Lindsay’s Turn: A Family Life Contemporary Short Story Novel – I stared at the papers in my hand: DNA test results and some indictment documents. Someone wanted child support. From my husband. For her and my husband baby. I wobbled and wondered for a moment if I might pass out. I managed to unclench my jaw enough to speak. “When did it happen? Where did it happen?” He exhaled as if as weary as I was and backed away. “Chas!” I shrieked. “You better talk to me.” He sighed and sat back on his heels. “It was when the company sent me to Denver.” My hands clenched and unclenched. My stomach heaved. “You mean while we were celebrating a new baby, you were impregnating another woman?”
I knew something was wrong the moment Chas walked through the door. The fact that he was forty minutes late wasn’t what tipped me off. My husband worked hard and didn’t always get out of the office on time. My warning was the deer-in-the-headlights look on his face that made my stomach drop to my socks. Our sons, Austin and Jayden, ran at him the way they did every night, oblivious to any worries that might be racing through my head. For months there had been talk of downsizing at Chas’s firm. We did all right, but we were a one-income family. Not good in the present economic climate, but I wanted it to stay that way. “Daddy, Daddy,” the boys squealed in unison. Chas knelt to catch them as they charged into his arms at full speed.
Austin reached him first as always and nearly knocked him off his feet. Before long he would be too big for Chas to scoop him into the air as if he weighed nothing. Chas regained his balance and caught Jayden too. With a barely audible grunt, he lifted them off their feet. Racquetball with the guys from work kept him in tip-top shape for his sons. And for me. Tonight, I was too preoccupied with the apprehension in Chas’s eyes to wax sentimental. “Go wash your hands, boys,” I said to break up the wrestling session. They groaned aloud. “We already did,” Austin reminded me. “That was twenty minutes ago.” I put my hands on their shoulders and turned them toward the bathroom. “Austin, be a big helper and make sure Jayden uses soap.”
Jayden headed down the hall at a run. Austin forgot the injustice of rewashing his hands and hurried to catch up. As soon as they were out of sight, I turned to Chas. “What’s wrong?” “Nothing.” He sounded almost sincere. He stepped forward to smooch me the way he did every night. I drew back before his lips touched mine. “Did something happen at work?” “No.” A hint of irritation in his voice let me know my suspicions were dead on. My stomach tightened. “You didn’t get laid off, did you?” “Or course not.” I was so relieved I felt myself relax a little. He headed past me toward the kitchen. I fell in line behind him. When I came out of the bathroom that night, my face clean and moisturized and my breath minty fresh, Chas was sitting on the bed, a sheaf of papers clenched in his hands. He had bathed the boys and put them to bed.
That was until I came out of the bathroom and saw the anxious look in his eyes and the papers in his hands. He looked down at them, and his hold tightened, creasing the pages. “Lindsay, I have to go back to court.” What did he say? Court? People like us didn’t go to court. “Back to court,” I echoed. “When did you ever go to court?” He swallowed. Suddenly he became fascinated with the carpet at my feet. “A few months ago.” This was more than a traffic violation, or he would’ve mentioned it earlier. The tortilla casserole we had for dinner roiled in my stomach. Spicy food often came back to haunt me, especially when I was nervous about something.
I could see already I’d need some antacids before I fell asleep, even if Chas’s appearance in court turned out to be an overdraft from the bank. Then it hit me. Taxes. Our accountant had made a mistake in our filing, and we owed a back payment and a hefty fine. Okay, not fun. I never looked forward to giving the government more of our money, but we’d figure out a way. It couldn’t be that much since we didn’t make that much. I went to the bed and sank down beside him. “What happened? What’s wrong?” I reached for the papers. He tightened his grip and moved them out of reach. My stomach tightened. If the matter was about taxes, he’d be mad, not shamefaced. And he would’ve told me at the very beginning.
Whatever this was, he’d gone to a lot of trouble to hide it from me. For whatever reason, he couldn’t hide it any longer. If everything was fine at work and we weren’t in trouble with the IRS, I was stumped. “Are we being sued?” He continued to stare a hole in the carpet. I wanted to scream at him. Demand answers. Insist that he stop dancing around the issue and give it to me straight. I’m a big girl, I can take it. But…I am a patient, trusting person. I believe in my husband. I could see he was having trouble with this, so I took a deep breath, willed my heart to stop tripping in my chest and wait for him to explain in his own timing so we could work it out together. It’s how we did everything. “Yes,” he finally mumbled without looking at me. I nearly fell off the bed. My resolve to remain calm and trusting flew out the window. “What?” I shrieked.
