27 comments/ 41161 views/ 4 favorites The Importance of Being Auburn By: The Wanderer Once again I must thank my LadyCibelle and Techsan for their patience, proof reading, editing skills and of course encouragement. As always I must also add, that I can't leave a story alone. I could well have added some cock-ups after they have seen it and before it gets posted. That should keep the GPs happy at least. The story starts circa 1966. There is no sex in this story. I must also point out that at the beginning of the story the protagonists are only 17 years old. The legal age of consent in the United Kingdom is 16 (except Northern Ireland where it is 17). Look I was seventeen when my life first went down the pan. Deanna came round my house one day and announced that she was pregnant. Deanna and I had been friends since our primary school days. You know we had just hung around together. Were we in love? I'm fucked if I know. I thought we were but as neither of us ever got serious with anyone else I just don't know. We had a few fall-outs but always finished up back together. Anyway the shit hit the fan big time. Both Deanna's parents and mine insisted that we get married. Deanna and I were both happy with the idea so a hurried marriage was arranged. Now I had never been flavour of the month with Dea's folks and getting her pregnant didn't do anything for they're affection towards me. The marriage was a quiet affair in the local registry office. My beautiful new wife and I moved into a flat over one of her father's shops. I, of course, had to leave college where I had been studying engineering; I needed to start earning a living for my new family. An uncle of mine swung me an apprenticeship as a toolmaker with a local company where he worked. The money was crap but when the apprenticeship was over I would be able to earn a good salary. In the meantime I did all kinds of jobs in the evenings and at weekends to earn extra cash we needed to make ends meet. And I hoped one day to be able to put down a deposit on a house. Dea was not too pleased that I was out either at college or doing part time jobs every night. Very soon cracks began to form in our relationship. These were made worse by my mother from hell. She managed the shop we were living over; everyday she would go up and see Dea and she would be pointing out my shortcomings. Now look, I know I was no angel, but I was doing the best I could for the woman I loved, who was about to become the mother of my child. But whatever I did, it just didn't appear to be appreciated. For a while, things got a little better between Dea and me when Nettie (Anita) our baby was born. Dea and I were proud of our beautiful daughter. But disturbed nights, and me out working or studying all the time soon led us back to bitching at each other again and now there was a baby in the house and the Gorgon seemed to be around more than ever. By then it was open war far between Dea's mother and me. To be honest Dea's father was really an all right bloke. I really believe he felt sorry for me at times. I struggled on because that's what my father always told me a man should do. As he put it, "You made the bed when you laid the girl, now you have to bloody well lay in it." Well, for the next year or two I did the best I could. But I was working and studying all the hours that god gave me. Life with Dea was just a routine and our sex life diminished to almost zero. Jesus, I was nineteen and I felt like I was fifty. As I came home from the evening job I had, one night, I saw my fathers car pulling away from outside the flat. When I got inside Dea was in Nettie's bedroom. I went in and found her putting Nettie to bed. When I enquired why Nettie was up at nearly midnight, Deanna told me her mother had been looking after her whilst she went out. Angrily I enquired as to where she had gone and she told me that it was none of my business. She said I was out all the time, she had a right to go out and enjoy herself if she wanted too, as well. I went bloody ape shit. I was either studying or working when I was out. I never went out and had fun. Dea wouldn't have it and she still refused to tell me where she had been. For the next week or so we hardly spoke. We went through the motions. What sex we had been having stopped completely. It was at this time that I made the most disconcerting discovery of my life. I was playing with Nettie one Sunday morning before I went off to work behind the bar at the local pub, when I noticed Nettie's hair was changing colour. When she was born it had been a mousy blond colour just like mine. Now it appeared to have a definite ginger tinge to it. Deanna is blond, her mother is blond, and her father has black hair. All my family are blond. Where the bleeding hell had this ginger tinge come from? I studied Nettie closely. She had features that definitely came from Deanna's family, but none that I would say pointed to my family. Now what did I make of this? You can bloody well guess what I made of it, can't you? I