Con Sampler

Chapter 7 – An Ex Comes a Calling-3

Our relationship had been a mistake from the start but only a few years of distance and a little hindsight had shown me that.

I had started out my adult life trying to be straight. It took several years of marriage to a man to show me that I wasn’t fooling anyone, especially myself. My ex-husband Nate and I parted amicably enough but I struggled mightily after that with my s****l orientation.

Terri was the first woman I had a real – if you could call it that – relationship with. Oh, I’d been on dates and I had other lesbian friends but there was no one I had connected with romantically until she came into my life. Once we became an “official” couple, she instantly took charge of everything that centered on “us” as a couple and she began to monitor my every move. Terri was the epitome of a control freak.

Getting away from her had meant giving up most of my friends and giving up “our” home and all of its contents. I’d fared better in my actual divorce. To add insult to injury, I was fired from a security job that I loved because of her venomous attacks to get some sort of revenge on me. Upper management just didn’t want to deal with the antics of a scorned lover gone certifiable and I didn’t blame them.

I retreated for a while and licked my wounds. During a trip home to see my folks in Western PA, I ran into an old high school friend who was working for Customs. After talking with him, I applied and, after several go rounds of questions about why I was let go from my former employer, I was finally hired. The rest, as they say, is history. It was only an ironic twist of fate that got me assigned to the Chicago Field Office but, frankly, I’d spent little of my time with Customs in the actual office and I didn’t venture into any of my old haunts from life with either of my exes, Nate or Terri, when I did.

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I was jolted from my reverie by the buzzing of my phone. This time Terri was texting me.

Terri: Dana, we HAVE to talk. I’m in trouble and you’re the only one who can help me.

That’s really rich, her wanting my help, I thought. I didn’t bother to answer her. There was just no way I was ever going to give her the time of day ever again. She could ‘go fly a kite’, as my mother is oh so fond of saying.

A few minutes of blissful quiet passed by but I was on edge the whole time waiting for the next missive from her. When it came, I almost fell out of Mel’s rolling desk chair.

Terri: I’m in Zanesville. I need to meet with you.

“What the hell! Why is she in Zanesville? How did she know where to find me?” I was yelling out loud, to no one in particular. “That tears it!”

I texted her back; Me: Why are you in Zanesville?

Her reply came quickly; Terri: I really need your help.

Me: How did you know where to find me?

Terri: A mutual friend told me.

Me: Doubtful! You got all of ‘our’ friends when we split up.

Terri: Don’t be bitter. You know that isn’t true.

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“Yep, that’s the Terri I remember; still totally lacking in self-awareness. Everything is about her and nothing is her fault,” I said aloud and then, in my head, Look at me; she has me talking to myself already!

I was disgusted with myself. I laid my phone down, positioned my crutches and hobbled off to the kitchen for a glass of tea followed by a breath of fresh air outside on the deck.

After 10 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to clear my head, I returned to the den and my phone. It was virtually blowing up with texts from my ex.

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Terri: Are you there?

Terri: I really do need to talk to you. It’s urgent.

Terri: Dana, I’m not leaving Zanesville until we talk!

Terri: Dana, I’m serious. This is life or death for me.

Terri: Some people are trying to kill me!

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* * * *

That last text got my attention. Terri had done serious financial and emotional damage to me in the past. I’d probably wished her dead myself at least a thousand times. Rather than dealing with all of the mess she’d made of my life and my head, I’d finally managed to block it all out and move on. Maybe she was being dramatic; maybe she wasn’t, but she did have me curious.

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Me: Kill you?

Terri: Yes. I’m serious!

I shook my head at what I was about to do; Me: I’ll meet with you ONE TIME. NO PROMISES!

Meeting with her went against all of my better judgment but she’d come all the way to Ohio thinking I was the one who could help her out of a death warrant, for some odd reason, and I intended to find out what that reason was.

Terri texted me again to say that she was staying in a rented camper cabin near Dillon Dam on Dillon Lake just northwest of Zanesville. There was no way I was going to meet with her at her little camper cabin off in the woods somewhere. That wasn’t going to happen. I had no idea what kind of hornet’s nest I’d be hobbling into and I just didn’t trust her.

I thought for a minute about potential public meeting places that I was familiar with in the area. There just weren’t many but then it occurred to me that the little park Mel and I had talked in earlier in the week would be a perfect, neutral place to meet.

I looked at the clock. From here, I could be there in 15 minutes. That should put me there before Terri who was coming further and who would have to find it. I might just be able to catch a glimpse of the Amish runaway if she kept to the same sort of schedule and I got a move on. Maybe I can turn this huge negative into a little bit of a positive...

I texted Terri the name of the little park and I left it at that. If she never found me, it wasn’t my problem.