“Jesus,” John said to his first ex-wife standing outside his door. “What happened to you?”

“I’m afraid it’s a long story,” she said, a frustrated look on her face. “John, can I come in?”

“Well, yeah, sure,” he said, wondering what trouble was about to land in his lap now. As if he didn’t have enough trouble already . . .

He stepped aside to let her in, noticing a strange car at the curb. He could see it was piled high with stuff. When was it Don had called and said her husband had reported she’d loaded up her stuff and left? Monday? Tuesday? Something like that; he’d really lost track of time this week.

“Thanks, John,” she said. “I’m afraid I’ve got some trouble.”

“Looks like it,” he replied sympathetically. “Did Joshua or James or whatever his name is lay that shiner on you? Looks like he popped you a good one.”

“No, not him,” she sighed. “It’s a little complicated.”

He shook his head. “When wasn’t anything around us a little complicated?”

Mandy started to answer, but was cut off by Sally saying from around the corner, “Is everything all right, John?”

“All clear. You can come out, now.”

“I’m sorry, John,” Mandy said apologetically. “I didn’t know you were with somebody again. Maybe I’d better go.”

“I’m not with anybody,” he replied, with a little understanding in his voice. “That’s a long story, too. Come on into the living room, you can fill me in there.”

Mandy took a couple steps toward the living room – she’d been in the house before, although not often – when Sally stepped into view from the kitchen. “My God!” she exclaimed. “Mandy! What happened to you?”

John glanced at Mandy, who furrowed her eyebrows, obviously wondering who this stranger could be. Whoever she was, Mandy realized this person knew her. She shook her head in confusion, blinked her eyes, and clearly came up with a case of pure non-recognition. It wasn’t surprising, he realized; Sally didn’t look much like she’d looked in high school, and they had never been close.

After a few seconds of amusement, John decided to take a little pity on his ex-wife. “Mandy,” he said, “you remember Sally Hanson, don’t you?”

“Sally?” Mandy replied in a distant-sounding voice, still apparently unable to make the connection. “But . . . John?”

“Sally and her daughter got their car totaled the other day,” John explained. “Her daughter, Teresa, has a couple broken legs. They didn’t have a place to stay, so I offered to help them out.”

“Sally?” Mandy repeated, still apparently without a clue.

“John had been unbelievably nice to us,” Sally explained. “I don’t know what we would have done if he hadn’t been such a nice guy.” She got a grin on her face as she began to realize that Mandy was still at a total loss about who she was. “He sure isn’t the same guy I knew back in Bradford when we all went to school together.”

“Oh, shit,” Mandy sighed, recognition – or, at least, semi-recognition coming over her. “You’re Sally Hanson? I don’t believe it!”

“There have been times I’ve wished I didn’t have to believe it myself,” Sally admitted.

“What . . . what happened to you? Emily said you’d disappeared!”

“I did, and in more ways than one,” Sally admitted. “That’s a long story, too.”

“I think maybe we’d better head into the living room and sit down so we can catch up,” John suggested. “Mandy, you look like you need a drink.”

“My God, yes,” Mandy shook her head. “Anything you can find with a punch to it.”

“I think I can manage that,” John said. He didn’t drink very much, and only rarely when he was alone, but liquor kept well and there were times it was handy. As Sally and Mandy headed for the living room, he went to the kitchen to see what he could throw together. Rum and Pepsi sounded like a good idea – he knew he had some of the former, and plenty of the latter. In fact, he thought, he could use a stiff one himself. “Sally,” he spoke up, “would you like one, too?”

“No, I’ll pass,” she said. “I can’t afford to drink, so I guess I got out of the habit.”

Teresa had been sitting in her wheelchair in the living room, watching TV but not paying much attention to it. Seeing they had company, she used the remote and turned it off, since the prospect of a visitor apparently was of more interest to her. While Sally introduced the two, John turned to making drinks – loaded for him and Mandy, straight from the can for Sally and Teresa.

“So, Mandy,” he said as he walked into the living room carrying the drinks, “if Jeremy or James or whoever it is didn’t give you that black eye, what happened?”

“I fell down,” she admitted. “I was carrying stuff out to the car. We had an ice storm the night before, and it was just slippery everywhere. Unfortunately, I had an armload of stuff and I fell right into something. I think it was a hand mixer, but stuff was scattered all over hell.”

“That was what? Monday?” John frowned. “If it’s that old, I’m afraid there’s not much I can do for you as an EMT. It should be clearing up pretty quickly, though.”

