47 comments/ 73812 views/ 5 favorites Small World Ch. 02 By: The Wanderer There is no sex in this story. I thank my LadyCibelle and Techsan for their patience, proof reading, editing skills and of course encouragement they always give me. I also thank of my friends, who write to encourage and help me to continue writing and posting, these demented ravings of mine. Your emails are always greatly appreciated. Later that night I ran over in my mind the events of that day and I wondered just what was going to happen the following weekend. The following morning I called into work early and left a message with night security that I would be late in the office that day. I had decided to have breakfast with Clinton and Gina and I studied the couple carefully whilst we ate. Then I saw them off in their car to wherever they were going next. I was in my room when the chambermaid came around. I was on first name terms with almost all the staff in the hotel by then. She volunteered to get me all the information I required. ++++++++++++++ Surprisingly, I got the expected call from Leanne early on the Friday morning, before I had even gone to work. You know, I would have thought Leanne would have left it a little bit longer. Leanne asked me if I would meet her on the Saturday evening as she had something important she needed to discuss with me. At first I refused unless she told what she wanted to speak to me about, but she wouldn't say. After playing silly buggers for a little while - I didn't want her to realise that I knew what was going on - I relented and suggested that we meet in one of the local pubs. I chose the pub very carefully; it was a place that generally catered to the office lunch crowd and so it was usually very quiet on Saturday evenings. It was the sort of place courting couples went to for a quiet time; the jukebox normally played slow ballads all evening on Saturdays. Saturday at lunchtime I met up with James and Ashley. They never said anything so I gathered their mother hadn't let them in on her little secret. They both told me that Leanne had appeared to be very happy all that week. I was sitting in one of the booths at the back of the pub well before eight o'clock when Leanne was due to arrive. She didn't see me when she first came in, so she went to the bar and purchased a drink. As she turned around from the bar, she saw me sitting in my little corner. With a big smile on her face she came over and sat beside me. "Hi, Pete. Thanks for coming. Look I'll get straight to the point. I've met someone this week who I'd like you to meet as well." Leanne got her mobile phone out of her handbag and I watched her push one of the buttons. "Pete, I know you always thought it was me in that film that your friend George took. But this week I've met someone who I'm sure will convince you that it wasn't." I hoped I was making a good job of looking confused. "She'll be here in a minute. Honestly I think you are going to have trouble believing this." 'You're not kidding!' I thought to myself. I heard the noise from the street get louder as the door opened and Gina came walking through it, followed by Clinton. I must say the girls had made a very good show of it; they were dressed, not exactly identically, but close enough. They even had similar hairstyles. Gina came straight over to the table and plonked herself down opposite me. "Hi, you must be Pete. Leanne has told me so much about you and that silly mistake you made." "Pete, this is Gina and her husband Clinton. They were looking around the stables the other day when I went for my RDA session. Gosh, I thought I was looking in a mirror for a minute. It was only after I spoke to her that I realised that it must have been her in the film that your friend George took. When I asked her, Gina told me she was in Bournemouth eleven years ago on her honeymoon with Clinton. Pete, it was Gina on the film, not me! You see you did make a mistake." I looked at Gina and then at Leanne. Then I turned my attention to Clinton. "Tell me, Clint, who's better in bed - Leanne or Gina? I'm assuming that Gina is her real name." Clinton had a puzzled expression on his face, as did the two women. "Oh, come on, Leanne, didn't you realise these two shared a bed last Sunday night. I doubt that was in your plan though, was it? Oh, yeah, Leanne, Clint and whoever she is here, booked into the two rooms that you reserved for them, but the bed was only used in one of them." "You know, if only you hadn't bothered with this bleeding charade, you would have won. I must admit that up until last weekend I'd pretty well convinced myself that I had made the biggest mistake of my life. But then something happened that told me I was correct in my first assumption, and it was you who had spent an illicit weekend at that hotel in Bournemouth with Clinton here. "If you're wondering, it was Gina here that gave the game away. I'm assuming Gina is her real name; she lies so easily that could be an untruth as well." "What are you talking about?" Gina demanded. "Look, come off it. What kind of an idiot do you three take me for? I knew that something wasn't kosher the moment you opened your mouth. Your