wondered whether I had been taken for a ride. Back then in the sixties we didn't have all this genetic testing that they've got now. But I went round to my doctor the following morning and spoke to him. He, of course, quoted patient confidentiality at me. But after a lot of pushing he checked the blood types and said that I was most likely to be Nettle's father. That was an odd thing for him to say. He didn't say I was Nettie's father just that I could be and he wouldn't elaborate. I got details of Nettie and my blood groups from him, but he wouldn't give me Deanna's. Then I went to see the doctor at my employer's. I'd been to see him a few times as I'd been pushing the envelope a bit over the last couple of years and he was keeping an eye on my health. I asked him the same question I'd asked my family doctor. After getting him a sample of Deanna's blood so he could find out her group. (Where do you think I got it? I just had to wait a couple of weeks) He told me there was a 60% chance that I was Nettie's father. That was all he could say. That was as close they could get those days before DNA testing. A 95% would have allayed my fears, but 60% was all he could give me. That meant there was a forty-percent chance I was not Nettie's father. I was not a happy bunny, I'll tell you. +++++++++++++ One Saturday night a few weeks later I was pulling pints in the local pub, when a fight started. I got involved and separated the two guys who were both friends of mine, who had consumed a little too much falling down water. Unfortunately I took a rather nasty knock in the mêlée and he boss sent me home. It was around ten in the evening. In those days the pubs used to shut at 11PM, then there was the drinking up time and after that we had to get the bar ready for the following day, so normally I wasn't home until after 1AM. When I got home Deanna's mother was baby-sitting. I was livid; Dea had gone out again without telling me. I demanded to know where Dea was and how often she had been going out on Saturday nights. The Gorgon, besides telling me that Dea had a right to go out with her friends had refused to tell me where she had gone. But from the way she spoke I gathered it was a regular thing. The row that ensued between my mother and me was loud enough to cause the neighbours to call the police. Which turned out to be to my advantage, as they made the bitch comply with my request that she leave my home. After settling Nettie back down I sat and watched out the window for Deanna to return. Just after twelve a car pulled up outside, I could just make out Dea sitting in the back. Dea got out and stood talking with the door open for a while. I could see a guy sitting in the back seat. They were quite loud and although I couldn't hear what they were saying I thought they were probably laughing and joking as Deanna was waving her arms about. Then Dea shut the door and started walking towards the flat. But just then her father's car pulled up. Dea looked surprised when she saw her mother was in it and went over to her. They talked for a while and I saw Dea nervously looking up at the flat then turning back and talking again with her mother. I don't think Dea could see me watching her through the darkened window. They talked for some time then Dea's father got out of the car and came up to the flat with her. I sat in the lounge and waited. Dea came in and just stood looking at me. Her father stayed in the background in the hall. As I said, I think he really was a good guy he was just there to see I didn't lose it and do something I would regret. "Just what do you think you are playing at?" I demanded. "I just went out with the girls for the evening." Deanna replied. "Oh you decided to go out with girls and didn't bother to mention it to me. You arranged for your mother to come and baby sit and didn't bother to mention that to me either." "I knew you'd react like this, that's why I never told you. You're jealous of me having any fun. I'm stuck here with Anita all the time. Well, I got bored and went out with the girls tonight." "The girls, what girls and where did you go?" "The girls from school, you know them. Angela, Shirley and that crowd; we went to the Fender Club to the dance." "So if you went with the girls, how did you get home at this time of night? There's no buses running now." "We got a taxi and the girls dropped me off." "Do I look like I'm fucking dim or something. You just got out of the back of John Brag's car. That isn't a bloody taxi." "Oh, we were waiting for a taxi and John offered us a lift. He had been in the Fender Club as well." "So how many girls were there in this little group of yours?" "Five of us, we all just about managed to squeeze in?" "Blimey! seven of you, all crammed into that little Ford Cortina. That must have been crowded. "No, six. There was just the five of us and John." "No, Deanna. At least seven, you appear to have forgotten Ray Stevens. The guy who's lap you were sitting on. The guy who had your tits out when the car pulled