“It’s a little better already,” she replied. “It just looks like I’ve had the shit kicked out of me, that’s all. Not that Joseph wouldn’t give me one like it if he were to find me.”

“I thought there might be something like that,” John nodded. “Your dad called me the other day and said Joseph had told him you’d disappeared on him. It didn’t really surprise me, knowing you, if you know what I mean.”

“John, I’m still sorry about that,” she replied in a pleading tone. “It was the biggest mistake of my life, and I never should have done it. There’s no way I could ever make that up to you.”

“From what your dad said, it sounded to me like you and Joseph had some troubles and you resorted to the tried and true method of solving them.”

“Oh, God, I didn’t want to,” she sighed. “John, I really wanted to try and make it work with him. He really seemed like a nice guy, but Joseph, well, he had some financial and business difficulties and the violent drunk part of him came out. He tried to beat me up so he could get into my savings account, and wanted my credit cards so he could max them out.”

“Did he get them?” Sally asked. “Unfortunately, I’ve known guys like that.”

“No, but I was lucky,” Mandy sighed. “I was able to hide the paperwork and the cards until he passed out, and then I went out and hid them in the car. Things didn’t look like they were going to get any better with him and I’d had enough of it, so after we left for work the next day, I turned around, went back, and cleaned out the apartment. I’ve sort of, uh, been on the run since.”

“I’d have thought you’d have gone to your dad’s,” he commented.

“I thought about it,” she admitted, “but I didn’t want Dad to see me with my face like this and think that Joe had beaten me up or something. Besides, I figured Joe would figure that would be the first place I’d go, so I decided I’d better go somewhere else.” She let out a sigh and said, “I thought maybe you could help me out, at least for a few days.”

“It sounds like this Joseph is a real asshole,” Sally commented, not caring that her daughter was sitting next to her. John figured that Teresa had heard worse in her lifetime, considering some of the stories Sally had told in the last couple days.

“Well, once I thought he was a nice guy,” Mandy shook her head, “but it didn’t work out that way. Unfortunately, he didn’t start to show his true colors until after I married him.”

Sally let out a sigh. “John, with all due respect,” she said, “I’ve found that most guys are pretty nice until you get to know them. Then the asshole starts to come out.”

“Observation accepted,” he said. “I told you right from the beginning I was no saint. I think Mandy will be quite willing to give you plenty of details about that.”

“You are irritating, obnoxious, self-centered, and sometimes crude and arrogant,” Mandy said. “Especially when you’re under pressure. You were the all-time champion Bradford High School horndog, and never missed a chance to get it on, but you were never violent. You were always serious and grounded about what you were doing. That made up for a lot of sins.”

“I may have gotten around a little more than some of the other guys in high school,” he said, being careful of his words, knowing that Teresa was sitting right there, “but it takes two to tango, and the other party was always about as ready to go as I was. It was just that I worked a little harder at making opportunities than other guys did. You take a guy like Scott, for example. He dated a lot more than I did, but as far as I know he never was willing to go to the extra effort involved in taking advantage of it.”

“Oh, God, Scott,” Sally shook her head. “I don’t know how many times I wished I could date him. Of course, with my folks, it wouldn’t have happened even if he had asked me.”

“I always figured Scott was looking for something special,” Mandy said, a little ruefully. “I guess he found it. Sonja sure got lucky with him.”

“Before we get too wrapped up in discussing school days,” John said, taking a sip of his rum and Pepsi, “I guess I have to ask what you’re doing here.”

“Well, John,” Mandy said, “I guess maybe I was hoping maybe you could put me up for a few days, at least until Joe gets over his being pissed a little bit and won’t be looking for me as hard as I think he must be. And then, well . . . ” She glanced at Sally and let out a sigh. “I don’t know what I was wishing for,” she said. “Maybe might-have-beens, I guess.”

“Yeah, the timing is a little late for that,” John said, pretty good at picking up what she was saying. He felt that way himself from time to time. Mandy, darn her hide, had been as close as he’d ever come to actually having something permanent. However, that was something that had washed a long way down the river now. “But this isn’t the time or place to talk about it.”

“I know,” she sighed, “but you can’t keep me from wishing. I guess you’re right, though. The time for that is in the past now. But John, I still need to lie low for a while.”