accent, girl; you're English with an Aussie accent. That means you've been living out there for years. Who are you? A cousin of Leanne's or something? You do look very much like each other." "But, but...." was all Gina got out before I attacked again. "Come off it, girl. If you'd been back in England for the last eleven years as you tried to tell me you'd been last weekend, I'm damn sure your Aussie accent would have faded a little by now. When I thought back on it, I seemed to remember Leanne's mother showing me some photos the first time I went to her house. There were some pictures of Leanne when she was very young, with a cousin who'se parents immigrated to Australia. The two young girls were like twins; I can remember Leanne's mother remarking on the fact." "And then there's those bloody hair-styles! Okay, you might have gotten away with the coincidence of you both having the same hairstyle eleven years ago, because that cut was all the fashion then. But, come on, you both just happen to have similar hairstyles now, eleven years later. That's pushing things just a little too far." "Oh, I said nothing last week, because I just wanted to see how far you idiots were planning on taking it. But you talk too much, Gina. Rosy - oh, by the way that's Rosy as in Rose not Rosie as in Rosemary, as you kept saying last week. When Rosy and George gave me that bit of film, Rosy told me that she had never spoken to the woman Clinton was with at the hotel." I turned to Leanne. "You know you really didn't do a very good job of briefing her, did you, Leanne? I'm afraid your friend here elaborated just a little bit too much. Oh, and one other little thing: Rose and George adopted the twins about three years ago; they only had four children when they were in Bournemouth, Gina. Unfortunately one of their daughters takes after her mother and got herself in the family way. But the kids today haven't got the guts to stand by their mistakes like George did. So George and Rose adopted their daughter's twin girls." "When you and the arsehole here showed up, Gina, you might have convinced me if you'd kept your bloody mouth shut. But you spilled out all sorts of information that could only have come from Leanne. So after the first shock of seeing you, it didn't take me long to figure it was a set-up. I'm really glad you did it though because I was about to make the second biggest mistake of my life and go for a reconciliation." "The second biggest mistake of your life? What was the first?" Leanne asked. "Marrying a lying cheating bitch like you. Did you really think you could con me with this farce"? Leanne looked very sad, but she didn't cry. Looking back now I think it was a look of resignation on her face. "Oh, Clint, me old mate, I really don't think it would be a good idea for you to hang around Exeter very much in the future. See those two guys over there?" Clinton looked over at the two old friends of mine who were staring in our direction with venom in their eyes. "Well, they don't like the idea of you banging other peoples' wives and I happen to know that they can get a bit physical sometimes." "Are you threatening me?" he demanded. "No, Clint, I wouldn't do something like that. Let's just say, I'm offering a little friendly advice." "Right, I think this little meeting is just about over. So I'll be leaving, but before I go I have to thank the pair of you," I said, looking at Gina and Clinton. "You know, last week a very nice lady invited me to take her to bed. I turned her down because I was planning on trying to reconcile with Leanne here. But now I've been thinking that's one mistake I'm going to correct in the very near future." "Now please let me out of this seat, Leanne, before I really begin to lose my temper and turn violent." Leanne stood up in some kind of a daze. Once I'd extracted myself, Leanne collapsed back into her seat and I turned back to look at her. "Good bye, Leanne. I hope our paths don't cross too often in the future," I said and then made my way towards the exit. As I did so, one of the two guys the other side of the bar also stood so that the striking looking woman who'd been sitting, hidden in the back of their booth, could get out and join me. She took hold of my arm, and then kissed me on the lips. We both took a last look back at Leanne and her friends and then left the bar. ++++++++++++++ It was five years later, at my eldest daughter, Jeannette's, wedding before I spoke to Leanne again. I'd only seen her a few of times during those intervening years, at the children's graduation ceremonies and the like. I'd ignored her and we hadn't spoken. But at Jeannette's wedding, I doubted that I would get away with doing that again without a confrontation of some kind, especially with the reception afterward. Yeah, I'd had a few words with both Jeannette and Asha during the planning stage of things. Even James and Ashley had put their oars in during the discussions. Jeannette wanted both her mother and me to be at the wedding. At first I'd said that I would happily pay for the wedding, but that I wouldn't attend if Leanne were going to be there. I said that I wouldn't stay in the same room as Leanne, and