped her out with some of her classes in college. She ran to catch up with me and I stopped and waited for her.

"Hi Hi," she smiled; it was our own inside joke. Kelly was the only person who called me Hi, her version of a nickname for Hiram.

"So, what do you think?" she asked waiting for my opinion on something.

"I'm sorry Kelly," I said. "I'm not sure what you're asking about."

"My Mustang," she said looking hurt.

"I mean it's not a Shelby GT 500, but it's the exact same color as yours," she said. "I've even got the same rims, and the same interior," she said smiling again.

"That's great Kelly," I said mustering more enthusiasm than I really felt. I wondered why Kelly at 32 was still trying to impress me, as if she was still just that 18 year old girl who'd moved into the building so many years ago.

"What's got you so down that you don't want to talk Mustangs?" she asked looking suspiciously at me. I didn't say anything I just screwed up my lips and pushed the elevator button for her floor and then mine.

"Hiram, is anything going on with you that I should know about?" she asked.

"No Kelly, everything's fine, maybe it's just old age catching up to me," I said.

Kelly started laughing, as I said it.

"You're not old yet," she said. "In fact you're just about perfect. If there's anything you need, or if you just need someone to talk to, I'm always here for you," she said as she got off of the elevator and left me alone with my thoughts.

Our apartment occupied the entire south side of the building on the top floor. Since it had originally been more than one apartment, that we had combined, we have more than one entrance. I really didn't want to go in the front way and face Helen and the family and lots of questions about where I'd been and why I was late.

I figured I'd sneak in the back way, near the kitchen, and ease into the celebration. I really thought that Helen and everyone else would already be seated at the table eating. But I guess all of our years together had taught Helen a few things about me. It turns out that she had told me to be home an hour before she told everyone else. So even though I was a half hour late, I was actually early. I eased the door open, I wasn't trying to spy on anyone, I swear I was just trying to sneak into my own home, when I saw them.

My brother Ted came walking into my kitchen like he owned it. He grabbed a handful of Helen's ass, like he owned it as well. Helen had turned around like a scalded cat, ready to slap him until she saw who it was. Then she turned back to whatever she was doing. Ted wrapped his arms around her caressing her breasts and pushing his crotch into her ass, and I watched as my wife leaned back against him. I took out my iPhone and recorded a few seconds of video, and snapped off a few pictures, then turned and went back the other way. I went in the front door and after saying hello, to all of our gathered friends and family, went into my study, to think.

My name is Helen Walker, I made a terrible mistake, it cost me my happiness, my marriage, and the love of a man that would have loved me forever.

A few months ago, we were having a family get together, and my sister's husband Ted, who is a really nice guy, was working with me in the kitchen. My husband Hiram, whom I love completely, was outside manning the grill on our balcony. My sister, Tammy was lying down on the bed in our guest room because she had a headache. Tammy always seems to have a headache. I think a lot of them are because she's lazy and just doesn't want to do any work.

As Ted and I chopped the onions and made the sauce, we were in very close quarters and his hand accidentally rubbed across my ass as he reached for a bowl.

It had been a long time since anyone had even thought about copping a feel on me, but in my younger days I had to really struggle to keep guys away from me.

"Sorry," Ted had said. "That was an accident."

"Too bad," I replied.

Ted and I had looked at each other, and time just stood still. He tentatively reached for me and pulled me to him, and we kissed. It was different from the way that Hiram kissed me. It wasn't better, or worse it was just different. In some ways I preferred the way that my husband kissed me. But for the past few years, Hiram's kisses were very perfunctory, just business as usual. 

I remember when Hiram's passion could set me afire. Ted on the other hand, gave me the impression of desperate need with his kisses. It was as if he needed me so badly that he couldn't live without me, and I loved feeling that.

He grabbed handfuls of my big, nearly 60 year old ass and made me feel like a tight bodied thirty-year old again, and I loved feeling that as well.

"Wait," he said, "We shouldn't do this."

As I regained my breath I nodded in agreement. After all, his wife was my sister. And I was glad that he'd had enough sense to stop, because I wasn't sure that I would have.

I guess that at this point in my life I needed something. I could feel my youth and vitality ebbing away from me and maybe I was just looking for one more chance to feel like a young care free woman before I truly became the old woman that people saw when they looked at me. 

Hiram did all of that running and working out, so he wasn't getting old as fast as I was, and he's also 8 years younger than I am. He could easily pass for forty, and society views aging men and women differently. An older man is distinguished, or experienced, but an older woman is just old. 

You see lots of couples where an older guy ends up with some hot younger chick, but very few where an old bag nets some young stud muffin.

So maybe I just wanted an innocent fling before I was relegated to granny status for the rest of my life. At any rate Ted wasn't going to be it, because he steadfastly refused to do anything other than the occasional kiss or feel. He was definitely a chubby chaser, so my curves didn't turn him off at all. But as I said other than the occasional secretive kiss or game of grab ass at a stolen moment during a family outing, nothing ever happened between us. 

By the time that Thanksgiving rolled around I had completely forgotten about my, in my eyes, innocent habit with Ted when he came into the kitchen and grabbed my ass, it came as a big surprise to me. I reacted to his initial touch by whipping my head around to see who it was, and then when I realized it was Ted, I just relaxed and let him, after all it wasn't as if anything serious would happen. Besides Hiram wasn't home yet anyway, and it was very unlikely that any of my lazy assed relatives would offer to do anything other than eat and then leave.

After Ted left the kitchen I heard the front door open and close, and knew that it was Hiram, almost an hour late as I expected. But in reality he was just a little early. All the years of living with and loving that man had made him predictable. I knew he would say hello to everyone, and then make a beeline for the kitchen, to apologize to me for being late. The thing about it is that he really would be sorry about being late because he loved me so much, but he couldn't control it. As much as he loved me, he loved being a doctor and taking care of his patients at least as much. So if he had to make the choice between being on time for dinner, or spending a few moments comforting someone who was about to have surgery, or had just found out that they had cancer; let's just say there had been enough overcooked roasts, over the years to let me know what to tell Hiram.

Don't misunderstand my words though, I love Hiram, from the bottom of my soul, and intend to spend the rest of my life with him, but lately I had begun to need just a little something to make me feel alive.

My Spider sense was tingling though when after a few moments Hiram hadn't appeared in my kitchen. I went out into the living room to see what was keeping him, and found the teeming masses of my family all huddled about the 50 inch plasma yearning for HD. They were watching the same dumb assed holiday special we always watched, but they were oohing and aahing like the show was different because it was high def.

I looked around and didn't see my husband, but I was sure he'd been here. Ted pointed at the study, and I nodded my thanks, as he re-immersed his consciousness in the wonder of the big screen. 

I gently knocked and heard Hiram tell me to come in. From the sound of his voice I could tell something was wrong. He wiped his face before he swiveled his chair around to face me but he wasn't quick enough. It really looked as if he had been crying.

"Hiram, What's wrong?" I asked, I was really worried now because in all the years we'd been together, I had never seen Hiram lose it. Not for any reason, he was always the strong one who comforted others including me through tragedy, and helped us see that the pain was temporary, and that things would be better.

"It's nothing," he said, trying to sound cheerful, and failing miserably. "I think I lost one today, that's all."

"What do you mean, you think you lost one?" I asked. It didn't make sense, either someone had died or they hadn't. Something was funny here. Hiram was always the most honest person I knew, but it felt like he was trying to hide something from 

me, his wife.

"Who do you think you lost?" I asked taking his hands in mine. Hiram was trembling, I really got the impression that this was something far more personal than he was letting on but I didn't push, Hiram would tell me when he was ready.

"I think I lost Helen," he said, "She wasn't gone when I left the hospital. I guess even then it may have been over. But I'm pretty sure, there's no chance of saving it now, after what I've seen."

He wasn't making any kind of sense. Obviously one of his patients, some woman named Helen. she must've had some terrible disease, and was teetering on the brink of death. Hiram got so involved with these people's lives that it was always a tragedy to him personally when one of them didn't make it. He'd probably seen her test results just before leaving the hospital and knew that she wasn't going to last very much longer. In his mind he should probably still be at the hospital, staying with her so she didn't pass alone, but out of his desire to please me, he had come home. If I hadn't known before this that Hiram loved me, I was sure now. The man sat here wracked with grief, but he had put my wishes before even his patients. That made me feel even worse about what I'd been doing. I was going to have to break it off before he found out. This was like a bad omen or a warning, the woman he lost was named Helen just like me. Of course later I found out that there was no patient named Helen, he was warning me all along. 

Hiram

I heard Helen calling me to come to the table and I slowly got up. Although I felt terrible, I had to keep up appearances. There was no reason to let my problems ruin everyone else's holiday. That would be extremely selfish. So I walked to the door, and turned the knob. Every step I took made me appear more composed. I walked into the bathroom to wash my hands, and as I looked into the mirror, I made my face look as if everything was normal. Maybe I looked a little bit tired, but that was easily explained.

As I sat down at the table I forced myself to smile and I looked around the room. There they were, the family. Only one of these freeloaders was actually related to me, they were all Helen's family. Her mother who, was a good woman though at her age wouldn't last very much longer. Helen's sister Tammy, was really a nice woman, but in the back of my mind, I wondered. Didn't she have the right to know what was going on? If I didn't say something, didn't that make me complicit in our spouse's deception? 

