Eradicating Filth

I was at the mall trying to find a birthday present for a wife who had everything when I spotted my neighbors from across the street. I walked toward them with a smile on my face and as he looked up I saw recognition on his face. Taking his wife's hand he pulled her toward the store entrance. When she saw me I saw a look that seemed like fear as she hurried along after him.

I didn't know them well, hell I didn't know anyone in my neighborhood well, but I know he recognized me and as far as I know I had never done anything to cause that reaction. I made a mental note to ask Ann what that was all about. I had been raised in a family where a man went out and earned a living and his wife looked after the social part of a family's life. I had built a business that allowed my family to live in a community of homes that were too big filled with people who had too much.

I think I was trying to live my father's life while I had been far more successful in the pursuit of income than he was. Of course that was because he had scrimped and saved to get me through college. His was a simple man he went to work and came home every day. His dinner was on the table and my mother planned her life to make his life easier.

My life on the other hand had become far different. I had met my wife Ann in college she was a business major and as we had built my business she had run my office. When the babies came we realized that one of us should be home raising our kids. The business had grown and we no longer needed the money she saved by working. Our two kids were in high school now.

When she stopped working my life had been like my father's except I wasn't home every night. I made sales calls and worked out problems for customers often gone for a week at a time. Her questions about the business were infrequent now. Ann's efforts were now mostly about her charities and work in the community.

Realizing that my home life had drifted far from my father's simple life I had hired a salesman to take some of the pressure off. The salesman had been too successful and every time he sold some of our robotics I had to travel there to devise a way to make our products work for the customer. Plus our shop was having trouble making enough product. I decided that I would have to hire at least two engineers to carry the load so I could concentrate on production and maybe get back to my father's life.

The odd reaction by my neighbors and what my life had turned into was churning my mind as I went to the jewelry store and bought another piece of gold to hang on my wife.

As I walked in the house I said", happy birthday babe," handing her the bracelet I had bought at the mall. As she turned to accept it I was struck by her beauty as I have been since the day I first met her.

Ann accepted the gift with a smile and presented her cheek for a kiss. That smile wasn't my mother's smile when my dad came home or my mother's kiss ether. It was one of those half smiles the mouth was smiling but the eyes were not. She said", dinner's on let's eat."

The cake I had ordered from the bakery was the center piece it had four candles on it one for each ten years of her life. Twenty of which she had shared with me.

I thought back to the day I met her all legs and hair to her shoulder blades, moves as graceful as a cat. That 34-24-34 body was probably 34-26-35 now and the hair was shoulder length. But she was still a head turner. I thanked God for finding her.

The kids had finished and were gone to where ever it is that kids go. We were sitting there eating cake and drinking coffee when I said", I ran into Frank and Jane at the mall," her head turned toward me and her eyes got bigger. "They acted like I had the plague or something did I do something I shouldn't have. "

She looked like she was waiting for me to continue when I didn't she looked relieved.

"Have you any idea why they would act like that. They practically ran from me." Now I was watching her I could almost see her mind working her eyes had shifted up and to the left and I knew she was going to lie to me. People look up and to the right when they are trying to remember something, up and to the left when they are making something up.

Ann said", I can't think of anything." She looked straight at me trying to keep her face unreadable.

Well she didn't lie, I thought, but I know she was holding something back, something that she is afraid of. I need to hire a couple of engineers quickly and tend to my family.

At the office the next day I called my college professor and asked him who his brightest students in this graduating class and next year's class were. I asked him to have them call me as I had an internship for one and a job for the graduate. They both called the next day and hired them both after a short interview.

I started them both in the assembly and testing part of the plant so that they could learn how our four different products worked and fit together. It took two weeks to get the engineer into the field and he took to it like a duck to water. On each job I would get a phone call or two but at least I didn't have to be there.

On the home front Ann was looking a little antsy. After two weeks she asked me about my regular nine to five.

I told her", I hired two engineers to take the pressure off so that I could be home more, frankly, I sensed something here at home that made me uneasy. You know I have loved you since I first met you and I felt I wasn't paying enough attention to the most important things in my life."

A look something like contempt ran fleetingly across her face and I knew something was seriously wrong in our little piece of paradise. I added", should I be concerned?" That look turned to fear, but quickly passed as she said", of course not". I replied", is there something we need to talk about?" That look returned as she said", not really hon."

And so the die was cast. I learned first from my father and then in college to first understand the problem and then to find a solution.

Understanding the problem. Ann has many friends with whom she talks all the time. A trip to Radio Shack resulted in a bug in the phone jack in the garage and two solid state recorders so that I could simply take one recorder to work with me and plug in the other.

