Although Adam went into his office at Caldwell-Deerfield about like normal the next morning, he knew it wasn’t where he wanted to be.

Given a choice, he’d rather be sitting on one of the chrome and plastic chairs at the Channel Stop, a cup of real coffee in front of him, listening to the gentle flow of stories around the table. Jake might be dipping into his stock of stories, not all of which were about fishing. Adam had enjoyed hearing Jake’s stories from well in the past, when he and Rachel had taken off for the winter, towing the original Pixie to Florida and living for months on end in the tiny boat, much smaller and lighter than the Mary Sue. They’d spent several happy winters like that, winters when Adam had been stuck behind a desk elsewhere in this building, with a wife and young son at home, innocent of the tragic future lying ahead of them.

Adam didn’t think he could make a life of sitting around drinking coffee at the Channel Stop, but it sure seemed preferable to his office, especially this morning. Today, it seemed more like a prison than ever.

The first thing he’d noticed was that his desk was littered with pink call-back slips, although not as many as he’d expected. It took only a glance to see that most of them were business, although he noted the absence of any from Brittany. That made him curious.

He hadn’t even sat down yet; he went back out to the front office and said to Marcia, “Don’t tell me there haven’t been any calls from Brittany.”

“All right, I won’t,” Marcia smiled. “She must have called at least a couple dozen times, but I didn’t bother with call-back slips. It’d just have been a waste of good paper.”

“Has she shown up here since I talked to you the other day?”

“Not up here. I know she’s been at the security desk several times, but I think she finally got the message. At least she wasn’t there the last couple days, or not as far as I know.”

“We can hope. I’m sorry if this has caused you any trouble, but hopefully we’ll be through the worst of it in the next few days.”

“It hasn’t been any real trouble, just a refreshing change of pace. I mean something different to do. So did you have a good Christmas?”

“I had a great Christmas,” he smiled, remembering the warm family time he’d spent with the Lewis family. “How about you?”

“Pretty good. Janelle had John and me at their place down in Columbus. It was good to see the grandkids just absolutely laying waste to a tree loaded with presents.”

“Yeah, I miss those days,” he nodded, thinking that maybe in a few years he could watch Matty doing the same thing. Four or five years, maybe. Things should be considerably different then. “Consider yourself lucky that you had it to enjoy.”

“I know, Adam,” she replied sympathetically. “I wish you could have been there. It would have been nice if things had worked out better for you.”

“Yeah, well, they didn’t,” he sighed. “But I’m learning to accept it. Enjoy it while you can, because you never know what’s going to happen. So anything else going on?”

“There have been a few things, but for the most part pretty quiet. Nothing major that I’m aware of, at least. Bob may have something for you, I don’t know for sure. You probably ought to give your father a call if you haven’t already.”

“I haven’t, but he knew I was taking off. I’ll give him a buzz this morning, but I want to talk to Bob first in case something happened I need to pass along. Why don’t you get him in here before I get started on the pile on my desk.”

Bob showed up a few minutes later. In the small talk before they got down to business, he’d said he’d had a pretty good holiday with his family as well. It turned out that things were running smoothly, partly because of the days off for the holiday. The only real hitch had been that the plant over in Meridian had been hit with a power outage, putting them a few hours behind schedule, but it had been caught up and the order had made it to Ford on time. “It cost them a little overtime,” Bob reported. “But there was nothing that could have been done about it. It could have been a lot worse.”

“If that’s the worst we had happen, I guess there’s not much to complain about. It’s good to know the place can get along without me for a few days.”

“It’ll probably perk back up again after next weekend. We’re going to be getting into quarterlies and annuals. But it’s not like we don’t know they’re coming, and we’re about as ready for them as we can be.”

“Good deal,” Adam agreed. “Look, I don’t know how much Marcia has told you, but I’m having some trouble with my wife. I’m going to try to keep it from impacting the business, but there could be some times over the next few weeks when things might be a little unpredictable and hectic around me.”

“I knew about that. I, uh, caught some of that scene in Marcia’s office the other day. Sorry you’re having this on top of your other problems.”

“It’s all part of the same problem, but that’s neither here nor there. Marcia said she had a video of the incident but I haven’t had time to look at it yet. In any case, we’re going to be a little tighter on security for a while, just in case.”

“I know. I already passed the order along.”

“Good deal. And thanks, Bob, for picking up for me. This may not be the last time I have to take off without much warning.”

There were a couple other people Adam wanted to call among the pink slips on his desk before he talked to his father. While there were some issues of interest, nothing was of overwhelming importance. Finally, there was no choice but to make the call.

“So how was your weekend?” Adam asked his father.

