Caller ID Ch. 05

Standing in the shower she quickly washed the sweat off of her body and studied her underarms to see if her new growth of hair was becoming unsightly. It had been so long since she had not shaved her armpits that she was not sure what they would look like. It had only been a week since she convinced herself that she had a rash and that she should not shave for a while to prevent it from becoming irritated. She was happy that there was just a light fuzz showing and it appeared to be closer to the lighter color of her pubic hair than to the hair on her head.

"You are a fool and a liar," she chided herself as she lightly rubbed her fingers over the new growth enjoying the thrill it gave her. "It's because Roberto suggested it that you're not shaving!"

She considered shaving her pubes but was worried that Marvin would notice the sudden change so she settled for a closer than usual trim using the trimmer on his electric shaver instead of her scissors.

The girls were already home when she went back downstairs.

"Are you hungry?" she asked them.

Jessica replied, "No, we had some nachos and cheese over at Brit's house and Mrs. V. had some empanadas so we ate there."

"Megan? How about you? I'm going to make a salad, do you want some?"

"No mom. I'm not hungry, well, maybe a little one. Make me one too, OK? How come you left practice so early? Roberto was looking for you. He seemed upset."

Maggie paused for a moment trying to formulate her answer, "I wanted to get home, I had some things to do. Why? What did he say?"

"He said you were being a snobby or something like that. I think he meant you were snubbing him and not talking to him. Are you?"

"Not that I'm aware of," she replied. "I've been too busy with everything that's going on to pay him any attention. I'll have to talk to him."

"Do you know that he doesn't wear any underwear?" she giggled. "Some of the girls have seen his thing sticking out when he is playing or showing them some stuff."

Maggie turned on the water in the sink and pretended that the noise prevented her from hearing Megan's question. She busied herself slicing a cucumber to avoid commenting on Megan's observation.

"Mom?"

"Yes, honey?" she stopped slicing and looked up at her daughter.

"Did you know that?"

"Did I know what, honey?"

"That Roberto doesn't wear underwear?"

"No, I didn't," she lied. "If it is true, I'll have to talk to him. I don't want any of the parents getting mad or anything. Now go on up and take a shower so we can eat."

Maggie stood at the sink with a half a cucumber in one hand and a knife in the other. She firmly gripped the cucumber while recalling the image of Roberto's "thing" flopping around inside of his shorts.

"No, I haven't seen it but I sure wish I had. Maybe, I will," she giggled and finished making the salads.

It was nearly ten o'clock when Marvin came in through the garage. He had obviously been drinking with Vince but he was not drunk by any means. By the time he arrived Maggie had worked herself into an angry mood. She brooded over every little slight that she felt Marvin had ever done to her and merged them together into a huge resentment. It added fuel to the fire that she had lit inside of her mind and made the rationalization of her decision to continue to play with Roberto much easier to accept.

"Hi, sweetheart!" he said and bent down to kiss her.

Maggie turned her head to avoid his lips and said, "Well, it's about time! Where the hell have you been?"

Marv straightened up and took a step back from her aggressive rejection and replied, "Over at Vince's. I left a message. Didn't you get it?"

"No, I didn't. You had me worried. Go take a shower you stink from cigar smoke and booze!"

Seeing that there was no point in escalating the fight, Marvin meekly went upstairs and took a shower. After showering he slid open the mirror on his side of the medicine cabinet to get his toothpaste when he noticed that his shaver was not in the usual place and the trimmer head was open. Curious, he held it up to the light and saw that there was what looked like little curly pubic hairs on it. He wondered if it was one of the girls but decided that they would not come in and use his shaver so it had to be Maggie.

"What was she doing shaving herself?" he thought as he blew off the hair, closed the head and replaced it inside of the cabinet.

Strange, he couldn't remember her ever doing that before.

Sitting on the side of the bed to put on his socks he wondered about his message not getting onto the voice mail. Scrolling back through the Caller ID's he was surprised that Vince's number did not appear and the last call displayed was earlier that morning. He knew that he had called the right number because it was his voice he heard on the greeting.

He was going to suggest that Maggie call the telephone company the next day but she was still in a bad mood when he walked back downstairs and she barely grunted when he tried to talk to her so he retreated to his playroom over the garage.

The room over the garage was called a bonus room when they bought the house but they opted to leave it unfinished and spend the money on an upgraded kitchen. He had finished it himself over the last couple of years and his family called it his playroom. Only the two outside walls and the ceiling were insulated and covered with unpainted drywall. The other two walls faced interior rooms in the heated house proper and he left the wall studs visible. The room only had one, small circular, window in the front wall but the steep roof pitch gave him plenty of room for his model airplane table, a TV and his collection of dirty magazines, porno tapes, and other odds and ends.

A full-sized pool table and a professional poker table took up most of the room. Nearby were a small refrigerator and a sink and toilet that he had installed on the wall of the room backing up to the master bathroom. A cracked mirror hung on a stud next to the back of the master bath's medicine cabinet protruding between the studs. The other wall had a little, half-high, door that led into the back of the closet in the guest room but he rarely used it because there was usually so much junk in the closet that he couldn't get through it anyway. The main entrance to the room was up a set of narrow stairs from the garage below.

Marvin turned the TV on to a cable news channel and half-heartedly started to clean up the wide shelf that served as a combination desk and catchall for his junk. An unread model airplane magazine caught his eye and he sat in the swivel chair and started to page through it when the flashing light on the cordless phone indicated that someone in the house was using one of the extensions.

Every once in a while he glanced over at the flashing light before going back to his magazine. He didn't think it was anything unusual and finished with the magazine he stacked it on the shelf and went back to cleaning his desk. The light went out and a few seconds later the phone rang once and the "message waiting" light lit up. Someone had called while the phone was in use and the voice mail answered the call. He ignored it since he was sure it was for one of the girls.

Deciding that Maggie was probably over her snit he checked around the room to see if there was anything else he could to before going back into the house. He once again noticed that the "extension in use" light was on again and assumed he was right and the message was for them. While he was watching, the light went off again. He had never paid any attention to the light before but now his curiosity was aroused. Picking up the handset he scrolled through the Caller ID list and was surprised to find Vince's number followed by another call from, Ronaldo, L K with a local number and the number of Jessica's friend who had just called.

"Why is the call listed on this phone and not on the others?" he wondered. "Why or who erased my call and voice mail message and who are the Ronaldos?" he asked himself.

Maggie was not as snippy but she was not in a very pleasant mood so he left her alone. He sat out by the pool with a beer he did not need but he felt he had to prove to his wife that he could drink whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. When he got up to get himself another beer he found that Maggie had gone to bed without saying goodnight to him.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked himself after settling back down in the pool chair. "This is the third day in a row that she's picked a fight with me."