I was too tense to worry about waking the boys. “Why?” I wanted to add; What did you do? but I managed to keep it inside. Chas brought his eyes up to meet mine. What I saw there made me snatch the papers out of his hands before he could react. I jumped up and moved toward the light spilling out the open bathroom door. My eyes hurriedly scanned the official documents as I moved and turned to escape Chas’s reaching hands. It’s impossible to keep something away from someone who has longer arms than you. Without a whole lot of effort, Chas reached around me and grabbed the papers out of my hands, but not before I saw enough to figure out why he had been so helpful and accommodating tonight. “You snake! You rotten, lying…” I couldn’t think of an expletive intense enough to express my fury. “How could you?” I drove into his chest with my arms, forcing him to backpedal across the room toward the bed. He outweighed me by thirty pounds so I couldn’t push him very hard. For a moment, though, I had momentum on my side. When his legs hit the bed, he stiffened easily and remained on his feet.
I sagged against him for a second before I realized I didn’t want him to touch me. I never wanted him to touch me again. Chapter 2 I pulled away from him and stared into his red eyes. Words wouldn’t come. Prickly heat broke out over my body. Red welts rose on my arms and under my pajama bottoms. My face flamed. I started around him. He grabbed my arms. “Lindsay, let me explain.” “Explain! Explain what?” I knocked the papers out of his hand. His lips pulled down and he lowered his head to look at me as though I were being childish. Oh, he hadn’t seen childish yet. “Those are DNA test results,” I spat while he knelt on the floor and gathered the papers together. “Why would someone need your DNA? You didn’t kill anybody—I guess—so that leaves one explanation. Some woman thinks you’re the father of her baby.” I paused to catch my breath and to wait for him to contradict me. I was wrong. My brain was whirling around, landing on all sorts of outlandish possibilities that couldn’t be true. This wasn’t happening. There was a logical explanation.
I just needed to shut up and let him explain why he had to go back to court and defend himself against irrefutable DNA evidence. But what other explanation could there be? If he wasn’t the father of some kid out there, he wouldn’t have to go back to court. The fact that he’d had to go in the first place could only mean one thing. Someone wanted child support. From my husband. For her baby. I wobbled and wondered for a moment if I might pass out. I managed to unclench my jaw enough to speak. “When did it happen? Where did it happen?” Even as I asked, I prayed he wouldn’t answer me. An answer, an explanation, would prove this was happening. This was real. It wasn’t a horrible dream I couldn’t wake up from.
He exhaled as if as weary as I was and backed away. He went to the overstuffed chair where I liked to read and sank into it. He lowered his head to his hands. His shoulders began to heave and sounds of despair came from behind his closed hands. This was another trick of his sons I recognized immediately. It wasn’t going to work. “Chas!” I shrieked. “You better talk to me.” “It isn’t like you think,” he began in a tired voice. “It was a long time ago.” My entire body sagged with relief. Thank you, God. He had gotten some poor girl pregnant in college, and she was just now catching up with him. Okay, so I wasn’t happy that he’d never told me he’d been involved in such a serious relationship or that he’d been ordered to provide a DNA sample. I quickly did the calculations in my head. We had been together for nine years. Nine years of back child support would add up to a hefty sum. I had no idea where that would come from. I wanted to punch him at the thought of how I would be the one sacrificing to tighten the family budget to make it work. But at least my marriage was still solid.
My husband had made a stupid choice in college, but he wasn’t a cheater. “When was it, Chas?” He exhaled. His shoulders slumped, and he looked away from me. “Four years ago.” The black dots were back in front of my eyes. “Four years!” All strength seeped out of my body like air from a leaky balloon. I sank to my knees on the carpet. Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. Four years. It couldn’t be possible. Chas knelt beside me. “Honey?” I jerked away but didn’t get up. “You better tell me everything.” I looked straight into his eyes. “Everything.” He sighed and sat back on his heels. “It was when the company sent me to Denver.” I searched my mind for the time he was referring to. He left town a few times a year, but it was usually only overnight, and he seldom left our time zone. Denver had been a bigger deal. It proved he was advancing through the ranks at work.
We were so excited that he had been chosen to work on the contract. We got my mom to babysit Austin and went out to a nice restaurant to celebrate. There weren’t many nights out in those days. “You were only gone for three days. You couldn’t control your libido for three days?” I never wanted to choke the life out of anyone so much in my life. He clasped his hands and lowered his eyes like a naughty child. My hands clenched and unclenched. Suddenly something else occurred to me. Something that poured salt into my gaping wound. “Wasn’t that about the same time we found out we were having Jayden.” He gave a small nod. “I know.” My stomach heaved. I swallowed hard to keep from getting sick all over my clean carpet. “You mean while we were celebrating a new baby, you were impregnating another woman?”