Our daughter, Megan, maybe it was my fault, all the years I'd spent over-working, that we weren't closer. Maybe that was why I'd felt more like Kelly was my daughter than Megan was.

Megan's husband Nick, was a likeable fellow, if only he could get a fucking job, any kind of job would be better than just sitting at home wearing out the god damned couch. He couldn't even take care of the baby while Megan worked. I had to pay for day care because with only Megan paying all of their bills they simply couldn't afford it.

My Grandson Bobby, Robert Hiram Marks, named for Nick's father and me. I guess they didn't want to alienate either of their possible sources of additional revenue. I wasn't even pissed that I got second billing but had the lion's share of the bills.

I looked down and noticed that I was gripping the edge of the table so hard it was causing it to shake. I also rarely used profanity even in my own thoughts. I had to hold it together for only a few hours, but it was going to be tougher than I thought. I relaxed my hands and looked up to see Helen staring at me. Maybe she sensed my anger, and maybe she was just wondering what the hell was wrong with me. She was probably wondering whether or not I knew. 

No she wasn't, Helen was firmly convinced of her superiority over the rest of the human race. In her mind she was smarter, faster and more beautiful than any other creature God had made. no one could ever figure out what she was doing. She was way too much smarter than the average bear. Well fuck you, bitch. I know and I'm not going to let you get away with it. As soon as we get rid of these fucking freeloaders, you and I will have a talk. And it will determine our future.

I looked at Ted, my brother. We weren't close but I'd always thought that we respected each other. I guess I was as fucking wrong about that as I'd been about everything else. He was a smug bastard, from the supercilious smile on his face, to the way he gently reached out and took Tammy's hand, no one would ever have suspected that this asshole was fucking my wife. I had to keep it together. 

My rage was building and people around the table with the exception of my mother, who was so zonked out on her cocktail of medications, that she could barely function, and the baby, had probably noticed it.Maybe that was why they were having trouble meeting my eyes.

Then I looked at the very worst of them. Helen my supposed soul mate. My wife of all these many years. I remember back when we'd met, all of my friends had been against me dating her let alone marrying her. They were all sure that she was too old for me. They were also sure that it was more a marriage of finances than anything else. After all the real estate market had been drying up in our area, and they assured me that she just wanted to get her hooks into some of that "I'm married to a doctor ," money and lifestyle.

The fact that Helen decided to retire within weeks of our engagement did nothing to dissuade them of the validity of their theories either.

Helen nervously smiled at me and tried to break up some of the obvious tension in the room. I tried to recompose my face and smile as she began talking.

"I think my husband is too worried about one of his patients to truly fulfill his duties as host right now," began Helen, "So Ted why don't you say Grace."

The bitch didn't know it but that was literally the straw that broke the camel's back. So that was her theory, I was too busy working my ass off to support her and her fucking freeloading relatives, to fulfill my duties, both as a host and secretly as a husband. So she just got old Ted to fill in for me. As a host and as a husband.

Before Helen start flapping her mouth, I was upset, maybe a little bit out of control, but not unexplainable. But her subtle, to those who didn't know what was going on speech, had set the end in motion.

Ted stood up and tapped his fucking fork against one of those fucking crystal glasses that I had paid an arm and a leg for. then he smiled and looked around the table. I simply couldn't believe the nerve of this bastard. did he think he was on fucking TV?

He had probably already known that Helen was going to ask him to say the grace this year. It was probably going to be the last year that I was here anyway. She probably wanted to get a divorce so she could be with Ted. What about your own fucking sister you duplicitous cunt?

Ted talked about Being thankful for the whole family being together again, and how it didn't happen often enough. Then he segued into families sharing what they had in order to move society forward. I could certainly understand him talking about that. After all he was sharing my fucking wife, wasn't he?


No Fool Like an Old Fool



I just sat there lost in my thoughts until I realized that everyone was eating and passing things around the table. I also realized suddenly that someone was talking to me.

"Hiram, do you want me to carve the turkey?" asked Ted for probably the third 

time.

"You'd probably like that wouldn't you," I spat.

"Well, yeah, brother," smiled Ted, "Maybe I'm alone but I can't wait to dig into that."

For a man my age lifting a 45 pound turkey, still isn't much of a challenge if you're in as good shape physically, as I am. But throwing one the length of an extra long dining room table and into the smug face of your tormenter is. Ted's smile vanished as the turkey, dressing and all careened into his face.

Since he was already leaning back in his chair at the time, the weight of the turkey coupled with it's velocity was enough to overbalance him and send him crashing backwards into the floor. I got up and quickly grabbed the mashed potatoes, and dumped the entire bowl on Ted's face. Then I followed up by pouring the gravy bowl on top.

"Is that enough, Ted? Dig in," I screamed. I snatched the candied yams in lemon sauce, right out of Helen's surprised hands. "Thanks bitch," I snapped. then I dumped them onto a sputtering Ted. "Your Diet needs Balance asshole," I snapped. "Here's some green beans."

As everyone at the table, too shocked to react, looked on in horror, I slammed the bowl of beans into the side of Ted's head, luckily the bowl was so ungainly that it slipped at the last second preventing me from doing him any serious damage.

"Hiram, what the hell is wrong with you?" screamed Tammy.

She finally regained enough of her composure, to rush over and plant herself between me and her husband, to prevent me from doing anything else to him.

I didn't answer her, I just took out my iPhone and walked over to the big screen TV they'd all just been watching. I connected it to the TV and played the video I'd shot not too long ago.

There on the screen everyone watched as Ted grabbed Helen from behind and 

squeezed both of her breasts as she turned her head to kiss him. With the exception again of my mother, who continued to eat, oblivious to what was going on; everyone looked at Ted and then at Helen.

"No Hiram, it's not what you think," said Helen.

"Then what is it?" asked Tammy, her voice choked with anger. Neither Helen or Ted seemed to have anything to say.

"Nothing to say huh Helen?" I snapped, "I'm going out for a while, when I get back, you and Ted need to have a story to tell me."

"Where are you going?" she asked with tears in her eyes.

"To find myself a good divorce lawyer," I snapped. I don't know why I said that, maybe I was just trying to hurt her the way she'd hurt me. At that point, I just really needed to know why she was doing this. In my mind it had to be because I wasn't doing something, or maybe I was doing something that she couldn't stand. I just wanted to know what I had to do to save my marriage.

I stormed out of the apartment with Helen following me down the hall screaming and crying. Knowing that she couldn't go down the stairs quickly enough to keep up with me, I took the stairs instead of the elevator.

When I got to the third floor, there was a group of kids blocking the stairs.

"Can I pass boys?" I asked them angrily. I recognized several of them. They had all grown up in the building, and I had taken care of them when they were sick. A couple of them were still my patients. Most of them moved out of the way easily and one or two even greeted me. But there were a couple, including Thom Finn, and Henry Bennet, that looked at me with a mixture of menace and mirth. It was as if they were angry at me and laughing at me at the same time. They were slower to get out of my way as well. I wondered what was wrong with them, but the early twenties years are full of problems, so I just put them in the back of my mind as I descended the four remaining floors. Three more floors put me at ground level, and the last put me in the garage.

The design engineers at Ford must have worked with a team of psychologists. There was no other explanation for the way I smiled every time I saw that car. Just as I reached it, fully intent on just driving until I felt better, a hand on my shoulder scared the shit out of me; nearly literally.

"It's Thanksgiving, where are you going?" laughed Kelly.

"Nowhere, just out for a drive," I said, trying to keep the tone of my voice free of anger.

"Which is it," she asked," Nowhere, or out for a drive. You can't be going no-where; because then you'd be staying here. If you're going out for a drive, then you're going somewhere even if you don't know where that is."

"Kelly, please, I'm not in the mood for riddles right now," I said.

She looked up at me, and after a few seconds took my keys from my outstretched hand. She opened up the driver's side door and got in. Then she closed the door, and put my keys in the ignition. She lowered the window as she looked at me and asked me, "Are you coming or not?" 

"Shouldn't you be going somewhere for Thanksgiving yourself?" I asked. "Like visiting family, or some young man?"

"Hiram you're a part of my family," she said meaning it. "The rest of my family gets on my nerves, they're mostly freeloaders. So I just usually hang out at home and do things that my job doesn't often leave me time for."

We drove for a few minutes in silence, as we slowly meandered down residential streets. Kelly was a great driver; she stopped at every sign and light. She was also able to handle the car's stiff clutch and rapid acceleration nearly as well as I could, and I'd been driving it for a couple of years. Once we got on the freeway it was another story. I felt the seat cushions pushing me forward at a rate I'd never felt when I drove it. Kelly's face was a mask of elation. The smile plastered across her lips as she went through the gears would have been worth the speeding ticket or trip to jail, if there'd been any cops around. Hearing the Mustang's growl augmented by whine of the supercharger was a new thrill for me as well. I had never driven the car this fast.

"I have got to get me one of these," shrieked Kelly. "What movie was that line from," she asked without taking her eyes off the road.

"I don't know," I said flatly. I was suffering from two problems at the same time. First I'd just discovered that my wife was cheating on me, with my brother. And second, I was wondering how the hell I was supposed to hold onto my 

man card, if I told a girl young enough to be my daughter that she was driving so fast it scared me. I looked over at the speedometer without trying to be obvious about it. Kelly was doing 130 miles per hour and heading upwards. I looked at the Tachometer and it was nowhere near the red zone. Shit, how fast could this damned car go? Even worse, the boost gage was barely registering anything, so we could go a lot fucking faster.

