Same Old Truths (15 page)

Judith walked back and took a seat next to Kay. “The receptionist just told me Judge Sommers is out on a family emergency so our case is going to be heard by her Special Master.”

“Oh no,” Kay said. This had to be a bad omen. As much as she hated going through this process, Kay remembered Barbara Sommers as being practical and fair.

“I’m not comfortable with this, Judith,” Kay said. “Maybe we should put things off until Judge Sommers can be here.”

Judith knitted her brow. “I guess we could do that, but I don’t recommend it,” she said. “Look. The Special Master has been appointed by Judge Sommers, herself, to carry out her orders and rule on her behalf. I truly believe our case will be just fine in their hands. And keep in mind the meter is running and I’d hate to have to bill you for a wasted morning.”

Kay opened her mouth to respond but was beaten to the punch by the receptionist who loudly announced, “Manning vs. Noland!”

It was too late now. Kay would just have to take her chances with this “Special Master” - whoever they were.

12

Donuts Are Good for You Too

“Hello, Mr. McNab? Kay Manning here from Salinger’s. How is everyone getting along?”

Keeping in touch with families after the funeral was another important part of Kay’s job. Although she was acting in a professional capacity, she couldn’t ignore the special bond she felt after sharing the personal experience of a loved one’s passing. Plus, making this phone call helped interrupt the broken record of the previous day’s court hearing playing in her head.

Kay could hear the pain in Mr. McNab’s voice as he described the deafening silence that had taken up residence in his home after the funeral once family, friends and neighbors returned to their regular routines. Kay knew there would be no such return for Mr. McNab. He would either have to carve out a new groove for himself, or keep the old one and make painful adjustments to accommodate Emily’s absence.

Kay’s heart went out to him and all her surviving male clients. Men seemed to have a much more difficult time of it than women. It was something about being alone they just didn’t seem to be able to tolerate. It was amazing to Kay that so many of her male clients married within six months of their wives’ deaths. Whereas, most of her female clients were still single years after seeing their husbands off to the Great Beyond.

Same with divorce, too.

‘
Aha!
’ Kay thought as soon as Kay heard Mr McNab complain about all the unsolicited casseroles delivered to his front door by “concerned,” widows from his church. That was a sure sign it wouldn’t be long before there would be a new Mrs. McNab. If Kay had to guess, the lucky woman would be the one who, rather than just dropping the meal at the door, would stay to make sure it got heated properly.

“Hang in there, Mr. McNab. The next few months are going to be tough, but you have a supportive family and I know they’re going to be there every step of the way. And if there’s anything we here at Salinger’s can do for you, please don’t hesitate to call.”

They ended their phone call with Kay reminding Mr. McNab that Emily’s headstone would be delivered to the mortuary in approximately three weeks. “I’ll call you when it’s in so we can make setting arrangements at the cemetery.”

* * *

Things were slow this week at the mortuary, so Ruth decided it would be the perfect time for pre-Spring cleaning. This morning the entire staff had been hard at work sprucing up the main chapel. As the self-appointed general in charge of operations, Ruth handed out assignments with a Patton-like intensity. Uncle O was in charge of cleaning and polishing all twenty-four oak pews. Ed and Leo were relegated to vacuuming and shampooing the carpet and Kay was assigned to cleaning all the light fixtures. Of course, someone had to man the front desk and answer the phone, and General Linton was happy to make the sacrifice for her troops.

Kay was shaking out, yet another, dried assortment of dead bugs from the glass globe of one of the ceiling fixtures when Ruth walked in and loudly announced, “Break time!” Obediently, everyone stopped what they were doing and headed for the break room for some much-needed R and R (rest and refreshment).

To everyone’s pleasant surprise, Ruth had brewed a fresh pot of coffee, and had an assortment of soft drinks icing down in a cooler. A platter of fresh fruit sat on the table waiting to be enjoyed.

“I take back every mean thing I said about you this morning,” Ed said, as he reached for a can of his favorite soda.

