My husband\u2019s girlfriend stood on my fitting box and told me his wife was old and boring. She didn\u2019t know she was talking to his wife. \u201cHe\u2019s leaving her right after Christmas,\u201d she said, and twirled in the cruise dress he bought her. I just kept pinning.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had my alterations shop on Main Street in Hartselle for thirty-four years. Hems, zippers, wedding gowns, choir robes. If you were married in this town since 1992, there\u2019s a fair chance I took in your dress. The sign says Main Street Alterations, but most folks call me Miss Lavonne.<\/p>\n
Mitch and I had been married forty-six years. For most of that time, I thought we had the kind of marriage where you knew the other person\u2019s small habits without needing to ask. He liked his work pants hemmed the same way every time. He ate the crispy edge pieces of my chicken and dumplings. He\u2019d sit at the kitchen table while I sorted receipts, even if all he had to say was that the truck needed gas.<\/p>\n
In August, his truck needed a new battery. I went out to the garage to get the jumper cables from behind his seat. There was a phone back there, not his regular phone. A cheap black one, plugged into a cord he\u2019d run under the seat.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sixty-eight and not good with phones. Mitch couldn\u2019t remember a number to save his life, so he\u2019d never put a lock on that one. I opened the pictures.<\/p>\n
There was a woman with frosted hair and a big laugh. Maybe fifty. Her in a sundress, her on a boat, her sitting in Mitch\u2019s lap at a Mexican restaurant in Decatur. I knew the shirt he was wearing. I\u2019d washed it that week.<\/p>\n
Then I saw the messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t wait for our cruise, baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell the old lady you\u2019re going fishing with your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night Mitch ate two helpings of my chicken and dumplings. He said the transmission on his truck needed $9,000 of work. Our savings book sat in the desk drawer, where I\u2019d kept it for years. I\u2019d put a little into that account every week since 1981.<\/p>\n
I looked at the drawer and felt sick. Then I put the jumper cables back and went inside. I didn\u2019t say a word to him. I didn\u2019t know yet what I was going to do, but I knew I wasn\u2019t going to cry in front of him.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, the bell over my shop door jingled. The woman from the pictures walked in carrying three dresses over her arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you the lady who does alterations?\u201d she asked. \u201cMy friend at work says you\u2019re the best in Morgan County.\u201d<\/p>\n
My hands went cold. I made them pick up my pincushion.<\/p>\n
\u201cStep up on the box, honey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her name was Kelsey. She\u2019d moved down from Huntsville that spring and worked the front desk at the dentist\u2019s office two blocks away. She climbed onto the box and started talking while I pinned. People do that when they\u2019re standing still in their stockings and looking at themselves in a mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going on a cruise the week before Thanksgiving with my fella,\u201d she said. \u201cHe bought me this red one. He doesn\u2019t get to see a thing till we\u2019re on the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that nice,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s married.\u201d She lowered her voice like we were girlfriends. \u201cHis wife is old and boring. She sits home with the TV on all day.\u201d<\/p>\n
I put a pin in her hem. Straight as a ruler.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s leaving her right after Christmas. He\u2019s already got the money set aside.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew exactly whose money she meant.<\/p>\n
She came back the next week, then the next. Every time, she brought another dress, and every time, she told me more. Where she and Mitch went on Thursdays. What he called me behind my back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe calls her the warden,\u201d she said once, rolling her eyes. \u201cHe never says her name.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forty-six years, and I was the warden.<\/p>\n
Another time she said, \u201cAnd the house is all his. She won\u2019t get a thing when he goes. He made sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
That house was on my daddy\u2019s lot, and I\u2019d put my egg money into it. The words stung so much I had to look down at her sleeve to keep my face steady.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, isn\u2019t he smart,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d go home every night and make Mitch supper with my glasses hanging on their chain. Then I\u2019d lie in bed beside him and listen to him snore. I cried in the shower where he couldn\u2019t hear. It hurt worse than burying Mama, and I\u2019m ashamed to say it.<\/p>\n
My daughter called the second week of October. I almost told her what I\u2019d found. Instead, she told me Mitch had been over talking about me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaddy says you\u2019ve been spending too much at the shop, Mama. He thinks he ought to handle the money.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hung up and sat down on my cutting table. I was angry at Mitch, but I was angry at myself, too. I had kept quiet so long that he was already telling our daughter his version of what was wrong with me.<\/p>\n
He was getting ready. He was making it sound as if the money belonged to him and the trouble belonged to me. If I fought him, he might turn the kids against me. Years earlier he\u2019d laughed and said, \u201cYou leave me, and those grandbabies will choose their granddaddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe they would. I sat at my table with the phone in my hand and thought about all the ways I could lose more than a husband.<\/p>\n
The next morning, I went to the bank. I moved what was left of my savings into an account in my own name. I didn\u2019t empty it for spending. I wanted a record of what was there and some room to think before Mitch got his hands on it.<\/p>\n
Then I called a lawyer in Decatur. I told him I had found a second phone and that my husband was talking about leaving me and taking control of our money. He told me to bring the savings book and the house papers when I came in. He didn\u2019t promise me anything. He told me not to sign anything Mitch put in front of me.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t ready to tell my daughter everything. I was afraid she\u2019d hear it as me asking her to choose sides. I also didn\u2019t tell the lawyer about Kelsey yet. I wanted to be certain I wasn\u2019t turning my anger into a story that couldn\u2019t hold up.<\/p>\n
For six weeks, I let Kelsey talk. I asked ordinary questions while I pinned. She told me Mitch said he was tired of being watched. She said he had told her I spent too much at the shop, that the house was his, and that the money for their new life was already set aside.<\/p>\n