"It was what Will Smith said in Independence day, when he first got to drive that alien spaceship. You took me to that movie while I was in college," she said smiling.

Between shifts, Kelly's left hand reached over and patted mine gently. The fact that she was so calm relaxed me as well. I realized that if she killed us, if we just smashed into something and died now, at least I wouldn't have to go back and face Helen. 

Just as I had my great revelation, Kelly downshifted and slowed down just in time to take the turnoff onto another section of the freeway. She kept her speed down to a positively pedestrian 80 mph and looked over at me.

"What did she do?" she asked without looking at me. The tone of her question left me wondering how the hell she knew, but she obviously knew that there was something going one with Helen and myself.

"What did who do?" I replied.

"Helen, your supposed wife, Hiram," she said to me seriously.

"In order to get you this upset, it has to be something about Helen. You may as well tell me, because you obviously need to get it off your chest. I'm also not going to slow down or take us back until you feel better, so spill it." She said.

"I'm not sure I feel comfortable talking about this with you, Kelly. You're like my daughter." I said.

"Now we're getting somewhere," she said. "That tells me two things. First that it's obviously about sex. And second that if you think of me like a daughter I'm using the wrong approach."

"Hiram, I'm thirty two years old, so even though you've known me since I was a child, I'm hardly that little girl you helped with her homework. I've been in a few relationships, and I've even done the nasty a time or two. Plus I'm a medical professional just as you are. So nothing you can say is going to shock me," she said.

"Let me guess, you've finally discovered that Helen isn't right for you. She's just too old, and she isn't interested in sex any more. I don't think she needs hormone therapy Hiram, I think she needs a rest home. Even when I was a kid I knew that the two of you would eventually need to go your separate ways." She said.

"Did I get it?" she asked. "I told you I wouldn't be shocked."

"Helen is cheating on me with my brother," I said flatly.

"Shut the fuck up," shrieked Kelly turning to look at me.

"OK, I'm shocked," she said, "The nerve of that bitch! The first thing we need to do, is find a good divorce lawyer."

Kelly kept talking, making plans and spinning out options. She kept saying "we," should do this, and "we," shouldn't let her do that. It almost seemed like Kelly was happy about my marriage falling apart. I remember letting her stay with Helen and myself when her own parents broke up. Thankfully they had found a way, with time and lots of therapy to save their marriage. In their case it had been he who cheated. But I suppose it really doesn't matter which party is at fault. The biggest question is always the same, can this marriage be saved?

To be truthful, before this very moment I had never even considered a life without Helen in it. Even when I'd stormed out of the apartment, I'd known I was going back there. I just needed a chance to absorb the information. Then I firmly intended to talk about what we had to do to fix things. I knew that we'd need counseling, and I would insist on Ted never setting foot inside of my house, or us ever seeing him again. 

Would Tammy divorce the bastard? If she did, that would make things a lot easier. But being reasonable, I guessed that it would be her decision how to handle the infidelity in her marriage just as it was mine to decide what to do about Helen.

"Where are you going to stay while you sort this out?" asked Kelly, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I guess I'll probably just sleep in the guest room," I said as I started to think about it in more than just temporary terms.

"Why do you have to be the one who moves into the guest room?" asked Kelly. 

"You're not the one who's wrong here. Let her move into the God damned guest room. Are you sure you even want to stay in the same house with her? You can use my guest room if you want."

"As a matter of fact," continued Kelly, "I just don't see why you need to even 

go back to that apartment with her. There's no need for debate or negotiation here. We just need to get a lawyer and get you free of that bitch so you can move on with your life."

I nodded my head as if I agreed with Kelly, but I was really still thinking more 

along the lines of staying out long enough to calm down, and then going home to confront Helen and talk about our future, or whether or not there was one.

In terms of finding a lawyer, as I thought about it, I realized that it wouldn't be necessary. I already had a great attorney on retainer; he could probably handle my divorce, if it came to that, as easily as he handled, malpractice, billing disputes and everything else. 

I also needed to update the PI I had working on this. They obviously needed another approach. They had staked out the building waiting for Helen to leave, but it was painfully obvious that she'd been conducting her affair inside my own home. I needed to have the apartment and the building wired for surveillance. I was sure that Helen would probably not give Ted up very easily. They seemed to be really familiar with each other and that kind of comfort only came with a long time relationship. That bastard had just walked up behind her smacked her on her ass and then started squeezing her tits from behind like they belonged to him. The more I thought about it the angrier I got.

"Maybe you should have an affair too," snapped Kelly, "With someone younger and better suited to you. Then you could really show that bitch what she lost."

Helen, Tammy, and Ted were all sitting around the table, when I walked back into the apartment. Helen jumped up and ran to me as soon as I opened the door.

"Hiram, I'm so sorry," she began, "But it's really not what you think."

She had obviously been crying and she looked awful. Tammy didn't look much better. Even Ted had the look of a whipped dog about him. Of the three of them, he struck me as looking the most remorseful, which was strange.

I walked right past Helen and into the bedroom without saying a word. Helen opened the door that I'd neglected to lock and continued trying to talk to me.

"Hiram can't we please talk about this?" she asked.

"Okay Helen talk," I said as coldly as I could.

"Can we go back out to the dining room?" she asked.

I slowly followed her out to the dining room where Tammy and Ted still sat.Helen sat down noticeably distant from Tammy and Ted. Tammy was clearly not sitting very close to Ted either. I remained standing in the doorway. Helen tried to indicate that I should sit next to her by pulling out a chair near her. I shook my head and stayed on my feet.

"It would be easier for us to talk if you could sit down, Hiram," said Helen.

"I'm not sure how long you need to have your say, but I'm not planning on making this an all-nighter," I snapped. "I have patients to see in the morning, and no reason why I shouldn't."

"Hiram, Ted and I have never had sex. Not even once. Not even a blowjob. What you saw today, as bad as it was, was all there ever has been. It was just two confused people, at odds with their age and mortality, letting some innocent flirting get out of hand." She said.

Ted was nodding his head up and down as fast as his neck would allow in agreement with her. 

"My hormones are all screwed up, Hiram. I'm also having to deal with the fact 

that I'm slowly, maybe not so slowly turning from that hot woman you married twenty some years ago into a frumpy old granny type." said Helen.

"From the first moment we met, you've always been the only man I love, and I want us to grow old together," she continued. "But it just sometimes seems like I'm growing old alone."

"You don't look nearly as old as I am, even though you're only a few years younger. You drive around in your Mustang, and go out for your runs, and I'm left here, alone."

"A lot of the time when we do go out together, people look at me as if I'm your mother or something, and I guess it got me a little crazy, But I swear to you that Ted and I never had sex." she said.

"I know it carried on for a while, but it was only a quick grab, or a little kiss whenever we had a family gathering, the secrecy of it, made it far more exciting than it actually was," she said trying to hold back the tears.

"Can't we work this out? It was nothing. Why would you want to throw away over twenty years for one mistake?" she asked.

"Tammy and Ted, have already decided that they're going to stay together, and they have as much to lose as we do, and they've been together a shorter period of time. If their marriage is worth trying to save, isn't ours?" she cried. "I'd do anything to make this up to you, please don't divorce me." Her voice was choked up and she wasn't even trying to hide her tears. Helen had slid out of the chair and was actually on her knees looking up at me.

"I'll think about it," I said and walked back into the bed room. A little while later I was in bed watching TV and Helen came into the room quietly. She had gotten ready for bed in one of the other bathrooms and was wearing a silk nightie that she knew was my favorite. She looked up at the TV screen and paused for a moment and then sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Helen, we're not sleeping together, and I'm already here so you can have either Megan's old room or the guest room." I snapped.

"Hiram, I don't expect us to have sex, I just thought...," she began.

"Well don't just thought...," I said, "I'm not sleeping in the same room with you period. I'm not even sure about being in the same house with you. Originally I thought that you should've left with Tammy and Ted. But I didn't want to be premature."

"I don't even know how I feel about this yet. I'm just reacting right now. When I've had time to think about this one of us may still have to leave, maybe temporarily, maybe permanently. But for now Helen, I just don't want to be around you."

Helen left the room and obviously went into the guest room right next door. 

During the night my thoughts wouldn't allow me to sleep. I'd doze off, only to wake up a short time later. Several times during the night I could hear Helen softly sobbing, but it failed to either change my mind or to make me feel any better.

The next morning I was up and out for my run long before Helen awoke. As I went back into the apartment I heard Helen stirring around. I showered and dressed as quickly as I could because I didn't want to see her. When I came out of the bathroom Helen was setting a cup of my favorite coffee and a pastry in front of my place at the table. As I headed for the door, I heard her speak.

"Don't you want to eat something, you always tell your patients to take in some 

kind of nourishment after exercising," she said quietly.

I looked at her as if she was crazy, but I tried to keep my voice controlled and failed, as I answered.

"Helen, a cup of fucking coffee and a sweet roll isn't going to make up for what you did, so just have a nice day. Don't worry about me now, the same way you haven't been worrying about me for the past few months while you've been fucking around with Ted," I said, then walked out the door.

Helen was stunned as she watched Hiram walk out the door. Just as she was yesterday when all of her work towards the family's thanksgiving celebration had been ruined, she sank down to the floor and started crying. If she had been holding out hope for a quick resolution, she realized now that the possibility of that was gone. This was going to be very bad, far worse than she'd ever anticipated. 

