You’re going to love Charlene, or maybe not. There are some things coming that you might not expect. Isn’t that the way it usually turns out in life?

Chapter 3

Charlene called her father, Nick Carpenter, at his office and waited to be connected.Her call went to his secretary first. He was a very busy man.

Charlene’s mind wandered as she waited for her father to come o the line. She saw a long lines of trees on a distant horizon and elephants marching across the endless, flat, green plain in her “minds eye.”

Farther off out in the distance, large mountains sat as they had for millennia in a haze of dust or mist. A river ran from the mountains to near where she was standing in the warm sun. She could almost feel the warm breeze on her face.

Charlene’s parents had been divorced for years. Her father’s infidelities were said to be the reason for the end of the marriage. That was her mother’s story and Charlene, a young girl at the time, had no reason not believe her mother when her father disappeared. Charlene had learned to use that sin against her father, often. Nick had cheated on his wife, Charlene’s mother, more than once and disappeared from Charlene’s life for all intents and purposes at the moment his wife has discovered, “these acts of treachery,” as her mother had called them for many years.

But as Charlene grew older she understood that her mother, Sally, was not innocent in the failure of her marriage to Nick. She had played her part in this drama just as Nick had.

Her drinking was a large part of the downfall of their formerly happy and fulfilling relationship. Sadly, she loved her spirits and wine too much to curb her intake, as far as Nick could see. she paid a price over time for her habits and had lost a good deal of her intellectual curiosity and beauty to them. These were two of the traits that drew Nick to her when they first met.

Nick loved those qualities in his wife. They were part of what pulled him into her orbit. Eventually, they were wiped out forever, or so Nick thought. The divorce was a long fight over the usual things. The care and custody of Charlene, their only child, her living situation, and money of course, were Nick’s primary concern. It took a good deal of time and money to settle the issues to both parties satisfaction. Several lawyers were made more wealthy as the divorce dragged on.

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I will add to this after tennis is over this morning.

“Sunrise, Sunset” and “Kazu, son of Osheda Kamasaki are both also available on Audible.

Do listen to them. I will need more tennis balls soon.