Chapter Elyse
ELYSE
It was a mild, sunny day and I was cleaning out my garage, getting ready for the holidays, and pulling out our Thanksgiving decorations.
The garage door was rolled up, and I had music playing on the radio.
The song had just switched to "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" by Tom Petty when a car I didn't recognize pulled up in our driveway.
I assumed they had pulled into the wrong driveway and I was done pulling boxes down from the attic so I went inside to wash my hands.
As I walked out of the bathroom, the doorbell rang, and I could see the outline of someone in the etched glass of the front door.
It was the same person who had pulled up in my driveway, but they appeared to be holding a (screaming) baby.
I opened the door slightly, having heard about a few new scams of people with babies stealing people's cars and breaking into houses and whatnot, and I had never seen this woman in my life, so I was a little apprehensive.
"Hello, can I help you?" I asked the screaming-baby-wielding stranger.
"Is Frank here?"
I couldn't for the life of me figure out what this young girl wanted with my husband.
"He's not here right now. Is there something that I can help you with? Is he expecting you?"
She shifted the baby to her other arm and bounced it gently to soothe it. "No, he's not expecting me. I'm sorry to bother you, but I've been trying to reach him on the phone for hours and he's not picking up."
"Well, he is working overtime right now, so that could be why, but can I ask what this is regarding?"
She looked flustered as she continued to lightly jostle the crying baby she was cradling in her arms. The baby that, once I got a look at his face, looked... vaguely familiar.
"I'm sorry to bother you like this. I really didn't think I had any other option right now, but our baby is sick and I need to take him to the hospital. But I don't have an insurance card for him."
Our baby?
"I'm sorry. Whose baby?" I asked. I had half a mind to close the door in her face, not wanting to hear what I suspected was about to come out of her mouth.
"Mine and Frank's baby."
Too late.
She gently lifted the bundle she was holding in her arms. Mini Frank was squalling, his face twisted in pain or discomfort. I didn't have any children of my own, so I didn't have much to go off of, but the baby definitely looked to be quite upset.
"Is he okay?" I said, pointing at the bundle wrapped in the blue blanket. "He appears to be sweating profusely."
"Yes, he's been running a fever all night. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I need to take him to the doctor, but Frank hasn't given me an insurance card. I'm sorry to surprise you like this. He told me he stays with you sometimes so I thought I'd see if he was here."
At this point my mouth must have been hanging open like a Halloween Scream mask. "He stays with me sometimes? He lives here," I said to her, incredulous.
"Well, I mean, yes, of course, but now that you're divorced, he's here only to help out with the house, I thought."
"We're divorced?" I asked. This day was full of surprises, and they were just beginning.
"Why don't you come in, and we'll try to get Frank on the phone right now so we can clear this up," I said.
I invited her and the screaming baby into the foyer and gestured to the couch in the front room.
As soon as she was seated with the baby on her lap, I excused myself to call Frank from the kitchen.
He answered on the third ring, and I'm sure he heard the baby crying in the background.
"Hey babe," he said. "Where are you?"
"I'm at home."
"Who's the baby crying in the background?"
What a jackass.
"I might ask you the same thing, Frank, because there's a woman here who claims this crying baby is yours, and she's looking for an insurance card."
It took me a moment or two to realize that he had hung up the phone. Not sure what to do about the woman and her child in my family room, I called Frank back and was sent directly to voicemail. But prince that he was, he texted me a moment later.
Frank: I can explain. I'm leaving work now, and I'll be home in fifteen minutes.
Which home might that be? Because apparently you and I are divorced. And you have a new child. Who is very sick, by the way, and needs medical attention.
I left it at that, figuring I'd rather get answers to my questions face to face than over a text, and I didn't need him driving while texting and distracted and putting other people in danger.
I went to the family room and sat down on the loveseat across from where the woman sat cradling her crying baby.
"My name is Elyse," I said, "although you probably know that. And I'm sorry to say, I know nothing about you."
"My name is Francine," she said.
Frank and Francine. How adorable.
"Well, Francine. It sounds like Frank is going to be home here shortly, and we can get all this straightened out."
Frank was home shortly, and we did manage to get things straightened out in as much as he shuffled Francine and her/their baby into their car and off to the local urgent care. When he returned alone four hours later, he wasn't the least bit contrite.
"You have quite a bit of explaining to do," I said to his back as he threw clothes into a duffel bag.
But I didn't get that explanation for years.
I was left to wonder what had happened, even though I knew the why.
He had been telling me all along that it wasn't a problem, it didn't matter that I couldn't give him a child.
It took me until that moment to realize that it wasn't a problem because he had found someone to take care of that issue for him.
Within thirty minutes, he was packed and moved out.
And I was left to pick up the pieces of my broken heart and shattered trust, both of which I thought I would never fully recover.