The Free Spirit

An Unsettling Feeling, 1963 (Part Two)

"You give me a feeling in my heart like an arrow passing through it..."

As expected, the boys went back to work after Phil and Jackie returned from their honeymoon. At first, they lived with us, and I didn't mind it until Jackie spent every day either at the beach or on the back deck sunning herself in a swimsuit while I cleaned the house and took care of two young children. It infuriated me that she wouldn't do a thing to help - not wash dishes, not do laundry (in a washing machine, no less), not dust and clean the house, nothing. I became furious quite quickly and confronted her about it. "They aren't my children," she told me as she lay on the back deck reading a magazine.

"I didn't ask you to take care of the children. I wouldn't want you near my children, you'd only upset them. I only asked you to get off your ass and help me out around here," I replied.

"You seem to have it all under control," Jackie replied to me.

"I am not your maid, I am not your housekeeper, I am the lady of this house and I won't stand for sitting here on your ass doing nothing-"

"Phil owns this house as much as Don does."

"Phil signed his part over to Don when Phil briefly moved out."

"And when Phil moved back in, I convinced him to have Don sign his part back over to Phil, so Phil owns part of this house, which makes me a lady of the house, too, so buzz off!"

"Then clean it. From now on, anything that's yours or Phil's I'm leaving and I'm not touching it. I'm too busy to be picking up after your lazy ass as well as my husband and my children. If you don't like that, then clean up your goddamn mess!"

"I'll tell Phil you're not playing nice."

"I'll tell Don you're not doing shit to help me around here. He'll ask Phil to find a home for you both, or even better, we'll find a home of our own."

"Do that instead. I rather like this house and I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm sure it'll be a joy to come over to the mess you'll leave this poor place in. Funny, I've been in charge of this house for three years and then all of a sudden, you and your bitchy attitude are usurping that from me. I've had enough of your shit." I turned on my heel and left her there.

"I left the blender a mess, can you clean it up since you're in there anyway? Thank you," Jackie called after me. I hated her more and more with every passing day I lived with her. I refused to be taken advantage of, and when I told Don, he was quite pissed off, too.

"Then we'll look for another place. Frankly, I hate livin' with Jackie, too. She's taken over the entire house. I ain't even allowed to use the bathroom between our two bedrooms because apparently, 'it's hers'," Don said to me. "I don't want our kids growin' up in this gawdy place anyway."

"You think it's gawdy? Well, I'd never have thought! You were so insistent I fall in love with it," I told him, taking his still shaking hands in mine and giving them a tight squeeze.

"I was a different man back then," Don replied.

"Still the same handsome man, and still the same sweetheart," I told him, giving him a quick kiss. "How do you think Phil's going to react to us moving out?"

"Angry at first, I'm sure. He's gonna be pissed that we ain't gettin' along with Jackie, but it's more like we ain't willin' to change our entire lives to accommodate her high maintenance ass. I ain't puttin' you or the kids through that."

"I'd rather him be pissed off at us for a little while than us living with that terror he calls a wife."

"Be nice..."