Hiram had to know that she loved him above all others. He was her life, more important to her than her friends, family and even their daughter. He had to know that. The flirting with Ted was nothing, it was so insignificant that she had forgotten about it. 

She had been feeling old and unattractive lately. Her fondest wish was to grow old with Hiram, but he seemed to get younger every year relative to her. When they'd first met most of her friends considered him to be a little too boring for her, but she had fallen for him immediately. He worked out regularly and even though he was only a few years younger than she was, it seemed as if the age gap was far wider than it actually was.

She'd always dreamed of them growing old together, and it just seemed as if she was growing old alone, while Hiram was getting younger. She also noticed the fact that young nurses and workers at the hospital paid quite a bit of attention to her husband. She wanted him to pay her the kind of attention that he had when they were first together. 

Until yesterday when she saw how hurt he was about Ted she hadn't realized that he still loved her as much as ever. Helen really believed that her hormone levels had something to do with her problems. Lately she craved sex more often than ever. Hiram had never failed to satisfy her and even at their ages they had a vigorous sex life but it wasn't enough. She thought now that Hiram had noticed that for the last few weeks she wasn't after him nearly as much. Perhaps that was what had made him suspicious of her and made him think that she had been fucking Ted. The real truth was that she had told the truth. She had never had sex with Ted. But she was also too tired for sex with Hiram some nights now, and other nights she didn't think t would be a good idea for him to see her naked.




No Fool Like an Old Fool



The thought of not being able to work this out, that she had destroyed her marriage was making her feel queasy. She was actually sick to her stomach, she got her nearly sixty year old body up, and started moving towards the bathroom as quickly as she could, but was too late and had to vomit in the sink instead of the toilet. 

She wiped her face off and then brushed her teeth and decided to lay down for a while until the queasy feeling went away. She had this same feeling yesterday but that was before this whole mess started, so maybe this would go away as well.

Hiram was in his office far earlier than usual. He didn't actually have many appointments scheduled for today because of the holiday but he had things to do. He called his lawyer and explained the situation with Helen and had him pull out a copy of their prenuptial agreement. In actuality the nearly twenty five year old document had originally been drawn up to protect Helen's assets. She had been the one with the big real estate dollars coming in while he was a struggling young doctor with thousands of dollars in educational loans and no place to practice.

The document stated that in the event of a divorce they each kept what was theirs and could not receive more than twenty percent of the value of the spouse's holdings. Hiram was worth about a million dollars in total so right now Helen would get no more than 200 thousand dollars, and she wouldn't be able to live on that for long. Of course Hiram had other monies squirreled away but Helen was never interested in their actual net worth, only that she could buy what she wanted. She'd be OK but if she didn't go back to work, her standard of living would be seriously curtailed. And at sixty years old who would really hire her?

Hiram's second call was to the PI firm, he needed to upgrade the level of surveillance he had on Helen. Up until now he had intended on going to counseling to try and work through the problem. He loved Helen deeply and could not see living without her. At the same time he wasn't a fool. If Helen ever contacted Ted again, Ted could have her.

He almost believed some of the things she'd been saying yesterday about her hormones being out of whack, and feeling old and unattractive. She was probably also depressed about getting older and just bored. She rarely ever left the house except to shop and have the occasional lunches with Hiram.

He'd intended to insist that she volunteer at the hospital to help with the older patients and the very young patients as well. Working with the older sick people would help her to feel more attractive and to realize that she still had a lot going for her. Working with the younger ones would give her more energy and drive. All Helen needed was something to give her life purpose and some outside contact and maybe she'd be back to being the woman that Hiram loved.

On the other hand their marriage was going to need a lot of work if it was to survive this. Right now he was leaning toward one of them moving out for a while, perhaps even a legal separation, because every time he saw her he got angrier. The anger was not going to help them resolve the situation it would probably just pull them further apart. Last night had been the first time since they were married that they had slept apart.This was probably going to get worse before it got better.

Kelly had also called Hiram to see how he was feeling and ask him to lunch. He'd told her that he really didn't feel like going out, he just wanted to work.

Michael Collins had been installing video camera's all over Hiram's building including both sets of stairs and the elevators. If the woman came out of that apartment he'd have video of it. He was hoping she would come out of the apartment to go visit someone so he could install the phone tap and video cameras inside the apartment as well. He'd installed them in her car last week and found nothing. He really believed that Hiram was just another jealous husband who was wasting his money, but he would do what he got paid for. 

He couldn't see anyone wanting that old bag, but her husband acted like she was some Brazilian super model with a gold plated pussy. He was clearly delusional. Maybe that was what love turned into when you got old.

He couldn't believe his luck when the old bag, looking even worse today came out of the apartment. She had on one of those granny muumuu dresses and floppy slippers. God he didn't want to see what was under that dress. Probably a mass of wrinkled skin and thick unsightly hair. She obviously wasn't going far so he'd have to be quick. It took him less than 15 minutes to hide and activate twenty video cameras inside the apartment and tap both the house phone and her cell phone. He was back out before she came back so he didn't need his cover story.

Helen walked slowly and carefully down the back staircase of the building. No one ever took the stairs in the building unless all three banks of elevators were down at the same time. In 15 years of living in the building it had never happened. Even then most people would elect to take the well lit front staircase instead of the darker back stairs. 

Helen slowly picked her way down the stairs, when she had gone a couple of floors the stairs were blocked by 3 young men ranging in age from 20 to 23. All of them were kids who had grown up in the building. Two of them Thom and Henry had been the one's who had unbeknownst to Helen had given her husband the evil eye the previous night. The third Aaron Moore was a friend of theirs.

Helen continued to walk down the stairs towards the landing below the boys. There was a ratty mattress and there in the corner. As she passed between the boys she heard Thom's voice.

"I smell pussy," he said then he ran his hand up her leg and under her dress.Helen walked past him as if she hadn't heard him. When she got to the last step she stepped down onto the mattress and then lay down on it, and raised up her dress, and lifted it over her head. Thom jumped down the steps and landed next to her. He lowered his pants and started running his fingers gently through her graying patch of pubic hair. Helen started to get wet almost immediately. She moaned loudly as Thom pulled out an impressive young penis and pushed it roughly into her vagina and started to quickly pump the older woman. Aaron had now joined them and stuck his smaller 

penis in Helen's mouth.

"Suck it grand ma, Suck that dick," said Aaron ramming his dick as hard as he could down Helen's throat. Her choking and gurling sounds only spurred him on.

Henry presented his dick to Helen as well she started massaging his organ with one of her free hands. For the next few minutes all of Helen's thoughts were gone replaced with the sounds of grunting young men between her legs and next to her. But fot some reason there was no joy in the coupling this time. It was as a voice in the back of her head that had long been dormant was finally awake and telling her this was wrong.

Thom turned her over and started trying to stick his dick in her ass, it hurt at first because he was never gentle and he didn't use anything to lube it up. She had let him fuck her ass before but usually he took his time working up to it. Aaron had crawled under her and inserted his member in her pussy while Thom was still trying to get his into her ass.

"Oh yeah, bitch just give it up you nasty old whore," grunted Aaron. Henry was squeezing Helen's sagging breasts while she gave him a blow job. Thom and Aaron started thrusting into her in unison. This was certainly the widest thing they had tried yet, usually they just fucked her one after another until they had all expended themselves. Even the boys, as bent on their own individual pleasure as they were could sense that something was different. Helen would normally be as into it as they were. But this time she was just letting them fuck her. Where normally she'd be pumping back at them and screaming for them to fuck her harder or faster, she was just taking it passively.

Henry's ejaculate splashed on Helen's face and she didn't even try to lick 

it up or catch the rest in her mouth. She just stared ahead as Aaron and Thom pistoned in and out of her aged vagina and anus. Thom came first because Helen's ass was a lot tighter than her vagina. Thom pulled his still dribbling dick out of her ass with a popping sound and pulled up his pants. Thom and Henry ran up the stairs leaving only Aaron with Helen. She almost didn't feel him since she was so lost in her thoughts.

She remembered the look of hurt on Hiram's face and the way he had humiliated Ted after what he saw yesterday, how would he feel about this? If he ever saw this there'd be no going back, ever. She started to cry as she remembered how alone she'd felt last night sleeping in their guest room only a few feet apart. Those few feet might as well have been 20 miles because she hadn't been able to reach out and touch him. The sound of his gentle snoring, twenty some odd years ago had been the subject of many arguments. Now she had gotten so used to it that it was comforting and reassuring and she'd found it difficult to sleep without it last night.

Aaron started making oohing sounds as he emptied his dick inside of her vagina as all of the boys usually did.

"Ya don't have to cry because I'm leaving, I'll fuck you again later," he said then he slapped Helen's ass, and zipped up his pants. 

"Later Gram," said the boy running up the stairs to join his friends.

For a long time Helen just lay there on the dirty mattress on the floor and thought about what she had just done. The tears rolling down her cheeks an obvious testament to the guilt she finally felt. For the first time, since the first time she had let the boys have her, Helen felt regret. Somehow she had discovered all over again that she loved Hiram. And laying there in the filth with her legs splayed open, and three other men's cum on her body realized that it was entirely possible that she could lose him. At first yesterday she had been miserable about Hiram finding out about Ted. Then she realized that Hiram would get angry, and they'd have a rough patch but she really didn't think he'd throw away over twenty years of happiness over nothing more than a few kisses and an ass grab or two. But she realized that she'd never expected Hiram to find out about Ted and he had.