“Quiet, once Benita managed to figure out how to work the call blocking,” his father said, referring to his part-time maid and housekeeper. “Brittany must have called a dozen times before Benita figured that out. How about yours?”

“Quiet, mostly because I kept the cell phone turned off. I know there were messages from Brittany, but I just deleted all of them.”

“How long do you think it’s going to be before that dies down?”

“Hard to say. Probably not soon. I really doubt she’s playing with a full deck. I told her about Matty, and I don’t think she’s fully aware that she has a divorce to deal with.”

“Not a surprise,” his father grumped. “I’d be willing to say she’s losing it, except for the fact that I don’t think she ever had it in the first place.”

“I wouldn’t go quite that far,” Adam sighed. “But you might have a point. You didn’t tell her anything, did you?”

“No. I hope I managed to make her think that Matty was a surprise to me. I didn’t tell her where you’d gone because I didn’t have any idea myself.”

“That’s pretty much how I wanted it. I figured if no one knew there was no chance anyone could slip up.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re finally dealing with that issue. I thought it was a mistake for you to marry her in the first place, but you thought you were between a rock and a hard spot.”

“I’m just glad you insisted on the prenuptial agreement. That may still save my neck.”

“I didn’t think it would be a good idea for her to be in a position to get her fingers on the company, even way back then. I guess I was right. I just hope you can get it cleared up soon. So I take it we still have a company?”

“Oh, yeah. Bob didn’t have anything major to deal with while I was gone. Did you hear about the problem at Meridian?”

“No. I just wasn’t answering the phone. Anything serious?”

“Apparently a wire was hanging low due to snow loads, and a truck driver drove into it. He didn’t just break the wire; he managed to drag half the transformers off their platform in the process. The power company was a few hours putting things back together. The plant got a little behind but got their order out on schedule. It falls into the category of ‘shit happens.’”

“I suppose. We had a rash of power problems down there years ago, and I thought about a backup generator, but the cost of one just wouldn’t have been worth it.”

“Not with those kinds of loads,” Adam agreed. “Anyway, as far as I know everything else is going smoothly but I haven’t dug all the way to the bottom of the stack on my desk yet. If there’s anything important I’ll let you know.”

“Good enough. I’d appreciate it.”

In a moment the phone was back on the hook. While Adam generally liked his father, it was irritating to have him looking over his shoulder all the time. There wasn’t much he could do about it, though; it was just one of those things he had to live with.

It took a while to dig down through some of the pink call-back slips. There was nothing there of any real importance; he couldn’t even say there were fires to be put out because he couldn’t detect that anything was burning. He was getting to the bottom of them when his phone made that irritating buzz. He picked it up and said, “Yes, Marcia?”

“Mr. Hampton for you on line one,” she told him.

“Good, I wanted to talk to him anyway. Thanks, Marcia.” He reached out and punched the appropriate button. “So, Deke, what’s happening?”

“That’s the question I had for you,” his attorney replied. “I have not heard a word from anyone about the divorce. I would have expected to have heard from her attorney by now.”

“That’s if she even thought to get one,” Adam sighed. “She probably got so fixated on the idea of having a grandson that anything else slipped her mind. What do you think I should do?”

“I’d say for now, nothing. She has been served, and that ought to have given her fair notice that she’s got a deadline out there.”

“I told her that too when I talked with her the other day, but she didn’t appear to be listening to anything I tried to tell her.”

“It’s not going to be to her advantage to ignore it,” Deke said flatly. “If she does, it’s just going to make things simpler for you.”

“You know,” Adam sighed as he shook his head, “in spite of everything, I really want to be fair and reasonable about this. God knows she has some problems, but I think that she deserves that I treat her at least halfway decently. That doesn’t mean I intend to let her rake me over the coals, either.”

“That’s your choice, but the ball is in her yard now. I’d remind you to be careful about what you say to her, and it would be best if you don’t talk to her about the divorce at all. Any communications on that should go through me. Now, if she’s as unstable as she might be, things might have to be handled a bit differently. That could complicate things a lot.”

“I realize that, but the bottom line is that I want out. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“Same here. I’ve got a feeling this isn’t going to be a normal divorce.”

“Boy, you got that right,” Adam chuckled. “Take care, Deke.”

“Always. These things just take time, so tough it out. Take care, Adam.”

Adam put the phone back on the hook. Really, it didn’t surprise him that Brittany hadn’t gotten an attorney yet – or at least, if she had, that the attorney hadn’t gotten back to Deke. He was darn tempted to call Dr. Preble and pass along the information, but realized that was a good way to open a can of worms, too. The stay at Brookview had been damned expensive, but fortunately his insurance had covered it. But from what he could see, it hadn’t done much good. From what he could remember of the phone conversation the other day, Brittany hadn’t quite been violently hysterical the way she had in Boston when she discovered Matt had disappeared from the hospital. Hysterical, yes; out of touch with reality, yes; incapable of doing anything, obviously not. She at least had the wits this time to call people and bother them, not that it was doing her any good.

