The Divorce Papers: A Novel (30 page)

MARIA MATHER MEIKLEJOHN

404 ST. CLOUD STREET
NEW SALEM, NA 06556

May 29, 1999

Anne Sophie Diehl
Traynor, Hand, Wyzanski
222 Church Street
New Salem, NA 06555

Dear Sophie:

Things took a bad turn last night. As I predicted, Daniel went berserk when he read the counteroffer. He came home last night at about 10 and roared into my bedroom, yelling his head off. “Where do you get off asking for my medical degree? And law school? I should pay for you to go to law school? This is highway robbery.” (This is an expurgated version of the conversations. I left out the endearments. “Goddamned fucking cunt” was the most memorable, probably because it was repeated so often.) His face was red and sweat was pouring off him. I told him to get out of my room. “You won’t get away with this,” he said.

Just as he was turning to leave, I looked toward the doorway and saw Jane standing there sobbing. It was so awful. Danny reached out to comfort her, but she threw off his arm and ran to her room. I ran after her. I found her lying on her bed, crying so uncontrollably she couldn’t catch her breath. I don’t know how much she heard. She couldn’t talk. She cried for at least half an hour. It was so heartbreaking. After she finally calmed down, I made her some hot chocolate and then sat holding her in her bed until she fell asleep.

The next morning Danny came down to breakfast while Jane and I were eating. He looked whipped and haggard. He apologized profusely to her, saying how sorry he was that she had heard all he had
said. She wouldn’t look at him, but stirred her cereal. “You’re not sorry you said it, are you?” she asked. “Only that I heard it?” He said he was sorry for everything. She shrugged, and kept stirring her cereal.

I don’t know if I can take any more. I can face down Danny, but I can’t stand what this is doing to Jane. I keep thinking we should move out. I’m sure my father would support us if I asked him, for no other reason than he could tell everyone what a dick Danny was for tossing us out without a cent.

I won’t do anything without talking to you, but the situation is approaching the intolerable.

If he does anything like that again, can I get an eviction order against him?

Yours,

P.S. For 18 years, I was caught between my husband and my father, who couldn’t stand each other. I spent hours and hours negotiating awful social occasions with them both, pouring oil on the troubled waters, trying to achieve a shaky truce. Now I find I’m at war with both of them. And I say to hell with both of them.

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678

MEMORANDUM

Attorney Work Product

Talk to Ms. Meiklejohn. I don’t know that an exclusion order will fly, but you can certainly look into it. You may remember the Peele case had one; Kahn’s client, Jason Peele, filed one against his wife, our client, and then locked her out. It didn’t fly—the judge was plainly annoyed and gave it very short shrift—and ultimately, it backfired. It put Mrs. Peele’s back up; she made it clear to her husband she was willing to have the judge, the same judge, decide everything. I have attached Peele’s affidavit here. Amazing chutzpah he had. It’s what made him the success he was in business. You should draft a letter to Kahn, talking about the incident, and threatening to have Dr. Durkheim excluded from the family residence if there’s a repeat. Then tell him to come up with a serious offer. Enough of this prancing about. Let’s get this thing over and get Ms. Meiklejohn and Jane out of there.

Ms. Meiklejohn will make an excellent lawyer. Her first impulse was to flee. She was thinking like a mother. Seconds later, she’s rallied and asks you about an eviction order. She doesn’t scare—or she doesn’t stay scared—and she’s always thinking. Play to that part of her personality. Make her feel strong, competent. Give her something to do. She and Jane may have to move out, but I don’t think that time has come; if she moves out now, she’ll lose her leverage. I wouldn’t mince words with her. Lay it out, coldly, matter-of-factly. She’ll get it.

Commonwealth of Narragansett

Family Court

Witness Protection Application for a Temporary Restraining Order

Witness’s Affidavit

My name is Jason Peele. I live at 620 St. Cloud Street in New Salem, NA. On October 2, 1996, I sued my wife, Rebecca Peele, for divorce on grounds of irreconcilable differences. The marriage had been dead for years; my wife refused to perform the ordinary duties a man rightfully expects from his partner and helpmate. The divorce has stalled. My wife has been using devious, dishonest, underhanded, and dilatory tactics in order to bully me into settling. She has made blatantly unreasonable and exorbitant demands for alimony, child support, and property.

I am the Chairman of Narragansett Industries (NI), a major multi-national corporation and one of the Fortune 500. The job is an enormously demanding and responsible one, and I have been a very successful steward, widely and publicly recognized for my business acumen and leadership. I’ve been profiled in
Time
,
Barron’s
, and
Forbes
, and
Forbes
put me on the cover. I frequently work at home evenings and weekends. I also entertain at home, at least twice a week. Because the house is also a workspace, NI pays many of its expenses, including the services of a secretary, a cook, a butler, two maids, a driver, and a gardener. Additional staff are hired as needed, e.g., for large parties. The house is 20,000 square feet, of which 10,000 feet are public spaces, set aside for business and entertaining. These include three large reception rooms; two dining rooms, one large enough for a sit-down dinner for 48, the other more intimate, seating 16; a home theater; a gymnasium; a home office for me; a separate office for my secretary; a swimming pool; a greenhouse; and a professional kitchen. Norman Foster designed the house.

