Chapter Six

Charline called her father and waited to be connected. Her call went to his secretary first. He was a very busy man working in a large law office. His law office. Then she was put on hold. Charlrene hated that.

Charlene’s mind wandered as she waited for her farther to come on the line. Soft music played in the background.

She saw long lines of trees on a distant horizon in her “minds eye.” Farther off out in the distance, large mountains loomed as they had for millennia in a haze of early mist and dust kicked up by swirling breezes and thousands of wildebeest, heading in the same direction. It was the time of the migration.

A river ran down from the mountains where she was standing in a green Toyota Safari vehicle in the warm sun, with large black binoculars pressed to her face. Black men stood around below her talking on walkie-talkies trying to find the best vantage points. Hippos stood lazily in the water, eating and swimming slowly under the surface of the green, dirty water. Charlene could almost feel the warm breeze on her face.

She wanted to go on this trip with Joe, badly. This could be the chance that she had been waiting for after all the long and sad months of Joe’s engagement. Fall had come and then the winter snow arrived and then melted away as spring arrived again.

Charlene watched Joe get abused by Suzan time and time again with changing time tables and costs and desires. It had been painful to watch. The wedding was to happen in following the spring. Then everything changed. Overnight, the engagement was over. Charlene hated Suzan more than she could have imagined until the day Joe came in and made the announcement to Charlene. “The engagement was off.”

Joe didn’t make a public announcement in the office. He didn’t know the news would spread like wildfire in the building. He would have had no idea how to stop it if he knew or cared about it. It was out of his hands or control. It was what it was. He didn’t think that any women had an eye on him anyway and wasn’t interested in starting dating at the moment, of course. He was heartbroken.

Perhaps women don’t make bets on matters like these like men do, but there had been talk, if not a betting pool. Now Charlene knew that she might be back in the game. She had no idea if other women saw Joe as a potential mate but she didn’t waste any time staking out her territory, at least in her head. Much of her life was lived in her head, after all. She often had a difficult time remembering what was real and what was imagined at the end of the day.

Charlene worked hard at being the best secretary ever and being attentive to Joe in every way possible in an office environment. They had lunch together often but that was expected in the type of work they did. Charlene thought that may have been enough to keep some of the other contenders, if there were any, away. She did drop a few subtle hints when possible, or so she thought. Most were so subtle as to be missed.

Many saw Joe as a man in the making and others saw that it may be a task to large to undertake in one lifetime. He wasn’t hard to look at and he was a gentleman in all respects, but most saw him as taken and left it there. So Charlene’s proximity and patience were her best assets at the end of the day. She had to go on this trip for her plan to begin.

Charlene’s parents had been divorced for years. Her father’s infidelities were said to be the reason for the end of the marriage, but there was more to the story, of course. Her mother’s story was one sided but Charlene had no reason to to believe otherwise for years.

She was just a young girl at the time of the divorce, and had no reason not to believe her mother when her father disappeared. Charlene had learned learned over many years from her mother, how to use his sins against him, over and over again.

Nick had cheated on his wife, Charlene’s mother, more than once. He had disappeared from Charlene’s life for all intents and purposes at the moment of discovery. His wife maintained that this latest “act of treachery,” as she had called it for so many years now, was the last straw and stopped every effort to see his daughter until lawyers intervened.

But as Charlene grew older she began to understand that her mother, she understood that Sally, was not an innocent in the failure of the marriage. Charlene’s mother had played a part in this failure of her marriage to Nick. She had played her part in this family drama all too well.

Her drinking was a large part of the downfall of their formerly happy and fulfilling relationship. Sadly she loved her wine and spirits more than her marriage and had no desire 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, beauty and charm to them.

These first two of the traits that had drawn Nick to her when they first met were long gone, soon enough. Nick had loved those qualities in his wife. They were all a part of what drew him into her orbit. Eventually they were wiped out forever.

Their families were both in that realm of the city’s wealthiest and most powerful, so their engagement was looked upon as proper and no hint of climbing the social ladder was raised. It seemed the perfect match.

The divorce was a long fight over the usual things. The care and custody of Charlene, their only child, her living conditions and money of course. Even the richest, have their pride, after all. 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.

Nick was denied visitation with Charlene by Sally at first and they fought about that and many other issues until they came to a mutually beneficial agreement. Sally didn’t like her daughter to be with an adulterous father and Nick didn’t want his young daughter living with a drunk.

After a few years fighting to a stalemate of sorts, a kind of truce was agreed upon and Sally let Nick start seeing Charlene again. Much time had passed and and Nick and Charlene’s relationship had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Sally never let Nick forget that he had cheated on her. He decided not to mention his feelings about her drinking and lack of attention to him during the marriage. It would have just led to more trouble. When he did, the results were what he had expected. Tons of money being spent on lawyers.

Yes he had cheated and left what was remaining of their marriage, but Sally had been far from perfect. Nick felt that he had tried for as long and hard as he could for a very long time but he could not save the marriage by himself.

He had finally found another woman for a long term relationship and a new life over Sally. Sally was less than the perfect partner and unredeemable as far as Nick was concerned.

“Somewhere down deep, Sally must have know that herself,”Nick often imagined. She often made Nick’s life a misery long after all of the troubles and legal battles were behind them. She did it in subtle ways and not so subtle ways. Like the time Nick came back for the rest of his suits and shoes and they were burning in the middle of the large front yard for all to see. That was unpleasant for Nick, especially as he was an attorney for some of the most powerful families in the city. There were soon stories in the papers and on the tongues of many.

Sally often used his guilt to her personal advantage but even that seemed to give her little pleasure as the years passed. After several years, Charlene’s mother was now a depressed wreck and ghost of her former self. Her drinking had increased and she was miserable. Her heavy drinking had led her to making many bad decisions when it came to men and her money.

She had gone through a good portion of her divorce settlement from Nick, who was a very successful attorney who now owned one of the “best” law firms in new York.

Charlene had her issues, but she was no fool. She knew Joe’s lack of of drive was one of the many issues that Suzan had often pointed out to Joe in the heat of their many arguments. Joe had tried to defend himself to Charlene at lunch more than once. “I’m just getting started here,” he would say to Charlene over tuna sandwiches and coffee. “This isn’t quite what we had expected and money wise it has been a long slog. But I can turn it into something better if Suzan gives me enough time.” Charlene knew that Suzan and Joe were on different time lines soon. It was obvious by Joe’s idea of success and Suzan’s.

Suzan had tried to listen to Joe objectively but that was impossible. She was in love with Joe even with his many obvious faults. Charlene saw Joe as a nearly perfect or perfect enough for right now. Even Charlene knew perfection was a myth in people and relationships.

Charlene waited impatiently for her father to come on the line. She had been on hold for several minutes.

This is the law offices of Barnaby and Storm, how may I direct your call?” “This is Charlene , Betty, is my father available? I need to talk to him.”

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Oh, Charlene is from a wealthy family. That explains a few things, doesn’t it? Her apartment for one thing. What other surprises will see coming from her?

We will see what Suzan is up to tomorrow, perhaps.

Is Joe going to take Charlene to Africa with him? I don’t know. Well, I actually do.

Don’t miss “Kazu, son of Osheda kamasaki,” my Asian adventure romance on Amazon and Audible now. These stories are as old as life itself, but they never seem to change.

Man needs a woman and woman wants a man. Straight forward and simple one might say, but we know differently.