definitely wouldn't sit at the same table. As you might expect Jeannette started getting upset when I told her that, but then Asha stepped in and read the riot act to me. "Peter, please, don't be so bloody silly. Now calm down and listen to what Jeannette has to say." Asha lectured me, "You've been divorced from Leanne for nearly six years now and it's about time that you got over what happened. Really, what is your problem with Leanne being there?" "Embarrassment, Asha. That woman played me for a bloody fool for god knows how many years. Probably from the day we got married." "No, dad, it wasn't like that. Mother..." Jeannette started to say. But then stopped herself and appeared to think for a couple of seconds, before she started speaking again. "Think about it, dad. Who's going to be more embarrassed: mother sitting there on her own, knowing that she drove you away, or you with your lovely wife Asha and your two beautiful little babies?" The point that Jeannette had made about Leanne sitting there on her own went right over my head. "Dad, whatever mother did," Jeannette went on, "I can assure you that whilst you're happy with your lot now, she definitely isn't happy with hers!" "You're kidding me! She can get together with the wanker whenever she likes now she hasn't got to worry whether I'm around to catch her." "No, dad, she hasn't..." Jeannette started angrily, but she suddenly stopped speaking again. "No, dad, this isn't right. We all made a pact when you married Asha that we would never discuss mother or what happened between the two of you. It was your idea, remember?" "Yes, I'm sorry, Jeannette," I replied. "But I still feel very angry about what she did to me, to us all really. Although I must admit, that I wouldn't have met Asha here, but for your mother's lying cheating ways. I'm sorry; I guess it is your wedding, Jeannette. If you want your mother there, I won't object again. "But, for god's sake, will someone make sure I don't drink too much, because I might well be able to keep a civil tongue in my head where your mother's concerned. But I'm not sure I could keep my anger under control around that damned arsehole boyfriend of hers." Jeannette made as if to say something else, but apparently changed her mind. I kissed my loving wife and then I turned and hugged Jeannette. ++++++++++++++ On the day of Jeannette's wedding, the weather smiled on us. Jeannette had been living with Asha and myself since she'd graduated so the wedding was being held at our local church. There wasn't any favouritism about her choice to stay with us; it was just the fact that she had been offered a damned good job not too far from the house Asha and I had bought. It was quite a busy household really, because once Asha's first child had been born, Mattie (now retired) had moved in as well. Mattie acted as a kind of housekeeper come nanny and that had allowed Asha to return to the office. Having walked Jeannette to the altar, I took a quick look over my shoulder to smile at Asha and was pretty well gobsmacked to see her in deep conversation with Leanne. Leanne was actually holding our youngest child. But when I took my seat later in the service, Leanne had moved to the end of the pew. I still had a distinct distrust of Leanne and wondered what she was up too. I can't say I was too enamoured to see that it was Leanne and Mattie who escorted both Asha and my babies out of the church either. I wanted to say something to Asha about it, but figured I'd wait until later when we were not in such a public place. After the photo call, I was really surprised and somewhat annoyed to find that Asha had invited Leanne to join us in our limousine for the short journey to the reception at a local hotel. I held my tongue though; I knew that Leanne, like myself, had to be amongst the first arrivals at the hotel, so that she could be in the receiving line with us. Leanne chose that opportunity to say hello, but I ignored her. "Leanne said hello, Peter. Now if you're going to be silly and spoil Jeannette's day, I'll have this car take the children and me straight home," Asha chided me. "Good afternoon, Leanne!" I said to her, with venom in my voice. That was to lead to Asha reading the riot act to me yet again after dragging me into the hotel's office on our arrival there. "Now cut it out, Peter. This is Jeannette's day and I don't want you putting a damper on it for her. Damn it, I've had enough of this ridiculous pride thing with my own family. I don't want to see my new family fall apart because of your damned stupid pride. Leanne cheated on you and you kicked her out of your life. But please, Peter, don't go kicking your children out with her. "You've done miracles up to now, with your idea of never discussing Leanne or what she did, or didn't do, with the children. But you are going to have to meet and talk to her yourself one day. Whether you like it or not, Leanne's going to have to be at all kinds of gatherings with 'us' over the next few years. Now's the time to start speaking and being civil to her for my sake, please!" I knew that Asha was right; she nearly always was. So I stood in the receiving line alongside my ex-wife and she