Into Each Life

by Shelia E. Bell

  Faith placed the seasoned chicken on to a baking tray and stuck it in the oven. Prodigal listened intently, his temper rising with every word pouring from Teary’s mouth.

  “A chance? Look how long it’s been, Prodigal. Don’t you understand what I just said?” she screamed. “I’m barren.” she cried hysterically into the phone.

  “Please, baby, please calm down. Look, why don’t I fly to see you when I go on my four-day weekend? How does that sound?” Faith almost lost it. She grabbed her forehead like she was about to faint. Gathering her composure and keeping her back toward Prodigal, she remained quiet and continued to listen. If she wanted their marriage to stay together, Faith was willing to bite her tongue and remain tight lipped.

  Teary continued to talk. “Prodigal, don’t be ridiculous. You have a family. You can’t come running every time I’m in trouble. I’ll be okay. I just needed to hear your voice.”

  “Well, now you hear it. And I’m telling you, everything is going to be alright. Just hang in there, okay?”

  “Okay. Look, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later,” Teary said as she ended her call to Prodigal.

  When Prodigal hung up the phone he was furious. How could Skyler be so insensitive and cruel? He wanted to go to Broknfield and crack Skyler’s skull for being such a jerk. But Teary was right. He had his own family. As bad as he wanted to, he couldn’t simply up and leave Bonsai Bay to go see about her,

  “Is everything alright with Teary?” Standing at the kitchen island, Faith stopped dicing the bell pepper long enough to hear Prodigal’s response. Her voice bordered on irritation rather than compassion as she listened to Prodigal’s offer to traipse off to Teary’s rescue. How dare he even make such an offer, she thought.

  “Besides the fact that she can’t have children and she’s married to a worthless, insensitive fool, yeah, everything is just fine,” Prodigal retorted, storming out of the kitchen and going back into the garage.

  ♦

  When she heard the doorknob turn and the sudden thud in the kitchen, Teary’s heart skipped a beat. Skyler was probably drunk again. Over the past couple of years, her marriage had deteriorated right before her very eyes, and there was nothing she could do about it. She prayed hard and long for God to make her marriage work. She wanted to be happy like Prodigal and Faith. She wanted that same kind of love.

  Skyler called out to Teary as he stumbled into the dining room and tripped over the dining room chair. He yelled, “Teary, I have to talk to you. I can’t deal with this anymore. If you can’t give me what I want, I’m outta here.” His words were slurred. The sound of his voice unveiled his anger and resentment toward his wife. Skyler entered the bedroom, staggering. The smell of alcohol filled the room.

  “Baby,” she cried. “I know we can make things work if you would just open up and talk to me. I need you and you need me,” she pleaded but he remained cold and detached.

  She listened as he continued to unleash insensitive and harsh words. She felt herself getting sick to the stomach as he continued his verbal attack.

  “I’ve tried to stick by you, tried to make this farce of a marriage work, but this whole marriage has been based on a lie. You tricked me. You deceived me. I can’t believe I’ve wasted all of these years with you believing that one day we could be a real family.” He looked at her in disgust as he swayed back and forth in the entrance to their bedroom.

  “We can be a real family, honey. And our marriage hasn’t been a farce. I love you, and I know you love me too.” Teary pleaded with him.

  “Why can’t I have a wife who can give me what I need, what I want most in the world? Tell me why?” He raised balled fists up in the air as he stumbled toward her. She quickly moved back further away from him, afraid that his temper would lead to physical violence.

  “Do you honestly think I want a barren, empty womb woman for a wife? When my family died it almost destroyed me, Teary. Don’t you understand that yet, girl?”

  “Don’t talk like that, Skyler.”

  He disregarded her pleas. “When I met you I thought I’d met a girl who I could settle down with and start a family of my own. Now look. You're no good to me. You’re useless. Tell me you can give me a child, Teary, then we can work something out. If you can’t tell me that, then I don’t want anything else to do with you.”