John sat and looked at the two of them for quite a while. He remembered hearing that the Chinese ideograph for “trouble” was two women under one roof. But this was a special situation. He really didn’t have much interest in Sally, especially in getting into a relationship with her. In fact, he wanted to avoid it like Republicans want to avoid taxes. She seemed like a nice enough person in her way, but she just did not turn him on. It was clear that any kind of a permanent relationship was just asking for more woman trouble, something he’d had more than enough of in his life. It was obvious that she would not mind getting into it with him; the last three evenings there had been more than veiled hints that an approach to her would be accepted.

But going down that road clearly led to more trouble than he wanted. It was clear that if he were looking for a permanent relationship, she wouldn’t be the place to start, not with her background. She may actually be a nice enough person, but she had a history of running away from trouble, rather than facing up to it. He realized that one of the things he’d been concerned about was the potential for this “temporary” situation to continue on and on until it turned more or less permanent. Then, once he had some interest invested in the relationship, she was capable of taking off when she decided it was time to move on . . . sort of like Mandy, now that he thought about it. Mandy sure had pulled that trick, at least twice now that he knew of.

On the other hand, having Mandy present, at least for a few days, might tend to balance things off. He was just about sure Mandy would have liked to rekindle their old relationship, and there were admittedly times when he wasn’t opposed to the idea. But, the timing was just wrong right now. Not only was Sally present for a while, but Mandy was just coming off what appeared to be another failed relationship, and was obviously on the rebound. Whatever happened, this just wasn’t the right time. But it might prove to be a stopgap . . .

“So, Mandy,” he said finally, “what do you plan to do about Joseph?”

“I’m going to divorce him, that’s for sure,” she said. “I haven’t worked out the details yet. I started out for Nevada, but partway there I decided to come here instead. I didn’t want all the crap in the car for as long as it would take to do it. I’d more or less planned on stashing it at Dad’s, but that was before I realized I didn’t want to go there, at least not just yet.”

Her statement wasn’t unfamiliar to John; it sounded a lot like how she’d handled him, years before. It hadn’t been all bad – a quickie Las Vegas divorce meant that she didn’t come after him for a big settlement, not that he could have paid one at the time, and she must have known it. If she’d been a little more patient, she could have come out a lot better off . . . and if she’d been a little more patient, she might be better off yet, and still married to him. When he stopped and thought about it, Mandy at her worst still beat Lisa and Susan and Julie all hollow.

“I’ll tell you what,” he replied honestly. “I’m not getting in the middle of that one, no way, no how. But, if you feel like you have to lie low for a few days, at least till your eye heals up, I guess I don’t mind if you sleep on the couch.”

“On the couch?” she asked, a little surprised.

“It about has to be that way,” he shook his head. “Teresa and Sally have two beds in the spare bedroom, and Teresa’s is a hospital bed. And, like I said, I especially don’t want to get in the middle right now, so don’t get any big ideas about sleeping in my bed.”

“Well . . . uh . . . but . . . I wouldn’t mind it, John. We don’t have to do anything.”

“No, but the temptation would be there, and how would it look? If it looks like I’m running a crash pad here, maybe it’s because I am. But like your dad used to say, ‘My house, my rules.’”

“Well, all right,” she said. “At least it’s not going to be as bad as sleeping in motel rooms, and I’ll know I have some friends around.”

Given a similar situation, John could have been very happy with staying in a motel room, and he suspected Sally would have been, too. But he suspected that Mandy was in need of some friendship and support, which wouldn’t be available in the anonymity of a cheap motel room.

“Right,” he smiled. “At least you’d have some company, and you can pitch in and help out around the place and look after Teresa. With the three of us here, we have to work together, and maybe the three of us can help keep each other honest.”

That was the point of the exercise, after all: if it had been one on one, she might have been able to work on him, using old times and remorse to get a permanent invitation to stay. The potential for a lot of trouble lay down that road, too – and under the proper circumstances he might be willing to travel down it, for after all, Mandy was the best of his three and almost four wives, and the only one he still regretted having broken up with. But, what he had then and the way things were now were very different too. He sure as hell had changed since those days, and he was sure she must have too. Regrets aside, he wanted to be very sure what he was doing before he let anything get started with her, just as he wanted to be very sure that she hadn’t changed too much from what he remembered. And again, now was just not the right time.

But, given a little time to get rid of her current hassles, the idea might possibly have some merit. But that was later, not now, when getting together with her again seemed like an extremely stupid thing to be doing, at least under the present circumstances.