So she had no choice she had to give up the boys too, because she was nothing more than a fuck toy to them, it was only sex. There was no way she'd endanger her marriage for it. Today was the first time she'd realized that it really didn't feel good. It was just the thought that maybe if a bunch of really young men wanted her that she couldn't truly be over the hill. She'd felt like she was young again and they found her attractive. It was like thirty years ago when every man she met young or old wanted to fuck her.

Aaron calling her an "old nasty whore" was a wake up call, there'd been no illusions of love on either side. She and the boys had just showed up for sex in any number or combination almost every weekday morning, but this had just given her an idea of how they thought about her, and she didn't like it. She had been a fool yet again.

There was no fool like an old fool, but an old whore, especially an old nasty whore was far worse. Helen got up and looked around for her dress. A trail of sperm ran down her leg as she found it. Suddenly there was a painful spasm going through her abdomen and she had to sit back down until the pain subsided. She put on her dress and slowly limped back up the stairs and went back to her apartment. There was definitely something wrong with her, maybe she'd aske Hiram to check her out and find out what it was.

Once back inside her apartment she felt a little better. She had a soothing cup of tea and decided to take a nap. She put a warm towel on her stomach and lay down on the couch, after taking a painkiller. She had to come up with a plan to get her husband to forgive her. She would spend the rest of her life making him the happiest man on the planet. Then she and Hiram could grow old together like she'd always wanted. Truthfully it wasn't the thought of growing old that bothered her, it was doing it alone. Helen had never wanted to be alone.

After a while she felt better and decided to surprise Hiram by meeting him for lunch. The worst he could do would be to tell her he was busy or that he didn't want to see her. But either way he'd see that she was trying to make things better between them and that had to count for something.

As Helen pulled her car out of the parking lot into traffic she stopped and watched an old woman, not much older than her actually, wandering aimlessly down the block. She wasn't a bag lady or homeless she just looked lost. The woman walked part of the way down the street and then turned back and walked in the direction she'd come from. She tried striking up a conversation with several of the people in the street but no one seemed to have the time to talk with her. Finally the woman just sat down on a bench and watched the people walking by her. after a while the woman started talking but there was no one around her. Helen wondered in horror, is that what will happen to me? She shook the thought off and drove toward her husband's office. Hiram loves me too much to let me ever get that bad she thought. I really have to fix this.

Helen slowly made her way through the lobby, the waiting room and the outer office. Hiram's nurses and assistants barely even noticed her as she passed. She looked through the big glass panel into Hiram's office and saw him sitting at his desk. He was already having lunch with that girl Kelly. Helen had always thought that Kelly had a crush on her husband from the time she had discovered boys. It looked like she hadn't wasted any time trying to get after him as soon as there was a tiny crack in their marriage.

Helen had no intention of just backing off and letting the little bitch have him either. She stormed right into the office and loudly cleared her throat.

"I guess you don't have any room on your schedule to have lunch with your wife, do you Hiram?" said Helen as warmly and friendly as she could manage. "Hi Kelly, you look good," she continued. I think you work too hard though it's making lines on your face before your time. Maybe you should relax more. We don't want you looking too old before you find yourself a man," said Helen, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Hi Helen. I guess I should follow your advice," said Kelly smiling.

"After all you are the expert on looking old and tired. But don't worry about me finding someone because I think I already have," she said sweetly.

"I meant one of your own," said Helen through tightly clenched teeth, her fake smile was unsuccessful at masking he anger.

"Well hypothetically speaking if some truly stupid bitch, threw her man away, for no good reason other than a lack of good sense and a fire in her panties," began Kelly through equally clenched teeth. "I'd see nothing wrong with making him my own."

Helen looked at Hiram who hadn't said anything, and then looked back at Kelly who was still smiling. She turned and left barely holding back the tears in her eyes. She had fucked up even worse than she had thought. 

Hiram was laughing so hard he could barely handle it.

"That was great Kelly," he said, "She really fell for your joke."

"I wasn't joking," said Kelly seriously.

As Helen drove home, she was crying again. She was having trouble focusing on the road and had to pull over a couple of times to wipe her face so she could see. Helen had never been a very good driver to begin with. She was the stereotypical old lady in the far right lane with her turn signal on constantly. Today was no different except that she was driving even more slowly and more erratically, because she was upset. 

Hiram had always been the driver in the family. He loved cars. Several times he'd thought about buying himself one of those little Italian sports cars, but with his usual practicality, he'd thought about it and decided otherwise. Why should I spend two hundred thousand dollars on a car that we can't use to carry the groceries home. The speed limits are 70 mph everywhere, and when I want to get a brake job done it's going to cost me another five thousand dollars.

Helen knew that deep down there was another reason, Hiram had grown up during the seventies, when American Muscle cars ruled the roads, and now that was starting to happen again. There was, despite the price of gas, and the politically correct greening of America, a rising number of people who wanted a 400 to 500 horsepower tire shredder, like the ones they thought were cool while they were growing up.

She was also shocked at the parallels going on in her life. She was keeping it a secret from Hiram that she had been having sex with a whole group of the younger men in the building that she and Hiram had watched grow up. Just this morning she had decided to end that, because if Hiram found out it would be the end of them. But now she finds out that little Kelly Cullum, who she'd baby sat when she was a child, was actually staking a claim on her husband. Though Hiram had always seemed oblivious to it, Helen had always known that Kelly harbored a crush on him. And now that Kelly was a woman in her thirties, and there was a definite weakness in the marriage, that little bitch was jumping in with both feet. 

Helen wasn't sure she'd be able to fight her off. If what she'd done came to light, then it would definitely be over. Kelly was younger, prettier, and she worked in the same profession as Hiram did. In fact Kelly worked in the pharmacy department at the same hospital that Hiram worked in and referred his patients to.

Helen was sure that Kelly had gone into the medical field because she'd had that crush on Hiram as a little girl. It had intensified when she'd become a young adult and had Hiram tutor her and help her with her homework during college. The girl would often help Hiram work on the series of Mustang's he'd owned over the years, and now she owned one herself. The worst part of course was when the girl's parents had gone through their marital problems, and to give them some time to work out their differences, Hiram had let Kelly move in with them. Helen was sure that it had been purely innocent on Hiram's part. He saw her as another daughter, but Helen remembered having to talk to Kelly about how revealing the outfits she wore around the house were. Helen herself had received the benefit of some of Kelly's outfits for a while. Sometimes when Kelly was showing off a little more skin than was appropriate, Hiram would end up screwing Helen a lot more vigorously. So Helen ended up not complaining about what the girl wore because Hiram wasn't even thinking about touching the girl but he was fucking Helena lot more.

Helen really would have expected Kelly to be more supportive during this time, especially if she remembered that her own parents had reconciled and worked out their differences. Then it became clear to Helen, Kelly didn't want them to get back together because she really wanted Hiram for herself. She actually was being supportive; she just wasn't supporting both of them. The little girl that Hiram had always thought of as his second daughter, was trying to become his second wife.

Speaking of daughters, why hasn't Megan called me today? The thought made Helen temporarily forget about driving and she slammed on her brakes to avoid crashing into the car in front of her. That caused the guy behind her to slam on his brakes to avoid Helen, and there was very nearly a multiple car pile up. Helen's car stalled and as she tried to restart it a line of people pulled around her screaming at her as they went by.




No Fool Like an Old Fool



"Stupid old bitch, get a license," said one guy.

"Old fool," yelled another. Many of them just held up a finger or made other rude gestures.

Helen sat in her car crying again. Her nerves were jangled and something just wasn't right with her body. She was on the verge of losing her husband because her non- affair with Ted had come to light. She was afraid now that her inter generational gang-bangs would someday come to light. She felt remorse and guilt, and sorrow, and anger at Kelly, all at the same time. Couple that with the fact that the thing that started all of this, her vanity, was still there. 

That was what all of this boiled down to. Helen had always been beautiful, in fact she thought of herself as a modern day version of Helen of troy. There had always been men around to tell her how beautiful she was. She was successful in real estate, largely because of her beauty. Men always wanted to buy houses and buildings from her because they were hoping to get to fuck her. 

When Hiram came along, this serious young doctor, in his twenties, Helen had already started to see some lines in her face. She knew she had peaked and it scared her.

That was the main reason she'd discarded her friends advice about Hiram being beneath her. He was studious, and caring, and he really wanted to help people. When he looked at a building with her, he was actually trying to catch a glimpse of what the property might turn into. He wasn't trying to imagine what she'd look like naked. But in the end he got to find out, and he had worked his ass off since then trying to make her happy.

Hiram always talked about their future together. He'd say, "When we retire, we'll do this, or we'll live here. I think we should travel for a while, before we settle down." He'd say, "Helen get some paper out let's make a list of places we want to go to." 

She had been his life all along, and she'd just fucked it up because she couldn't keep her legs closed. Hiram never bragged about things, because he didn't want his patients or people in general, to think that he thought that he was above them. The two things he loved the most he never talked about at all. He simply smiled when he saw them. It had always been her, and that damned car. Why hadn't she thought about this before?

