Love and Deceit: 10 Short Stories with Strategic Lies, Risky Tricks, and Tangled Lives

LOVE and DECEIT

10 Short Stories with Strategic Lies,

Risky Tricks, and Tangled Lives

WILLIAM MATHIS

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 by William Mathis

All rights reserved

Also available in Smashwords Edition, the author’s

Chickamauga Dreaming: A Novel on the Civil War’s Enduring Impact

Smashwords Edition License Restrictions

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Works of Fiction

These stories are all fictional. The characters are not based on any person living or dead. Any similarity to any person is purely coincidental.

Dedication

Love and Deceit developed from an interest in exploring the hidden elements in close relationships and how they might affect behaviors. While deceit can bring harm to any relationship, when love is involved the hurt may be magnified many times if the truth wins out. But is deceit always destructive? Can it ever be beneficial or humorous? Does self-deceit harm others? These stories seek to examine the interplay of secrets and affection from various perspectives. The book is dedicated to everyone who has experienced love and some form of deceit in a relationship.

Table of Contents

Lost in Atlanta, Hiding from Love's Truth

Uncle Norbert's Naked Ambition

110 Percent Marriage Foolishness

Refueling Love with Lies

Risky Adventures with the Mystery Visitor

The Lazy Wish Fairy Makes Amends

The Marriage-Counseling Genius

Happy Mother's Day, Unofficially

Hurried Departures from Love and Hate

The Goddess of the Pottery Vase

About the Author

Lost in Atlanta, Hiding from Love’s Truth

Days pass, the years stack up, and the decades mesh together seamlessly. Through five decades jammed with events and experiences, the bookends for the stories filling the long span of time may seem to be connected only by fine strands of memory – or for some by thick chains of cause and consequence.

When he arrived at the entrance to the suburban Atlanta seniors’ residence, Luke hesitated before deciding to go in. After 52 years, he still had many tormenting questions. What happened? Where did you go? Why? Did you lie when you said you loved me? Why contact me now, after all this time?

They had arranged, by exchange of letters, to meet in the lounge at 3 p.m. Her first letter had been tentative. Are you the same Luke Palmer who lived in Statesboro and dreamed of being a professional baseball player? He was, and her few scrawled sentences brought an avalanche of memories. Would seeing her now enhance or damage them?

Luke expected that Cathy’s appearance had changed substantially, because his certainly had since they said goodbye. His hairline had traveled to the back of his head, his body carried 30 more pounds, and he used a cane to compensate for a bad knee that surgery failed to repair. He entered the lounge a few minutes late and saw only a plump, short, silver-haired woman sitting on the sofa. He scanned the room but saw no one else and wondered if Cathy would show up.

Luke! I was worried you wouldn't come.

He tried to latch on to something familiar about the face. Then he saw something about the eyes and the smile that he recognized vaguely.

It's good to see you, Cathy. I'm sorry for being late. Traffic.

They sat across from each other, a coffee table in between, and made small talk for several minutes. Finally, he asked about her family. Tony and Lisa both lived nearby and visited her often. Neither had given her grandchildren.

Did you ever remarry?

Cathy gave a tight smile and shook her head.

No. Never did. I didn't want to risk killing a third one.

Now Luke smiled, wondering if she was joking or serious.

Cathy continued: What about you? Did you find someone?

I’ve had a couple of marriages. They didn’t work out. I don’t know why exactly. Just didn’t.

And what about baseball?

Well, it turns out I was a lot better at accounting than baseball. But I played for the fun of it as long as I could.

Luke, I wonder if you saw the story in the newspaper a while ago about the teacher who went to jail for being involved with a boy at school.

So this is why she brought me here, he thought, otherwise I never would have seen her again. His mind drifted back over the decades to when he was 18, just finished with high school. His parents, both teachers, wanted to spend the summer traveling in Europe and seeing the great museums. He wanted to stay home and play baseball before starting college. No art gallery or famous city had anything close to the allure of playing baseball.

His parents fretted about allowing Luke to remain home alone, until they constructed a solution. Luke hadn’t secured summer employment yet prior to attending college in the fall, so it was arranged that he would work for and stay with his father’s boyhood friend, Rick, who had returned to the Statesboro area from California earlier in the year and bought a farm. He had a family now after marrying a widow with a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son.

Luke liked Rick and his wife, Cathy, both almost twice his age, but he had seen them only occasionally since they arrived. Rick, a big and hearty man, partially bald with a ready smile, joked a lot with Luke. Cathy was his opposite, short and thin with a rare smile, but always friendly. Luke thought they were a bit of an odd pair, but at the same time he could see why they had been drawn to each other, because they both had attractive features, just different.

In exchange for room and board, a few dollars, and the flexibility to participate in all of the ball games and practices by riding his bike into town, Luke agreed to help out with the farm chores. It seemed like a good arrangement, though he knew he could have managed quite well on his own if only his parents had trusted him to do so.

