Brandy

Arriving home from work, tired and in a foul mood, Jack walked directly to his wife.

“Fix me a brandy, the Korbell, not the cheap Mohawk brand. It should have been done already and waiting for me.”

“I had a busy day, too, your Lordship. Why can’t you get it yourself?”

The slap stung and there was a ringing sound filling her ears. Ruth was caught off guard. Jack’s mood is worse than usual, she thought. Her left cheek, ear and chin felt as if they were on fire. She raised her arm, put her hand on her cheek and could feel the sting and heat of her husband’s anger. Soreness would substitute for the heat soon, but there was no cure for her humiliation, nor for Jack’s increasingly frequent abuse.

As if detecting injury, Grace, Ruth’s rescue-dog, ran to her on silent feet, taking her quietly and away from the man who disliked her. She pawed at Ruth’s leg. Ruth picked her up, sacrificing her pain for the dog’s safety.

Ruth stared angrily at Jack but knew that the situation could only escalate if she confronted his bullying. To herself she thought, the poster-boy for “Might-is Right.”

That night Ruth got ready for bed early to avoid Jack. She pretended to be asleep when he came to bed, not wanting to activate his libido by being awake.

When Jack was prepared for bed, he plopped heavily down on the mattress, making it bounce. He knew he was disturbing Ruth and knew she wasn’t asleep. But that was acceptable to him because, he thought, man is king of his castle and women were subordinate to the king.

Jack surprised Ruth the next morning saying his sales job would take him out of town for the weekend. He told her to pack his suitcase with the minimum that he would need. “And don’t forget the bottle of Korbell brandy. Not the unopened one. The used one. ”

“Not the full bottle for the weekend?” she questioned.

“As I said, the half-full bottle. I’ll only be away all-day Saturday and will return Sunday afternoon or evening.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about your weekend trip? I could have made arrangements to go shopping with Diane.”

Jack stared and her as he remained silently smiling.

“Oh. I see. You want to prevent me from having some fun.”

“No. Mainly it’s to save money. I may have to put you on an allowance or, even better, make you get a job.”

Bullshit, she thought, not wanting to say it for fear of reprisal.

Grace started whining for attention. Ruth petted her which quieted Grace as she maneuvered to get comfortable in Ruth’s arms.

“Go out for a walk. Maybe that little bitch will get run over. You could use the exercise, too. Work off that growing spare tire.”

“Why are you so dead-set against her? She has done nothing bad to you. She won’t even go near you.” Ruth ignored the “spare tire” comment.

“A damn good thing, too. I don’t like her smell, her whining, and the money we give away to the veterinarian. And if she does chew, or piss on any my shoes, clothes, or briefcase, I’ll throw the bitch out the fuckin’ window. It will be a flying lesson that she’ll need to learn rather quickly. She’s got four stories of this building to learn.” He chuckled, sadistically, while staring at Grace.

Changing the subject quickly, Ruth snapped, “Hey. Wait a minute. You said you’d fix the kitchen sink. The garbage disposal part.”

“Get Max, the maintenance guy, to do it. It’s really his job, anyway, not mine. Our rent money is supposed to take care of all maintenance issues.”

Ruth smiled inwardly while looking offended outwardly.

Jack picked up his suitcase and briefcase, walked out the door without saying anything. No peck on the cheek. No goodbye. He walked to the elevator, got on and pushed number one for the ground level lobby. As he walked to the parking lot he was thinking, “Two pain in the ass bitches. I need to start divorce proceedings when I get back. Take her off my will and health plan, put the bank account and savings in my name only. Need to get a lawyer to do both and do it quickly.”

Suddenly he laughed out loud and thought, it’ll have to be a ruthless divorce. “Ruthless,” he blurted as he held his head high, and laughed more loudly, proud of his clever joke, then got into his car. He thought of the car door as Ruth’s mouth and slammed the door shut as hard as he could. As he drove away, he was still thinking about Ruth. Sex with Ruth had become boring. She was getting fat, and unattractive. He thought, even a little weight gain is a turn-off for a man. Doesn’t she know that? Is she that naïve? But that’s OK, he thought. I just need her mouth a little while longer. He’d divorce her and get his sex from his mistress. But after a few inadequate blowjobs, he got bored of that, too. He thought, it was hard to believe she could be bad at blowjobs. There’s nothing to it, for Christ’s sake, but she’s bad at that, too. She wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, but he kept telling her to slow down. You’d think she was a goddamned Puritan who had to have sex with her clothes on. Even masturbation got to be more appealing than sex with her. Maybe it was distasteful for her, but, to him, that was both good and bad, though he wouldn’t have to put up with it for much longer. He paused, grinned and said loudly, “Distasteful? God I’m clever today.”