Hiram had his two obsessions, and Helen had hers. While Hiram's were his wife and his car; Helen's were her vanity and her fear of being alone. While Hiram's led him to work very hard so he could provide for her, and afford the things he wanted for his car.

Helen's led her to seek praise, company, and comfort from other men. She just needed to know that men still found her attractive and desirable; was that wrong?

Another thing that bothered her were her old friends. All of the women who had advised her against Hiram, had disappeared when she became a wife and then a mother. They had nothing in common since she was no longer tearing up the clubs and lounges. She'd gone from being the life of the party for many, to being the center of the universe for one, and she knew that she'd made the right choice.

In recent years when they'd had a reunion of sorts, at a funeral for one of her old coworkers, it had been Helen's turn to laugh.

There they stood in all of their former glory, a bunch of nearly toothless old crones. Some of them were positively staggering, they looked so bad. It let Helen know that retiring from the party lifestyle had been a very good choice. The saddest thing of course was when a couple of them had come over and started talking about Hiram.

"Wow, Helen you always could pick 'em," said Marge Blair who was obviously drunk at the funeral.

"Yes but what about that nerdy little doctor she was so taken with," added Jessica Stephens, "He was so scrawny and geekish. Not like this guy, va va va voom!"

"Whatever did happen to Herschel, or Henry, whatever his name was?" continued Marge, "Did you break his heart badly Helen?"

"Nope," said Helen matter of factly. " His name was Hiram and I married him. That's him, the one you biddies are gushing over. Amazing how some people change and others stay the same." 

"Way back then, you were wrong about him, you were just a bunch of drunk degenerate sluts, with opinions on everyone else, who didn't see their own faults," said Helen, her voice as cold and brittle as ice.

"And now he's had a few years of seasoning and more confidence, but he's still the same kind, and considerate man I married, he's changed in your eyes, but he's still the same person," she said, "On the other hand you ladies are a whole lot older, and more experienced. You'd think you'd have matured with age, but you're still a bunch of drunk degenerate sluts." "I guess it's true what they say. There's no fool like an old fool."

Helen had walked away smiling, but now as she remembered the words they had come back to haunt her as well.

Helen decided to sit in her car for a few more moments and calm her nerves before heading back into traffic. That way the people she had nearly caused to wreck their cars would be long gone.

She tried calling her daughter but the call went to voice mail. She tried Megan's home phone line and after a few rings, her son answered.

"Mom, maybe you shouldn't call us for a while," he said before she could even say hello.

"Where's Megan," snapped Helen. "Let me speak to my daughter."

"She's right here, Helen. I was trying to be nice, but since you won't let me... She doesn't want to talk to you." Then he hung up. Helen was crushed. Her own daughter was cutting her off. Megan wasn't even particularly close to her father, but she was cutting Helen off. 

Her sister was angry at Helen, her mother was a non-factor, and now her daughter was abandoning her. All at a time when Helen was on the verge of losing Hiram. All of her fears of being alone were being realized. Helen's heartbeat rose another notch. This couldn't be happening to her, it was all like a bad dream.

Helen started her car and moved into traffic, she did so without checking her rear view mirror, and neatly clipped a car that was passing her. There was the sound of cracking plastic and bending metal, but Helen just kept driving. The sound of the other driver cursing and screaming registered but she chose to ignore it. She had to get home.

Hiram had just seen his last scheduled patient for the day. He was sitting at his desk writing out bonus checks for his nurse, his office manager, and his medical assistant. He typically gave the bonuses out for Thanksgiving as well as for Christmas. The phone on his desk rang, Hiram looked at the screen and saw that it was one of the hospital's extensions.

He didn't worry about it because he had a number of patients there, and there were also doctors he conferred with at the hospital, so getting calls from there was a normal occurrence. 

He keep writing out the checks and cradled the phone between his ear and his shoulder and spoke into the phone.

Hiram suddenly turned nearly as white as sheet, and dropped the phone and ran out the door. Helen had been taken to the hospital's emergency room by ambulance.

All of the problems they were having fell away as he started his car. Using his Mustang's sync system, which synchronized with his cell phone Hiram called Tammy.

"Hiram, I don't want to talk about this for a while," said Tammy, "I know that none of this is your fault. You're a victim in this just like I was but right now, despite what I said yesterday, I'm not sure that Ted and I will make it through this."

"Tammy, Helen is in the hospital," said Hiram, "I'm on my way there now. I don't know any of the details, but she is your sister. No matter what is going on with us or them, she's still your sister."

Hiram repeated the call and nearly the same conversation with his daughter. The only difference was that his daughter asked him why he even cared after what Helen had done to him. He finally asked Megan to come to the hospital as a favor for him. He hated putting it into those terms because it seemed like he was asking her to come to the hospital so he would continue to help her out with her bills, but whatever it took to get her to the hospital. He was sure that if it was anything serious Helen would want their daughter there.

Hiram checked at the front desk and found out that Helen had already left the emergency room and was in critical care on the fourth floor. He took the elevator to the fourth floor and ran into Dr. Dave Elliot as he got out of the elevator.

"I am so sorry, Hiram," said Dr. Elliot squeezing Hiram's arm. Hiram was suddenly short of breath and it felt like the walls were closing in on him. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't believe that Helen had died before they could patch up thier marriage.

Dr. Elliot led his friend over to a bench near the wall, where Hiram collapsed.

"Come on Hiram," said Elliot, "I know that this is tough, but you really should have seen this coming. It's bad but not unexpected under the circumstances. Maybe you should think about adoption. But that's a matter for later, right now you need to be strong for Helen. She's going to need you right now."

Hiram looked up at Elliot with a puzzled look on his face.

"Dave slow down," said Hiram, "From what you just said I thought that you were telling me that Helen had passed away."

"No Hiram, Helen will be fine physically," began Elliot," But this is going to take a severe emotional toll on her. Right now she's confused and out of her mind."

Megan and Tammy ran up to Hiram and Dr. Elliot at that point.

"Dad how's mom?" asked Megan.

"She's going to be OK at least physically," said Hiram, "Dave was just telling me the rest."

"Well the worst thing of course, is that we tried everything we could, but we weren't able to save the baby," began Elliot, "It was just far too premature to survive. Hiram I kind of expected you to know that at Helen's age a pregnancy alone is a near miracle, but for you two to be engaging in sex that vigorously during the pregnancy was ill-advised." 

"Dave, what the hell are you talking about?" asked Hiram tersely.

"Hiram, the vaginal bruising from whatever you guys did this morning alone will probably take a few days to heal. Her uhm, other orifice will be sore for a while also. But our biggest worry is she seems to have checked out mentally. She thinks you're going to blame her for the baby's not surviving. She keeps telling us not to tell you," said Dave.

"As you know patients who've gone through a traumatic experience sometimes lose touch with reality. She's going to need you to be very caring and supportive," he continued.

"Dave, I need a big favor," said Hiram.

"Anything Hiram," answered Elliot. He could see that Hiram was very upset but not in the way that he had expected. Hiram seemed to be on the verge of anger rather than sadness as would be the norm.

"I need you to do a DNA test on the Fetus, and test that guy over there trying to be unseen in the lounge," said Hiram pointing at Ted.

Both Megan and Tammy stood next to Hiram, no one said a word. Tammy turned to look at Ted with disgust written all over her face. Megan simply hugged her father and looked at him. 

"How long will it take to get the results from the first testing done?" Hiram asked Dave.

"Well Hiram, as you know we'll have to do the test multiple times to confirm the results, but I have a feeling you're going to want to know the immediate results from the first run. Why don't you at least go and see her, give me about an hour and I'll have something for you," said Elliot walking towards the lounge and Ted.

"Hiram, I don't ever want to see that bitch again," snapped Tammy, "Sister or not. If you and she haven't been...you know. And I'm sure that she wasn't fucking Ted this morning, so how many guys is she fucking? And just who's baby was she carrying. My sister is a fool, and an old fool at that."

Tammy started to walk away and then she turned back towards Hiram. "Hiram, I told you already, that I was giving serious consideration to divorcing Ted. Both he and your slut of a wife, swore to us that they never had sex. If this baby turns out to be his, it will mean that they lied to us, on top of everything else. So if he's the father, tell him not to bother coming home...ever."

Megan looked at her father as well, "Dad what is wrong with mom? Why is she doing this? I'm sorry but I just don't want to see her right now. Maybe never again," said Megan. "Dad, do you think that mom tried to sleep with my husband too?"

Hiram went to the nurse's station to find out which room Helen was in. He walked to the room and then composed his face before entering. He walked over to the bed and looked at the woman he had lived with and loved for the past twenty years plus.

He didn't see much of her left in the body on the bed. He reached out and wiped her brow as he would any other patient in his care. She jumped at his touch and turned to see him. A fresh round of tears started as she recognized him. She looked for signs of anger, or hurt, or condemnation, and didn't find any.

"Don't worry Helen, we have a lot to talk about, but the first thing we have to do is get you well," said Hiram.

"Did they tell...?" croaked Helen.

"We'll work all of this out after you're better," said Hiram, "For right now let's not worry about what happened, or where we went wrong, or who did what, or why. We need to get you back on your feet, first."

"Don't leave me, Hiram," croaked Helen. "You're the best thing that ever came into my life, please don't leave me." She yawned as she said it and Hiram sat down in a chair next to her bed and held her hand until she fell asleep.

