There Is Something Wrong With Him

Since my son was very young at the time and all my married friends seemed to abandon me, I needed to make new friends; friends that had something in common with me. It appeared that I had become a threat to my married girlfriends, now that I was single again, some of them thought that I was hot to trot and would go after their husbands.

No matter how ridiculous these accusations were, it hurt me knowing that they thought so low of me. By this time John was in and out of the picture and I couldn't really say I had anyone in my life. Nevertheless, I certainly wasn't going after someone else's husband either.

I had joined a single parent association to make new friends for both myself and my young son. By now Steven was six years old. The association provided a great experience for me and I was happily engaged in all the activity and immediately joined the board of directors. Through the years I held many positions including president of a chapter but the one that I held first was telephone chairperson. I was responsible for calling all the members and reminding them about the upcoming activities each month.

One of the activities scheduled every month was the general meeting. The meeting was designed to provide fun activities or an information session on a topical subject. For example, a fun meeting might be having a fortune teller come and read. An information session might be having a financial consultant come to talk about "how to manage your finances now that you are single again with familial obligations".

It was during one of the meetings that Jim became a new member. Jim was an airline pilot recently divorced and looking to date again. He was knockout gorgeous and he knew it too. He was so full of himself that I particularly found it to be nauseating but my peers didn't see it that way. The women swooned over him. My friend, Barbara, the secretary for the chapter and a high school teacher by profession was also taken by his charm. "A pilot, good looking and charming was the perfect combination that anyone would want", she said.

Not me I answered. There is something wrong with him, I can feel it. "What is wrong with him", she asked, "He is perfect. Tell me what is wrong with him?" I had no answers for her. I just knew that something was wrong. Barbara responded, "I don't care what you think. I am going to be dating this man, just you watch and see."

We never talked about Jim again. He would appear at different functions and always there was a group of women following him or watching his every move. He loved every minute of it. Several months had gone by when one of the male members on the board mentioned that he had not seen Jim around for awhile. Someone else mentioned that he had heard that Jim had dropped out of the chapter and had had a nervous breakdown. Everyone on the board was in shock; this was a man that had seemed to have it altogether. Barbara never said a word.

Later when the meeting was over Barbara took me aside and admitted to me that I was right. There was something wrong with him. I thought she was referring to just hearing that he had a nervous breakdown but there was more. Barbara did not tell me before,but she did have two dates with him. The first one went well. They had dinner out and then went dancing. She said it was a wonderful evening. However the second one didn't go as planned. Instead of eating out she figured that a single guy would appreciate a home cooked meal and later they would go to a jazz bar that she liked very much.

The evening started out great. He was on time and had even brought her flowers. Hadn't she said he was perfect already! When he arrived everything was ready and she promptly served the meal. They had a tossed salad, Lasagna with garlic bread and butter, and wine. For dessert they were to have coffee and her homemade coffee cake. They were having such a good time enjoying each other's company that the time just flew by and they both decided to skip coffee and dessert to go onto the jazz bar. The promise of coffee after coming home from the jazz bar was an added incentive to leave right away.

Because of the time, Barbara got up from the table and asked Jim would he mind helping her with the dishes. She told me that she was very nice about it and just asked him. She didn't demand that he help at all.

Jim jumped up and knocked the table over with the food still on it. He started to scream at her saying "You are not going to boss me around; you are just like my fuckin wife. Nobody is going to boss me around again."

Barbara was scared to death. She thought he was going to come after her and hit her. He was so out of control. She tried to reason with him but he just got more agitated. Finally it took all the bravery that she could muster but she told him in a very forceful voice that if he didn't leave her house at that very minute she would call the police. He left while ranting and raving all the way to the door.

Barbara didn't tell me because she felt embarrassed. I had been right all along about there being something wrong with him and she didn't want to admit it.