The next day I asked her to get my jeep washed while I took her Lincoln to work. The Lincoln had a hands free phone built in to the sound system that recorder went into the trunk.

I hoped that I could discover what was going on and deal with it painlessly.

What I discovered shifted the axis my world revolved on. Her first call in the morning went like this. "Sam, I can't come in today." Sam replied,"No work no stuff baby." Can't I just pick up a little to take the edge off? "She asked? "No way babe I got customers waiting for your hot little ass. You know the deal; my customers don't get any you don't get any." He sounded like a black man.

She begged then", please Sam my husband is getting suspicious."

"Tuff luck sweets you fucken up my business so I can't be letting you get fucked up." Click.

What in the hell had my wife gotten herself into. Sounded like drugs and God I hoped she wasn't paying for them like it sounded like she was.

I told my secretary", I'll be out for awhile this afternoon. Handle everything if there is something you can't call me."

I have an app on my droid called family map punching my wife's phone number in told me that she was in a section of town she shouldn't be in. As I drove I tried to figure out how to handle this.

First apparently she is already hooked. She is going to have to go through a tough rehab to get clean. There may be a problem with STDs to deal with. Then of course there are the pushers to deal with. That bought an evil grin to my face.

I doubted if I could stay married to her. But, I loved her and I owed her that much. The fact that she was in this mess showed a lack of character I could not live with.

When I arrived at the site I saw two black men standing out front and my wife's car parked at the curb.

As I watched a black man came out of the house and another walked up to the two and gave them something that looked like cash and they motioned him inside. Another black walked up and handed them some cash and took a small package from them and walked away. A third man approached and gave them cash and stood talking for several minutes. A man came out of the house and they motioned the man in. He was in the house for about thirty minutes and he came out laughing with the two outside. A few minutes later my wife came out and they handed her a package and she got in her car and left.

Now that I understood the problem I needed to plan a solution and then work my plan. Two problems were apparent how to deal with my wife and how to deal with her pushers and whoever got her involved in this mess.

I was pretty sure someone had to get her started on whatever she was hooked on. But how to find out whom maybe I should check the traffic at the house she was hooking in. There was a vacant house a half a block from where I parked when my world fell apart. I rented a car from Wrentawreck and bought a video camera from Walmart and a burner phone.

I called the real estate company who had listed the house asking if I could rent it for two weeks. Three hundred bucks cash got me a key. I planted the camera in the attic out of sight with a good view of the house and the street in front. Driving the beater I changed the DVD every morning at ten o'clock for two weeks.

My wife showed up every other day and stayed for two hours while three men entered and left the house. I also saw two of her friends taking their turns and also Jane from across the street.

On Mondays for some reason all four women showed up at the same time at ten in the morning and were in the house for four hours both weeks. So Monday seemed to be the ideal time to put my plan to work.

Saturday I went to a gun show in the next state. I went there to purchase a twenty two rifle with a scope and ammo. I spent Sunday practicing. As a boy I used to hunt squirrel and had always been a good shot.

Monday I met one of my engineers at a plant near the dope house. We got started at eight o'clock and at nine forty five I told my engineer I was going to check the customer's production line to see if there might be some other applications that would help him.

I was out the door at nine and checking the wind at nine fifteen there wasn't any all three cars were parked at the curb. The same two pushers were out front ushering customers in. Crack, crack I fired from inside the beater with the window almost all the way up so that the sound would be mostly contained in the car.

But, the two lying dead on the sidewalk were plain to see. A car driving past stopped and I assumed called the police for I heard sirens. I drove back to the plant and took the owner to a place on his line where there was a bottle neck and explained how we could speed it up for him.

I dropped the gun in an ally in the ghetto I knew the next time that gun surfaced it would be in the hands of a gangbanger who had shot someone with it.

I went back to our plant and waited for the shit storm I knew was coming. At three two detectives showed up and asked where I had been all morning. I asked," why?" He told me", because I'm asking."

So I explained my day to him and gave him the names of the two people who knew I was at a plant working on selling some equipment.

I had washed my hands three times and tossed my shirt. I watch too much CSI. But he never tested me for gunshot residue. Damn I tossed a perfectly good shirt.

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop when he said ", did you know your wife was a prostitute?"

I shouted," what in the hell are you talking about? I ought to kick your ass." I gave him my best mad face.

"We picked up your wife and three of her friends in a brothel entertaining three black gentlemen. They said they were earning their drugs that way. Did you know your wife was using? The pimps were out front of the house lying dead on the street. You know anything about that? We thought you might have had something to do with that do you?"