As he left the room, Kelly who had heard that Hiram was in the hospital came around the corner and ran to him. She wrapped him up in the tightest hug she could muster and told him that no matter what, she'd be there for him.

Hiram and Kelly, went down to the lab to get the results. Hiram had been at Helen's bedside for more than the hour the lab needed, so the tests had been run more than once already. The good news was that Ted was not the father; the bad news was that Hiram wasn't either.

When he'd found out that Ted wasn't the father Hiram had told Ted to take a cab home to his wife, and never do this to her again. Then he and Kelly had left the hospital to drive home.

When Hiram got to the apartment, he opened the door and went straight for the computer in his study. He skirted the blood stains on the white carpeting in the living room almost without noticing them. He booted up the machine and opened up the drive where the video camera feeds were saved. He checked the cameras in the apartment, and then her car and found nothing. He did notice that Helen had problems driving but that wasn't what he was looking for. There were several new camera feeds besides the living room and he started checking them all. He found nothing again and again until he got to a feed labeled BS3. BS3 meant Back stairs third floor.

Luckily the cameras sensed motion so there was no empty video to look at. It started out with some of those young punks who always hung out on the stairs, pushing each other around and smoking marijuana. Then Helen came into view. Hiram was shocked. She walked right through the crowd of them and past them and then just laid down on a dirty mat on the floor and called them over. He watched as his 60 year old wife, sucked and fucked 3 young hoodlums doing things with them that he had never even thought of. Tears rolled down Hiram's face as he stopped the playback.

Hiram didn't know what to think or what to do, he sat there in his office chair for a long time, not moving, not thinking, not seeing. Only the sound of someone opening his front door jarred him from his trance.

"Hiram, what's wrong?" asked Kelly. She was really worried because she cared about him so much and she had never seen him like this before.

Over the past day and a half Hiram had endured blow after blow. His marriage, once the center of his life had just suffered its final attack. A bond of love and trust that had taken many years of good times and bad, of happy moments, and heartbreaks that he and Helen had built together over twenty-five years, had fallen in less than twenty-five hours.

A plan had started to form in Hiram's mind, he turned to Kelly and said, "I might need a little help."

"Whatever you need, I'll do," said Kelly.

"I'll call you when I get back from the hospital," said Hiram.

Hiram made a few phone calls from his Mustang as he drove back to the hospital. He had transferred nearly all of his regular patients to other doctors who could give them the care they needed because Hiram was taking some time off. He had one patient now who out weighed all of the others.

Hiram was sitting in the chair beside Helen when she woke up. She smiled as she noticed that he was still there. Hiram stayed with her the rest of the night until visiting hours were over and they told him he had to leave.

Over the next few days, he was her constant companion. Even she was surprised to find out that he wasn't going o the office or seeing his patients.

"Hiram, your practice is your life," said Helen, "I'm not expecting you to put it on hold for me."

"Helen, my practice is my job, you were my life," replied Hiram. Helen failed to notice that he said "were."

"Hiram, there are some really bad things that we need to talk about," said Helen quietly. She felt even worse now after having hear him say that she was his life. The regret and remorse she'd been feeling since Thanksgiving had magnified and she realized that all of this time, he'd always felt the way she wanted him to. It had always been there, she had just failed to see it. 

On TV and in the movies, men made grand romantic gestures, and bought thousands of dollars worth of flowers and took trips around the world with their lovers. In the real world, staying with someone and being faithful to them, while maybe forgetting the occasional anniversary, or missing a dinner or two, was simply the way it worked. Staying with someone for over twenty years said I love you, far more realistically than any fairy tale romance ever could. Why hadn't she seen that. In more than twenty years while she'd gotten fatter and older, her Hiram had never even looked at another woman, though she was sure that some had tried to catch his eye. Including that fucking Kelly Cullum that was still lurking outside her door, waiting for Hiram every God damned day.

Helen's biggest mistake was taking Hiram and his love for her, for granted. She would never make that mistake again. Hiram had a way of just putting the past behind them and moving on. Every time Helen tried to think up a way to bring up what had happened to her, he had just told her not to worry about it because they needed to get her better first. She had thought up a few plausible lies, like the boys had blackmailed her into having sex with them. She thought that she might be able to get away with it if need be, but Hiram didn't seem to know about any of that. She hadn't heard from her sister or her daughter, though she'd been told the first day that they'd been there. 

Hiram also hadn't brought up the reason why she was here, her miscarriage. She honestly hadn't believe at her age that it was possible for her to become pregnant, if she had she probably would have made the boys wear condoms or at least gotten some other form of birth control.

At least her craving for sex had been sated by this experience. She didn't need just sex any more, what she was craving now was for Hiram to make love to her in their bed, to prove to her that this experience was behind them, and they could go forward with their lives.

She tried calling her sister, and got no answer, the phone just rang. When she called back she heard Ted answer and then just slam the phone down when he recognized her voice. 




No Fool Like an Old Fool



Fuck Ted, this was as much his fault as hers, if he wasn't prepared to take the consequences, he shouldn't have played the game. There's no fool like an old fool she thought.

She tried calling her daughter the next day, because she really wanted to talk to someone outside of the hospital. At first she thought that she'd dialed the wrong number, but after doing it three times, she was sure she hadn't. Her daughter's number was no longer in service. Megan had probably missed too many phone bills and the phone had been shut off. She called Meg's cell phone with the same result.

Helen was getting antsy, because after three weeks in the hospital she wanted to go home. She'd found out that they had been ready to release her a couple of weeks ago, but Hiram convinced them to have her stay for another week. She wanted to get home and get into her bed with her husband. She was sure that they were going to make it through this. Over the last few weeks except for a few hours a day they were always together. She loved it, and she loved Hiram. When no one else had been there for her, there he was. He was the person she had hurt the worst, and yet he was the one there beside her. If that wasn't love Helen didn't know what love was.

Hiram had waited in the lobby of the apartment building nervously. His phone began ringing and he answered it.

"He's on his way, I'm going to bullshit with him for about five minutes, be ready by the front stairs."

Hiram moved towards the front stairs, he waited for a while and when he heard the sound of someone coming down the steps quickly he dropped a large plastic bag on the stairs and pretended to look through his mailbox. 

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Thom coming down the stairs and notice the bag. Hiram went out the back door and up the back stairs to Kelly's floor. 

Thom picked up the bag and noticed a large quantity of drugs and vials in it. In addition to the obviously hospital quality drugs there were several different street drugs as well. "What the hell had that old bastard been doing with this much shit?" he wondered as he stepped onto the street.

Before he even completed his thought two police cars pulled up, and the officers in them jumped out at him with their guns drawn. One officer snatched the bag from his hand and looked into it.

"You're going down for a long time mother fucker," spat the officer. Another policeman handcuffed Thom and put him in the back of a police car.

Upstairs Kelly hugged Hiram as they watched through the window.

Two days later Aaron saw Kelly walking down the back stairs the way Helen used to. It had been a long time and he missed that skanky old whore. She'd let them do anything to her. What a freaky old bitch. But maybe this was a newer and better version, he decided to follow her and find out. The bitch skipped down the backstairs like she owned them. And went into an apartment on the second floor that wasn't hers, he looked in before she closed the door and saw all kinds of electronics in a cabinet in the living room. Kelly raised her skirt a little bit and then went back out and forgot to lock the door. The door was still wide open. He followed her wondering where she was going. She went up to the fourth floor and met that doctor, Helen's husband. She kissed the old coot and closed the door behind her. 

No wonder the old woman was fucking him and his friends. Her husband was banging the hottest bitch in the building and the old bag of bones had just felt left out.

Aaron was no fool, let them fuck all they wanted. He ran back down to that apartment on the second floor. The door was still open and he noticed that it had been jimmied. He stepped inside and looked around. He was taking the DVD player, and maybe that small plasma with him. "Oh my fucking God," thought Aaron. There on the table was an absolutely beautiful Glock 9mm. He picked it up. The clip was in it and full. He looked down the sights and whispered, "Pow." 

Boy were the guys going to be jealous of him. At least Henry would be. That dumb ass Thom had apparently got arrested for something.

Just as he thought about how stupid Thom was he heard loud voice saying, "Drop the gun Punk."

Aaron looked up and there were four cops in the room with him with their guns drawn. When he got to the station, he was charged with breaking and entering, possession of an unregistered weapon, and all of the recent burglaries in the building were being pinned on him. He was going to jail for a long time.

Some time earlier that day, someone had knocked Henry in the back of the head, and loaded him on a freight train headed out of state. When he woke up he found twenty dollars and a note in his pocket. The note explained to him that if he ever showed his face in the state again, what happened to him would make his friend's fate seem light.

Helen finally realized what her problem was, there was something wrong with her phone. At first she thought that her daughter had changed her numbers, both of them, and maybe her sister had too. But when she tried to call Thom, and Aaron and Henry to tell them that they couldn't see her anymore, and she needed a little favor from them, she couldn't get in touch with any of them. There had to be something wrong with her phone. There was no way that all five of them had changed their numbers or not paid their bills.

She had decided that there was one thing preventing her from repairing her marriage and it was that little bitch Kelly. Her original idea was to talk to Kelly and ask her to stay away from Hiram. She would remind Kelly that her own parents had been through a rough patch and were able to make it through it, so Helen and Hiram could too.