up." Deanna took a sharp intake of breath; I had taken her by surprise. She hadn't realised I'd not only seen the car arrive but that I could see into it as well. The lights in the shop windows light it up down there like daylight. I saw tears begin to form in the corner of her eyes. She was caught and she knew it. "Why the hell are you lying to me? John Brag is banned from the Fender Club and has been for years. He was in the pub the other night complaining because they won't lift the ban on him and he always has that red headed bastard Ray Stevens with him. "Now cut the crap. You and Stevens had a thing going at one time when we were at school. You told me it was over when we got back together. You have been a complete bitch to me since we got married and from the way you are behaving I don't think it was ever over between you. "I think you were playing around with him behind my back and it was Ray Stevens who put you in the club. Why did you pick on me? Did you think that little slime ball wouldn't make a good father or did he refuse to make an honest woman of you?" "What the hell are you talking about?" "Anita, that's what I'm talking about. Haven't you noticed her hair is turning ginger, just like Ray Stevens's hair? I wonder whether there's a better than 60% chance that he's Anita's daddy." "You,.. you're talking rubbish. You're Anita's father." "So you have always claimed. But the doctors have told me there's only a 60% chance I'm her father." Deanna's face had turned bright red. Her speech was broken as if she didn't really know what to say. "I,,,I...You are being silly. Anita's our baby. How could you think otherwise?" "Look, Deanna, you told me that I was Anita's father and I gave up college and married you. Since we've been married you have shown less and less interest in me. And now I find you riding around in a car with an old boyfriend and your tits hanging out. I'm beginning to think I was a scapegoat. A mug! I think you were two-timing me with Ray Stevens and I think he put you in the family way. I was always so careful; I never could make out how you had got pregnant. "But Ray Stevens isn't the type to be careful, is he? We all know he put Jennifer Hunt in the club at school and then he denied it afterwards. Did he tell you to get lost as well? Is that why you let me take the can?" "No. No. You are Anita's father. You're my husband. I love you." "Oh, you love me, do you? Then just tell me when was the last time you said that to me? When was the last time we made love? Better than that, when was the last time you spoke civilly to me? Well, the worm has turned. From now on you're on your own. I'm out of here." With that I stood up picked up the bag that I had already packed from beside my chair and started for the door. My father must have decided that it was time he put his oar in. "Hold on just a minute, Reece, and please calm down. You surely can't believe that Anita is not your daughter." "Oh, yes, I can, Jim. Your daughter has put me through nearly three years of fucking misery and I think it's because she's married to the wrong guy. Well, I've had enough. She can go and find some other mug to work his balls off for her." With that I pushed past him and walked out of the flat. As I went down the stairs, Dea was calling after me begging me to stay. Her mother obviously heard the ruckus and got out of the car and started shouting at me. I was surprised to hear Jim shout at her, "Shut up, you silly bitch. I think this is probably all down to you anyway. You never gave the boy a chance." I rounded the corner at that point so I couldn't make out what was said after that. What to do now? I didn't know. If I went to my sister's house, Dea would soon find me. So I went to the factory and spent the rest of the night sitting in the gatehouse with the security guard. Ted was a nice old boy who had been a friend of my grandfather before he died. I told him about my troubles and he commiserated with me and offered me the use of a spare room at his place for the time being, which I gratefully accepted. In the morning before I went to Ted's place I called my sister Susan. She was very worried about me and told me Dea and her father had already been around to her house looking for me. I told her I was fine (which was a lie) and that I had somewhere to stay for the time being. I also told her that I was through with Dea. She knew that the last few years had been a living hell for me, Sue had apparently given Dea a piece of her mind and told her to get lost. Lunchtime I turned up for my part time job in the pub but at the same time handed in my notice. Whilst I was on the bar serving, Dea's father came in, but the governor, knowing what had happened, came out and asked him to leave before he could speak to me. I left the pub early by the back door. Monday morning I went to see the training manager at my job and told him I was leaving. I really don't know what I was planning to do; I just wanted to get away. Then the training manager came up with a