THE THIRD HUSBAND is about what the third husband can be like. this is one. any resemblance to all the people living and dead involved in my life is simply reality as I see it. which is not like anyone else sees it at all. of course. here's the record tho... fiction persists. prevails... so it always goes....

THE THIRD HUSBAND

Jennie was most mad when she thought ever about her third husband. somehow, he always got short shrift with her, on account of her many small but clear angers about how he was as a person when he was with her. first off of course: his tellin' lies. he told many lies. now - you could say he was a pretty good soul. he was a pretty good soul. It was harder and harder to remember him though. on account of anger. and the Void that comes when you're lookin' back. just too much isn't there anymore - where memories should be....

anyways...they had met through a woman who was a good friend of Jennie's - because her boyfriend at the time was his 'best friend'...he wasn't some one her friend liked - not really - because he lied to his girfriends about how he had other girlfriends. plus: he had given his regular girlfriend an STD that he got from the other girlfriend who was diabetic too. so she had infections all the time. and still these two ladies loved the guy. because he could be so sexual and kind and was a loyal friend. just not a loyal lover. plus: he was going bankrupt for a lotta, lotta money because of being not responsible. Jennie had decided at that time that she wasn't interested - on account of all these pretty obvious defects. but his 'best friend' who was going with her friend: he told her that he was a great guy who wasn't perfect and all - but that he was so loyal and would give you the shirt off his back and all. so she was getting more interested. besides: the guy she was going with was gettin' really strange and neurotic and hinting that she should leave and all and wouldn't even kiss her goodnight anymore.  so she started being more interested. he was Really Interested in her as well - very much more than she was of him. he was a player - that one - so there was some drama and stuff going on....

Jenn was writing her book at her friend's house on her friend's computer and he was painting the house. he'd come in and stand over her watching and just being sexy. finally he asked her to have lunch. he brought it and it was really good with over-ripe fruit dripping from his fingers and she was falling. they went to bed then - which she hadn't in a long time - so that was great! soon he was asking her here and there and her guy didn't care so she went. they went up to a log cabin house he owned with a friend and it was all romantic. then he told her he loved her and to move out. so she did. there was no reason to stay with the old boyfriend. they moved into an old house that her friend's boyfriend was redoing from top to bottom and were living right away all romantic in these shambles of a living situatiion. it was very romantic and all.

they both felt that they had finally met somebody who would really work out. this was inspite of the facts that he also smoked a Lot of Weed and drank a Lot socially and had been a Womanizer all his days. Jennie ignored that stuff because it was clear he was gonna settle down now on account of his being so in love with her - which he was - and just being older...she was way into her later fifties and he was in his way later 60s so they had been around and all. they would settle down good. their families of kids and grandkids seemed to like them well-enough and they were both pretty great with kids so that was no problem. they decided to get married. being Jewish, he proposed on Chunika Night Eight with a ring with eight little diamonds they had picked out together. everybody was happy for them....

They got married that next July in a Jewish/mixed ceremony with a Rabi and everything with a hundred people there all happy for them because they were so obviously in love. it was on a mountain side and everyone had a lot of good food and played games on the grass and even went swimming in the pool so it was a fun wedding besides. only her old boyfriend sent a spy there because he was stalking her and he did that for about four years. only that wasn't too bad...they were living in a little one room apartment with a big wonderful garden outside - everyone came to their parties and to their dinners and stuff and thought they were pretty darling. they went to Hawaii to stay with her friend and his 'best friend' there for a couple of weeks for their honeymoon too - so they were having a good time in every way - with the house up in the mountains and traveling around and all...

then - of course - 'problems' began. he started having heart problems and prostate problems. in their marriage he had two big prostate surgeries and an open heart surgery with valve repair and procedures to get rid of malfunctioning heart rhythms. she took care of him after everything - after the zapping cardioversions and keeping track of all the medications and stuff...he had always contributed to their income by part-time house painting work and now the jobs got less because he was sick a lot. he'd blame her for not letting him work full-time - but really it was him. he made lots more mistakes and couldn't work fast anymore. he never had worked 'fast' actually. she had more and more heart problems herself and had a procedure too and then her back was getting worse from messed up veribrae and arthritis and all. they were kind-of not doing so well. and they had to move again. they were lucky about his though. they rented a little two room place with a big deck high in the hills overlooking the whold bay - which was beautiful. every one loved to come up and visit them there. so the parties went on....

Jennie's Mom died and left some money, so they bought themselves decent cars and a boat to take out on the delta and then they decided - since the agreement about the house up in the Sierra had fallen apart badly - to use the rest to travel...so they spent most of the rest on going to the midwest to see folks and then to go to Europe for eight weeks...they went to seven countries and sixteen towns or cities and had a truly great time...only it was exhausting for her since their hearts were still not good and she had to take care of everything. that kind of started to become a theme - that beside some cooking and shopping: Jennie was taking care of just everything. it was hard to figure out what - including in the money department - he was doing at all...and then they had to move again. he had argued with the landlord and they were thrown out is really what happened. Jennie started to feel Fate pouring in like a wound in a dam.....

they still had luck. a friend found them a good apartment and it was close to her work still - Jennie taught school and had changed jobs during this marriage too...opening a school with her son now...she always worked hard - that was a fact - only now she was more and more tired. the move to the 'new' apartment took the last of her health and vitality from her. she dragged herself up the twenty-two steps to the apartment after school and slept a lot and everything hurt in her body - especially her lower back and her hips. she just about gave up. plus, nine people she knew all died within a coupld of years - some of them had been very, very close: so that was bad. she wanted something new to happen and soon!

Jennie started writing in the evenings...lots and lots of writing...some out there to others - even from her past...one who responded was her old boyfriend from highschool...who was very welcome in his communications back to her...they started writing on computer more and more - all in the open for everyone to see...but some thought her too bold and her husband was not happy. about four months into her writing and communications and all: he left her. he insisted she had wrecked their marriage by having no sex during the times she was in pain. he said she was in love with her old boyfriend - who lived thousands of miles away and was married - and that she was going to leave him - her husband - so he was going to leave first...
then it suddenly came out of the woodwork that he had tried very hard to have affairs in the last four years of their marriage and that he was having one with his old girlfriend right then and there. so Jennie let him go without a whimper. frankly: she felt more relief than she had ever thought she would. Life had surely changed. and then too: her old boyfriend now got really interested...in a couple of months she was going to visit him regularly and then he visitied her and then he moved out. they both got divorced and began to live happily every after. and that's really what happened.

her daughter still sees her ex now and again. his heart isn't too good, still, and he will probably die before he wants to. we all do. Jennie herself has never seen him again. she thinks of him now and again. his whole family dropped her and a lot of his friends too - she has always been hurt by that: because she is sure the whole thing was not her fault. but it made no difference. she lost them anyway. maybe she never really had them as family and friends in those nine years they were together. maybe. but probably not...nine years is a long time and is not a long time. time goes on. she would have taken care of him until he died. or until she died. but there you have it. it didn't happen this way. things often don't happen the way you expect. Jennie didn't expect that much anymore. it was good though. life was very cool now. very nice. Life had often been nice to her...Life was good again. they were happy. she had been happy before and was again...so it all goes....