All she needed was for Kelly to leave Hiram alone. If Kelly wasn't willing to do it then Helen would have to set the boys on her. She was sure that Thom, and Henry and Aaron could threaten Kelly into staying away from Hiram. She would hate to do it, but she would. 

Over these past few weeks Helen had come to realize that she would never allow anyone or anything to come between herself and Hiram again.

She needed to have that talk with Kelly today because she was going home tomorrow. She would be released on Christmas morning, what a coincidence. After nearly a month without sex she knew exactly the present she was going to give Hiram.

He'd been so cute yesterday, telling her that he was getting the house ready for her to come home to. He'd hinted that he had several presents waiting for her as well. Hiram was predictable as the sunrise. He would either have a small flat present from a jewelry store, with some kind of necklace or bracelet in it, or a big flat envelope with tickets and instructions for a trip or cruise that they would take for Christmas. But Helen wasn't complaining. Even if all he wanted to do was sit down with her and talk about their problems, she was willing. As long as they did it together, anything was fine with Helen.

Actually Helen wanted to have that talk to get it over with so they'd have no lingering secrets between them. That way he wouldn't find out about it 3 or 4 years down the line and divorce her then. Right now, while he was worried about her health and in a forgiving mood, was the best time. Of course she wouldn't tell him all of it, but enough that if it did come to light later it wouldn't seem like she'd lied.

When the nurse came in Helen asked if she could have Kelly from the pharmacy come up to talk to her. Helen was surprised and actually pleased to find out that Kelly had quit her job, just this morning. Helen's mind started working and she thought that she had worked out the scenario. Hiram had probably explained to Kelly that he wanted to give their marriage another shot, and Kelly had just come unglued. Kelly had been a fool to think that he'd throw away 25 years for just a couple of mistakes.

Hiram came in at dinner time and told Helen that he had a patient to take care of but that he'd see her later, or in the morning when they went home. He looked a little sad when he came in and Helen thought she knew why, but decided to fish a little bit. 

"So are you going to get Kelly to help you get the house ready for our Christmas day celebration?" she asked, "I'm sure you don't want Ted there but are Megan and Nick coming? Is Tammy coming without Ted?" she asked all of the questions though she only cared about the answer to one of them.

"Helen I haven't seen Kelly today, I guess she has other things to do," said Hiram. "But we are all getting together for Christmas. It's been over a month. It's time we put all of thie behind us, and move forward with our lives."

Helen tried hard to cover her smirk, and nearly managed. Hiram kissed her goodbye but it was an awkward kiss. Instead of kissing her on the lips, he kissed her on the fore head. Oh well thought Helen, there'll be plenty of kissing tomorrow.

Hiram never showed up at the hospital on Christmas morning. At 9:00 a.m. Helen was signed out and giving instruction for what she should do and shouldn't do for the next few days. She noticed that there was nothing concerning sex. which meant she was free to attack Hiram, as she'd planned. Helen was told that Hiram had been delayed again for a patient. She really didn't mind, that meant it was pretty much back to business as usual, so she called a cab to take her home.

When she got to the building Helen was filled with a feeling of joy and happiness as she watched families going into and out of the building. Christmas was the most special of holidays and she had been given the most marvelous gift, though she didn't feel that she deserved it. She had really dodged a bullet; when it came to the boys Hiram seemed to be totally in the dark. Maybe if you looked back at all of the good things she'd done throughout her life, the universe had decided to spot her one, and let her keep the two things that mattered most to her, her husband and her marriage. Maybe in exchange she had to give up the relationship with her sister and possibly even her daughter, but if she'd been able to pick the ending to her story, this was the one she'd have picked. Maybe she didn't even have to give up the boys, but she would have to be far more discreet.

She got onto the elevator and decided at the last minute to try and talk to Kelly just in case. She stopped off at the girl's apartment and found that the door was sealed in that plastic that they used for the vacant apartments. Apparently Kelly had not only quit her job, but had moved on. Well good for her, she needed a new start. And better still for Helen.

Helen used her key and opened her door, and was a little surprised. Hiram hadn't done much decorating. He hadn't even put up their large artificial Christmas tree. He had thrown up a pathetic one foot tall tabletop tree. that had seen better times. Helen almost laughed because it was the ugliest, loneliest little thing she'd ever seen. It looked like the tree from a Charlie Brown christmas. He had strung one line of lights across the mantle over the fire place and when she tried to plug them in they sparked and popped and just went out. The apartment felt empty, and cold. she went into their bedroom and found what she'd expected. her presents. Three big boxes and a note. They were all arranged on the neatly made bed.

Helen started reading the note:

Dearest Helen, I'm sorry I'm not there with you, but I did leave you presents. Open the large flat box labeled one first, then read the next page of this note.

Helen excitedly opened the box and found nothing in it except the papers releasing her from the hospital and the bill for her hospital stay and medical expenses. She didn't understand it and thought it was one of Hiram's little jokes.

She read the next page of the note:

Helen open the second box now.

Helen was sure that this would be her trip manifest or her cruise brochure. She was wrong it contained a bunch of legal documents. One of which she recognized as a copy of the pre-nup she had signed over 20 years ago. She couldn't figure out what was going on here and she needed her glasses to read these documents but suddenly she didn't feel good.

She didn't bother reading the note she just tore open the small box. It didn't contain a necklace or a bracelet, it had a DVD in it. She put it into the DVD player and hit the play button.

Helen almost gagged, there on the screen she saw herself being used by the 3 boys. She had never seen herself on TV before and this didn't at all look the way it felt. She saw a wrinkled, fat old woman with banana tits hanging down nearly to her waist, being used by three rough looking young men. There was nothing romantic or exciting to it. She looked like some homeless old whore. She almost threw up while she watched it but mercifully the scene changed.

Hiram came on the screen, he was sitting down in his chair in the office looking straight at her. My God that man was handsome, I'm so lucky he married me thought Helen. This is obviously his way of letting me know that he knows and forgives me.

He fumbled around trying to look into the camera and then said, "Thanks sweet heart."

What the hell was he thanking her for? Helen heard another voice on the screen, he hadn't been talking to her. Who the fuck was her husband calling sweetheart?

Hiram on the screen looked straight into the camera and began speaking.

"Helen, Merry Christmas," said the Hiram on the screen. "Well, wait a minute, I never got to do Thanksgiving with you. Okay, for thanksgiving, I was thankful for a lot of things some good, some bad," said Hiram. "I was thankful for the over twenty years that I loved you above all else in this world. I was also thankful that I finally found out what a cheating whore you turned out to be, so I could move on with my life."

Helen was having trouble breathing, it felt like someone had kicked her in her sixty year old stomach.

"Helen, after Thanksgiving I had every intention of trying to work towards fixing our marriage, I still loved you above all else but I felt betrayed and hurt. I was sure that we could work it all out if you just stayed away from Ted. You had played me for a fool, but I really wanted to work past it. But Helen, I fooled you too. You were a fool if you thought that after Ted I'd trust you again. You see Kelly told me about her parent's reconciliation. 

We all thought that they got back together, and they really tried but it just didn't work. They were never the same. Her mother spent years always wondering where he was, and with whom. There was no trust left between them, just as there's none left for us. Eventually she needed someone she could turn to, and she had an affair too. He wanted to try again, but she just couldn't trust him and ended up marrying the guy she had the affair with. Helen, I didn't trust you either so I had the apartment wired, I guess you saw the video. So you know that there is no hope for us. I've filed for divorce and found someone new.

According to our prenuptial agreement, you are entitled to 20 percent of my current net worth in the divorce. I've left you two hundred thousand dollars in our formerly joint checking account, that is now in your name only. all of your credit cards that were in both of our names have been cancelled. You'll have to set up new ones. Helen you also get to keep our luxury apartment since the thought of being in that building sickens me. I know there were a lot of good memories there but I'll make new ones. Helen, please be careful with your money, your extended stay in the hospital was not covered by our insurance, so you'll be billed for the last three weeks of your month there. the medical expenses alone are probably going to run you about 35,000 dollars. In addition to that there was a private investigator here looking for you. He wanted to know where you were because you apparently left the scene of a crime."

Helen watched in horror as Kelly came around the desk and sat in Hiram's lap.

She looked up and kissed Hiram deeply and then smiled into the camera. They both waved bye. And the screen went black. 

Helen sat there on the bed thinking she'd been a fool. suddenly someone knocked on the door. Helen thought it was her daughter or her sister but it turned out to be a couple of police officers. They arrested her for the hit and run accident she had a month ago. She was charged with reckless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. Helen spent Christmas day in jail. she used her phone call to call Tammy having forgotten that her sister's number had been changed and she didn't have the new one. Helen had no other choice she called Hiram, and she'd thought that he wouldn't pick up but he did.

"Hiram please, I need your help, I'm in J..," she began.

"Hi Helen, " said Kelly, "We're at Tammy's house with Megan and Nick. Your grandson is adorable. I think Hiram and I are going to have one just like him. He'd better start trying to get me pregnant quick, because I'm already in my thirties. Well it's been great Helen. I'll tell Hiram you called to wish us Merry Christmas. He's outside talking to Ted. I think they may be able to become friends again. There was after all only one silly old thing for them to argue about, and neither one of them wants you," with a click, Kelly hung up the phone.

I was a fool, thought Helen. And now I've lost everything. Kelly has my husband, my sister hates me, my daughter hates me. Even the boys have deserted me. I was a fool, plain and simple, and there's no fool like an old fool.