Granted, he might not have helped things very much in the way he’d dropped the divorce and the news about Matty on her at the same time, just as soon as she got home – but there would have been no better time, either. At least he had been able to make the needed arrangements in peace, without her looking over his shoulder.

Should he call her up and bug her about getting an attorney? After all, Deke had pretty well told him not to, and it was clearly to his advantage if she didn’t get an attorney and deal with this issue. But still . . . no, not now. Not yet. Maybe in another week, after the rest of the holidays, if nothing seemed to be moving. He’d have to think about it, maybe talk to Deke about it again.

In any case, not now. Besides, he had other things to do. While things at the company were moving along smoothly, his attention was going to have to be on it with the end of the quarter and end of the year coming up.

He glanced at the clock; it was getting on toward lunch time. He picked up the phone and called his secretary. “Marcia, do I have anything scheduled for lunch?”

“No. There are a couple suppliers who would like to have a working lunch with you sometime, but I didn’t make an appointment since I didn’t know when you would be back.”

“All right, go ahead and set something up,” he told her. “I guess I’ll be eating in today.”

He glanced at the clock again. It would be tempting to go have lunch in the lunchroom; he often did. Mostly he enjoyed his lunches in the lunchroom; it was a good time to be casual with some of the people around the company, to keep a finger on what was happening without being obtrusive about it.

But today was different. He didn’t feel like having to deal with the gossip that would be going around after the scenes Brittany had made a few days before. Besides, he hadn’t brought a lunch with him today. Better let it go for now, he thought as he turned back to his paperwork. He had some tray meals in the refrigerator in his office closet and a small microwave to heat them, as the line to use the microwave in the lunch room was always long. He’d gotten used to having them years before when he realized that Brittany was failing to remember to pack his lunch more often than not. Back before Boston, she’d only remembered to do it about one day a week, if that. It hadn’t been worth making an issue over.

Sometime this week he was going to have to remember to stop at a sub shop up the street from his apartment before work. A half a sub would make a good lunch for the lunchroom; it wouldn’t have to be heated and would be good for making an appearance there – but not today.

An hour later, he was hunched over a small tray of nearly edible beef stew. It was warm, but bland; it would do. It certainly wasn’t the lunch special at the Channel Stop. While not exactly five-star gourmet dining, the food there tasted good and he’d been among friends. There was little he could say about this other than the fact it was food.

He was already looking forward to his next trip up to Winchester Harbor. Not this weekend, he thought; it was too soon, but maybe when the worst of winter was over with, before Jake and his family got too busy. It would be fun to go out sailing on the Pixie with Jake. He’d seen the boat before, several times, but had never been on it. It was a sailboat, somewhat bigger than the Mary Sue; Jake had told him that he and Rachel actually owned it with his sister Lisa and her husband, Greg Alwyn.

He remembered Greg, although it had been dog’s years since he’d seen him, or Lisa, for that matter. Back in college years Greg had the pleasant job of taking his father’s big power cruiser north in the spring and bringing it back south in the fall, and they turned into party trips. One year, Greg had invited him along for the spring trip, and it remained the core of Adam’s limited boating experience – but more importantly, it had proved to be a key turning point in his life, for good or ill.

Brittany had been along on that trip, and he remembered her as cutting a fine figure in a bikini sunning on the deck of the boat. He didn’t know it at the time, but Lisa had asked Greg to ask her along, since a casual stop at Winchester Harbor might possibly lead to reconciliation with Jake. Brittany had been about as surprised at the meeting as Jake had been. Adam knew about the long talk between them that had ended with the two in bed, but they’d also mutually agreed that whatever they’d had in high school was long gone. He remembered watching the gentle, almost meaningless kiss Brittany and Jake had shared before Brittany got back on the boat, and Jake got back in his car to drive away.

But as soon as Brittany got back on board, she went below to her cabin and started sobbing inconsolably. Of the eight people on the boat, only he and Brittany were singles, and after a while the thought crossed his mind that he might be able to cheer her up a little, if for nothing more than to have a shoulder to cry on. After all, he remembered reasoning, she looked pretty good in her bikini, and even though he had always been shy around women, if he played his cards right it might turn into some action, something he’d had damn little of in his life. He did – and it had.

