Michael found a new love when he and Debra had been married for seventeen years. He sold sports equipment to college teams on the east coast, and met Linda in Florida at the small college where she worked in purchasing. Debra found out about the affair when he brought Linda home to Pittsburgh to meet his brother. The brother’s wife told Debra, because she thought she ought to know, and Debra asked Michael to attend counseling with her, to save their marriage. She was confident that Michael would agree; they had too much riding on the marriage: two teen girls, a mortgaged house in a nice section of town, and a close family on both sides. Not to mention their Catholicism, so many years of shared history, and five years’ worth of “marriage enrichment” retreats put on by their church. Plus, Debra had never worked for pay, and had no idea of how to support herself and the girls. She and Michael had married immediately after high school.
Michael did not agree to counseling. In fact, he left Pittsburgh and his family, quit his job, and moved to Florida to live with Linda and her three children. The divorce was protracted, complicated by Michael’s inability to pay child support without a job. Debra sold the house, and lived with her parents for a time while she thought of what to do next. Her friend Karen, who had moved to San Diego in the early 1970s right after high school, told her that she could get a job in the swanky health club where Karen worked as a masseuse. There was an opening for front desk receptionist, and all that Debra needed was her good looks and smile to do the job. She could live with Karen until she found a place to live.
Debra surprised herself and her family, and moved to California. She had never been out of Pennsylvania in her life, except for a high school drama club trip to New York City. She liked the job, found an apartment, and put the girls in school. She got a certification as an aerobics instructor, and supplemented her income by teaching classes at the club after her reception shift ended. She was popular and good looking as an instructor, and when one of the men in her class asked her to sub for the host of an exercise show he produced on a cable TV station, she agreed. Within six months she was hosting the show; it was soon syndicated statewide, then nationally. Keeping Fit with Debra pioneered, in the late 1980s, the outdoor aerobics setting for TV. Debra did her weekly show on the beach at La Jolla, and sometimes took the show on the road to a mountain setting in Vail, Colorado; the Arizona desert at the base of the Sandia Mountains; to a Maui beach in Hawaii; and a ski resort in Utah.
She bought a house in an expensive section of San Diego, and dated the producer of her show. When the relationship ended by the mid-1990s, so did her show. She thought she could find another producer, but by then, aerobics were beginning to seem dated; yoga and dance exercise shows were proliferating, and there seemed to be no room for a 40-something to get started again on TV. She wrote an illustrated aerobic exercise book and made dozens of video tapes, but in 1997, internet sales were still in the future, and she did not find a publisher.
Her daughters were out on their own. Debra sold the big house, thought about and then decided against moving back to Pittsburgh, and got a job in the San Diego Park District as an administrator. It paid for her expenses, gave her health insurance and a pension, but seemed rather tame after her years in TV. She was wondering what her life was about when she met Harry, a neighbor in her apartment complex. Harry was nothing like either Michael or the TV producer. He owned and ran a bar near the navy shipyards which navy men frequented. He was ten years older than she, rode a motorcycle for sport, took her scuba diving on dates. He wore his dark hair tied back at the nape of his neck, spoke in slightly English accent, and swept Debra off her feet. He was gallant, generous, and possessive of Debra, which she thought was charming.
Harry had been divorced, and had grown children. He had immigrated with his parents to the US from England when he was 12, he said. He had spent years as a long-haul trucker before he had had enough, and bought the bar. Debra and Harry bought a condo together, and Debra started helping out at the bar after office hours. The first time Harry saw Debra talking and laughing with one of the bar patrons, he took her to the back room and hit her so hard across the mouth that one of her front teeth cracked in half. As he staunched the blood flow and applied an ice pack to her swelling face, he told her never to make him angry like that again.
Debra had her tooth capped, considered leaving Harry, and then decided against it when he was contrite. He hit her regularly, but only, as he insisted, after she did something to deserve it. Her daughters were horrified at Debra’s appearance and her newly-timid air. They suspected that Harry was abusing her, but the more they didn’t like Harry the more Debra defended him. She saw her daughters infrequently because it was too stressful for Harry, she said. One day, after two years together, Harry pushed Debra down the stairs of their house. Debra’s leg broke in two places, two of her ribs cracked, a concussion permanently affected her memory, and three more of her teeth fell out. Harry took her to the hospital and nursed her through her recovery. She told the suspicious social worker at the hospital that she had slipped down the stairs.
After that, Harry didn’t hit Debra anymore, or even threaten to do so. He took himself to counseling. Debra was happy; the memory of the beatings was vague. They sold the bar, Harry retired, and they moved to a small house in the suburbs with a garden where Debra played with her grandchildren after work, and Harry took care of the shopping, cooking, and cleaning. They rode Harry’s motorcycle along the coast on weekends, and developed a community of friends who played golf and line-danced at country-western bars.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment