They seem to know him here, and they seem to find him amusing, so I’m not overly embarrassed by him, but I could do with a little peace before I talk to this person, this ‘Grace’. I’m clutching my string bag, knowing full well that the meager paperwork on my divorce is in there, but I check it every so often anyway. And we sit and he wriggles like an over excited puppy and I want to make him stop, I’m praying to God that my hand does not reach out of its own accord and smack him upside his head.
“I went out with her once,” Alex whispers in my ear after he greets a young woman who passes us by. “She was SO boring.”
“Really?” I don’t care. I truly do not care if he’s gone out with the entire office.
“Really,” he says. “It was before I moved out here, I was just kinda hangin’ ‘round L.A. and we...”
Someone interrupts him and it’s time for me to go into Grace’s office. I follow this woman down a small corridor, and am surprised that Alex is following right along with me. I give him a hard stare, but he just smiles and enters the office a step behind me.
“Hello, I’m Grace Webster.” On impact I like this person, just from the deep dimples in her cheeks and her open smile. She must be almost six feet tall, too, an imposing figure. She extends her hand and I take it; her handshake is firm and dry.
“Hello,” I say.
“Hi Gracie,” I hear from behind me. Grace lets go of my hand and turns a bit to receive Alex’s hug.
“Hello, Alex, how are you?”
“Good, good. You?”
“I’m fine.”
The person who led us to this office is standing by the door, waiting. Grace gestures for us to sit down, and asks if we’d like coffee. Yes, I would and it seems that Alex would, too. The secretary, or assistant, goes to get coffee, leaving the door open. I realize that there’s going to be a little casual chit chat before we get down to business.
Grace asks me how I like California, she asks me how Tish is acclimating, and she asks how I’m acclimating. That is a bit of a surprise until I remember that Grace has spoken with Juliette. She makes gentle jokes about working for Alex that we all laugh at, Alex included. The coffee comes and she pours. Then she turns her questions to Alex, inquiring as to his state, listening to his account of his most recent injury without getting into any of the details, and generally being a congenial person.
“Alex, would you mind leaving Siobhan and I for a while?” Grace asks.
“Nope. I’ll wait out in the lobby.” And he gets up and gives my arm a little squeeze before leaving and closing the door behind him.
“I’ve talked to Juliette Harris, and she tells me that you’re having some trouble with your ex-husband,” Grace begins.
“Not exactly trouble. I received my first child support and alimony payment, and it was a little light. And along with it was a letter informing me that Errol, my ex, that he’s unemployed and had, uh, petitioned for a lesser amount, and it had been approved. I never heard anything from my attorney in Ohio about this.”
“I see.”
“I was surprised. Not about the money, or about him being unemployed, but about not hearing about his petition.”
“Yes, that would be surprising. Have you contacted your attorney?”
“Not yet, I just found out about it, and thought I would wait until after I’d talked to you. To be perfectly honest, I’m not so sure what I want to do about it. I mean, if he can’t pay right now, he can’t pay, and...”
“Has he remarried?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure he will once her divorce is final. I mean, I’m assuming he will.”
“So there’s another woman.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m divorced.”
“I see.” I feel that she does. She’s been taking notes the entire time we’ve been talking. Now she asks to see my decree, my check, and the petition, along with any of the other paper work. I hand her the file that holds everything. “Good, you’re orderly,” she says with a little laugh. She gives it all a cursory glance, and I sip my coffee. “He wasn’t making you payments in Ohio?”
“No, we worked out a deal where he was covering all our expenses up until our move to California. Letitia and I stayed in the apartment, but he paid for everything as if he were still there.”
“Did you ever withhold visitation?”
“No.”
“How did he feel about your move to California?”
“It was never an issue, at least he never said anything to me about it.” I pause, and a thought pops into my head. One about our split I’d never had before. “I... maybe he felt sort of guilty about everything. I don’t know.”