  “I wish I could tell you different but I can’t,” she cried. “All I can tell you is that I love you.”

  His voice was cold and harsh. “Then I feel nothing but contempt and hate toward you. Of all the women for me to choose, I had to get one that can’t give me the one thing I want in life. I want out of this marriage. You hear me?” he screamed.

  “You don’t mean that, Skyler. You’ve had too much to drink, that’s all. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  “I’m going to feel the same way in the morning. Don’t you see that? Time and time again, I’ve tried to convince myself that you could give me a child. All of this is your fault. That’s why I’ve cheated on you,” he admitted.

  “Don’t tell me that, Skyler. How could you betray our marriage like that? How?” She fell on the bed and closed her hands over her ears, hoping somehow to block out the cruel things he said.

  “You tricked me. You deceived me. That’s why it was easy for me to lay down with someone else. Someone who could make me feel better about me.

  “Please, Skyler. Please don’t talk like this,” Teary said, sobbing uncontrollably. She walked over to him.

  “Get away from me,” he screamed.

  Teary continued to rant. “We can adopt children or maybe get one of those surrogate mothers. We can do something. But we can’t give up. We love each other too much to do that, Skyler.” She pulled his drunken frame down on the bed. It had been weeks since he had touched her and she wanted him so badly. She wanted him to show her that he still loved her.

  “Honey,” she began again. This time she tried to kiss him, rubbing her shaking hands up and down his body. He quickly snatched them away, moving from her quickly as if she bore a deadly, contagious disease. He looked at her with nothingness in his eyes.

  “Love? Did you say love? Woman, I don’t love you. I loved what I thought you could do for me. I thought you’d make a nice baby maker and mother. Haven’t you realized that yet? If you haven’t, you’re more stupid than I imagined. I saw in you someone who would be a good mother to my children. I saw you as someone who I could have to depend on to be around the house when I needed them plus bring home a little of the bacon as well. But you aren't worth anything to me now. I’ve wasted all these years with you and you still haven’t given me what I wanted.”

  “Stop it! Don’t say those things. You don’t mean them, Skyler.”

  “I do mean it. You said you wanted to do things right. Well, I did things right. We waited until we were married to have sex. That’s the way you wanted it. You said that your God wanted us to do it like that. You said we would be blessed. So I did it the way you wanted to. Well, where is your God now, huh? Where is He now that you really need Him to come through? Just forget it. I want a divorce. I want out of this.” He jerked from the reach of her grasp and sprinted toward the door, grabbing a pair of trousers and a shirt from off the edge of the bed.

  “Wait, please don’t go. It’s two o’clock in the morning. You just came home. Please don’t do this, Skyler. Puhleeze,” she cried and begged.

  He didn’t say a word. Instead, he turned and looked at her with loathing.

  “I’m out of here. I’ve got a woman who can give me all I want and need, and it sure ain’t you, baby. It sure ain’t you,” he repeated before slamming the front door behind him.

  Teary fell across the bed, her tears coming out in full force. She was hurt, lonely, and alone. The man she loved had walked out on her.

  Disregarding the time, she dialed Prodigal. Fortunately he hadn’t fallen to sleep yet. He answered the call on the first ring. He heard the familiar voice on the other end, sobbing uncontrollabl
y.

  “Teary,” he whispered slowly getting up from the bed so as not to wake up Faith. “What is it?” He eased into the master bathroom, quietly closing the door behind him. Faith lay on her side undisturbed in a peaceful sleep.

  “What have I done to deserve this, Prodigal? I would have been a good mother and you know it. I’ve tried to be a good wife to Skyler. I don’t know what else I can do?”

  “Teary, please, don’t cry,” he whispered. Things between him and Faith were shaky still. He didn’t want to jeopardize their marriage. He loved his wife but he couldn’t just turn a deaf ear to Teary, no matter what. He sat on the edge of the oversized bathtub. “What happened, Teary?” he asked her.