Luke’s mother thought he should be focusing on earning money for college instead of playing baseball. But his father, himself a baseball fan, said farm life would be good for Luke and some things were more important than money. Besides, they had funds set aside for Luke’s education, and he would be living at home while attending Georgia Southern.

Farm life was not so easy, Luke quickly learned. He had to adapt to the early mornings and long days of work, which meant that after attending baseball practices and games he had no time for anything else. Every night he fell into bed exhausted, coveting nothing but sleep.

Two weeks after Luke arrived at the farm, just as he was adjusting to the situation, Rick died in a highway collision while driving his tractor over the same short stretch he often took to get to a cornfield.

Farm life became harder. No matter how much the Georgia sun shined, the days immediately after Rick’s death were shrouded in gloom and confusion. Cathy's mother flew in from California to help for two weeks. Neither Cathy nor Rick had other family to rely on. Luke’s father was Rick’s closest friend, but Cathy insisted that he not be contacted. She didn’t want to spoil the European vacation.

Luke quit the baseball team without mentioning it to Cathy, though she knew he did nothing except work on the farm, trying to take over as much of Rick's responsibilities as he could. After Cathy's mother left, they worked side-by-side and separately trying to keep up with the chores.

Then at night, as he prepared for bed, Luke heard Cathy crying. Night after night, deep sobs pierced the thick summer air. Finally, Luke decided he could not leave Cathy to cry alone. He entered her room and stood by the bed, not knowing what to say but needing to say something.

I'm sorry, Cathy. Can I help in some way?

No, I’m okay. You go back to bed.

He did, and the crying stopped. But the next night was the same, and he went back to her room. This time he sat on the edge of the bed and touched her shoulder. She turned away but kept crying. Luke patted her shoulder for several minutes, not knowing what else to do, then went back to bed.

The next night, following another busy and hard day of work, Luke fell asleep quickly but awoke to the sounds of Cathy crying. He felt trapped, not knowing how to help and feeling crushed by Cathy's agony. Her mother had told him about Cathy's first husband, who died in a hunting accident, so Luke suspected that grief had been piled on grief.

Luke went to Cathy's room and, without thinking, stretched out on the bed beside her. He patted her shoulder lightly, over and over, and fell asleep there. When he awoke in the morning she was already up and attending to the children.

During the day Cathy said nothing about Luke sleeping on her bed, so when the crying started again that night he immediately got up and went to her bed. It became a routine, and just his presence seemed to calm her. After he came to the bed, she cried little and they were soon both asleep.

Almost two weeks after Luke first got into Cathy's bed, he became conscious during the night that she was astride him, rocking back and forth slowly. At first Luke thought he was dreaming, but the pleasure became too intense for a dream state. Afterwards Cathy went to the bathroom, and on return she kept to the edge of the bed with her back to him.

Bewildered, Luke retreated to his bedroom. The next day Cathy barely spoke to him, even at meal times. After supper she told him, I won't be sad tonight. You can stay in your room.

But she was sad. He heard the sobs, though they seemed muffled, as if Cathy had her head under the covers. Luke went to her room, took off his clothes and climbed into bed. Cathy had turned away from him, and as he snuggled close she moved to the edge of the bed. But he pulled her back and turned her face toward him.

Cathy said, Don't, Luke.

But he held her face in his hands and kissed her, over and over. Cathy did not resist and soon reciprocated energetically. For the first time they were fully engaged as lovers, exploring, caressing, whispering. The scene repeated every night that summer, and both became impatient to get the evening chores done and prepare the children for bed. The crying ceased.

Luke noted the calendar each day. Every morning brought his parents’ return from Europe closer, and he wished he could stop time. He had never worked harder and had never been happier.

When his parents arrived, shocked by Rick's death and upset that they hadn't been told, Cathy convinced them that they were better off not knowing during their holiday. And she praised Luke for his selflessness and hard work, which made his parents proud.

They allowed Luke to borrow the car to ride out to the farm every day to continue helping Cathy, even after the college term started, so long as he returned before dark. So Cathy and Luke had to choose between completing certain chores or making love while the children napped in the afternoon. The chores piled up.

Luke's father helped Cathy reach a decision that the farm should be sold. It was listed in early October and sold within a week to an Atlanta businessman who wanted it primarily as a private retreat. Luke thought that meant Cathy would move in to Statesboro and be more accessible, and eventually they would reveal their relationship to his parents. But she told him, the day the deal was completed, that she intended to sell all belongings and move with the children to Savannah, 50 miles away.

Let me get settled with the kids, then you can come visit and we can talk about our future. You know I’m worried about how our relationship could work with the age difference, but I’m willing to consider whatever you want.

You already know what I want. You said you loved me. I love you.

"Yes. I do love you. But some things are bigger than love, tougher than love. I need to gain some strength before taking them on. Just give me a little time, then I’ll send for you. And I’ll write you every week. You’ll be so busy with your classes you won’t have