Everything looked perfect on that crisp desert morning. The sun still sitting low in the sky, not ready to fill the day with it’s heat. The only thing out of place was the blue car. It sat on the side of the empty road, waiting patiently for the return of it’s owner. No one pays attention to abandoned cars. We pass without a second look. This day however, someone should have looked that second time.
Five days before
Brandie made ready for her day, coffee, make up, three outfit changes and she was out the door. Brandie worked at a small finance company in Nocken, Nevada. She was a hard worker, and was good at her job. Though accounting was not her main focus. Her main focus this morning, as well as every morning for several months now. Was her boss’s assistant. He was a distinctive blonde haired man who answered to the name Jack McDaniel. Brandie and Jack had been having a clandestine affaire since late winter when he confided in her how truly unhappy he was with the situation in his home life. Brandie wanted Jack with his striking blue eyes and his massive hands so badly she was willing to over look something as trivial as a wife. Especially one that had worn out her welcome. They would meet every day at the same time behind the closed theater. There they would take his car for a lunch time tryst back at her apartment. After breaking his marriage vow with his afternoon sweetie, Jack would excuse himself outside to call the bothersome wife from his cell phone. Brandie never questioned him wanting his privacy. She knew if the wife ever found out the fun would be over. Brandie knew it was no fun to date a man dealing with a divorce and a bitter soon to be ex-wife. So if privacy was what he wanted, that was what he got. Though a wife is not what Jack was hiding from Brandi. In fact he had never been married. He knew that she would be an easy target, someone who would give him what he wanted. Telling her he was married was an easy way to circumvent any of those inconveniences like paying for a date, or pretending to listen when she talked. She made it easy for him, lunchtime was perfect for sex. It was long enough to do it right but not long enough to have to cuddle. Then later he never had to worry about her calling him, because he told her his wife would find out. Coming back in from his phone call Jack told Brandie. “Brandie, I have to go help my wife this afternoon. Her car broke down. I won’t be going back into the office.”
J’Rie Blackwell-Elliott may be reached for comments at dixiepoet@gmail.com.
Continue reading →
