A Reasonable Explanation, part 1

by J.J. Lewsac

Caitlyn was a hard working business professional, wife, and mother of two children. They were an untraditional family in that Caitlyn was the one with the career, while her husband Thomas stayed home with the children. Caitlyn worked 9-10 hours a day, and while she was seeing less and less of her family, certainly less than she preferred, Thomas was very supportive of her. He got the kids breakfast, packed their lunches, and sent them to school every day. He did chores around the house and had dinner waiting for her when she got home in the evenings. They had a routine, and everything was comfortable for them. Or, at least that was the impression Caitlyn got.

After 3 years of such a schedule, Caitlyn started to notice a small change in Thomas. At first, she thought it was just a byproduct of getting older. After all, the dynamic of a marriage changes the longer you stay together.  Night after night Thomas became less interested in talking to her, and when she was home on the weekends, he was finding excuses to leave the house. She didn’t want to be overtly paranoid, but she was starting to wonder if something was up.

One night while tucking her youngest daughter into bed, she asked, “Mommy, when is the nice lady coming back?”. Confused, Caitlyn asked her daughter, “What nice lady?”

“The nice lady that comes to see Daddy” her daughter insisted. Caitlyn didn’t know how to respond. The comment had caught her completely off guard. “I…I’m not sure” said Caityln finally. “Now go to sleep.”

Caitlyn left her daughters room eager to confront Thomas with this information, as a turbulent whirlwind of emotions rose up inside of her.

“Thomas, we need to talk” she said as she walked into the den where he was watching TV.

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come back Wednesday for part 2