"I don't believe you this is some kind of joke right? My wife could never be involved in something like this. It just isn't possible."

"Well she is in city jail and if you want her out you are going to have to bail her out. We are sure she didn't kill the pimps. But, we are going to have more questions for you after we talk to your witnesses."

I figured this is turning out about like I thought it would on the way to city jail. I put up the bail and waited for her to come out. She looked like a raccoon her mascara had run from tears. Her head was down with her hair mostly hiding her face.

I felt sorry for her and for my destroyed life. I loved her most of my life but that was gone now. I would help her with her legal problems and make sure she got through rehab. Then I was gone to her. That thought bought tears to my eyes.

I thought about my kids and what this was going to do to them. We got in the car and I dreaded what I had to do now. I asked ", can you explain what has happened don't leave anything out, please? I can't fix it if I don't know everything."

She said". I can't I am too ashamed."

I stopped the car and said", get out I don't want anything more to do with you, just get out I had hoped maybe I could clean up your mess for the kid's sake. But before I can clean it up I have to know what I am cleaning up. I already know why you are in jail and what you were doing when you were arrested. What I need to know is how you got sucked into it. I don't know how anything you can tell me could be worse than what I already know."

"Start with what Frank from across the street had to do with it. He was afraid of something when he ran from me at the mall."

"Frank is addicted to pain pills from a bad back. When his Doctor refused to write any more prescriptions, he looked for another source he found Sam one of the men who was killed. Sam used to bring the pills to Frank and Jane at their house. They made a joke of him being their friendly neighborhood pusher."

Jane used to sell Tupperware. Several of us girls were there when Sam showed up about three months ago. We were looking at the latest gadgets from Tupperware when he came. Jane bought him into the dinning room where her gadgets were spread on the dinning room table and introduced him as the friendly neighborhood pusher who kept Frank supplied with pain pills.

Sam said," looks like your selling something here how about I display some of my goods?" He put a mirror on the table and shook some powder out onto it divided it into five lines rolled up a hundred dollar bill.

"Here Jane try my product," handing her the hundred dollar bill. She bent down and sniffed one line into her nose.

"The look on here face was indescribable. She dropped into a chair and her head fell back as if she were having an orgasm.

Two of the other girls tried it with the same effect leaving only me and Diane as the only holdouts I wish I had been as strong as Diane. I told myself that was nice and exciting.

"Jane called us all a week later and invited us back. Sam was coming again. The four of us tried it again. A week later we did it again. Three days later we did it again. Two days later we did it again."

Two days later Sam showed up but this time he told us," you know this is my business and I am going to have to start charging you twenty dollars a line. Better yet I'll sell you five lines for seventy five dollars so I won't have to come here so often."

"I knew I was hooked and I hated myself for being so stupid I couldn't tell you how stupid I had been. The five lines I was using up in a day and I knew I couldn't keep taking seventy five dollars a day out of household expenses without you becoming suspicious and I couldn't stand for you to find out."

"About a month ago I asked him if he could drop the price I couldn't keep paying that much." He said'" I should come down to his place and we could negotiate on Monday."

"When I got there I saw cars parked in front that I thought were my girl friends cars. Sam was out front along with another man. He invited me in."

"You have to understand by now I needed the damn stuff. He sat at a kitchen table and put the mirror down and put a big line down on it and said," Go ahead enjoy." "I did and I was really high. He went on," there is a way you can earn your stuff. Your girl friends are already earning theirs. You can probably hear them upstairs. I had heard some moaning and a bed slamming into a wall rhythmically since I came in. You want me to prostitute for you no way and I got up and walked to the door. As I was leaving he said, "The offer is still open. You know where I live."

"I lasted about a week and I was climbing the walls. Finally I gave in and went back to his place. His deal was I had to do three of his customers for five lines. I'm ashamed to say I agreed when he was killed I had gone there six times."

"Ann I have loved you for twenty years. You have given me two wonderful children and twenty happy years. Because of that I have made arrangements for you to spend as much time as it takes to kick your addiction and to get as much medical attention as you need. I have also retained legal council to help with your legal problems."

"When you are released from the treatment facility I will buy you a condo. I am selling the house and whatever I get for it I will put in a bank account for you. Unhappily the thought of the eighteen niggers you fucked on your six visits will no longer allow me to be married to you." . "I will ask you to explain to the kids the reason for our split as long as you don't make me the bad guy I'll go with whatever you tell them."

"This is the last time I plan to speak to you. I wish you happiness and success. I still love you but your actions have made it impossible for me to be with you."

As we pulled up in front of the facility and a nurse came out with a wheelchair I said, "Good bye."