The Woman He Married

by Ford, Julie

  “My momma called and told me Daddy was getting real sick. They didn’t know how much longer he had, and she wanted me to come home that summer to spend it with the Judge.” Josie shrugged. “I didn’t want to, but Momma sounded desperate, so I told Brian to go on without me, and I headed back to Alabama.”

  * * * *

  John shook his head. It had been a long time since he’d thought about when he first met Josie. “I’d just finished law school and the Judge wanted me to clerk for him one more summer…take some time to study for the bar and all before getting a job. He said he’d make sure I got an interview at Tyler and Whitney come fall.” Feeling nostalgic all of a sudden, he said, “He was getting old and pretty sick, so it was hard. I idolized that man.” Swallowing, he pushed down the pain. “So, I stayed.”

  “You clerked for him three years, so you already knew Jocelyn,” Patrick said.

  Andy stood back, practicing his swing.

  “Yeah, well, I knew the Judge had a daughter, but I’d never met her. I mean, she and her daddy didn’t get on well, and she didn’t come home much.” With a shrug, John added, “All the old man ever said was that his daughter took off with some loser and went to law school in California.” Heat pricked the back of his neck when he thought about Josie and Brian together. Although he hadn’t known it then, Brian McAlister was no loser.

  * * * *

  “When I got home, Momma hadn’t exaggerated—Daddy looked pretty bad.” Josie exhaled, remembering how strange it was to see him so weak. “All he kept talking about was how I needed to meet a nice boy and marry a proper husband. He said that’s all he wanted for me.” Josie shot Barbara a dubious smile before continuing. “He wanted me to meet his clerk, said he was the ‘right’ kind of man for me.”

  Barbara looked confused. “What about Brian? He wasn’t the right kind of man?”

  “Well, although his father had—has,” she corrected herself, “an impressive record in the District Attorney’s office, Brian was liberal to say the least, and Daddy thought he was a bad influence on me.” Embarrassment colored her cheeks as she said, “Plus, he caught Brian leaving early one morning over Christmas break. No daddy wants to think his little girl is…well, you know. Brian was pretty much banned after that. So, I didn’t come home much either.”

  * * * *

  Patrick kept the story moving. “So. How’d you two meet, then?”

  “Well, the Judge seemed happy enough that Jocelyn was coming home and said she didn’t have many friends around anymore. He asked if I would take her out to the club and introduce her—make her feel comfortable again.”

  “The old man totally set you up,” Andy put in.

  “It’s not like I didn’t know what he was doing,” John said and then stopped. “Since our daddy took off when we were young, the Judge was almost like a father to me. I couldn’t exactly tell him no, and besides, what’s the harm in spending a night out with his daughter. I decided we probably wouldn’t get on anyway, and I could suffer through one date.” John shrugged. “So he asked me to drop by his house and pick up something he left. Jocelyn would be there, and I could ask her then.” He shook his head. “Simple enough, right?”

  * * * *

  “One morning Daddy called and said John was coming over to pick up something for him. It was on the piano in the front room, and he said I should be courteous.” Josie chuckled, remembering how ridiculous it all was. “I wasn’t really interested in meeting Daddy’s stuffy old clerk, or so I assumed he was. I’d already decided to torture him to the full extent of my abilities.”

  “What did you intend on doing to him?” Barbara asked with a chuckle.

  “Well, Momma let him in and then called to me. I mean it was so staged I could hardly keep a straight face.” Josie rolled her eyes. “So, I come skipping down the stairs and…” She took a breath, remembering. “I just stopped dead in my tracks on the bottom step. He was so gorgeous that I could barely believe my eyes.” Josie whistled through her teeth. “But I decided I was still going to give him a hard time. After all, my daddy loved him more than he did me—talking about how perfect John was all the time.”

  “I’m sure your daddy loved you,” Barbara said.

  “Well, I wish I could be so sure…”

  * * * *

  “So, I get there and Carol lets me in, says ‘good luck,’ calls Jocelyn, and then leaves, looking like she didn’t expect to ever see me again.”