I hated her for a while. I hated her for standing on my box and calling me boring as if she knew me. Then I\u2019d remember who had chosen to climb into my husband\u2019s truck, and I\u2019d get mad at him all over again.<\/p>\n
I was also ashamed. Some nights I wondered if maybe they were right about me. Maybe I really had become a person who worried about the bank book and the shop more than anything else. I knew that wasn\u2019t the truth, but it took me a while to stop hearing his voice in my head.<\/p>\n
Kelsey came in for the final fitting on a Thursday afternoon in November. She wore the red cruise dress.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake it perfect, Miss Lavonne,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s taking me to the Bahamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, it\u2019ll be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at herself in my three-way mirror and turned so the skirt swung around her knees. I picked up the shop phone and called my husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitch, honey, my car won\u2019t start. Can you come get me at the shop?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBe there in ten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t know anybody else was in my shop. Kelsey didn\u2019t know who I\u2019d called.<\/p>\n
I knelt down at her hem with a mouthful of pins.<\/p>\n
\u201cHold real still, sweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight minutes later, the bell over my door rang. I stepped back behind my curtain to get the steamer. I heard his boots on my wood floor.<\/p>\n
Then Kelsey\u2019s voice, high and happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaby! What are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
And I heard my husband say, \u201cKelsey, this is Lavonne. My wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a second, neither of them spoke. Then Kelsey stepped down from the fitting box and looked at me. Her face had changed. She looked from my hands to Mitch and back again.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said she stayed home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mitch didn\u2019t answer her. He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cLavonne, I can explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
I came out from behind the curtain. I still had the pins in my mouth, and I took them out before I spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cExplain what, Mitch? The phone? The money? Or what you told her about me?\u201d<\/p>\n
He glanced toward the front window, like he wanted to make sure nobody was there. The shop was empty except for the three of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou came to my place,\u201d I told him. \u201cYou can answer here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelsey stood with one hand on the skirt of the red dress. She looked embarrassed now, but mostly she looked angry.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t tell me she was your seamstress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know she was doing your alterations,\u201d Mitch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew where I went every Thursday,\u201d I said. \u201cYou knew the shop.\u201d<\/p>\n
He started to answer, then stopped. I saw him try to find a version that would work in front of both of us.<\/p>\n
Kelsey turned to him. \u201cYou told me she never left the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said she was home a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said she watched television all day and didn\u2019t care what happened to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked back at me. \u201cI was trying to make it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor who?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
He rubbed his thumb along the side of his hand. He\u2019d done that for years when he was trying to decide what to say. I knew that habit better than I knew my own.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor both of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kelsey let out a short laugh, not because anything was funny. \u201cYou told me the money was yours. You said it was already put aside.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was our savings,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Mitch\u2019s jaw tightened. \u201cWe saved it together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI put a little in every week since 1981. You told me the transmission needed $9,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does need work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why did you tell Kelsey you had money set aside for the two of you?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at her, and that was answer enough. Kelsey took a step away from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me you\u2019d handled everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith money you told me wasn\u2019t hers?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitch lifted his hands, palms out, the way he did when he wanted a conversation to stop before it got worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what I said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelsey shook her head. \u201cIt is exactly what you said.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wanted to let her have it. I wanted to tell her she had been foolish to believe a married man who lied about his wife. But I knew what that kind of foolishness looked like. I had believed Mitch too long myself.<\/p>\n
So I said, \u201cYou can take the dress off when you\u2019re ready. The fitting is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked down at the hem and then at me. \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
I believed she meant it. It didn\u2019t make the months of listening easier, and I wasn\u2019t ready to forgive her. I nodded once.<\/p>\n
Mitch tried again. \u201cLavonne, let\u2019s go home and talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t want to go home with him. I was angry enough that I could feel my hands shaking, and part of me wanted to say something that would hurt him just because he had hurt me.<\/p>\n
Instead, I said, \u201cYou told her the house was all yours. Is that true?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at Kelsey. \u201cThis is between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was between us before you brought her into it,\u201d I said. \u201cAnswer me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe house is in my name,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
