My husband really was having an affair! The thought ricocheted to every corner of my brain. How did that happen? How could I let that happen? Now, I could never live in this town again. By tomorrow morning, with the gossip channels at full throttle, every person I knew and then some, would know about Vincent and Sara. And I would be the old maid left to rot at home. I was moving!
With my newfound driving skills, I knew I could outrun him home, but decided that was risky. I waited until he had left the lot and I slid up from the floorboard and cried. Being the woman I am, I tried to find a reason in myself for his behavior. It was my fault that he was going outside our marriage for love. I hadn’t been the woman that he needed in his life. I’d been away from our home too much, and hadn’t provided a loving and supporting home base for him. A million thoughts went through my tiny head proving that it was entirely my fault.
Miss Edna called it all a crock of shit, and said, “It wasn’t no more your fault than the man in the moon’s.” I had immediately called her from my car, and there was a pot of strong Folger’s brewing when I pulled up in her driveway. She had me call home and leave a message at my house that I was over doing some late-night cooking at her place, and that I would be home before 11:00.
“Don’t you think another minute about that silly notion that it was your fault. He was cheating, you caught him red-handed, and that’s the end of that ballgame. He lost.”
“Well, then what am I supposed to do?”
“You point blank ask him! Vincent, are you having an affair with that no good, sorry, lowdown Sara Wiley?”
“I can’t say ‘lowdown.’”
“By God, you can, because that is just what she is. That woman couldn’t cook a meal if her life depended on it.” Miss Edna had a royal disdain for any woman who couldn’t cook, and Sara proudly went around town telling folks that she had never cooked her husband a meal.
“OKAY, I’ll say lowdown, but then what do I do when he says yes? Do I leave him?”
“Why the devil naw. “ Miss Edna’s southern accent got really thick when she got mad. “You put your foot down, you make him say he’s sorry, say he’ll never do it again, and that he’ll take you on a trip to Hawaii.”
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