I said, "Hi, Melissa."
"Oh hi." She seemed vaguely annoyed at this interruption, although I couldn't be sure. She had that vacant look some young girls get around men. It occurred to me that she couldn't be more than six years older than Nicole. What was she doing with a guy like Gary? "So. How's it going, Jack?" Gary said, slipping his arm around Melissa's bare waist.
"Okay," I said. "Pretty good."
"Yeah? That's good." But he was frowning at me.
"Well, uh, yeah ..." I stood there, hesitating, feeling foolish in front of the girl. She clearly wanted me to leave. But I was thinking of what Ellen would say: You ran into your lawyer and you didn't even ask him?
So I said, "Gary, could I speak to you for a minute?"
"Of course." He gave the girl money to pay for the coffee, and we stepped to one side of the room.
I lowered my voice. "Listen, Gary," I said, "I think I need to see a divorce lawyer."
"Because what?"
"Because I think Julia is having an affair."
"You think? Or you know for a fact?"
"No. I don't know for sure."
"So you just suspect it?"
"Yes."
Gary sighed. He gave me a look.
I said, "And there's other things going on, too. She's starting to say that I am turning the kids against her."
"Alienation of affection," he said, nodding. "Legal cliche du jour. She makes these statements when?"
"When we have fights."
Another sigh. "Jack, couples say all kinds of shit when they fight. It doesn't necessarily mean anything."
"I think it does. I'm worried it does."
"This is upsetting you?"
"Yes."
"Have you seen a marriage counselor?"
"No."
"See one."
"Why?"
"Two reasons. First, because you should. You've been married to Julia a long time, and as far as I know it's been mostly good. And second, because you'll start to establish a record of trying to save the marriage, which contradicts a claim of alienation of affection."
"Yes, but-"
"If you're right that she is starting to build a case, then you have to be extremely careful, my friend. Alienation of affection is a tough argument to defend against. The kids are pissed at Mom, and she says you're behind it. How can you prove it's not true? You can't. Plus you've been home a lot, so it's easier to imagine that it might be true. The court will see you as dissatisfied, and possibly resentful of your working spouse." He held up his hand. "I know, I know none of that's true, Jack, but it's an easy argument to make, that's my point. And her attorney will make it. In your resentment, you turned the kids against her."
"That's bullshit."
"Of course. I know that." He slapped me on the shoulder. "So see a good counselor. If you need names, call my office and Barbara'll give you a couple of reputable ones." I called Julia to tell her that Ellen was coming up for a few days. Of course, I didn't reach Julia, just her voice mail. I left a longish message, explaining what was happening. Then I went to do the shopping because with Ellen staying over, we'd need some extra supplies. I was rolling my cart down the supermarket aisle when I got a call from the hospital. It was the beardless ER doctor again. He was calling to check on Amanda and I said her bruises were almost gone.
"That's good," he said. "Glad to hear it."
I said, "What about the MRI?"
The doctor said the MRI results were not relevant, because the machine had malfunctioned and had never examined Amanda. "In fact, we're worried about all the readings for the last few weeks," he said. "Because apparently the machine was slowly breaking down."
"How do you mean?"
"It was being corroded or something. All the memory chips were turning to powder."
I felt a chill, remembering Eric's MP3 player. "Why would that happen?" I said. "The best guess is it's been corroded by some gas that escaped from the wall lines, probably during the night. Like chlorine gas, that'd do it. Except the thing is, only the memory chips were damaged. The other chips were fine."
Things were getting stranger by the minute. And they got stranger still a few minutes later, when Julia called all cheerful and upbeat, to announce that she was coming home in the afternoon and would be there in plenty of time for dinner.
"It'll be great to see Ellen," she said. "Why is she coming?"
"I think she just wanted to get out of town."
"Well, it'll be great for you to have her around for a few days. Some grown-up company."
"You bet," I said.
I waited for her to explain why she hadn't come home. But all she said was, "Hey, I got to run, Jack, I'll talk to you later-"
"Julia," I said. "Wait a minute."
"What?"
I hesitated, wondering how to put it. I said, "I was worried about you last night."
"You were? Why?"
"When you didn't come home."
"Honey, I called you. I got stuck out at the plant. Didn't you check your messages?"
"Yes ..."
"And you didn't have a message from me?"
"No. I didn't."
"Well, I don't know what happened. I left you a message, Jack. I called the house first and got Maria, but she couldn't, you know, it was too complicated ... So then I called your cell and I left you a message that I was stuck at the plant until today."
"Well, I didn't get it," I said, trying not to sound like I was pouting. "Sorry about that, honey, but check your service. Anyway listen, I really have to go. See you tonight, okay? Kiss kiss."