“Don’t we have any donuts?” Leo whined, turning up his nose at the arrangement of apples, oranges and bananas. Looking at his pencil-thin frame, you would have thought he’d never seen a donut in his life.

“Fruit is better for you, Leo,” Ruth said.

“Yeah, but I’d rather have a donut,” Leo said.

Ed pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, opened it up, took out $10. “Here, Leo. Run over to Gil’s and pick up a dozen. I wouldn’t mind having a donut myself.” It was rare that Ed went over Ruth’s head and it was apparent she wasn’t too happy about it.

“C’mon Ruth. We’re all working hard. Don’t you think we deserve a treat?” He threw her his signature Chamber of Commerce smile and Kay watched as the slighted woman melted before his eyes.

Even though the smile wasn’t meant for her, Kay felt a tingle watching Ed ply his charms.

He’s got to get a lot of mileage out of all that charisma.

Considering his looks and charm, Kay was baffled by Ed’s lack of a significant other.

“Oh, all right,” Ruth said, “but take Uncle O with you and don’t be gone too long. That chapel’s got to be done before we start getting busy again. If we slack off for too long, we’ll lose our momentum.”

“Hmmph. Who’s we?” Leo muttered under his breath as he hurried out the door, with a slow Uncle O trying to keep up.

“Get some glazed, jelly, and sour creams,” Ed called after the two men.

Ed turned back to Ruth and Kay, shaking his head and chuckling. “Leo can be a pain, but he’s a good worker.”

Ruth and Kay nodded.

Ed pulled out a chair from under the table, turned it around, sitting backwards on the seat as he rested his arms across the top of the chair. Seeing Ed in this position reminded Kay of a heated argument she’d once had with Dave when she theorized he, and men in general, sat that way to call attention to their “junk” while protecting it at the same time. She called it her “best of both worlds,” theory, to which her ex had taken great offense. For a brief moment she considered asking Ed his opinion of her hypothesis, but decided it would be inappropriate. Anyway, her premise had just been proved (to her, anyway) since now she was thinking about Ed’s “junk.”

But her indecent musings didn’t last long. Ed’s face took on a concerned expression and he asked, “So, Kay, how did things go at your divorce hearing yesterday?”

Kay almost choked on the section of orange she had just put in her mouth. She had no idea Ed was aware of what was going on in her personal life and she shot Ruth an irked, WTF glance.

Ruth ignored Kay’s obvious aggravation. “Yes, Kay. I was explaining to Ed why you weren’t able to come into work yesterday.”

Ed continued to look at Kay with a sympathetic expression. Kay’s feet fidgeted under the table.

“Uh…well…it wasn’t really a divorce hearing…just some legal loose ends that needed to be tied up.” Kay tried to sound nonchalant but she was deeply embarrassed.

Fortunately, the growing awkwardness of the moment was interrupted by the shrill, outdoor ringer of the phone sitting outside the break room window. (”…always have to be able to hear the phone,” Ed would say.) Ruth took a hurried step toward the door, but Ed waved her off. “Stay there, Ruth. I’ll get it.”

As soon as Ed was out of earshot, Ruth turned to Kay. “I’m sorry Kay. I wasn’t expecting him to ask, and I’m a terrible liar.”

Kay knew it wasn’t reasonable to expect Ruth to make up some lame story just because Kay wanted to protect her image as a smart, together, no-nonsense woman - and not some poor, down-trodden ex-wife.

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have put you in that position in the first place,” Kay said.

“Well, let’s just forget about it,” Ruth said with a reassuring smile. “Anyway, I worried about you all day. I almost called you last night, but I figured the last thing you wanted to do was rehash the whole ordeal.”

“Yeah. It was a long day. But all things considered, the girls and I made out ok.”

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

Remembering the events of the previous day, Kay suddenly became choked up and an involuntary release of hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I was a fool, Ruth. An a-number one jackass. But you probably already surmised that when I told you about the stupid deal I made with Dave.”