Suzy, his mistress, knew exactly how to have sex be thrilling in different ways and different positions and, as a delightful bonus, she was an expert at oral sex. Movement in his groin brought his attention to his growing hardness. He smiled because he knew Sue was waiting for him to divorce Ruth so she and he could get married. Marrying Ruth was a big mistake, he thought, then the following thought was that the mistake will get corrected soon. He was looking forward to Sue’s enchanting sex talents, not only upon arrival, but after he took her out to dinner with plenty of her favorite wine. Ruth’s favorite “whine” was, “Not tonight” or, “I’m sore from my exercise class.” She had a list of standard responses so they wouldn’t have sex, he thought with a sneer so strong that you’d expect a loud scream and an angry, contorted expression to follow it. But that didn’t happen. It was a deadly, silent scream that filled his head with violent thoughts which irritated his lips as they shot out of his mouth. Now he felt a headache coming so he tried to rid himself the thoughts of the bitch.

With soothing music from his Sirius satellite radio station, he began to relax both body and mind.

****************

Back at the apartment, Ruth was so overjoyed about Jack leaving town that she was hopping like a playful rabbit. True, she had no time to plan, but she was desperately hoping that Max would be free. Not only would young Max fix her garbage disposal, but he would also fix her intimate parts as well, satisfying her prolonged intimate desires. Those intimate urges had gone much too long unattended and unsatisfied due to Jack’s sexual inadequacy at intercourse and his deviant desires, for only oral sex. She performed for him so he would not become suspicious about her affair with Max. She hadn’t had intercourse with Jack for three or four months. But she would provide blowjobs if it would prevent intercourse where he reveled in the joy of being on top of her, dominating her, pressing down, feeling her squirm under his weight. But gaining weight had also been a reason for him to switch to demanding only oral sex. She thought, “See. There is a positive benefit to a spare tire.” Laughter followed her around the room like a smoke trail.

I’ll tell Jack that Max also found a leak to fix and then had to replace a part on the garbage disposal. That will cover the time allotted for sex games, she figured. The anticipation of sex caused her to get wet, but she delighted in the slick feeling.

But the most incredible, and ironic thing, Ruth thought, is that Jack liked Max. Jack had even invited Max to the apartment twice in the last month and, furthermore, she was surprised when Jack served him the expensive Korbell brandy instead of the cheap Mohawk brand that all other guests were served, if they requested brandy.

Now Ruth and Max were getting impatient for Jack to go on his next out of town trip. It might seem like they could have sex during the week, but they both decided that it was too risky because there was too much traffic in the hallways during the weekdays and they absolutely had to avoid being seen entering the room together with loving anticipation and touching being obvious. They were both focused on that bastard Irishman, Murphy, and his law. If something could go wrong, it would go wrong.

Luckily, Jack was low man in the sales department and was given the shitty, weekend traveling jobs. But, surprisingly, Jack never complained about leaving for a genuine sales pitch, which totally surprised his boss and his colleagues. He always worked it out to spend some time with Sue, sales pitch or no sales pitch.

Ruth suspected that he had a mistress when she smelled an unknown perfume on him, and once she found what she originally thought was blood but was really a tiny bit of lipstick. She also knew that not all his sales trips were business related. But by God she wasn’t going to complain or act the least bit suspicious. What she would do, however, was to be delighted that someone else could take care of his sexual needs as long as it wasn’t her.

**************

Max was nearly a decade younger than Ruth, but that was no obstacle for them. They found each other to be attractive, they wanted the same thing. Now they have exactly what they wanted concerning having an active sex life. Max saw many of the positive qualities of his mom in Ruth. His mom was understanding, comforting, caring, concerned about his health. Both their sex organs worked normally so the age difference was forgotten and never again discussed. Max was shy, single, well-built, not dating on a regular basis, and had a special feeling for Ruth. She was so caring, giving and had the same needs as he did. Ruth also fixed delicious dinners during their liaison weekends.

Ruth was taking a shower. Max sat watching TV. A movie was on where there was a lot of drinking alcoholic spirits. He thought of Jack’s brandy and had a half glass while waiting for Ruth. He sat on the couch, leaned back, got comfortable and smiled as the Korbell brandy flowed deliciously and slowly down his throat, its syrupy consistency extending the pleasure from tongue to stomach where it warmed him, like Ruth did when they were both naked and in bed. He heard Ruth exit the shower, finished the drink, washed the glass, and went to the bedroom while Ruth was still naked. He could feel the warmth of the brandy in his mouth, throat, and stomach and now he wanted to feel the warmth in his groin that would come from Ruth’s entire, naked body. As he walked to the bedroom, Max wondered why Jack was bored with her. Jack had confided in him that Ruth was a boring sex partner. How wrong can a husband be?

