A night of retribution.

I had spent the night at the bar drowning my sorrows. The lady behind the bar looked at me with pity and fascination. She had found a way of relieving my sorrows by allowing me to down pints and liqueurs, so I would not feel the pain. Many people had found a way of coping with the backlash of an affair but with me, I held deep resentment. I found a way of hiding my troubles from afar and it had brought on many a night of arguing, resentment and lies. I held out for the day my wife would come clean with the fact her life was full of lies and contradictions. 

My wife had spent many a night locked in with her own entitlement. The woman who became the president of the association for bragging rights. She held a spell on all whom met her. She held a fascination for being centre of attention. My wife was the one that commanded we hold talks in regard to extending her marital support. She wanted nannies, household staff and a whole lot of massage therapists that would give her more than what I bargained for. She brought along her own admiration and found sexual exploits were making her more amorous and fulfilled in her quest for love. 

With every breath I took, I was consumed with the one thing that was bad for me and that was my wife. She had spent many a night conversed in attention from all the other wives and had spent her life savings buying multiple homes she could breed her lovers. I wanted facts and I wanted grace, but this was not going to give me what I wanted. So, I began the one thing that I never thought would eventuate. I hired a lawyer. This lawyer showed me what love was. She showed me passion, she showed me what a real man was upon the climax of her admissions. She held her own spell on me and I began to see the repercussions of another lie. This lie was different as it held merit. It held a way of the times that could leap me into oblivion and show another side of me. 

This was love, this was contentment, and this was a way forward with bringing another chapter to my life. I wanted to see where this would go but my worldly knowledge of affairs was ripped away from me when she decided she could not represent me. She wanted facts but she wanted redemption from knowing that her client was going to be in her marital bed. Her own need for seduction was laying bare and she could not cope with the fact that her own marriage was in tatters. She looked at me with the source of strength to say that now was the time to wipe the slate clean. She told me to go back home to my wife and make it work out.

I slowly succumbed to her request and followed the streetlights back to the nearest bar. I wandered back in, the one that had found me before. This bar made my life easier. I was the one having the affair, I was the one that was so consumed with guilt that I wanted to hurtle myself off the bridge to a far away land. As previous nights, the woman behind the bar mesmerised me. She had tattoos, a thick accent and a source of knowledge that she could take to her grave. This time, I caught myself doing the one thing that was pulsating through me, enjoying a night of passion with a stranger. I leapt over the bar, to the one woman whom had spent many a night listening to my tales of anguish, misery and resentment. The one lady that held court with all the drunks, musos and intoxicated schoolgirls all lined up ready for the night to explode.  She was my saviour that night and the love and explosions from her triggered all emotions that led to a night of bondage, sex and rock and roll. 

The woman behind the counter had brough her attention and respect to my wife. She held another way of communicating and she found that distancing herself from all the other patrons made her life easier. She could still do her job but somehow keep her job from being given to the local bum that was sitting outside with baited breath. He held on to the hope that his life would somehow improve with a job that someone could do with their eyes closed. He walked in while swanning around, eyeing off the patrons. He wanted to know how to get in on the job and this was a perfect time to show his skills. He walked with a swagger and picked up empty glassware lying on the ground. As patrons found their way towards him, he was doing a job that anyone could do. 

Serving was his favourite part of the job.  The lady behind the bar was oblivious as she talked and consumed all her worries with the woman that seemed to have it all. She had a presence about her that made her out of place. A place so foreign to her that anyone seeing her for the first time would wonder why the frightened woman with wealth, power and lust would want to be anywhere near this place. During the times of deliberation, the woman noticed the man idling on by her and with an ounce of enthusiasm, allowed this time to evolve. She brought him under her wing and noticed the change and enthusiasm from the patrons abound.