  Patrick looked perplexed. “That’s weird.”

  “Man, I tell you what…” John shook his head, smiling wryly. “Jocelyn was something else bounding down the stairs—wearing these low jeans with holes in the knees, bare feet, and this short, black tank top, no bra. And I can see she had this tattoo right here on her hip.” John motioned down to his hip. “Not exactly the kind of girl you bring home to Momma, you know what I’m saying?”

  “Jocelyn has a tattoo?” Andy asked, with sudden interest.

  “Yeah, she has a few of them,” John said, remembering how he panicked slightly, realizing that one date with the Judge’s daughter wasn’t going to be as uneventful as he’d originally thought.

  Patrick adjusted his horned rim glasses. “Really, where?”

  “Never mind,” John said, cutting the conversation off.

  * * * *

  “So, I pull myself together. He’s the enemy after all, and I still have to torment him. But it just might be more fun now than I’d originally thought.” Josie smiled deviously. “So, I grab the envelope that my daddy left, and I walk right up to him…” She pursed her lips. “I looked into his eyes and almost lost it right there.”

  “Really? Did he know that you were smitten?” Barbara sounded almost giddy.

  “Don’t know. He stuttered some nonsense about going out that night. I was so infatuated, I couldn’t even speak.”

  * * * *

  “She walks right up to me and looks me in the eye. Now that I’m not distracted by the tattoo and…um…no bra…” John stopped, felt a smile tease his lips. “I notice that she’s not too bad looking either, you know what I’m saying?”

  “Yeah, Jocelyn’s one damn fine-looking woman,” Patrick said with a nod.

  John glared at Patrick. “You do realize we’re talking about my wife?”

  Patrick shrugged.

  Yes, Jocelyn is beautiful, John mused. Although it had been a while since he’d looked at her that way, he hadn’t realized other men were noticing.

  “Anyway, I stammer something. I don’t even know what I said. And then she just walks over to the door and holds it open for me to leave.” Shaking his head, John said, “So I just start walking, and as I pass, she shoves the envelope in my hand, and says, ‘Pick me up at seven.’ By the time I turn around she’s shut the door already.”

  The Yankee golfers had moved on, but Patrick didn’t make a move to start playing. “So?”

  “So, the Judge said that I could drive his car—Mercedes 450sl—and I go back at seven.” With a little more enthusiasm this time, he thought.

  * * * *

  “I’m dressed kinda proper for the club, you know, but I had other plans.” Josie bounced her eyebrows deceitfully.

  Barbara giggled. “Oh, Lordy! I’m afraid to ask.”

  “I take him out to this Blues club over on the other side of Birmingham that Brian and I always go to when we’re in town.” Josie put her head back and laughed. “He looked so nervous and out of place in his khaki pants and navy blazer. At least he took off that stupid tie.”

  * * * *

  “We walk out to the car, and Jocelyn snatches the keys from me. She says, ‘I’m driving.’ So I get in and she’s outside of the car taking her clothes off.”

  Patrick and Andy snickered in disbelief. “What?” they both said.

  “She’s got this short skirt on underneath and this leather camisole thing—very sexy.” John raised his brows for emphasis.

  “She starts driving like a bat out-of-hell. I see that we aren’t hea
ding for the club and she says…” John laughed, “‘You didn’t think that I was going to let you take me to that stuffy old club, did you?’ She took me over to the west side of town to this dive bar. I am practically the only white guy in there. The only one in a blazer and tie for sure.”

  Andy gave his brother a quizzical look. “You’ve never told me this part.”

  John lifted a shoulder and continued, “And Jocelyn, well she’s just enjoying this a little too much, so I decide that I’m not going to let her get the better of me. So I march right up to the bar and start up a conversation.”

  * * * *

  “Yeah, well, my plan didn’t work out that great because John—being the charismatic man that he is, goes to get us some beers and ends up making friends with all the guys at the bar,” Josie said.

  “I can see that. John can be very charming,” Barbara said with a smile.

