Somewhere Else

Chapter 11: James

The courts awarded him Christmas Day and the following week, so he couldn’t understand why Jane had to make a big deal out of their arrangements. Winter should be with him, waking up on Christmas day, being treated to a big Christmas breakfast. Instead, he was forced to compromise so that she could spend the night in her own bed. He figured it had more to do with Jane’s insecurity than the child’s. Rather than draw attention to himself, playing the part of the good parent, he went along with what she requested. He was going to take her back to court and get Winter for himself if she didn’t move out and away from that fag. He’d given her plenty of notice now.

Charlie Dupuis. He hated the queer all through High School. He pretended to be something he wasn’t for three years. He dated Jane and it was a shame. The popularity she gained was unwarranted. If she wanted to gain good marks with the football team, she should have spread her legs like every other cheerleader did. That’s how they got in. Instead, she opted for the road less traveled, which meant she went steady with one of the best players the team had to offer. She wore his class ring and everything.

Senior year was when everything eventually turned around. He knew there was something off about that guy from the start, so he hung around Oskar a little more. That was the only guy who really knew Charlie and he didn’t even know how those two ended up together. They were polar opposites. Whenever they’d go out together, he’d offer him a few drinks to loosen his tongue. He got what he wanted about Charlie’s relationship and moved right in.

From the beginning he was quite the gentleman. He took her out on dates that were well outside his means: expensive dinners, flowers all the time, chocolates and cards that expressed words from his heart, only he didn’t really feel them. To him this was mostly a game, trying to get back at Charlie for besting him those years in football. He romanced her in ways that disguised his true intent. It wasn’t until Prom that he realized exactly what was wrong with Charlie and it had absolutely nothing to do with having respect for a woman. That was the night he stole Jane’s virginity and he found out Charlie couldn’t keep it up around a girl.

After he got what he wanted from him and had ultimately proven that there was a fag in the locker room, he didn’t really have much use for her. He’d never actually cared for her. She was just a fun, time consuming conquest that kept him from suffering Senioritis. Jane, however, was expecting an engagement ring. If the relationship didn’t progress, Charlie would surely think there was room for him to steal her back. After all the work he’d put into that, there was no way he was letting him back in.

So he did the next best thing. After graduation he got an apartment and he let her move in with him. He worked and she stayed home, away from the public, and did everything he left for her to do while he was gone. Jane cooked, she cleaned, she had dinner on the table by the time he was home every night and she never complained. This was love to her. This was the easy life to him. Even though he didn’t much care for her, he was pretty sure he could handle this.

The only problem now was that she still talked to that fag.

If he didn’t get a ring on her, she might go back to him. Despite not having a sex life with him, there had to be something that’d keep her there. After all, she dated him all throughout high school and he never saw her flirting with anyone else. He’d heard enough of the cheerleaders swooning over him to know he was an attractive guy. Maybe one of those girls could change his mind. That girl could be Jane. He didn’t want that to happen, so he finally proposed. As they made out their invitation list, he was adamant about Charlie not attending. After the wedding, she never made contact with him again, that he knew of.

Two months into the marriage she had the audacity to confront him about his staying out late. One sound smack to the face shut her up quick. The look on her face was priceless. Never again did she question where he’d been. It was especially useful those nights he came home and showered immediately.

Four months into the marriage she fucked everything up. While she didn’t say a word, he caught her yakking her guts up in the bathroom one morning. She wasn’t allowed to drink because she was too easy when she was intoxicated, so that was hardly a tell tale sign, but he knew. Grabbing her up by the hair, he finally let loose like he’d always wanted. The adrenaline left him horny. Once he’d given her a sound beating, he threw her on the bathroom floor and had his way with her. It wasn’t as though anything worse could come of this now. When he was done, he showered and went to work.

That night when he came home he told her all about the arrangement he had made for her abortion. She looked horrified and that pleased him greatly. The next day he dropped her off at the doctor’s office with just enough for the procedure and bus fare to get home. He knew she’d never disobey him, not when he’d made it so clear to her what he could do if she ever went against what he told her.

After that day she suddenly turned into the perfect wife again. Obviously she hadn’t been ready for a baby either. As soon as he got home, he was ushered to the table and she sat next to him, eating as he did. When he was through, or sometimes before depending on what he wanted, she would start to tease him. He remembered one particular night where he was able to blow his load and finish dinner simultaneously. If that wasn’t on the menu though, he knew he’d find dessert in the bedroom. After he was through it was a beer and a good program on the television and her out of sight. This was the perfect life.

One day after an especially long day at work he came home to a quiet house. That was nothing unusual though, seeing as how Jane was often quiet herself. Sometimes the radio would be playing in a back room of the house but other than that there wasn’t much to hear. As a search of the house was concluded, Jane was nowhere to be found. Jane wasn’t allowed to have friends so she couldn’t be visiting anyone. Besides, there was only one person who would still know her, who would have actually helped her.

First thing the following morning he got a detective on the case. He wanted to find Charlie Dupuis and prove that he abducted his wife. Day after day, week after week, nothing came up. It seemed as though the boy dropped off the face of the earth after graduation. Maybe he killed himself. If that was the case, there would surely be a report of it somewhere. He didn’t search too long. When anyone asked, he simply told them he kicked her skanky ass out of the house after he found her cheating with someone other guy. Of course he had their sympathy.

