What Goes Around ...

As she took the phone from her mother and said a bright and cheery "Hi!", she wondered what was wrong and why he hadn't called her cell phone. 



"Hey Kiddo!" 



Suddenly space and time ceased to exist.  Memories flashed through her brain in nanoseconds and she was literally speechless.



...sitting in the bank in dumbfounded silence, hearing that her husband's name had been removed from the mortgage and she was now solely responsible for the  payments on the house.  So sorry but nothing could be done and could she please pay the other half of this month's payment as soon as possible.



"Aren't you going to say hello?"



...driving home from work and hearing how "that little bitch" had done nothing all day and don't think he was going to change his life for "that f***ing kid" she was carrying.



"What do you want?"



...knowing that someone had been in the house while she and her daughter had been out.



"Just wanted to say hi and see how you're doing!"



... her daughter having the same recurrent nightmare as she was about him standing at the end of the bed with a gun.



"I'm fine.  Why?"



...reading in the affidavit how she was a drug addict and alcoholic and had slept with everyone they had ever known.  Her and her best friend of over 21 years had had a good laugh at that, had laughed until they cried.  Her son had said, "and you were the second gunman on the grassy knoll too, right?"



"I know you lost your job and how depressed you get!"



...fearing he might make good on his promise to come into her work with a shotgun.  Squealing out when he picked her up from work to take her to the mediator.  Her boss telling her that he had to let her go.



"Not your problem!"



...the horrible fear of the last couple of years of their marriage when he was stalking her, listening in on her phone calls, going through her purse, being supremely jealous of the kids, driving their son away to live with her mother, terrorizing their daughter by breaking doors and ripping out phones.  The therapist having her and her daughter plan an escape route and a secret code word.



"I miss you and still love you!"



...a few months after legally separating, reading in the affidavit how he and his common-law spouse were moving to Alberta for her job.  Having to file bankruptcy because he had done so and left her holding the bag for everything.



"Really!  You have everything you ever wanted!  All the things we always argued about.  Money, a house, vintage car, vacations!  I would think you would be happy as a pig in shit!"



"Ya, but I don't have you!  It all means nothing without you to share it with!"



After a few more minutes of stilted conversation she hung up the phone.  Then it slowly dawned on her - no stomach cramps, nausea, headache, sweaty palms, palpitations, nothing - she felt fine.  What did it mean?  Was she having some delayed reaction?  Would she have a terrible nightmare later or burst into tears?



Finally, it came to her like a Monty Python God through the clouds - "What goes around comes around, baby!" and "Karma always comes back to bite you in the ass!"