  “Well, when he came back I called a truce and we spent the rest of the time talking.” Josie paused for a moment, biting her lip longingly. “But not just talking. I mean, we debated about politics and the law. It was fun, you know.”

  Barbara frowned. “No. I’m afraid I don’t.” Shaking her head, she added, “Young people.”

  “Anyway, we stayed pretty late and got a bit drunk.” Josie gave Barbara a what-do-you-expect-it’s-me look. “When they were closing the place down, John asked the band to play one more song: “You’ve got a Friend.” And that’s when it happened—when I fell madly for him.” She exhaled a long sigh. “I never should have let him kiss me.”

  * * * *

  “Jocelyn was something else. She could debate like no woman—or man for that matter—I’d ever met. She was challenging. Stimulating.”

  “Stimulating?” Andy said with a wink.

  “Anyway, she was sort of drawing me in, but it was time to go. The bar was closing, so I asked the band to play one more song: “You’ve Got a Friend.” They said it was the only ‘white people’ song they knew.” John paused to wipe the perspiration from the back of his neck and thought about how to explain the rest. Josie was smart, sexy, and just dangerous enough to captivate. “Anyway, I’d been drinking too much, and she was alluring. Like one of those sirens from a Greek myth or something. I never should have kissed her.”

  * * * *

  “Two weeks later we were engaged, then married by the end of the summer. Daddy made sure John got his dream job. I managed to finish law school, but then Jack was born, and John wanted me home.” Josie shrugged with regret. “I just sort of fell into this domestic life. And now John’s living his dream, and I’m…not.”

  Barbara reached over to pat Josie’s arm. “Ah, honey, it’s not that bad.”

  “My daddy was sure happy, though.” Josie smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.

  * * * *

  “Because there was no going back after that, we went back to my place and well…to make a long story short, neither one of us got any sleep that night.” John stopped, remembering how he lost himself in her hazel eyes, the smell and feel of her skin against his. How she opened herself to him without inhibition. The sex that night was easy—hypnotic—he felt like he could never get enough of her.

  “So. How did you go from a one-night stand to marriage?” Patrick asked.

  “The next morning I went draggin’ into work, hung over and looking like I’d been up all night, and well, you know… The Judge took one look at me, and I knew.”

  “Knew what?” Patrick asked while Andy shook his head.

  “That I’d better make an honest woman out of Jocelyn or my career was over,” John said. But inside he knew he didn’t marry Josie simply to further his career. After one night with her, no other woman would ever do. “We got married that summer. I got my job at the firm and made partner a couple of years after that. That’s about it.”

  “And, Trisha?” Patrick asked.

  John threw him another glare. “What about Trisha?”

  Andy scoffed. “Trisha never would have married John since he wasn’t from the ‘right side of the tracks.’ Her daddy threatened to cut her off if she even thought about marrying him.” He took another practice swing. “And, you know Trisha. She loves money and power more than anything, or anybody.”

  Irritated now, John remembered how humiliated he’d felt when Trisha refused to consider marriage. But Josie had come along at the right time and he’d never looked back, until recently. “Come on,” he said, climbing into the cart. “That’s enough talk. Let’s play golf.”

  Throughout the rest of the game John wondered how his marriage to Josie, one that had started out so promising, had taken such a serious turn for the worse.

  He finished a disappointing twenty-three over par.

  * * * *

  Josie and Barbara fell quiet as the spa workers removed the mud from their faces with warm moist towels.

  When the workers had moved away, Josie said, “Momma thinks I should leave him.”

  “What? John?” Barbara’s mouth fell open. “I know John’s not an easy man. He holds himself and everyone around him to such high standards, but…” Then eyeing Josie carefully, she asked in a calm voice, “What do you think?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what I want.” Tears stung the corners of Josie’s eyes. “It’s like who I am just disappeared. Along with my dreams. I’m tired of trying to be someone I’m not.”

  “Dreams don’t disappear, honey, as long as you keep them alive. You’ve got to be strong.” Barbara made a fist with her chubby hand and smiled encouragingly.

  “I don’t know if I can, or if I even remember how.” Josie’s voice started to tremble.