“So you discussed this move with him before you made it?”
“Not exactly discussed. I told him that I was considering the move, and after I had considered it, then I told him that Letitia and I were moving. He had no major reaction to it.”
“Is he close to your daughter?”
“Yes, and no.” I offer her a weak smile and then go on to explain my thoughts of the previous several days. I tell her how I saw Tish’s relationship with her father, admitting that I didn’t really know Errol’s point of view. Listening to myself I feel a sense of shame. I should have known exactly how Errol felt. I should have known exactly how Tish felt. I should have known a lot more things.
“Are you currently having a relationship?”
“No.”
“Do you want to pursue increased child support and alimony?”
“I...”
“Because we could probably force the issue.”
“I’m worried about that.”
“Because?”
“Because if he really can’t make the payments, I don’t see the point in pressuring him. I mean, it seems like he went through all the correct channels, it’s just that I got left out of the loop.”
“I agree,” Grace says. She lifts her eyes from her notes. “But I see no reason why we shouldn’t go after some damages from your old attorney. Possibly from Mr. Sloan’s attorney, as well, although I doubt they did anything out of the ordinary from what I can see here. They followed through, there was just no formal objection from you through YOUR attorney.”
“I probably wouldn’t have objected,” I tell her.
“I sense that you and Mr. Sloan parted amicably.”
“Yes, pretty much. After the initial shock wore off.”
“Do you talk to him regularly?”
“My daughter does. He wanted to speak to me several nights ago, but I wanted to wait until I spoke with you.”
“Do you have any objection to calling him now, from here?”
“I, well, no.”
“Do you feel comfortable asking him about all this?”
“Yes.” I do. Now.
“I’ll leave you alone in here, then. Just dial nine before the number and use line two.” Grace gets up and leaves, closing the door behind her.
~~**~~**~~***~~**~~**~~
I’m nervous about making the call, but once I’m speaking to Errol my nerves evaporate. He’s more than willing to talk to me about the check, to explain what’s going on.
At the moment, he’s working part time in a convenience store; selling chips and pumping gas. His last job fell through and he’s simply getting by doing this, because in a few weeks he’s getting married to Doris Hanney and they’re moving to Florida. She’s already purchased a small condominium complex in the Central Keys, and he’s going to be managing it while she continues to work. He wanted to tell me Tuesday night, because Tish had been telling him about her summer plans and he was getting concerned that she wasn’t making any time to visit with him.
I assure him that’s not the case at all, and the next thing I know, I’m firming up the summer schedule with him. I’m shocked by his plans. I’m shocked that he’s assuring me that within the next month or so he should be up to date with his payments, and that he can even add Tish onto Doris’s health insurance as a secondary, AND that they’ll pay for fifty percent of her camp costs.
He’s sorry that things got mixed up. He knows he probably should have just called and discussed things with me, but Doris and his lawyer were adamant about going through proper channels. He was surprised that my attorney never contacted his about the petition, too, but he’d just forgotten about it once he’d signed off on the paperwork, he’d been busy with the move he was making.
I hang up from the phone call in a daze. It takes me a moment to gather myself to go find Grace, but she’s only outside the door, sitting at an empty desk.
“How did it go?” she asks me once she’s joined me in the office again.
I tell her, and in telling her I become sad. I shouldn’t be sad, I should be jumping for joy. Tish can have her summer. I won’t have to borrow any cash to pay for it. Nothing’s changed in the divorce arrangement. Tish will even have a nice place to go for her visit with her father.
And I’m sad.
Because Errol sounds happy. Happier than I’ve ever heard him sound. He’s moving, he’s going to try something he never tried before. He’s going to move to a place where it sounds like he’s going to settle down and make a life.
A voice inside of me wants to know, why now? And why not with me?
~~**~~**~~***~~**~~**~~
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© 2003 Chandrah, Inc.
© 2003 (*> Baby Bird Productions, Inc.