better idea. It appears that he didn't want to waste the time and effort the company had invested in me. He suggested that I stay another month until the current college term finished (I was on day release to go to college) and then I would transfer to the company's Swindon factory where I could finish my apprenticeship. Apparently the company had a hostel there for apprentices that I could stay in for the time being. So that's what I did. I had an awkward month dodging Dea and her dad. They hung around outside the factory some evenings. But the security guys were quite good at tipping me off as to which gate they were at so I just used one of the others. Six weeks later I was down in Swindon. The police came to see me as Dea had reported me as a missing person. I told them I was fine and they asked whether I wanted Dea to be told where I was. I told them no, but they did say that if Dea started divorce proceedings against me they would have to tell the court where I was. That was the last I heard really. She sent some letters to my sister asking about me and some that she asked Sue to forward on to me; I asked Sue to return them unopened. I finished my apprenticeship and almost immediately I was moved into the model shop. I had never realised but the management had plans for me. Apparently I was very good at solving problems and this had been spotted a few years ago. Let me explain. A designer designs something that looks great, but some mug has to make it. Sometimes it is nigh on impossible to make, but I just happened to be good at working out how to modify things so they could be made and keep the costs down as well. The next few years flew by. I never heard anything about Dea. No, that's a lie, my sister Sue would tell me she had returned another letter to her, three or four times a year. She told me that Dea was apparently living with her parents since that was where the letters came from. A couple of times Sue asked me to write to Dea but I refused. You know the old saying "absence make the heart grow fonder". Well, for me it was true I couldn't get her out of my mind. But my thoughts of her were always tempered with distrust and the pain she had put me through. I moved up through the company at an amazing pace and by the time I was thirty-four I was on the board as director in charge of product development. I had a nice (not very) little cottage and a smart company car. Women? Yeah, there were some of them around. I'm not a bad looking bloke, and with my salary I must have looked like a good catch. But once bitten twice shy, if you know what I mean. Besides that I was probably still married. I'd never seen any paperwork to say I was divorced and Dea was apparently still using my name. ++++++++++++++ Things began to change for me when I was having a meal with a colleague in one of the big hotels in Swindon one Friday evening. My friend drew my attention to that fact that a young lady, who was eating alone, was watching us. She was much too young for my associate or me and we wondered what her interest was. Once she realised we were aware of her she pretended not to look anymore. Later as we left the bar I literally bumped into the young woman. We both said sorry and that was that. But a few seconds later the security guy came over to me and with his eye still on the girl asked me if I still had my wallet. I checked and told him it was still there and asked him why he had asked. "That girl was waiting for you to come out of the bar sir. She made a beeline for you and walked into you on purpose. I though she might have been a pick-pocket after your wallet." I turned to look in the direction the girl had gone, but she was no longer in sight. The hotel detective didn't know who she was. He said he thought he had seen her follow me in earlier and she hadn't had a table pre-booked as was usual. We had a company car to drive us home that night as my associate and I both knew we would be drinking. (Perks of the job.) The car dropped my friend off first as he lived closest; then as he was driving me home the chauffeur told me that we had company. A taxi was following us. "Are you sure?" I asked. "Sure as I can be." The driver said, "Do you mind if I go the long way around. That will prove it." We went to my house via the wrong end of the village and the taxi stayed with us. "Well, that proves it boss. He's definitely following us. What do you want me to do?" "It's no secret where I live. Look, drop me off and then do a circuit; see if you can spot what the taxi does. Then give me a call later and let me know. But don't go getting yourself in any tight spots or anything." "You're on, boss, I won't lose him." The Importance of Being Auburn I think my driver was enjoying the intrigue. Half an hour later he called me. "Right, boss. I followed the taxi back into town. It dropped a woman off at a hotel then I managed to have a word with the driver. He said the girl hailed him outside the place I picked you up from and asked him to follow us. Once she had your