Max sneaked up to Ruth, whose back was toward him. He wrapped his arms around her, squeezing gently. She moaned pleasingly, turned around, then pushed him into the bed, on his back. She undressed him slowly, encouraged foreplay by straddling him as her breasts hung over his face like two plump clusters of grapes. Soon, still on top of him, they screamed their pleasure in unison as duel orgasms engulfed them. They fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Breakfast began with strong coffee while Ruth cooked eggs over easy, bacon, home fries and toast. They chatted, teased, and laughed like a happily married couple enjoying each other company.

Neither one of them wanted any surprises if Jack came home early, so after breakfast Max departed, and Ruth cleaned up, making it look as if nothing out of the boring ordinary had occurred.

**************

When Jack arrived home at dinnertime the first thing he asked for was a fourth of a glass of brandy. He handed the used bottle to her and said, “There’s enough for one more drink in there. Make it ASAP,” he demanded. Ruth poured it then threw the bottle into the kitchen garbage. She was so furious at Jack’s arrogant demand that she started sweating. Then she heard him yell, “What’s for dinner?”

Ruth brought him the brandy and handed it to him as he was saying, “Did you hear me? What’s for dinner?”

“I didn’t know when you’d be home, so I didn’t make dinner. If you’d call and let me know, I could have had dinner ready for you.”

“But you did know I’d be home sometime today. So why didn’t you fix a dinner that could be warmed up when I arrived home?”

Ruth angrily looked at her cretin husband saying, “Yes, your Highness. Dinner will be served in an hour.” She turned around and walked back to the kitchen. As she walked, she heard, “Make it a half hour. I’m hungry.”

Ruth whispered to herself, “Then why the fuck didn’t you stop at a diner on the way home to get a fast-served dinner?” After a second of thought a light flicked on in her head and she knew why he hadn’t stopped. He wanted to aggravate her, get an angry response, probably so he would have an excuse to physically abuse her. She tried to calm herself and not give him that excuse.

Jack grinned sarcastically, enjoying himself as the king of his castle and the king wanted another brandy. Jack walked to the liquor cabinet, opened the door, and immediately saw that the new bottle of Korbell brandy had been opened.

He stomped his way to the kitchen and asked Ruth why his new Korbell brandy bottle had been opened.

Oh, fuck, Ruth thought. “I don’t know Jack. I sure as hell didn’t open it to get a drink. The stuff tastes like syrupy piss with a shit-like coloring. Remember, you gave me a taste once.” Then she thought of Max. Oh, no, he must have opened the bottle and had a drink while I was in the shower. Shit. Here comes trouble, she thought. Why hadn’t I smelled it on Max’s breath? There were no heavily passionate kisses with tongue until after we woke up. The smell must have worn off, she thought.

“Did you have Diane and her wimpy husband as guests yesterday?”

“No, I didn’t. I went to a movie at the Capital Theater. After that I went for a walk in the park. Oh, almost forgot. Max came to fix the garbage disposal while I was gone. Let’s see,” she said as she looked at the ceiling in thoughtful remembrance. “Yea, I was gone for about three hours. About two hours for the movie and one for the park. When I got home, Max was gone, and the sink was fixed. I mean the garbage disposal was fixed.”

“So, let me get this straight. You did not have guests and the only person you know of having been in our apartment is Max. Correct?”

“Yea, but Max wouldn’t take your good brandy. He’d take the Mohawk brandy.”

“Maybe. I’ve had him over a couple of times, so he knows what a great taste and aroma the Korbell has. Korbell brandy is about five or six times more expensive than the Mohawk. I thought he was a friend, but friends don’t steal, do they?”

“Not usually but having been in the apartment while I was gone does not mean that he’s the thief. Someone else could have gotten in. You know, with those pick-a-lock tools we see on crime shows.”

Jack immediately went to the door, opened it, then went into the hallway. He checked the surface of the outside lock. “No scratches here and it’s a fairly new lock. Come the think of it, it was Max who installed it for us. Remember?”

Fuck, fuck, double fuck screamed Ruth internally. Will he make the connection?