  “A very bright young woman once said, ‘We as women must reach down deep inside ourselves and reclaim our inner strength in order to break down the barriers imposed upon us by the patriarchal society in which we live,’” Barbara said, her tone triumphant.

  Pride swelled inside as Josie joined in, “Only then can we begin to heal, not only ourselves, but also the world around us. To alleviate poverty, war, pollution, and abuse. The strength that women hold inside themselves is, by its very nature, when drawn upon, nigh unstoppable.”

  Barbara stopped and shook her head, not remembering the rest.

  But Josie continued. “We as women here today must unite. We must put off the vain expectations of the world that have been thrust upon us and press forward in our quest for a better life.” Josie paused, looking at Barbara.

  “In so doing we reclaim our true identity as women,” Barbara finished.

  Josie stared at Barbara. A tear escaped, rolling down her cheek. “You heard my speech?”

  “I memorized your speech,” Barbara clarified. “Your ideas, all those years ago, impacted my life in ways you could never imagine.” Patting Josie’s hand, she said, “I think that it’s time you take your own words to heart.”

  * * * *

  Bounding down the staircase to the main dining room, her blown and straightened hair bouncing lightly as she moved, Josie hoped that she hadn’t kept everyone waiting too long.

  “John—is that your wife?” Patrick said, slapping John’s arm with the back of his hand.

  John and Andy turned to look, just as Josie descended the last few steps.

  After a massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, haircut, plus style, Josie sported a new brightly-colored halter dress, gathered around the bodice, with a flowing skirt that just brushed the top of her knee, and new strappy sandals. She felt like a new woman.

  “Damn, Sis… You look hot,” Andy said, running his gaze over her attire once again.

  John didn’t say anything—he just gaped at her with the other two. Josie started feeling a little self-conscious, like maybe something was hanging out, or there was a big spider on her head.

  Lanny burst through Patrick and Andy. “Well, don’t you look like Christmas morning.” He wagged a finger at Josie. “This island is gonna grow on you, I’m betting.” Then as quickly as he’d appeared,
he moved away, saying, “Well, everyone’s here and I’m ’bout to starve, so let’s eat.”

  Trisha and Lydia craned their necks trying to see what the guys were gawking at before filing in after Lanny.

  Amy smiled and said, “Cute shoes.”

  Hesitating for a moment, John took in Josie’s new look. “You look real nice,” he said, standing aside and allowing her to go ahead of him. She felt the subtle touch of John’s hand on the small of her back as he guided her along. A man should never underestimate the importance of his touch, she thought, be it ever so slight.

  An hour later and once again, with the usual chatter around the table, Josie’s mind was somewhere else. She thought about how so many things had changed since she’d written that speech. Nowadays, it seemed that modern women were expected to turn into men—kicking butt and taking names—before they could be perceived as capable.

  Women who swore, smoked cigars, carried assault rifles, and took down men twice their size with one swipe of their spiked heel were not exactly what Josie had in mind when she wrote that speech. Josie gave birth to three eight-pound babies and then nourished them with milk produced by her own body; she didn’t need to act like a man in order to feel powerful.

  Trisha’s voice rose above the others from the opposite side of the table. “Republicans care about civil rights. After all, President Lincoln was a Republican—he freed the slaves,” she said, asserting her point like it must be obvious to everybody.

  Josie thought she must be kidding and snickered. John and Patrick were holding back chuckles themselves, while around the table she saw confused expressions.

  Still trying not to laugh, John held out his hand indicating that Josie should go ahead and explain what the three of them already appeared to know.

  “Um. Some people would argue that the only reason Lincoln freed the slaves was to cripple the South—keep them from rising up again,” Josie said, cautiously.

  “What are you talking about?” Trisha spit back.

  “The Lincoln Republicans weren’t really concerned with what we call ‘civil rights’.” Pausing, Josie still saw puzzled faces. “Besides, the Democrats and Republicans have switched philosophies over the years. The parties we have today couldn’t really be compared with what they were back then.”