address she told him to take her back to town. He said he told her that I was following him but she just thought that was funny and was not bothered about it. "The taxi driver was a bit curious and waited until the girl had gone into the hotel. You know, he said he wasn't sure what to make of it. For his piece of mind he wanted to make sure she was actually staying at that hotel." I thanked my driver and asked him if he was available to run my car home to me the following morning and he said he would arrange that. Saturday morning I was laying on a lounger in my back garden sunbathing when I heard a car pull into the drive. I assumed it was the driver with my car. He knew the score and would just leave it there for me. A little later a shadow fell over me. I didn't look up. "Hello, Anita what can I do for you?" "You know who I am." "I worked it out last night, girl. It didn't require Sherlock Holmes, and besides you have your mother's eyes. Now what can I do for you?" "I just want to know my father." "Well, I think you've got the wrong man. I believe your father is called Ray Stevens." "No, he's not. My father is Reece Colne and that's you. Mother told me she never slept with Ray Stevens. She says that you are my father. She told me how much of a bitch she was to you and how she drove you away." I turned and looked at her. She had long auburn hair down to her shoulders. Except for that hair colour it could have been Deanna standing there. "I can't believe she is sticking to those lies after all this time. From almost the day we were married she was not a wife to me, and then I saw her with that wanker. Does she really think I'm going to believe that crap now." Without me offering, Anita sat herself down on the other lounger. "Mother isn't asking you to believe her, I am! I know that it is hard for you to believe but mother loves you, she's always loved you. Look, after you left mother had a breakdown. She finished up in hospital and they said she was suffering from serious depression. Very serious depression and had probably been since I had been born. "Do you know that grandfather divorced Nan over it. He said that instead of helping the pair of you through a difficult period, Nan had spent all her time trying to drive a wedge between mother and you. That had made mum's depression worse and she took it out on you. "Mum has told me over and over that she should never have gone out with the girls those times. She said that being with the girls seemed to make all her troubles go away for a while. But when she got home she had to look after me again; then her mother would keep winding her up about you and the fact that you were out all the time. Mother knew you were working very hard to get enough money together to buy a house, so you could get her out of that flat she hated so much. She felt guilty about going out and having a good time. "She felt so guilty that she tried to hide the fact that she was going out from you. When you found out, she just didn't know what to say to you. So she did what her mother had taught her to do. She attacked you and told you to mind your own business. Then that night you came home early and had a big row with Nan. Mother said it was such a shock when you suddenly threw Ray Stevens at her. "She says that Ray Stevens and John Brag came past whilst she and the girls were waiting for a taxi out side the club. John offered the girls a lift, but mother said she wanted to wait for a taxi. The girls accepted the lift and mother didn't have enough money for a taxi on her own, so she had to get into the car as well. But as she was last, the only place for her to sit was on Ray Stevens's lap. "She told me that she had gone out with Ray a couple of times a few years before when you and her had fallen out for a while. But she says she only ever went out with him to make you jealous. Anyway Ray got out of hand in the car and pulled her top down just as the car arrived at the flat. She told Ray off and so did John Brag and the girls. You won't know but after you left John Brag and Ray had a fight over it. John is a nice man really; he and Angela have been good friends to mum and me. "Oh, I don't suppose you know John married Angela. They invited you to their wedding in a vain attempt to get some dialog going between you and mother. But I suspect your sister never sent the invite on." "Oh, but Susan did. I just couldn't figure out why they had invited me. We were never close friends at school. They were your mother's friends not mine." "Their plan was to get you two together and tell you what really happened." "I can't see that that would have done any good. I'm afraid I left you mother because I am sure that I'm not your father. I had begun to notice your hair getting some colour in it and it wasn't a colour that I could place in your mother's or my families. I thought it was turning ginger and that's why I thought that probably Stevens could be your father. Is it still ginger, do you dye it?" "No, this is my natural colour and it