Installment #23 Margie

     Margie stared at the phone.  “Well, Tucker, I would say you rather crapped in your nest.  I know you have problems thinking things through, but I thought you had learned to just set there and be quiet.  What happened to that technique?”  She waited.  Tucker was visibly upset, but he had no one to blame but himself.  He was radical and they both knew it.

     She had hoped that finally Tucker had found someone who would fit into his life in a positive way.  Cynthia sure seemed to fill that bill.  Tucker called her at least once a week and the conversation centered around Cynthia this and Cynthia that.  “We” was used very often in the conversation. Cynthia and Tucker were the center of many discussions when friends came by.

     “Hey, Marge, think Tucker is hooked?  Is he ready to pop the question?  I would have bet money he would die single.  Just never knew him to date the same woman more than once and this is going on over a year.”  It was always the same.  His friends were all married and Tucker was always odd man at the dinner parties.  Women just did not interest him much.  But this Cynthia had him going in circles.  And the best part was, she did not even know it.

     Margie brought herself back to the moment as she heard Tucker berating himself for losing control.  Margie had seen him intimidate women before and could only imagine what Cynthia had felt.  She had not met Cynthia.  Only one of his friends had.  That was hard to understand.  Bob had told her about Tucker showing up at the Memorial Day barbeque with his usual wilted cucumber salad and the very unusual date.  Cyndi was a rather plain girl, but she fit right in with the crowd.  Tucker pretty much ignored her and she did not pursue him or hang on him.  She just struck up a conversation with a few of the girls and soon they were laughing and comparing notes on ex-husbands.  When he was ready to leave he caught Cyndi’s eye and she told her new friends goodbye and walked to the truck with Tucker.  It had been a great day.  Bob did wonder idly if he would see Cyndi again.  He had heard through the grapevine that Tucker was “seeing” someone, but he was special because he had met her.  None of the others had.  Tucker was a strange one alright.

     “Tucker, it is not going to do any good telling me how sorry you are.  You are going to have to tell her.”

     “But you don’t understand, Margie!  She is a liberal.  She is a damn bleeding heart liberal.  She stands for everything I am against.  She is down there working on Obama’s campaign.  I don’t know how to stop her from doing that!”  He sounded so forlorn that Margie could feel it palpitate over the phone.

     “OK, Tucker, if you cannot stand what she is and what she represents, why do you want her in your life?  Why do you want to waste your time with her?”  Then Marge heard Tucker’s intake of breathe and knew what was coming, but there was nothing she could do to avoid it.  It would come and she would hang up the phone and maybe he would never call again, but it was pure Tucker.  It had happened before and it was happening again.

     “Damn you, Marge!  You are nothing but a liberal just like her!  I have tried to save you and I can’t.  You can go right straight to hell!  You and her both! Nobody understands me.  Nobody cares.  And I sure as hell do not need you or your husband.  And I don’t need that damn woman either.”  He slammed the phone down with so much force Marge wondered if it was broken in pieces.  She replaced her phone in the cradle and turned to David.  Tears filled her eyes and she reached for him.

     “Oh, David!  Why does he do this to himself?  What in God’s name drives that man?”  It wasn’t really a question and there surely was not an answer.  She knew it and David knew it, but he held her while she cried.