“Well, I’ll be goddamned. He installs the lock for us, but he has his own key made. That makes it simple to come in here when we’re not home and have himself a wonderful Korbell drink. Fuck him. You know what. Sometimes when I’ve started a bottle with a drink or two, when I come back to the bottle it seems emptier than it should be. I thought it was me being undeservedly suspicious. However, I know you don’t like the stuff, so I let those thoughts die. But now I think I know what’s happening.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Jack. You don’t need to make trouble that we’ll all get dragged into. Put a lock on the cabinet. Problem solved.”

“Problem prevented, maybe, but not problem solved. Stealing my expensive Korbell is like him mugging and robbing me. I have an idea about how to solve the problem, and soon I’ll fix the problem,” he growled.

“Jack, listen to yourself. You’re being overdramatic. Check him off your friends list, then ignore him.” She thought, can’t be more than a couple friends on that list, and even then, a better description of them would probably be acquaintances, not friends. I’ll bet the people at work enjoy seeing him leave town. Must be a welcomed, brief relief for his colleagues.

But Jack did have a high school friend who knew a lot about chemistry. Ken made and sold drugs and getting into his father’s garage drugs cabinet was child’s play after he learned lock-picking on YouTube. Jack had bought drugs from him occasionally, mostly marijuana for his out-of-town trips. Ken knew how to makes a lot of shit related to chemistry and drugs. His father was a big-shot chemist who had chemicals in his garage under lock and key. Ken was a disappointing son to his dad, an undisciplined rogue who didn’t go to college and follow in his dad’s footsteps. But Ken made four times what his dad made in a year. Ken had a bloated bank account which made him feel rich and act rich. He enjoyed teasing his dad about the salary disparity between the two of them. Ken would also mention his expensive apartment. He’d also mention that his business employed people, namely his loyal group of sellers whom he paid generously so they wouldn’t inform on him.

Ken also had a secret business. Hush, hush, but it was known to the right kind of people, who could refer other people to him. It was a one-man operation dealing with assassinations. Not that he killed people himself, but he sold his home-made poison made from a concoction of Jimson weed, Foxglove flower, Oleander, and the Belladonna Lily, plus his own specialized chemical combinations. He made the poison into tablet form, which could be swallowed, or could be crushed and dropped into a liquid where it would dissolve quickly. Ken sold it to anyone who wanted it for a lethal purpose, and, of course, who was willing to pay for it. He demanded a high price for one tablet of poison, but had no trouble getting it since his specialized mixture made the deaths look like they came from natural causes. It was a fast-acting poison. Ken prided himself that those facts were great selling points.

**************

The theft was not forgotten. Jack was hostile to Max. Nothing physical happened, just angry looks and ignoring Max. However, he wasn’t the type of person who could let disrespect be forgotten.

Ruth thought the incident had been smoothed over and mostly forgotten, not totally, but things looked good. Max kept himself out of the way and did not see Ruth for a month, amounting to two weekends of not seeing her, even though Jack went out of town. He sure as hell did not go near Ruth or the brandy. He chastised himself for being stupid, having let sexual opportunity distract him enough to take the Korbell instead of the Mohawk brandy. Max also worried that Jack would now figure out that he had entered the apartment previously, when no one was there, to drink the Korbell. Just one drink, unnoticeable, he thought. He hadn’t even told Ruth about it.

Monday Jack informed Ruth that they were traveling to his mom’s and dad’s home for Thanksgiving dinner. Since Thanksgiving was coming on the following Thursday, he got time off from work as a reward for making all the out-of-town business trips. Jack said he had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday free from work. He told Ruth they’d leave Wednesday morning and return Friday afternoon. Then they would have a free weekend.

Ruth acknowledged what he said and stated, “OK by me. Your mom is a great cook, and your dad is funny. I like them.” To herself she wondered, why he is being so reasonable, calm, even on the edge of gaining some happiness. He was nice to her all-day Monday and Tuesday, never even demeaning her weight gain. But something was not right. She was suspicious of Jack’s calm, reasonable behavior. Usually when he felt slighted, he would remain angry for a week, sometimes more. His anger would simmer during the week then suddenly come to a boil. Then he would explode in fiery anger at anything or anyone who was near him.

Tuesday night the suitcases were packed. Ruth packed Jack’s, too, avoiding an argument and having to suffer through his “king of his castle” routine. Without her knowing, Jack slipped the Mohawk brandy into his suitcase and left the Korbell brandy in the liquor cabinet.

Wednesday morning during breakfast Jack warned Ruth, “Keep a tight leash on your bitch. She better not piss in my car unless it’s on you. Whining and any other distractions won’t be tolerated. And tell me again, why you can’t leave her with someone?”