  Teary told him everything. He wanted to be by her side, to wipe her tears away. She needed a friend, but he couldn’t be there for her.

  “Teary, didn’t I tell you that everything would work out? You’ll see. You don’t need Skyler. He doesn’t deserve you. So stop crying. Please stop crying.”

  “Prodigal, I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

  “I know. I know. But I’m here for you. You know that don’t you?” he reassured her.

  “Yeah, I know. Thanks for listening to me. You’re the only one I can talk to about this. You’re the only one who understands.”

  “Look, it’s late. I don’t want to wake up Faith. I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll talk some more. I promise.”

  “I’m sorry that I disturbed you, Prodigal. What was I thinking,” she apologized between tears.

  “There’s no need to apologize. Remember our promise to always be there for each other?” he told her.

  “Yes, I remember,” Teary answered.

  “Well then, I’ll never break that promise. You hear?” he emphasized.

  “Yes, I hear you,” she said between sniffles.

  “Now I want you to dry your tears. Try to get some rest. I’ll call and check on you tomorrow,” he said again.

  Okay,” Teary said as she hung up the phone. Without taking off her clothes, she climbed under the bed covers and cried until her eyes were swollen shut.

  ♦

  The knock on the door came hard.

  “Hey, who is it out there?” the woman called out.

  “Who do you think it is? Open up the door, Geena. I need a place to crash. Come on,” Skyler ordered. “It’s cold and wet out here.”

  Out of habit, Geena peeked through the peephole anyway. A sleepy smile spread across her face as she unlatched the door.

  “What’s going on with you? It’s almost three o’clock in the morning. Your ole lady must have thrown you out,” she said sleepily.

  “Naw, more like I walked out. I don’t have time to listen to nagging and yelling from some lifeless, dried up wench. I told you before that my marriage was over. I found out the broad lied to me about being able to have children, and you know how bad I want a family.”

  He watched as a sly, devilish smile appeared on the woman’s face. The twenty-three year old biracial woman’s golden locks were professionally cut to lay close against her neck. Her oval shaped blue-green eyes gave her the appearance of a porcelain doll. She sported a Barbie doll figure and more importantly, she was definitely able to conceive. With a habit of sleeping around, she had already been pregnant twice. Once at the tender age of sixteen and again when she was eighteen. Both times she had an abortion. She’d come from a pretty well to do family and she didn’t worry about the consequences of her actions because she could always count on her dear old mother to whisk her off to get things taken care of. Seeing that her mother was a heart surgeon and her father, the chief of staff at a Children’s Hospital in upstate Oregon, money was definitely not an issue. Her two brothers loved to spend their parents’ money just as much as she did.

  Geena spent her pastime watching television, listening to music, and partying. In addition to having a wild reputation, she stripped a little every now and then which was how she met Skyler. They’d been fooling around on and off every since she first met him, and she really liked him. When she found out he and his wife were having problems, she made sure she would be waiting on him for such a time as this. It was the same way Geena’s mother had trapped her father. She’d caught him when things were going shaky with his first wife, and before you knew it she had stolen him right from underneath that pitiful ex-wife’s very own nose.

  “Bring yourself on in here,” Geena said as she pulled at Skyler’s rain soaked shirt. Her place was a three bedroom condo that her parents had purchased for her. They hoped that if she had her own place, that somehow they might be able to fool themselves into believing that all was right with their only daughter. They gave her a weekly allowance that equaled to the amount some people earned after working for three or four months.

  “Come on in. I want to get back to sleep,” she said lazily. Skyler ignored her remark and began to tell her about the fight between him and Teary.

  “Geena, you know I’ve been going through some things with that woman almost from the start. I can’t take it any more. She knows how much I need some babies. My name has to be carried on somehow, someway.”

  Geena feigned sincerity. “I’m really sorry about you and Teresa. I know you don’t believe me, but I really am.”

  “Her name is Teary,” he corrected her.