“I suppose,” she sighed, clearly disappointed. “Any old port in a storm, I guess. John, I’m glad that you’ll take me in and put up with me, at least for a short time.”

“We’ll just have to see how things work out,” he said. “I realize it’s going to be inconvenient all around, but we’ll just have to make it work.”

Just then the doorbell rang. In his surprise to see Mandy at his door, John had all but forgotten about Annamaria’s cousin coming over. Now, he remembered that he had someone coming to work on the garbage disposal. “Back in a minute,” he said.

He went to the door, again carefully checking the peephole. This time there wasn’t a tow truck out there, but a rather battered pickup truck, and a bearded guy who bore a faint family resemblance to his secretary. He opened the door and asked, “Raul?”

“Yeah,” the guy answered. “Annamaria said you had some problems. Sorry I couldn’t get here quicker, but I had what I thought was going to be a quick stop along the way.”

“No problem, now that you’re here,” John told him. “Come on in. So I take it your quick stop wasn’t?”

“No shit,” Raul said as he walked inside. “You would not believe the crap a kid will put down a toilet to see if it flushes, then blame it on some other kid.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest,” John told him. “Among other things, I’m an EMT, and I’ve seen some of the dumbass stuff kids will do, and it hurts more than a good spanking.”

It only took a moment for Raul to squat down in front of the sink and look at the garbage disposal. “Yep, that’s about what I expected, I guess. The seals on that brand always go to hell sooner or later, and those have sure gone.”

“How much to fix it?”

“To tell you the truth, there’s not really any fixing it. Oh, I suppose you could get new seals and then it would have to be torn down and put back together. Then it would still leak. It would cost you twice as much as it would to just run down to one of those big box hardware stores like General Hardware Retailers and get a new one.”

“How much to do that?” John sighed.

“About eighty to two hundred for the unit, plus labor,” Raul told him. “I could go pick one up for you but I’d have to charge you time on that, too.”

“I suppose I could manage to do that,” John told him, “if you tell me what brand and model I need to pick up.”

“Doesn’t really matter. Just don’t get the cheapest damn thing out there because it won’t hold up and you’ll be back to the problem you have now sooner than you want. How about if I come back tomorrow morning sometime and put it in? You can get along for tonight by just not using that side of the sink, and I wouldn’t mind getting home at a reasonable hour for once.”

“Good deal on my account,” John told him. “I’ll pick one up first thing in the morning. Unless something really screwy happens, and it’s been known to happen this week, there should be someone home all day.”

“Yeah, Annamaria said you’d been having a rough week,” he said, “so I figured I ought to get right over here.”

“She’s darn good people,” John smiled. “I don’t know how I’d get along without her.”

In a couple minutes Raul was heading home. “Annamaria hits a homer again,” John said. “Sally, have you noticed we haven’t gotten a single call back from all the messages I left earlier?”

“Yes,” she replied. “It’s about what I expected, too.”

“I’ll bet the first call back we get won’t be till Monday, and if we get one out of four we’ll be lucky. At least EMTs are available twenty-four hours, and we come when we’re called.”

“You’re still doing that on the side, huh?” Mandy asked.

“Yeah, I still think it was one of Harry’s better ideas.”

“I should have known,” she sighed. “It’s just like you. Hey, is there any chance I can stick my car in your garage tonight? Most of my stuff is in it, I wouldn’t want to lose it.”

“It won’t be any problem leaving it on the street. This is a safe, quiet neighborhood.”

“Uh, John,” Sally said, “you might want to rethink that. I mean, with the tow truck problem we’ve been having. Those bastards might think her stuff is my stuff.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” John shrugged. “Guess that means I’ll have to leave my car outside tonight. The Jag would be too much trouble to uncover and move, if I could even get it started.”

“Jag?” Mandy raised her eyebrows. “And what’s this tow truck problem?”

“Collector car, and a pain in the neck. The tow truck problem is a rip-off deal Sally got caught up in when her car was wrecked. We’ll tell you about it later. Let’s go out and get the cars switched around while we’re thinking about it. We’ll have to do something different with your stuff tomorrow, but we’ll work on it then.”

John and Mandy got busy with the project. John opened the garage door and backed his car onto the street; Mandy drove hers into the garage, while John parked his car outside behind it, then walked in the garage and closed the door. “That’ll work for tonight,” he said.

“Thanks, John,” Mandy replied. “I knew you’d come through for me, despite what I put you through. But look, John, no rush, but we’ve got to talk, sometime when it’s just the two of us.”

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