I am petitioning the Court for a temporary restraining order excluding my wife and children from the house until the divorce goes through. Her continued presence has created a poisonous environment. She drops into my home office when I am working there. She does this unexpectedly with the calculated purpose of upsetting me. I have asked her to communicate with me only through our attorneys, but she persists in speaking to me directly. At professional parties in the house, she makes appearances, walking through the rooms among the guests, drinking cocktails with them and having conversations. I do not know what she says about me, but I have every reason to believe that her comments are denigrating and insulting, putting me in a compromising position with my company and jeopardizing my business relationships. She is also turning the children against me. One of them called me a “deadbeat dad.”

My wife’s continued presence in the house is causing me serious emotional anguish and distress. I am having trouble sleeping and eating. I fear that unless my wife and I live separately, I will not be able to do my job. I have leased an apartment for my wife and our two children at 72 Randall Road, two blocks from where we are now all living. I have generously offered to pay the rent, all educational costs for the children, and her car payments, and to provide my wife with a monthly stipend of $2,000. Her removal with the children to this apartment will be in everyone’s best interest. The children will not have to witness their parents’ fights, and I will be able to continue to do the work that makes it possible for me to provide for their support.

_______________________ __________________________ _______________

Discretion

Dearest Mags,

You can relax. I’m sane again. I didn’t say anything to my mother. (I’m still sort of scared of her.) I don’t think she’s messing around with DG; it’s not her way. She might have slept with the chairman of my father’s department—and let word get around—but she had serious grievances against Papa. She loves me too much; and, more to the point, she loves Jake. I see that now. They were terrific together this weekend—playful, affectionate, combative (a sure sign my mother is happy). They had a huge argument about Clinton. Maman said the whole thing was ridiculous. “Americans are so afraid of sex. They think it matters too much.” Jake would have none of that. “Sex is the means of reproduction. Of course, it matters too much. And, don’t say,” he said, looking hard at Maman, “that the connection is incidental.” Maman accused him of being a Darwinian, not a Freudian. And they were off. All weekend, they kept coming back to Clinton. They argued about Hillary, why she didn’t leave him. Maman said a discreet affair was one thing, but no woman should put up with that kind of public humiliation. Jake disagreed. “We don’t know what goes on with the Clintons. They may have other, more important needs that are being met.” He then said that in many marriages, infidelity was not necessarily a death blow. After all that divorce stuff, it was so nice to see a married couple who liked each other, who interested each other, who took pleasure in each other’s company. Maman wouldn’t risk her marriage for a fling. As for Jake, whatever he said about other people’s marriages, I’m pretty sure he would find infidelity a serious threat to
theirs
.

When I got home, I had a message from Harry. He called to invite me to dinner this Friday. It was as though he were asking me out for the first
time. He sounded unsure, diffident. Well, he should be. I don’t know if I want to start up again. Suppose I really fall in love with him? Do I want to marry someone who’s already been married? Don’t I want to be my first husband’s first wife, the standard against which all subsequent wives are measured—and fall short? I’m a firstborn, remember. I have this theory: firstborns don’t marry divorced people, or if they do, they don’t marry divorced people with children. They don’t compete. But then there’s my client, who’s a firstborn; she married a formerly married man who had a child. I may have to refine the theory.

How is Williamstown? What plays will you be doing? It must be beautiful up there, if you like nature. Not my cup of tea. What is it Woody Allen said? I am at two with Nature. What I can’t figure out is why I stayed in New Salem after clerking. Why aren’t I in New York? My life has been ad-libbed. I need to make plans. I feel sometimes like one of those exasperating Austen heroines, Marianne or Emma, ardent and self-centered. But they turn out all right, so maybe…

I miss you. Much love,
Sophie

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678

MEMORANDUM

Attorney Work Product

I’ve drafted a letter to Ray Kahn threatening to file a temporary restraining order against Dr. Durkheim. I said we weren’t planning to file the TRO unless there was another incident but warned him that we would go forward if Dr. Durkheim went on the rampage again.

Ms. Meiklejohn is on board. She’s very worried about Jane, who has become, in her mother’s words, “a very sad little girl.”

Jason Peele is a pig.

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678
ATTORNEYS AT LAW

June 3, 1999

Ray Kahn, Esq.
Kahn & Boyle
46 Broadway
New Salem, NA 06555

RE: Dr. Daniel Durkheim

Dear Mr. Kahn:

On May 28, 1999, your client, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, had a bitter and vituperative argument with his wife, Ms. Maria Meiklejohn, which was witnessed by their daughter, Jane, age 11. The experience was deeply upsetting to Jane, and even now, a week later, she continues to show signs of extreme emotional distress. Ms. Meiklejohn is worried for her psychological well-being. While ugly arguments between divorcing couples are not unusual, when they reach a level of aggression that threatens to endanger a child’s welfare, steps need to be taken to protect the child and isolate her from their destructive effects. These steps may include a Temporary Restraining Order.

On advice of counsel, Ms. Meiklejohn has submitted a draft statement in support of a TRO excluding Dr. Durkheim from the family residence. We will not file it now, but in the event there is a second incident of the kind she describes in the affidavit, we shall recommend that she go forward with an application.

Concluding the separation agreement seems a far better solution than a TRO, an action that can only exacerbate the ill will between the parties and delay a final resolution. To that end, I urge you and your client to review our offer of May 25 and send a timely response.

We expect there will be no further incidents that endanger Jane’s safety and welfare. Moving out of the family residence is not an option Ms. Meiklejohn will entertain without a separation agreement or, in the event the parties cannot reach an accord, a divorce decree.

Yours,

Anne Sophie Diehl

cc:
Maria Mather Meiklejohn