  “Yeah, Teary, whatever,” Geena said. “Anyway, I hate to see you hurt like this, Skyler. Come on over here to me, baby. I’ll make it all better.”

  It didn’t take much for Skyler to forget his marriage vows and commitment to his wife. Geena played him like a fine tuned piano. She knew exactly what he liked, what he needed, and most of all what Skyler Jenkins wanted, and she planned on giving it all to him.

  chapter 22

  Beyond Repair

  “Your honor, I’m here today because I’d like to reassume my maiden name.”

  “The court would like to know your reasons for making this request, Mrs. Jenkins.”

  “Your honor, I was recently granted a divorce. My ex husband and I have no children, we have not purchased a home together, nor do we have a substantial amount of assets between the two of us. So in light of these things, I don’t see why I should continue to bear his name. I want to be totally free from him and from all ties with him so I can make a fresh start in my life.”

  “I see that your maiden name is Fullalove. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, your honor, it is.” Teary tried hard to conceal the nervousness she felt standing before the judge. Her lawyer had told her that going before the judge was more of a formality rather than anything else, but Teary was still a little on edge. She couldn’t bear the thought of having to wear the name Jenkins one minute longer. Humiliated and hurt at the failure of her marriage, Teary hated to admit it, but she still loved Skyler. Maybe if she went back to being a Fullalove, it would make it easier to forget him.

  Over the years, Teary prayed that she and Skyler would be able to make their marriage work. But she had cried her last cry when she discovered that Skyler was having an affair with a woman named Geena. The night she begged him not to leave replayed in her mind. Skyler had only returned to the apartment to get the rest of his things before moving in with Geena.

  The ragged sound of the judge’s voice pierced her thoughts.

  “Your request has been granted. Please let the record show that Teary Jenkins is now returned to her maiden name of Fullalove. Miss Fullalove, the court clerk will draw up the order. Good day.”

  “Thank you, your honor,” she exhaled. “Thank you, Lord,” she mumbled underneath her breath.

  The next thing on her agenda was making a move out of the city of Broknfield. She had to get away from everything. There was no way she could live her dodging Skyler, choosing the places she could or could not go in order to avoid running into him. Nor could she take the pitiful stares from her friends who knew that she had been dumped because she couldn’t have children. Yes, she definitely needed a fresh start, a second chance. Maybe
she would find someone someday who would love her even though she would never be able to bear a child. But she didn’t believe that person was in Broknfield.

  “So it’s all over huh?” Prodigal asked through the phone.

  “Yep. I’m officially Teary Fullalove again,” she remarked proudly.

  How are you holding up?” Prodigal asked her. His obvious concern could be heard in his voice.

  “So, so. They say time heals all wounds. But I don’t know about that.”

  “The pain isn’t going to disappear overnight, you know.”

  “I know that. But Skyler’s been out of my life for some time now, Prodigal. I should be better, don’t you think?”

  “It still doesn’t mean you can just turn your feelings off. You still love him and to go through a divorce is traumatic. I just wish there was something I could do to make things easier.”

  “Having you listen to me is more than enough, Prodigal. Knowing I can call on you is such a relief. You always come through for me.”

  “Hey, why don’t you come here and visit for a while? Relax your mind, have a change of scenery.”

  Faith cleared her throat as she entered the study. Prodigal jerked around in time to see her with a look of disdain on her face. She folded her arms and walked back out as quickly as she had come in. He continued listening to Teary. If only Faith could understand his relationship with Teary. Didn’t she know that the woman needed someone to lean on? She used to accept the relationship he had with her but now things were totally different.

  “I wish I could, but I’m in the middle of some big projects at work. Plus, I still have a few loose ends to tie up now that my divorce is final.”

  “The sooner you handle the loose ends, the sooner you can move on with your life, you know?”

  “You’re right.”

  He hated for her to be in pain. He longed to be there beside her to see her through this difficult time. He wished he could see Skyler so he could choke the life out of him for hurting Teary.

  “I should be finished in a couple of weeks. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot.”