Ruth smiled and cocked her head to one side. “It’s alright, Honey. Most women are fools at one time or another.”

“Well
this
fool let her ex-husband bamboozle her into thinking he had changed. But you know the old saying, “The more things change…”

Kay leaned over the table and pulled a couple of napkins from the stack sitting next to the fruit platter. After a healthy nose-blow she sighed and continued. “Anyway, I found out, big surprise, his sob story about a pay cut was complete B.S. He’s pulling in close to $100 grand a year, thank you very much.”

Ruth’s eyes grew wide and she said, “Oh my goodness. I can’t imagine what your reaction must have been.”

“I
didn’t
react,” Kay said. “I couldn’t. My lawyer had been very adamant about that. And, all things considered, I did pretty well. That’s until…”

“Until?” Ruth anxiously interjected.

“Until I learned his health insurance is part of his compensation package,” Kay said.

Ruth scrunched up her eyebrows and just looked at Kay.

“Ruth, his company PAYS for his insurance. It doesn’t cost him a dime. His entire family is covered free of charge. And when I say “entire” I mean him, his wife and his son.”

“I’m still not following you, Dear,” Ruth said.

“Look, the whole reason for me taking him back to court came about after I asked him to split Cory’s therapy co-pay with me…which was part of our agreement. His part of the co-pay was only $7 and the bastard had the unmitigated gall to snap at me and say he didn’t have it. You’d think I’d asked for $7000. It wasn’t ‘til a couple of days later, I found out he was throwing around $20 bills at the mall. But you have to understand, Ruth. It wasn’t just the stupid $7. For awhile now he’s been slowly, but surely, backing away from everything he promised. The co-pay was just the proverbial “last straw.” Or so I thought until I found out about his free insurance.”

Clearly caught up in Kay’s heated retelling of the story, Ruth breathlessly asked, “So, did you make a scene? I know I would have had to make a scene.”

“I almost broke my neck snapping my head around to keep from coming unglued,” Kay said. “I just stared out the window behind me, biting my cheek. If I hadn’t, I might have lunged across the table for his throat. The great thing was the judge got it and demanded to know why Dave hadn’t put the girls on his policy.”

“And did Dave have an answer?” Ruth asked.

“Are you kidding? He
always
does. He made some lame excuse about how he was trying to spare me the hassle of transferring the girls from my policy to his; which seemed to upset the judge because he kind of yelled, “Did you ask Ms. Manning if she minded going through the “hassle” to change things?” Dave had to admit he hadn’t.”

“So what happened?” Ruth asked.

“Well, I guess at that point the judge had heard enough because he made his ruling then and there. Not only did he reinstate the original child support order, he ordered Dave to pay back all the money I haven’t been getting. And he said the girls were to be put on Dave’s insurance ASAP. ”

“That’s wonderful,” Ruth said. “I imagine you’re going to get a tidy little sum.”

“10 grand tidy,” Kay replied. “That’s going to really give me a nice little financial boost.”
She went on to tell Ruth how the judge surprised the battling exes by ordering them to mediation - something they were supposed to have done during the time of the original divorce.

“Our case must have fallen through the cracks somehow, because we never went,” Kay said. “But I’m kind of glad because the judge wants the girls to be interviewed by the mediator. He thinks they’re old enough.”

Ruth frowned. “Is that wise, Kay? Isn’t that a lot of pressure for young children?”

“That’s what I thought too, but the girls will be interviewed separately, without Dave or me being there. They’ll finally have the chance to have their say about things without being afraid of hurting our feelings or making us angry.

Then Kay chuckled. “You know, Ruth, I almost got out of there scot-free, but the judge told both of us, under the circumstances, he could have easily placed us in contempt of court because we’d been ignoring the original court order. My sister said it was his way of saying I’d been an idiot and Dave was an asshole.”

Ruth let out a big laugh. “I think your sister may just be right.”