1 comments/ 8682 views/ 1 favorites Life is Strange By: swiftwind Disclaimer: Let me start out saying this is the first story I ever wrote. This is a true story for the most part, and it is my interpretation of events and my own views. Also, the names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. Life is so strange, and it tends to force us to make choices in so many ways. Often indirections that we don't want to go or in ways we don't believe are right. Here is my story. My name is John and I'm a disabled man, not physically but not to the point I can't deal with life. I may have bi polar but it is completely under control. My main disability is a cognitive and memory disorder caused by seven skull fractures at four months old but that is another story. I'm currently a 36-year-old Male who is separated from his wife and planning a divorce. Now normally this would be not very unusual but, I'm also now raising our son who is two and a half year's old. I also do not believe in divorce. Now this brings me to the main plot in the story. I am Christian and I don't believe in divorce yet I have to get the money up to file. In order to explain this conflict, I have to go back about five years. I was in a program to help me learn about my bi polar side of my problems and met a lovely lady whom for the sake of this story I will call Pam. Pam was short and skinny approximately 5 feet tall and 100 pounds soaking wet. Pam is very sick mentally tho she is working to control her illness. Now normally I'm a very cautions person but when I saw Pam moving into her apartment I noticed she had only the help of an old lady who did not look like she was much help. I decided to offer to help her move in. Things developed fast and it was love at first sight. We had talked a lot and one thing led to another and we were married about a year or two later. Things were always a bit rocky as Pam's illness kept flaring up. There were two times Pam's illness caused her to get very delusional and end up kicking me out of our apartment. Now this brings me to about three and a half years ago. Things were going great and Pam said she wanted a child. Things went fast and she got pregnant within two months. This was a very hard pregnancy due to Pam had to go off of all her medications in order to protect her unborn child from birth defects as a result of her medications. Upon reaching the second trimester of the pregnancy she was too sick and required going back on her medicine as it was more dangerous to be so sick than her medicine could have caused. During the whole pregnancy she was in a group home. Some time later after the birth of our son my wife was still not getting her mental health under control and was getting aggressive and paranoid about everything. She would get mad and throw things at me and even accuse me of things I was not even doing. Her illness also causes her to see illusions that are not there. She was so sick that I was starting to be afraid of her and also that she might accidentally hurt our son without realizing it. I had warned her several times I will leave if she doesn't get her aggressive attitude under control. One day she heard of a joke I had told my aunt and my wife had gotten very mad. I decided I would have to leave before she got so angry one of these days that she would accidentally hurt our son. I had decided to move back to my parents home and take our son with me. My wife now realizing I was serious about leaving was crying and trying to twist things so that it was my fault. I was fed up with her attitude and could not look in the mirror at myself. I gathered my things, and my son's and left. Now I left when my son was 11 months old. That was late Jan of 2005, it is now Sept of 2006. I have tried several times giving her an opportunity to show she can be consistent in trying to work things out and treat me with respect. Each time she ended up saying that she was not sure about working things out. I gave up, and she moved to Massachusetts and a month later ended up going to California. Now I don't like this and feel it is strange how I can be pursuing a divorce when I do not believe in divorce. Life is strange and has forced a path upon me for the better good of my son. I may end up paying for my choice in leaving but at least my son won't have to pay for my staying in a situation that could be dangerous. I feel I chose the only path that I could. Life is Strange Ch. 02 Disclaimer: The names are changed to protect identities just as previous part. It is said life is like a river that flows always changing. I'm not sure where that saying came from but, it reminds me that my story is about one man's life with all the variations and is not about some pity request. I was going to leave this story alone, keeping it just about a single man's strength of will and intent to raise his son in safety. This is a true story for the most part and, while about 90% of it is true there are some aspects of this story that I invented due to lack of memory and a need to keep the flow of the story. Oh, and who said all the stories on Literotica has to be about sex? One last note before I get on with the story, if you waste your time feeling pity for me then don't bother making a comment. I don't want your pity and personally I'm happy with my life and enjoy it. * Life is strange, one day I'm trying to figure out how to file for divorce even tho I have no way to afford one and the next I'm talking to my wife. Now I know what you are saying, "Why even talk to my wife?" Just because I'm planning a divorce don't stop me from loving my wife and trying to be a friend. The time is 3:00 a.m. on Monday morning September 18. I get woken up by the sound of the telephone. I stand up barely able to even understand what is going on. Proceeding to the phone I grab it and groggily say, "Hello?" On the other end of the line I hear my wife saying, "Remember when you said the door was still open to work things out?" I'm now getting very confused and saying to myself "What the hell she is up to calling me at 3:00 a.m. with that fucking question." I