The gloaming

[Jimbo]

Ok, not much to report in the past month or so, other then that L contacted me to tell me that D hearing is scheduled for the 29th of this month. Had a spate of emails with STBX about the usual D related stuff- Here's a bill, remember to take my name off this, I'll take your name off that, etc.

I didn't believe it was possible for her to lie to me anymore about anything, now that she's out of the house and, effectively, out of my life, but she's found a way to do it.

When we last met up, I remember thinking that it struck me really odd for some reason that, fairly early in our outing and without any prompting from me, she handed over to me all of the keys of ours she had- house, my car, mailbox, etc. (As a sidebar: she didn't think to ask for my keys in return. MLC forgetfulness?)

To set the scene: flashback to 2006, Colonial Williamsburg. We had bought plastic souvenir tankards on our visit. Ever since then, they sat together on the top of the kitchen cabinets. Even after she moved out, they sat up there...forgotten. Every once in a while I would look up at them sitting there and think back to that time- a happy memory for me.

Well, I damn well know that I've looked up at those tankards more than once in the past month and always seen two. Last night I glanced up there and saw ONE!

I couldn't believe my eyes! For a while, I actually second guessed myself as to when I had looked up there last. But no. I KNOW that I saw TWO there AFTER she gave me all the keys.

Out of curiosity, I then examined the house key on the ring of keys she gave me. I saw the telltale signs of the tiny grooves on the peaks and valleys of the key that are left by a key cutting machine on a newly cut key. After a while, those grooves disappear from use, so this key hadn't been used all that long, if at all.

She still has a house key!

I KNOW better than this. I know they lie. I guess I shouldn't have trusted her to just hand over all her keys, but I figured that if she's truly done with me enough to get a D, then why wouldn't she? She wouldn't have a reason to keep them anyway, much less use them.

Emotions are funny. I felt elated that she felt the desire to squirrel away a key, and at the same time I felt violated by her latest misdirection, and subsequent entry into MY house- the house that she KNOWS she is no longer a co-owner of. I had to both laugh and reflect seriously on the gravity of all this at the same time. A very strange feeling, to be sure.

We do have some financial business to finalize still. She hasn't asked me for her half of the money and I haven't offered. Maybe she thinks I'm hiding it away in the house and she wants to make sure she gets her fair share. But we have both signed a legally binding separation agreement- one that has a deadline for me to produce her half, so I can't exactly "hold out" on her.

And if it's just to get more of "her stuff", there are plenty of her books STILL hidden away in far less noticeable nooks and crannies of our shelving, that she could have just taken while she was there without additional risk of me "noticing".

So why was she there anyway?

"Who the hell knows."

Very, very, VERY strange.