sat beside me during the meal and speeches. I even managed to remember to change the word "I" to the line "Jeannette's mother and myself" in my speech. As I sat down, Asha caught my eye and smiled at me. What she made of Leanne taking my hand and kissing the back of it I don't know. Asha couldn't have heard Leanne say "Thank you!" to me. That confused me for a moment but then I realised that, from where she was sitting Leanne must have been able to read the original script of my speech. So she must have been aware of my impromptu editing. As you can imagine I avoided dancing with Leanne. After I'd danced with Jeannette's new mother, I pulled Asha onto the dance floor. My son James was dancing that one with his mother. The evening was enjoyable and to be honest, although I knew that Leanne was there, I hardly noticed her after a little while. Whether she stayed out of my way on purpose or not, I don't know. Asha and Mattie took the two little ones home early, but Asha insisted that I stay until the end, or at least until Jeannette and her new husband left, or went to bed. That I feared would be pretty late because they were spending their first married night in the hotel's honeymoon suite. I had slipped outside to smoke a cigar. The youngsters were still living it up on the dance floor and to be honest the noise of their modern music was getting at me a bit. "They are two beautiful babies!" A familiar voice said from behind me. I didn't look in her direction; I knew damned well who it was. "They are, just like their mother," I replied. 'Take that one bitch!' I thought to myself. Look, I might have been trying to be civil, but that didn't mean I still wasn't angry with Leanne. "Asha is very beautiful. You made a good choice there," Leanne agreed with me. "What do you want, Leanne. Why have you followed me out here?" I asked, trying to sound as cold as my heart felt towards her. "To apologise to you, Peter." I looked in her direction then, hoping she'd see the hate on my face. But I think it was too dark; I couldn't make out her features. "Bit late, don't you think?" I suggested. "You're not kidding. I only wish it had never happened in the first place. Or that I'd had the guts to own up and beg for your forgiveness when you brought that damn CD back from Doncaster. God, I was stupid and I'm so sorry." I thought that I could detect that Leanne was crying, although I couldn't see in the darkness. "How long did it go on for, Leanne. How long were you taking the piss out of me behind my back?" "It was only once, Peter. Haven't the children told you?" I almost burst out laughing. I know that Leanne heard me kind of grunt when I barely managed to strangle my laughter. "It's the truth, Peter. I know that you won't believe me, but I never went near any drugs or anything after that weekend, I promise you!" Now Leanne had completely lost me, I had no idea what she was talking about. 'What the fuck did drugs have to do with anything?' my mind was asking me. "What the hell are you talking about Leanne?" "Pete, can we go somewhere private and talk for a little while? I'd like to explain everything to you. I know it'll never make any difference to us now; it's much too late for that. I must have been mad not to have come clean with you in the first place. But I just didn't know what to do. All I could think of was to try to lie my way out of it like I did; when I should have been telling you what actually happened. It was just that so many years had passed, and I'd been lulled into a false sense of security that you'd never find out and then when I saw the video, I panicked. All I could think to do was lie and keep on lying." "Both you and I have been drinking, Leanne. I really don't think it would be a good idea for you to tell me anything tonight. I'm not sure that I could control my emotions," I said to her. Even in the dark I could see the expression on Leanne's face change. "Don't get me wrong Leanne; I feel nothing but anger towards you and what you did to me. If and when I learn the full facts I'd like to be in full control of my faculties. I've only ever come near striking two women in my life and you are one of them." Small World Ch. 02 Leanne took a step back. "I think I can understand that, but who... who was the other?" she asked. "Your friend, Gina, or whatever her name is. Look, Leanne, if you want to allay your conscience, you've got a room booked here tonight, haven't you?" Leanne nodded. "Right then, I'll meet you in the lounge at ten tomorrow morning and I'll give you an hour or as long as I can control my anger." "Thank you, Peter." "Oh and I will have Asha with me, by the way. I don't go meeting wanton women without bringing my wife along." "Touché!" Leanne replied. "I deserve that, Peter. In the lounge tomorrow morning at ten, I'll be there." Then Leanne turned and started to walk back inside the ballroom. Just before she went through to door, she stopped and turned to look back at me. "Thank you, Peter. Good night," she said. I didn't reply. When I'd finished my cigar and went back inside, there was no sign of Leanne anywhere. ++++++++++++++++ "Good, it's about time you cleared the air with Leanne