Brittany had been clingy when they got off the boat, and they wound up spending the next several days in his apartment in Ann Arbor. After a few days it had tailed off into occasional dates, and he’d figured he’d had out of it about what he wanted.

Then Brittany announced she was pregnant, and his life changed. In some ways at the time it had been for the better, but in the long run it had been a very expensive piece of ass. Matt – and not even his biological son at that – had been the only good thing to come out of it, and now he was gone. If Matt was left out of the equation, it had been a total waste from one end to the other.

Adam knew he had to bring himself up short, or he’d start thinking the negative thoughts that had dragged him down so badly over the years. It was in the past, and what was done was done; it couldn’t be changed. Better times had to lie ahead, and the idea of getting out and trying some sailing held some appeal, if for no more reason than to connect with the memory of his son.

It wouldn’t hurt to know some more about sailing, he thought. Maybe after work I can swing by the bookstore down in the mall and see if they had anything on the subject. After all, when Jake took him out on the Pixie he didn’t want to seem like a total idiot, like he was sure had happened when Matt had shown him around the Mary Sue. He remembered standing on the dock at Frenchtown Harbor watching Matt set out, having no idea of what his son was getting himself into, but knowing he was so eager to do it.

Eventually what there had been of his meal was gone, but he just sat there over the empty tray, letting memories overwhelm him. Finally, he pulled himself together; reminding himself that he had to stop living in the past. There was a future out there, after all.

Well before his lunch hour was over with he was back at work. The work was really about as routine as running a machine down on the plant floor, and took about as much imagination. Like it or not, it had to be done.

A couple hours passed very routinely before Marcia announced another phone call. “It’s a Howard Blue,” she said. “He’s an attorney.”

Maybe that meant that Brittany had finally stopped and smelled the coffee, he thought. “If it’s about Brittany I really shouldn’t talk to him,” he told Marcia. “But I suppose there’s no reason I can’t be courteous. Put him through.”

Adam couldn’t remember talking to this Blue before. They exchanged pleasantries for a moment before Blue got down to business. “Mr. Caldwell,” he said, “Your wife has asked me to represent her in this matter regarding your grandson.”

“I think we’re getting to the point where I shouldn’t be talking to you,” Adam told him. “My attorney has informed me that any communications involving the divorce proceedings should be directed to him.”

“Divorce proceedings? I don’t know anything about that. She asked me to file suit requesting that you assist in the matter of locating her grandson. She says you won’t help her in that.”

“That’s correct, and that ignores the point that I don’t know where our grandson is myself,” Adam replied, again hedging the truth. After all, Mary and Matty might not be at home; he knew Mary usually made a trip to the village store and post office most days.

“She says she wants to see her grandson, and doesn’t want to spare any expense in finding him.”

“Are you sure you didn’t know about the divorce proceedings?”

“She didn’t say anything about it,” Blue replied defensively. “Look, if you’d just give me the information about contacting the boy’s mother, we can get through this without any trouble.”

“Oh, there’s going to be considerable trouble. I’m afraid I’ve already said more than I should, especially considering the divorce proceedings. You can contact my attorney, Dennis Hampton about that, or any other matter concerning Brittany. I’m not going to say anything more unless he approves it.”

“Come on, this shouldn’t be any big thing.”

“Unfortunately, it is a very big thing. It’s clear to me that you don’t know the whole story, or even part of the story. I have nothing more to say at this time.”

“I’m sorry to say that I’m going to have to tell Mrs. Caldwell that you’re being uncooperative,” Blue warned.

“On this matter, you have no idea of how uncooperative I can be, especially with a divorce proceeding under way. As I told you, contact Dennis on this for details. Do you know him?”

“We’ve met from time to time. You wouldn’t happen to have his number, would you?”

“It’s in the phone book,” he replied curtly. “I’m sure he’d be willing to tell you more than I feel I can. Good day, sir.”

Adam set the phone on the hook without further comment, but in an instant was dialing Deke. He must not have been busy, because his secretary put him through quickly. “So, Adam,” Deke asked. “What’s up?”

Adam gave him a capsule summary of the conversation then summarized, “If what this Blue character said is anything like the truth, Brittany hasn’t given one instant of thought to the divorce, not that it surprises me any.”

“You might be right,” Deke conceded. “I know Blue handles divorces, but that’s not his specialty. He’s what you might call a general practice attorney. He mostly just does routine matters. I think he was trying to bullshit you into giving up some information about the boy.”

“Oh, that was clear,” Adam agreed. “He doesn’t have a leg to stand on, does he?”

“Not really,” Deke said. “Which is why he was trying to bullshit you. He can file all the lawsuits he wants, but he’d just be pissing into the wind.”

“That’s good to know, but I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this.”

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.