is in your family. It's just that you have never realised it." "Oh, yes, where do you get that idea, we're all blondes." "Not quite, father!" She said with an assured tone as she opened her handbag, and took out a compact; she flipped it open and turned it towards me. "Would you like to tell me what colour your moustache is? Are you going to say you dye it? Taken somewhat by surprise I looked at my tash in the mirror. I am quite proud of my Mexican style moustache. I looked and I studied. I look at the damn thing everyday but I have never noticed. It's not blond. It's brown, no red; no it's a very pale auburn colour. "Oh, My god!" "Yes, daddy, your father's beard was the same colour, but I guess you never recognised it. Here look at these old pictures." She pulled several pictures of my father from her bag and held them out to me. "When you left us, you left your photo albums behind. I spotted the colour of his beard in some of them a couple of years ago. It appears to vary a bit, in the Christmas photo's the colour is quite pronounced but in the summer holiday shots his beard looks almost white. Gramps and I have been looking for you ever since I spotted it." Looking at the photos of my deceased father, I suddenly remembered how his beard would appear to change colour. Then the realisation of what Anita was telling me hit home. I think I cried out as I burst into tears. My whole world suddenly seemed to crash around me. I couldn't think straight or really make sense of what was happening. I think I must have been very near having a breakdown. I can recall Anita rushing out of her seat and throwing her arms around me. After that nothing! How long I sat there crying I don't know. The next few hours are a complete mystery to me. When I came out of my daze I was laying on my bed and my doctor was giving me an injection. He was saying something to me but I never heard him, then the room went black again. I was to learn later that the shock of realising that I had been so wrong was nearly too much for my brain to handle. The doctor had giving me a sedative, hoping that some rest would help. I opened my eyes when I heard a voice say "Reece, can you hear me?" The room was dark and I could see stars out of the window to my left. Turning my head to the right I saw a vague outline. Then a voice that I knew so well said, "I'm sorry, Reece, I didn't mean to be so nasty to you but my head was in such a muddle." Then Deanna lent down and kissed my forehead. "Will you ever forgive me?" I reacted up and grabbed hold of her pulling her down onto me. "It's you who have to forgive me. I walked out on you and out child." "Now you two, lets not get into who's fault it was." Anita's stern voice came from somewhere else in the room. "There is no point in playing the blame game. If you do that we will never be a family and we've been apart much too long. You've both made some big mistakes so can we please forget them and try and get on with our lives." +++++++++++ What is going to happen now? I don't really know. Deanna and Anita are staying at my house for the time being. Dea and I are talking and have kissed and cuddled a bit. Deanna wanted to share my bed but I asked her to wait a while. I'm not the same young man she married all those years ago. She might decide that she doesn't love me after all. Anita thinks that is doubtful I realise now that Deanna and I were much to young and naive when we got married and she had Nettie. I was completely out of my depth trying to be a husband and father. I was trying to be the man that my father was, but I was just to young to handle it. I know that I loved Dea, but I hadn't recognised that she was also out of her depth and needed more support than I had given her. I had a one-track mind back then and was only thinking of the future. I was out of that depressing little flat most the time. Although I was working, I wasn't stuck in the hellhole. Dea needed to get out of that place as well, even if it was just for a few hours. Dea was wrong not to tell me she was going out with her friends. But the young are not famous for making the right decisions. She was also under the influence of her mother, who I now believe had a hidden agenda. Dea's mother wasn't just being a bitch to me, I think she wanted the marriage to fail. I believe she thought I had stolen her daughter and she wanted to get her back. Do I really want Dea back in my life? Yes, I believe I do. Every one of the women I've dated over the years I have turned down because they did not measure up to Dea. From what Anita has told me, her mother has never taken the approaches of other men seriously. Anita has told me that since she was very small whenever the subject of the suitors who had approached her mother came up. Dea had just said that there is only one Reece, no other man would do! But I'm going to take things very slowly. To rush things now, I'm sure could be a mistake. We have to get used to each other slowly and then we shall see what the future brings. Life goes on.