over all this. You really do need to know what it was all about," Asha said when I told her I was meeting Leanne on the Sunday morning. "You sound like you know what Leanne's going to say," I replied. "I do. The children told me years ago." "Huh? Why did they do that?" "Because they wanted me to tell you about what happened. They hoped that you might not hate her so much; but I told them that it was between you and Leanne, and I wasn't going to get involved. Especially with the way you went off at anyone who mentioned her name." "Yeah, I've been a bit paranoid over it, haven't I?" "No, I don't really think so, Peter. You loved Leanne; I know you did and most probably you still do. That's the only worry I've got about you talking to her." I took Asha into my arms and kissed her. "My love, how come you know me so well. And you're right on both counts! I think in my heart I do still hold some love for Leanne, but I also hate her for what she did, and all of the lies she's told. Don't worry, love, there's no way that she could ever come between us. I only agreed to see her again this morning because I have a burning desire to know what I did wrong." Asha pushed me away so that she could look into my eyes. "What you did wrong?" she asked with a quizzical look on her face. "Peter, you did nothing wrong. It was Leanne who did something remarkably stupid and cruel." "But there must have been something that I did or said to make her look elsewhere." "No, Peter, believe me. From what the children have told me, it was nothing that you did; it was all down to Leanne letting her friends talk her into doing something incredibly stupid. Then Leanne found that things had gotten completely out of her control. I think it best that I don't say anymore. You just go and hear what she has to say to you." "I'm not going. Asha, we are going. I have no intention of meeting Leanne alone." A smile came on Asha's face and she stretched up and kissed me. +++++++++++++++ As I hoped the hotel lounge was almost empty. There were only two other people in there besides Leanne, James and Ashley. As Asha and I walked in, James hugged his mother then walked over and hugged Asha, then rather formally shook my hand. I noted that Ashley did not show any open form of affection towards her mother. I'd gathered through the grapevine that it had taken a long time for Ashley to forgive Leanne, if she really had and although she did talk to her she rarely visited. Ashley after waiting her turn kissed me on the cheek and then did the same to Asha. I noted a look of sadness come into Leanne's eyes most likely caused by Ashley's display of affection towards Asha. I suddenly realised that James was speaking to me. ".... the bar, the manager said you can have some privacy in there, but we will be able to see you from the foyer." Leanne had stood up whilst James was talking; she led the way into the bar that had one of those silk ropes across the entrance. An easel stood in front of the rope that bore the sign "private conference". I followed Leanne to a table that was already adorned with a coffee tray on it. She sat down and began pouring us both coffees without asking me whether I actually wanted one. I sat opposite her without making comment. "Thanks for coming, Peter," she said as she passed the coffee to me. I still didn't speak; this was her show. There were all kinds of questions that I wanted answered, but I had convinced myself not to ask them. I was intending to let her hang herself. "First I'm going to repeat that I'm really sorry for all the lies I told you. I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed with myself about those lies than I am about what I did with Clinton. I didn't realise what I was doing with Clinton until it was too late, but I told all of those lies to you in cold blood. And then I kept on lying to you, trying to convince you that nothing had ever happened." Leanne was waffling; I almost broke my silence and said, "get on with it, woman," but managed to hold my tongue. "But you don't want to know how sorry I am, do you, Pete? You want to know what happened and why?" I still refused to speak. Leanne looked down at her hands in her lap somewhere out of my sight. I figured that she was wringing them together; I'd seen her do that in the pub that day when Clinton and Gina were there. "Pete, when you went out to Bombay for all that time, I got lonely..." Leanne suddenly raised her eyes to look into mine. "No, not for male company or anything like that, I was just missing you!" "Well, you know that Jean and I used to have coffee every morning together. Well, it was in the second week that you were away I think, that Jean's friend Madeline started joining us sometimes." I think that I took in a deep breath at the sound of Madeline's name. We'd been at a party at Jean and Sam Clements place one night, when Sam had thrown Madeline and the guy she'd been with out of the house; Sam had caught them smoking weed in the back garden. As far as I knew, Sam had forbidden his wife to have any contact with the woman afterwards. "I know it was a bloody stupid thing to do, but one day the three of us went shopping together; on the way