The day he was served with divorce papers he was not surprised. He’d been waiting for this day for a long time. Finding there was going to be something about the custody of a child was something of a shock. After that first accident, he’d been sure to use condoms. He didn’t trust her taking a pill every day. He knew condoms weren’t perfect but he never knew one to fail either. Until now, that is.

AT first he was fine with not seeing the creature she birthed and called a baby. In fact, he was just peachy not having to deal with it at all, right up until he found out that the government had permission to deduct child support payments from his check. Now it was time to do something about that.

He hired a lawyer to see what could be done. Most jurors would not be sympathetic to the fact that he’d arranged for an abortion for her in order to remedy the situation. Without being able to access her medical files, they wouldn’t be able to prove she evaded the procedure that he paid for. It could be the product of another time, but that was all hard for James to believe.

So they went to win them over. A confused man who had no idea he was a father has been deprived of his child for so long. Long weekends, holidays, and school vacations were all granted to him in order to “bond” with the girl. The judge was compassionate when he heard that she’d all but been hidden from him for the past few years.

Winter Rose. Man, he wished he’d had a say in that name. Maybe the girl would have a chance at a normal life then. At least she had her mother’s last name and not his.

Winter had a very hard time adjusting at first. Just like with her mother though, he “courted” her by buying her the expensive toys a mere waitress could never afford. He let her stay up and she could watch anything she wanted on television. By the third or fourth time she visited, she was comfortable. She’d been just as easy to win over as her mother.

When they returned to court he tried to get  more days with his daughter. This was all in effort to lower his month child support payment, but he feigned interest in the little girl well enough. The judge ruled saying that what he had was fine and due to his job he didn’t think he could handle any more days with Winter. The ruling sparked suspicion in him, wondering if the bitch ever opened her mouth about what happened during their marriage.

Presenting an entirely hypothetical situation to his lawyer, he was reassured that if they feared he might become violent around his daughter they not only would have declined his request for more days a year but that they would have pulled all of his visitation entirely. Luckily for him Jane never reported those incidents that occurred behind locked doors. She never had friends at the time so it’d forever be her word against his. With his standing in the community, he knew that he’d always win.

Year by year, Winter looked more and more like her mother. He hated that. Surely she would take on some of his traits as well. Maybe the bitch lied. After all this, she might not even be his child. If that was the case, he was going to sue. He was going to sue her for all she had. He’d sue everyone he could. He’d get his money back plus a small fortune to live off of for a while. Unfortunately, he knew he wasn’t so lucky. Despite not looking like him in the least, he knew she was.

Whenever he was receiving the girl for a visit, he made sure to play the part of Father of the Year while the door was open or when he was in hearing range of anyone else. When the door closed and everyone was away, he couldn’t care less. As soon as the car pulled from the curb, he slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Take your stuff upstairs. Then we’ll meet in the living room and open some presents. Sound good, kiddo?”

Maybe he’d gone a little overboard this year. He bought everything on the list Jane provided him with and also purchased everything a little girl could ever want. He wanted this year to be stellar, like nothing she’d ever seen before. As she sat in front of her pile of presents, he found her smile to be contagious. Sooner than he knew, he was enjoying himself. Not because of the joy he brought her of course, but because of the anger he knew would flare in Jane for going outside of the list. Aside from that though, he had another good reason to enjoy the holiday: he’d won again.

****

Hours after the last present had been opened she was still getting acquainted with all her new toys. He wasn’t stingy like Jane. He didn’t believe spoiling his daughter on a holiday like this would turn her into an ungrateful brat. Besides, he wanted to do this to show her what he could do for the girl.

Dinner rolled around and he served the turkey and vegetables he’d prepared the day before. He didn’t want to have to be cooking while she was around. The only thing he had to fuss with now was reheating the food. After dinner he put her to bed. This came with an odd request as well.

“Would you read to me?”

He certainly had no books to read to her. There was no reason to keep them when he rarely had her for overnight occasions. The weekends went by too fast and they stayed up too late to ever read books anyhow.

“I don’t have any books.”

“I’ve got two new ones in my suitcase!  Brecker packed them for me to read while I was here.”

“Brecker’s a silly name. Is that your imaginary friend?”

Winter squinted as she looked at her father. “No daddy. You’re silly.”

When she called him ‘daddy’, it made him cringe and his skin crawled. He’d never get used to hearing her call him by that and wasn’t particularly pleased that she called him by anything other than his name. Rising from the bed, he went over to her suitcase and withdrew the two books. One was about a penguin and the other about a polar bear.

Taking them back to her, he let her choose one and he started reading.

“Brecker makes a squeaky voice when he talks the penguin.”

James ignored her and continued to read in his normal voice, even when the penguin was speaking.

“Brecker lets me turn the pages too.”

Again he ignored her. How would she know when he was done? He should turn the pages. By the six page though, she was reading along with him.

“Dammit, if you can read, why am I doing this?”

“Mommy says we can’t say words like that.”

“Well, your mom’s not here. In my house I can say anything I want to. Now, who’s Brecker? Is that your mom’s boyfriend?”

Winter laughed. “Mom’s friend. Brecker says he’s known me since I was a baby.”

He narrowed his eyes. There was only one person who could have known her since she was a baby, other than Jane.

“Does he still live with you?”

“Yeah. He says we’re a family and nothing will ever keep us apart.”

James smiled to himself and pulled the covers up to her chin. That had been enough story time. Now he had work to do. Brecker was Charlie and Jane had been warned.