decide to answer the question with a simple answer. I say, "Yes I do remember." Pam responds by saying, "Please, will you let me come back?" Now I'm really confused with this situation. I respond saying, "I'm not sure you fully understand the position you put me in by asking that question." "I don't understand." Pam responds. I walk out to the living room with the cordless phone and sit down. Taking a deep breath, I respond. "You have left out a part of the statement, I said maybe in a year two." "So I can't come back?" she responds. "I didn't say that hun." I respond. Pam starts to sound a bit confused and responds, "So what can I or can't I come back?" Trying to decide how to word this I respond by saying, "I can't answer that question at this time." I think very carefully and realize that this is my parents' house they have a say in who is allowed to live here. "I will tell you what, I will discuss this with my parents and get back to you." I finally respond. Then say, "You realize this is my parents' house and I have to consider them and consider our son before I can answer your question?" "I understand, please call me as soon as you can." She responds with deep sadness in her voice. I then respond saying, "I promise I will get back to you as soon as possible." Hanging up the phone I think to myself, "Damn she has some fucking guts to ask me that question at 3:00 a.m. in the fucking morning!" Since I know, my parents are already up as a result of my mother doing a paper route. I go in their room. I find my mother already left but, my father is sitting in his chair and is awake. I tell my father what happened. My father responds saying, "I won't give you any advice on this because I have a lot going on and worried enough about my surgery next week" Then he responds, "Besides I have no place to talk, I have made my share of mistakes in my life." "I understand." I respond to my father walking back to my bedroom. I chose to go back to sleep and try to think more with a clear head. I lay down in my bed half a sleep about half an hour of thinking and finally sleep comes and I get woke up by my mother making noise in the living room. Realizing I need to talk to my mother also I get up and dressed. Once I'm in the living room I proceed to tell my mother what happened. My mother says "Be careful, she has fooled you before." "Don't worry mother, I'm not ready to believe her yet." I respond. "Take things slow and maybe she is willing to be serious about the relationship this time." My mother responds. I decide that it is important to give my wife a chance to prove herself. After all it has been a year and a half. That and the fact she has not been able to even see her own son in a long time due to distance she lives from us. I call her back at about 8:00 a.m. in the morning. I say, "Ok, I will give you a chance but be warned I probably won't be able to give you another." I said that I probably won't be able to give her another due to I had given her so many chances to repair our marriage over the last year and a half. Ever since that day I have talked to her every day often more than once and all the conversations have been in excess of an hour long. I'm very encouraged by what I hear. Personally I pray that this is what it appears. Yesterday she asked me near the end of our conversation "What do you think about the changes you have heard from me and about getting back together?" I respond saying, "I'm encouraged by what I hear and am sorry I have grilled you so negatively." I have been really pushing her for answers and to make sure she understood that I do not trust her. Also saying to her, "I chose to ignore my negative views about this till you are here and I'm able to see for my own eyes if this is real or just an illusion." "I understand." She responds. "Don't worry I love you and know you are a good person at heart or I would never have given you the opportunity in the first place." I tell her. Now today I think to myself about the possibilities and the risk of getting into a disastrous situation. There is only one way to know for sure if she has changed and gotten proper help and is willing to be serious about the marriage. It is now only one week till she arrives. Will the next chapter be a disaster or an erotic one? Only time will tell. Personally I'm dreaming of an erotic version. I kinda want to be able to make love to my wife. If this ends up as a disaster there will only be one more chapter, other wise I have no idea how long this story will go. I personally pray I can write about an erotic part of this story as it has been a while since I was able to have any sex beyond playing with myself and dreams. Life is Strange Ch. 03 Disclaimer: I almost never wrote any more due to the situation never did go as I had prayed as a result I had to go through with my divorce in spite of my religious beliefs against divorce. The names are changed to protect identities just as previous parts. It is said "life is like a river that flows always changing." I'm not sure where that saying came from but, it reminds me that my story is about one man's life with all the variations and is not about some pity request. I was going to leave this story alone, keeping it just about a single man's strength of will and intent to raise his son in safety. This is a true story for the most part and, while about 90% of it is true there are some aspects of this story that I invented due to lack of memory and a need to keep the flow of the story. Oh, and who said all the stories on Literotica has to be about sex? One last note before I get on with the story, if you waste your time feeling pity for me then don't bother making a comment. I don't want your pity and personally I'm happy with my life and enjoy it. Also I apologize if there are errors as I don't have any editor and writing is not a natural talent of mine. I have never been able to write anything until I felt compelled to write this short series of stories. * The date is Oct 23 2007 and the judge just signed my divorce papers and my divorce is final. I have a very sad feeling