back, we stopped over at Madeline's house for some reason. Madeline lit up one of her funny cigarettes and... well, I'm not sure what happened after that. Look, Pete, I can only think that I must have been affected by the fumes coming off that damned thing." Leanne looked down again and stopped speaking. I dreaded what she was going to say next. "I was feeling very down and Madeline suggested I take a drag of her reefer thing. God, I don't know why I did, but I did, although I choked a bit. I hadn't smoked cigarettes since I first got pregnant with Jeannette. I don't know; somehow it did make me feel a little better and well... Peter, the three of us smoked another one, before I picked the children up that day." "I'm sorry, Pete, but over the following couple of weeks Jean and I went around to Madeline's house quite a few times and smoked pot. I really couldn't see that it was doing any harm; I just thought it was making me feel better and miss you a little less. I was having some wonderful dreams about you at night; I can remember that. "But then my folks came down and took the children away on the trip with them, so I had no reason to rush home to the house, until it was time for you to call. So I'd stay at Madeline's after Jean left. That's when it all got out of hand." Leanne was not looking at me anymore; she was staring into space. Clinton turned up at Madeline's house one afternoon; he's a distant cousin of hers or something. Anyway Madeline decided to have a kind of party to welcome him to the country. I didn't know that he'd just been released from prison in America for drug smuggling. I found out later he'd come to England to get away from the authorities' prying eyes over there. I told them I couldn't stay for the party that evening because I had to be home for when you called, but... look, Pete, those reefers of Madeline's had more effect on me than I'd ever realised. I thought I knew what I was doing. Clinton said he'd come around and fix the telephone then I could go back to the party and call you from there. I could just tell you the home phone was out of order. "Like the silly bitch I am, I let him do just that. Everyone went very quiet when I called you later in the evening. I'd drunk a lot of vodka by then as well as being high on those damned weeds of Madeline's; thinking back I'm surprised you didn't notice that I was drunk when I called you that night." "I remember the call distinctly, Leanne. You were extremely emotional that night and very weepy. But I had no idea that you had turned into a drunk drug addict," I informed her. "I wasn't an addict; I never got that far into it, Peter. Although I'll admit that I got a damned sight further in later that night." Leanne started crying and didn't say anymore for a little while. I was feeling uncomfortable. My instincts were telling me to put my arm around Leanne and comfort her. You know, if it had been any other woman in the world, I probably would have done just that; but as it was Leanne, I tried to ignore her and looked around the room. "It was later that night that it all turned to shit. There were only about five or six people left when I noticed Clinton and Madeline doing something with a mirror. Then I saw Clinton take a straw and sniff something up his nose. Then Madeline did the same thing; well, nearly everyone did. "They invited me and this other girl to try some. I wasn't daft; I knew it was cocaine so I refused, but then some other guy said something like 'try this; its out of this world' and gave me and the other girl a cube of sugar each. The guy was off his head and kept on at me to eat that damned sugar cube, I thought he was nuts and I think I only ate the thing to shut him up. "Then I really don't know what the hell happened. All I can remember is being in some kind of cloud cuckoo land, where nothing made any sense. One minute I thought I was in bed with you, the next I was dancing with Clinton on someone. I really lost control of my mind, Peter, honestly. "It was me at that hotel in Bournemouth, but most of the time I was there is like a weird dream that I couldn't really remember at the time. I've had all kinds of flashbacks about what went on that weekend, ever since." "Everything is mixed up, until I woke up on the Monday morning and found Clinton.... well you can guess what he was doing. I pushed him off of me and demanded that he took me home; I really had no idea that I was in Bournemouth or how I got there. Although since, I've had flashes of memory about the car journey down there and exactly what did happen." "It won't wash, Leanne," I finally said, "Sugar cubes brings acid to mind, and from my memory of the stuff, the affect you claim to have suffered doesn't appear to match. From my limited knowledge of LSD trips, you're 'out of it' for a few hours and then have one bloody great downer. Leanne, you called me in Mumbai several times over that weekend." "I didn't call you at all! Clinton did, when he thought I was straight enough in my head. Peter, I was pretty well wasted on vodka and weed most of the weekend and then he talked me into snorting Coke to make me feel better about lying to you. When I woke up on