Folly Beach - Dorothea Benton Frank [82]
“Nice. Very nice. That’s an insecticide, I assume?”
“Yes. It’s rarely used these days.”
“The world’s probably better off for it. Then what?”
“I came home, drank part of a glass, thought it tasted funky, then my stomach started killing me. I thought I was having an appendicitis attack so I went to the emergency room. They did blood work, found traces of the poison in my bloodstream, and called the cops.”
“Holy hell! So, did you say you thought it was her?”
“No. Stupidly, I did not. Look, I felt bad for her, you know? And I thought well, it won’t happen again. But it did. Then I realized she really was trying to kill me so I let the police search my house. They found all kinds of forensic evidence that nailed her. She was convicted but sent to a high-security hospital instead of a jail. Anyway, she’s not coming out.”
“How do you know? I mean, don’t people go to a hospital to get well and go home?”
“Yeah, but apparently she tried to stab a few of the orderlies with a fork and she’s had some other issues with other patients.”
“So she’s violent.”
“Very. And delusional.”
“Gosh, that’s so sad. So, how come you never got a divorce?”
“For a lot of reasons. First, I struggled with the whole in sickness and in health part of the vows. I thought if I don’t forgive, I will become angry and bitter. Then, as I began to teach at a college level, I realized it was probably better if my rambunctious coeds thought I was married. And now, I can’t get the ring off. Seems like my knuckle grew. I mean, I could have it cut off, I guess, but there’s never been a reason to.”
“Oh.” I understood now and didn’t feel so guilty.
“Oh? Oh, I see what you’re thinking. I got close a couple of times but life always got in the way of serious commitment for me. You know, either I moved or they moved or something.”
“Wow.” That was very disappointing news. After all he’d been through, the chances of him ever making a commitment were probably greatly diminished. What good-looking straight man with a job makes it to his age without a family? One who doesn’t want one. I was forewarned but not completely discouraged.
“Okay, I can hear what you’re thinking. Listen, I’ll make you a deal.”
“I’m all ears, Risley, and this had better be good.”
“When you get rid of yours, I’ll get rid of mine.”
I looked down at my left hand and there it was. My wedding band of disappointment. My phony diamond, that unforgettable deception, was in a box somewhere, packed with other costume jewelry. THE TALE OF THE WIDOW AND HER INFAMOUS CZ was another story to tell him on another night.
There would have to be some kind of a ceremony to mark my liberation from the confines of my inglorious farce of a marriage. Maybe I would wait for Patti to come to town. We could stand on the last tiny bridge to the island with a couple of lit sparklers and a thermos of something wicked and toss the lying thing over into the water. Or maybe I would toss it from the Ravenel Bridge. It was higher and would be more dramatic. This required thought.
“It’s kind of like a battle memento, isn’t it?” I said and smiled.
He looked at me and smiled so sweetly that I believed then that his relationship with me was going to be different from all the others. I knew it. I did. Okay, I didn’t know it but it didn’t really matter because I was already in the soup. The way we were looking at each other? All I could think about was how we would be together. We may as well have already been in bed. And soon we were. But here’s how the evening progressed.
First, I put my fork down and John immediately said, “You don’t want dessert, do you?”
And I said, “I was thinking of something else but if you want dessert? I don’t mind if you do.”
“Let’s polish off this bottle. I’ll just get the bill, and let’s get out of here. I have some ideas of how we might spend the rest of the night, too.” He signaled the waiter with the universal check mark written in air and the waiter nodded. “Before we go, I mean,