The women behind the bar had found me. She had found the night of passion that led to me being unfaithful. It was a sore point as I could no longer drown my sorrows in that bar. In the beginning I thought nothing of it until the day arrived. The lonely woman on the porch that was sitting idly by, waiting for the owner to appear. My wife walked out and handed her a coffee. She looked at me for a second and was taken aback. She had no idea that I lived here. She had no idea that she was walking into a mess. She found her voice and stopped herself from blurting out the truth. My wife held her own and introduced me to Sal. Sal was her name but from the bar she called herself Maurice. It was a far cry from her real persona, but I was not there to judge. Sal held her breath and introduced herself to me. I could still smell her perfume that was intoxicating her every move. 

The truth was that we were all living lies. We were all living pretence. I could see that she was uncomfortable, I could see that the truth was somehow going to creep out throughout the night.  I was not going to judge; I was not going to hold court. There were times in life that somehow the truth was more important to be hidden then the lies being exposed, and I wanted that. I walked through the corridor and placed my hat down. Sal stood mesmerised by me. She wanted to know my life, she wanted to know my ways. I held on knowing that tonight was going to be a different story to relay to my kids in the future. Sal had a way about her. I tried to act normal but knowing that truth was harder then expected. 

Sal told me how she met my wife. They laughed and cried while recounting stories of good old days. The days at the beach, the days being paraded in their costumes waiting for Mr right to come along. Sal was Helens best friend from the 90’s. They had many a night of laughter, tears and high school dramas. They were inseparable until a night of sorrow left their lives in tatters. Sal’s dad had succumbed to a heart attack and her family were left to fend for themselves. Sal was not a fighter and was sent away to stay with relatives. That is when the life of fun, happiness and laughter made way for the real world. They had lost contact over the years and by pure luck they were ready for another reunion of reunions. 

Helen had come out of one of her exclusive shops one morning when she had bumped into Sal. It was an unexpected sight to see her but the sight of her filled her with pure joy. Helen leapt at the chance to reacquaint herself with Sal and they frequently met at the bar that she ran. She was the owner by chance, as the old lady down the street employed her when she was an up and coming singer. They formed a bond and that is how she made it to be an owner of a salon so derelict and in need of repair. She held high hopes for herself and with the re-emergence of Helen in her life, that was falling into place.

Helen opened another bottle of wine, while listening to Sal’s exploitations. I had an inkling that my marriage could either survive this night or make it into the Guinness book of world records for the act of dishonesty and retribution. Sal kept her cool and when the opportunity to be alone was taken, Sal had high hopes of succumbing to my advances. That was not going to be the case as I was heavily into making my marriage work. I wanted to find a way of harnessing this but with Sal on my doorstep, I had to find a way of finding peace. 

Sal had come into our lives for a number of reasons. She held a mesmerising way about her but also made Helen more of a decent person. Helen spent many a night completely engrained in stories of retribution, retaliation and hatred from Sal and this opened her eyes up to the fact that she did not have it so bad. Helen was a woman on a mission to make her life easier but finding a way of doing this with salvation, had found it into her mind set. Sal on the other hand was trying to influence me with a night of passion that would bring the house down. 

I had only hoped that we could somehow find a way of making it easier for the three of us. As Sal spent more time with us, I wanted to tell Helen the truth. Helen on the other hand was oblivious to the lies and deception in front of her. She held her own court and wanted to make the last few years of her life worthy. Helen had come to know that she had cancer. She had hidden this away from her family. She had not made it known to anyone living near her that her heart was aching. Sal on the other hand knew. She knew all the secrets and lies and wanted to bring a sense of pride in making Helen’s life easier. She spent many a day taking her to appointments, bringing life of hope and dreams to her; as well as propping her pillows up when she was too down to go on. 

Sal had her own agenda. She knew about Bill from the start. She knew who he was and wanted that charmed life. When Bill walked into the bar the first time, that was her opportunity to bring forward her plan. A plan so deceitful that the hurt that Helen had brought onto her over the years, was going to bring a new closure for her. Sal did not like the way that Helen had manipulated her over the years and to bring a new sense of retaliation was what was in store for her. She had it coming, and the plan was slowly moving forward with precision and retribution.