that Monday morning my mind was finally straight and I realised just what I'd done. I told Clinton that he'd better take me home right away or I'd call the police and tell them what had happened." I could see the tears streaming down Leanne's face, but I still couldn't bring myself even to offer her a handkerchief. "Clinton took me home and reconnected the telephone. Then he left and I never saw him again until we set up that thing in Birmingham with Gina." "That I find hard to believe, Leanne. The bit about not seeing Clinton again, I mean." "It's true, Peter, honestly. Look, I know that I've lost you. You're married to Asha and have little ones to think about. I know that whatever I tell you I'm never going to get you back. I have no reason to lie to you anymore. "Peter, I can't get on with my life until I've told you the truth. After you came home from India I thought you would know what I'd done. But as the weeks went by, you were your normal loving self. More so, really, because you'd been away. "I was having kittens as well, until my next period came. Clinton didn't use any protection and I was in no condition to remember to take my birth control pills. "It had all faded into a half forgotten nightmare; until you came back with that damned piece of film that your friend gave you. I can tell you it was that bit of film that really shook me. When you first showed it to me I honestly couldn't remember most of it. But I was soon having nightmares again and I found I could remember much more than I originally did. So many times after you'd left for work in the mornings, I ran into the bathroom to be sick. "Anyway, Pete, that's about it. That's what happened and I'll curse myself for the rest of my life for being so stupid. I've told the children everything so as they know how smoking just one little reefer can get out of hand. All I can say to you is that I'm sorry." "It's not quite all, Leanne, if you say that you never saw Clinton again. How come he turned up in Birmingham? Are you trying to tell me that it wasn't him you were going out with after we separated?" I asked in as sarcastic a sounding voice as I could muster. "I never went out with any men after we separated, Pete. I've never been out on what you might call a date with a man from the day you left. I was going to a shrink and a support group for abandoned wives." "Pull the other one, Leanne!" "It's true, Pete. I have nothing to gain by lying to you now," she said in a pleading tone of voice. From the look in Leanne's eyes, I do believe she was telling the truth. "I'll admit I was trying to make you jealous. I did myself up as much as I could and led young James on to believe that I was going out with a man. He told me that you were dating and... oh, damn it, I thought you'd get jealous and come running home. But you didn't! Then you took that job up here and, well, it all fell apart, didn't it?" "No, Leanne, if you ask me, it all fell apart the day you smoked that first reefer." "Your so right, Pete. I was a bloody fool and don't I know it now. Anyway then Theresa came over from Australia to visit the family. And I got that stupid idea about conning you yet again. Madeline wasn't hard to find and she soon led me to Clinton. He didn't want to play at first, but Madeline told me that he was wanted in the States under his real name. So I put some pressure on him that way. Theresa thought the whole thing was a hoot. How did you know that Gina wasn't her real name, by the way?" "The shipping label on her case said 'Theresa Noble, Sidney, Australia.' Leanne, I lived in that hotel for months and most of the staff became my friends." "Shit, yeah, I never thought about that. Anyway it didn't turn out to be that much of a hoot for Theresa. She picked up something nasty from Clinton. That'll teach her. I told her not to let the bastard bed her." "Anyway we didn't fool you for a minute, did we?" Leanne finally asked. "Not really, Leanne. To be honest with you, that little scam you attempted was the biggest mistake you ever made. And, boy, am I glad that you made it. Good-bye, Leanne, and good luck. In the future I'll treat you as someone that I used to know, all right?" "Do you accept my apology, Peter?" "Do you mean do I forgive you? No, I don't! I don't think I ever will." I got up and walked out of the bar. Asha came over and put her arms around me. "Don't ask," I said to her, then after saying our good byes to James and Ashley we left. Leanne got married again about three years later. It only lasted a couple of years and wasn't too good a marriage as far as I understand. James went down there and physically threw the guy out in the end, when he found out the guy knocked Leanne about for some reason. Five years after that Leanne was rundown by a bus in the High Street. Apparently she stepped off the curb right in front of the thing; her blood alcohol level was over the limit to drive a car. But the accident was put down to misadventure. Mattie had a stroke a while back, but she still lives with Asha and me. Asha stopped work to look after her and the children. We don't need her money anyway, now that I'm the manager at the Telford office. Life goes on.