that over whelms me now that everything is over and done with. The actual divorce only took 32 days from start to finish due to my now ex never arguing with me. I am Living at my parents house again. I am lost on what to do and where to go from here. All I know and care about now is that I have sole custody of my son and my ex has supervised visitation when she is basically up to taking it so long as I feel she is safe to be around him. Inside my life and soul are gone, nothing left to feel good about. I now am just moving forward and not caring anymore. I guess I best back up to about mid March of 2006. I had just agreed to let my wife back into my life and give her one last chance. I had driven down to Redding, Ca and picked her up and on the way back her cell phone rang. Pam was afraid to answer the phone so she asked me to. I picked up her cell and answered it as we drove down the freeway. I said "hello can I help you?" The voice on the other end said "who are you and where is Pam?" I then responded saying "I am her husband and we are both crossing the Oregon boarder, what do you want?" The lady on the other end said to me "Never mind it is too fucking late!" That was the last I ever heard of that person. I found out from my wife that it was her counselor. We finally arrived at my parents house and settled in. Things were going good and about a month latter my wife wanted to get a place of our own. We moved to a town we used to live in and got services for her and me there for our mental illnesses. I thought things were going good till she started to slowly sink into her old habits and I tried to give her time to adjust. My wife started to spend more time at her friends houses over night and accusing me of trying to control her like she had in the past. I responded telling her "look Pam you are a mother and a wife it is time you chose to either act like one or I will leave and this time there will be NO more one more chance." Pam responded saying "don't you fucking give me any ultimatum!" I responded saying "I am not controlling you and I am not giving you ultimatums. I am giving you one last chance to make your choice. Do you want me or do I need to go and take our son and start the divorce?" This shook her up for about a week and then she started getting aggressive by yelling at me once again. In doing so she was making me feel like an idiot and even throwing things at me again. Things went on and off on her attitude and several obvious lies I caught her in along with intentionally forgetting of her medication. She also lied to her doctors from what I found out too. Finally Sept of 2006 I decided that I have had enough and left her. I was confused and did not file divorce right away. I moved back to my parents home again. I traveled as often as she claimed to want to see our son. She never did spend more than a total of 2 hours over the course of a year with our son. It was mostly at first she spend 15 min with him and then asked me to leave and I did and eventually she even refused to do that. I had to put an end to the nightmare that turned out to be my marriage. Realized that I could avoid it no more so on Sept 21st of 2007 I filed divorce on my own thanks to a self help divorce class from Legal Aid. I was taught how to apply for a waiver for all the various fees and I got the waver. I filed the papers and gave my wife a notarized copy of the divorce papers that I filed and the next day Sept 22nd I turned in proof of that. Then I waited 30 days and on Sept 23rd of 2007 I requested a waiver on the final 60 days as my wife had yet to respond to the courthouse and was granted the waiver and my papers were signed at 8:59 am in the morning. I was devastated that I had to destroy the final link that was our relationship. My ex ended up moving to her sisters house in S Cal. Where she stayed for some time neither me nor my son saw my now ex wife and she refused to talk to us for a long time after that. As a result of that I was confused and extremely hurt. I hated my ex for forcing me to take this route and not allowing her son to have contact with her. Time had gone on and I survived one day at a time not really moving forward but closer to only doing one thing and that was taking care of my son the only way I knew how. The way I had always done it from the day he was born. The way my now ex wife never could handle. It is now Oct 22nd of 2010 at 1 am (3 years approximately after the divorce) and we have managed to get to being friends and she does talk to her son about once or twice a week for about 5 to 10 min. Pam thinks she is a good mother but, I choose to ignore it and let her believe she is one. The reality is she is not a mother too our son. She has no real emotional bond with him and he has no real bond with her beyond the fact she gave birth to him and they talk a little bit occasionally. I still in my heart can't trust women and I work really hard each day to over come this as I know that not all women are the same. Also I now hate the idea of marriage. I live alone with me and my son. The closest thing to a social life I have is 2 friends that live in the apartment complex. I have lost all real hope of enjoying life again tho for the sake of my son I do a very good job of pretending to enjoy it. My son is a very happy and well adjusted young boy and he is now 6 years old attending 1st grade. Personal note: I thank you readers for listening to my tale this is the final chapter in this story also probably the last story I will write. I will always remember these times of my life and a part of me will be crying inside. I do ask that none of you show pity on me because, I have put myself in this place by made my own choices and mistakes. I know I could have avoided the pain but in the end I do have a son and he is healthy and very well adjusted and that is the only thing that is important to me. Who knows maybe in time I will be able to move on and consider writing again. As I stated in this and previous chapters this is the first attempt at doing any writing. Considering that I think I have done a good job.