“Leave her with who? Diane? She’s got bad allergies, and a kennel is where dogs get mistreated and catch diseases from the other dogs. Some of them were homeless and could be loaded with all kinds of germs. That means a veterinarian and a large bill. I’ll keep her quiet and behaved.”

“You had better do that.”

Ruth thought, those were the first harsh words he’s said in two days. What’s going on with him?

When breakfast was finished, Ruth cleaned the table, stove, and washed the dishes. Then Jack said, “You go down to the office and let them know we’re leaving so they can keep an eye on the apartment. And carry one of the lighter bags. Meet me at the car.”

“OK,” Ruth answered as she picked up her make-up case with the same hand as her purse. Grace had a small chew-bone in her mouth as Ruth gathered her up awkwardly with the other hand. Ruth walked to the elevators. When the doors opened, there stood Max. Ruth stepped inside the elevator but held the door open. “How is he acting,” Max asked?

“He’s up to something because he’s acting out of character. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I doubt that it’s anything good.”

“OK. I’ll keep out of his way. I have to fix a light switch on this floor so I gotta go.” Max walked down the hallway as Ruth descended in the elevator.

Jack returned to the bedroom to get the remaining bags, murmuring choice swear words and phrases about Ruth bringing too much luggage.

As Max was walking down the hallway, he heard a crash, a banging noise and a groan coming from the opposite direction. He looked back and saw Jack lying on the ground, not moving. He ran to Jack and found him lying on his side, though semiconscious . Max rolled him over and thought he heard Jack say, “ brandy.” Max ran to Jack’s liquor cabinet and grabbed the Korbell brandy bottle. The Mohawk brandy was gone. The Korbell stood alone, almost full, only a couple drinks gone from it. He ran with the bottle, not wanting to waste time grabbing a glass. He ran to Jack, lifted Jack’s head up and asked, “Is this what you want?”

Max thought he saw Jack’s head move back and forth as if indicating “no,” but Max thought Jack was confused so he placed the opening of the bottle to Jack’s lips and Jack sipped the brandy. Max smelled the strong, but pleasing aroma of the expensive brandy. He wondered if the smell might act like smelling salts. He thought that maybe that’s why Jack asked for it, to help him focus more clearly and faster to gain full consciousness.

Max called the front desk to report an emergency. As the clerk was calling for an ambulance, she mentioned Jack’s name and the fourth floor where the injured person lay.

Ruth heard this information because she was standing close to the clerk while leaning over the counter. She dropped her purse and bag, hung on to Grace, and rushed to the elevator. She reached the fourth floor and ran down the hallway where she saw Max bending over Jack.

“What happened,” Ruth asked Max, as she placed Grace on the floor and the loop of her leash around a doorknob. Grace quickly picked up the dog bone lying by Jack’s feet and contentedly chewed it.

“I don’t know. I heard a loud sound. I turned around and saw Jack on the ground, so I ran to him. He was groaning, semiconscious, but I thought I heard him say, “brandy,” so I got him the Korbell. The cheap bottle was gone so I grabbed the Korbell. He’s been sipping it for a while, but he still looks confused.”

Ruth kneeled to Jack’s side getting closer to his ear. “Are you OK?” she asked. “Anything I can do for you?”

Jack began having a hard time breathing. He gasped, opened his mouth wide, like a fish out of water, apparently trying to get more air. He looked terrified at Ruth, then said, “brandy” before he died.

“Holy shit,” Max exclaimed.

“Jesus Christ. A heart attack?” Ruth said while looking stunned at Jack’s dead body.

Quickly she focused and tried CPR, but it didn’t work. The ambulance and paramedics arrived to pronounce Jack’s time of death and ask questions about what happened.

Jack’s death was ruled as coming from a natural cause, heart failure. A sudden, but lethal heart attack.

***************

Ken was in his garage mixing up a batch of chemicals. He was wearing a rubberized air filter mask strapped tightly to his face. As he stirred the chemicals with a glass rod, he talked to himself, “Why would Jack want two of these death tablets? Is he planning on killing someone? One will do the job. I wonder who Jack has in mind?” Then Ken continued stirring the batch for his second business venture which had grown so profitable that he sold the drug business to one of his loyal group and counted himself lucky to get away from it because, sooner or later he’d get caught. Good old Murphy, the Irishman, was always lurking in the shadows waiting for an opportunity to screw you badly.

***************

Ruth wasn't getting fat. She was pregnant. She had a baby girl. She wasn’t sure who the father was, Jack or Max, but hoped the father wasn’t Jack. Ruth named the girl Brandy.