Joe's Diner - Chapter 9

 

After Lacy had said yes to my proposal, Jessie said, “Kiss her daddy and let me watch.”

I kissed Lacy and Jessie said, “Kiss her some more for she likes it.”

I said, “That is enough from the cheering section. I have to get to work but we will go out tonight and celebrate.”

That evening we went to a nice restaurant to celebrate our engagement. We don’t drink but we celebrated with some sparkling water and toasted each other.

I believe Jessie is the most excited of all about our engagement.  I told Lacy  that she and Jessie can plan the wedding but we need to set the date.

Lacy said, “I will check my calendar and pick a date. If that works for you then we’ll make it happen.”

It appeared that six weeks from now was the appropriate time so the wedding was on.

It seems when everything is going well something has to raise it’s ugly head and try to complicate matters.

My Ex said she wanted to see her baby !

One day while I happened to still be at home, there was a knock at the door and Lacy answered it.  There stood my Ex wife, Abby.  

She had received the wedding announcement from someone in my office, who had gone to the trouble of checking my past and thought she could stir up some trouble.

Lacy invited her in after she identified herself and Abby announced that she wanted to see her baby.

I entered the room and said, “No for you have no baby.”  I reminded her that part of the divorce settlement was that she gave up all rights to our baby, and she would never see the child again.  

To some this may seem harsh but it was actually her idea at the time because she wanted no encumbrances that a child might bring.

Abby said she had been thinking it over and wanted to get back together again and raise the child together for after all a child needs her mother.

I asked her the name of the person who had sent her the wedding notice and she told me.  I already had figured it out but wanted her to tell me anyway.

I thought to myself, “I will take care of that later today.”

I told Abby if she didn’t leave without disturbing Jessie I would have her arrested.

No - a thousand times NO

She wanted to argue until I started to dial the police the she said she would go.  She asked for a picture of Jessie but I said, “No for she didn’t exist as far as you are concerned.  You have met her mother already and Jessie loves her so go.”

I decided to take her to the plane and see to it that she was headed east to her home.

Before I left for the airport, I told Lacy to bring Jessie down to work after she got out of school and we would go out to lunch.  This settled her down because this visit from Abby upset her greatly.

I gave her a kiss and hurriedly rushed Abby to the airport.  I gathered from her that she was disillusioned with the path she has taken and is just trying to find a new direction.

I wasn’t interested in trying to help her find her way for I knew how easy it would be for her to pull us into her cycle of despair. I offered no advice and no comfort for she had made her own bed and it was up to her to find her way out.

The last thing I wanted was for her to come in and destroy Jessie’s world by trying to draw her into her world of confusion.

Jessie was a happy child and I wasn’t going to allow her birth mother to come in and pretend to be a loving mother that thought of her every day.

I have seen that lie played out many times over.  A woman gives up their baby and after someone else has raised the child; here comes the one who abandoned the baby now trying to convince the grown child of how much birth mother loved her.  Perhaps they hope the child will take care of them as they age.

I watched Abby board the plane and take off.  

On the way home I thought about my marriage to Abby and the downward progression after Jessie was born.  She felt called to help her fellow man but that didn’t include me and Jessie.

The first two years were as much as one could expect from a marriage. We agreed to have our family while we were still young and be able to enjoy our grandchildren but it didn’t work out.

The first signs of trouble were, the long hours she was staying at work, and not willing to spend time with our baby or be intimate with me.

I wanted to understand what happened to her so I hired a friend who worked at or was partnered up with a couple of guys at a decretive agency.

With his connections he managed to discover just what happened to Abby. It seems she so empathized with the prisoners that she started to live their life with them.

They began to play her and she began to bring stuff in for them. She didn’t realize she was bringing drugs in for her patients that outsiders provided for them. When what she was doing was discovered she was fired and lost her license to practice and was put on probation.

She could have served some hard time but they realized she did what she did because of an intense desire to help her patients. She was now getting help from psychologists herself.

It was one of the doctors that insisted she try to reestablish a relationship with me and Jessie.

It was another good idea some no nothing, and uncaring, idiot wanted to try and see how it played out with no concern about what it might do to Jessie.

They were willing try anything without regard to what damage their “try it” scheme might do.  If it messed up Jessie’s life up then it would be a job for another psychologist to straighten her out.

After their expert treatment for Abby she was able to get a job as a waitress for a short time till she went back into rehab again.

Lacy wanted to know how it went and I told her it went off without a hitch.

She was quite upset that Abby would come in and try to upset “Her baby.” She said she wouldn’t allow that to happen and would do whatever it took to make sure it didn’t happen.

I was a little surprised at her resolve but appreciated the way she felt. I took further legal steps to keep her away from Jessie.

Someday if she is interested in hearing it I will tell her the whole story.

I heard that some six months after Abby was released once more from the rehab program, she had been working for one the psychologists on staff. She was still an attractive woman and he became interested in her enough to marry her.

I suppose they can sit around in the evenings and psychoanalyze each other.

He had gotten her a job as a receptionist where he works and she now gets to give patients some advice before their treatment with the doctor.

To be Continued