I knew the papers in the desk drawer said more than that. But I also knew I couldn\u2019t argue the whole thing out over a fitting box.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m seeing a lawyer,\u201d I told him. \u201cDon\u2019t touch the savings account, and don\u2019t ask our daughter to manage my money.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyebrows went up. \u201cYou moved the money?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved what was left into an account in my name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had no right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the bank record. The lawyer can tell us what happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time since he\u2019d come in, Mitch looked at Kelsey as if he needed help. She took off the red dress carefully, holding the fabric away from the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me she was the problem,\u201d she said. \u201cYou told me you were already done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cYou are still married to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at me. Then he looked at the counter, at the pin cushion, anywhere but my face. I had spent forty-six years making things fit him. I didn\u2019t feel proud of that then. I felt tired.<\/p>\n
Kelsey pulled on her own clothes behind the curtain. I stayed at the cutting table, folding the dress over my arm so it wouldn\u2019t drag. Mitch didn\u2019t move toward me.<\/p>\n
When she came back out, she said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go on that cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reached for her. She stepped back.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
She left without the dress. The bell rang behind her, and Mitch started after her. He stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re making a mess out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was mad enough to answer too quickly. \u201cYou made it. I\u2019m just not hiding it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
I regretted how sharp I sounded, but I didn\u2019t take it back.<\/p>\n
He stood there another moment, then walked out. I finished the dress and hung it in the back room with Kelsey\u2019s name on the ticket. My fingers were shaking so badly I had to use the table to tie the hanger tag.<\/p>\n
That evening, I sat across from Mitch at the kitchen table. He asked me to let him explain, and I asked him to start with the money. He said he hadn\u2019t taken it. He said the savings were meant to help him get started after he left. He said he didn\u2019t know how I would manage the shop if I had to pay the house expenses myself.<\/p>\n
I had been listening for some explanation that would make the last few months feel less mean. There wasn\u2019t one.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told Kelsey you had the money set aside,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d have it by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told our daughter I was spending too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asked me what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told her you ought to handle my money.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked down at the table. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to argue about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat there with my hands around a cup I hadn\u2019t taken a drink from. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to call me careless so you can take the bank book.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had no good answer. After a while, he said he wanted to stay in the spare room until we knew what we were doing. I told him I wanted him to stay somewhere else. He said the house was his, and I reminded him that my name was on the deed too.<\/p>\n
That made him stop. He\u2019d counted on me not checking the papers. I had lived in that house long enough to know where the folder was, and I had taken it with me to the lawyer\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The next day, I met with the lawyer in Decatur. I brought the savings book, the house papers, and the bank statement showing what I\u2019d moved. He looked over the deed and told me the house wasn\u2019t Mitch\u2019s alone. Both our names were on it.<\/p>\n
I had spent years hearing him call it his house. Seeing the deed in front of me made my stomach turn, but it also settled one piece of it. He couldn\u2019t make ownership disappear by telling Kelsey a story.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said the savings needed to be accounted for as we worked through the separation. He told me to keep the records and not move anything else without talking to him. I had already moved what was left, so I showed him exactly where it had gone.<\/p>\n
I left his office with the bank statement in my purse and called my daughter from the car. This time, I told her the truth. I told her about the phone, the affair, Kelsey, and the money.<\/p>\n
She went quiet at the other end.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaddy said you were going to spend everything,\u201d she said finally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, Mama. I know now.\u201d<\/p>\n
I cried then. Not in the shower, not with the water running, but sitting in my parked car outside the lawyer\u2019s office. I was sorry my daughter had been pulled into it. I was relieved she could hear me.<\/p>\n
She came by that night. Mitch was still at the house, but he went to the spare room when she walked in. I put the bank book and the house deed on the kitchen table. She read the statement, then looked at the deed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaddy told me the house was his,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would he say that?\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t tell her what he thought. I could only tell her what he had said to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he wanted me to believe I had nowhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
My daughter reached across the table and put her hand over mine. I had been afraid she would choose him. She didn\u2019t say anything about choosing. She just stayed.<\/p>\n
The next morning, Mitch took a bag of clothes and left. He said he needed time to think. I told him the lawyer would be in touch about the next steps, and that he couldn\u2019t come back and take things from the desk or the savings account.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t argue about the bank book after that. He didn\u2019t say the house was his again.<\/p>\n
Kelsey never came back for the red dress. I kept it on its hanger for a while, waiting for her to call. She didn\u2019t. I finished the hem and put it in the back room with the other clothes people hadn\u2019t collected. I still don\u2019t know whether she stayed in town or went back to Huntsville. I only know she didn\u2019t go on that cruise with Mitch.<\/p>\n
I signed the papers for my lawyer to begin the separation. Mitch and I would have to settle the house and the rest of the money through the ordinary process, but he didn\u2019t get to decide it by himself. I stayed in the house on my father\u2019s lot. I kept working at the shop, and I kept the savings records in the drawer where I could find them.<\/p>\n
I still think about how long I let him tell me who I was. That\u2019s the sentence I would be nervous to post, but it\u2019s true. I waited until Kelsey was standing in my shop before I made him hear it from me.<\/p>\n
The day after Mitch left, I unlocked Main Street Alterations and turned the sign to OPEN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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