The Sex and Colour of Justice

In time, my father-in-law passed away and I was told rather than asked that we were moving in with my mother-in-law. This was not a prospect that exactly enthralled me, but I was given no option. My misgivings about living under the same roof as my mother-in-law was not born out of any particular dislike for the woman herself. I just knew how dependent she was and that we would not get any time nor space for privacy nor intimacy. As things turned out, I was bang on the button with that one.

My mother-in-law insisted on having all doors to every room open throughout the nocturnal hours, every single night. On the one or two occasions that I suggested to my wife that we get away on our own for the weekend she would inform her mother of our plans. My mother-in-law would implore to come with us. There was just no way of getting away from her. It wasn't long before I realised that we were slaves to her mother's desires, whatever they might be. A trip to the shops, a night in sat on the sofa watching some crap soap opera, the woman couldn't bear to be alone.

My ex-wife's sister was equally demanding, insisting that since there were three of us, we should do all the cooking and cleaning. I was even commandeered to press my equally lazy retarded brother-in-law's shirts and to cook his meals too. Personally I am a very independent man and I really cannot abide a man of twenty-eight still not knowing, or not desiring, to cook and clean for himself. The retarded part I will explain later, I am certain you will not disagree with my judgment of the boy-child when you hear what he did to me in an attempt to prove what a man he was. An act of vindictive nastiness that was quite frankly as pathetic as it was unpleasant and highly dangerous.

As I was increasingly working from home I bought a very expensive, custom made computer and built an office in the garage. As well as being a workspace, that was a place of refuge many a time when I just wanted to get away from these country yokel parasites. However, I still did far more than my share of the cooking, housework and gardening.

One day I bought a new rake to deal with an avalanche of Autumn leaves in the garden. I was busy raking when my wife came home and demanded to know what I was doing.

"Who told you to do that."

"Nobody told me to do anything. I just decided that since nobody else around here seems to care about the state of the place I better do something about it."

"Well it's not your house, you don't belong here. leave it alone."

I dropped the new rake and strode off to my refuge in the garage. I closed the door and sat down to practice playing the piano. In less than two minutes my wife came in on the bounce.

"Now what are you doing?"

"You can hear what I'm doing, I'm practicing the piano." I said defensively.

"Well I think raking the leaves is more important than that don't you?" she snapped.

I stopped playing my piano and went back out to the front garden where the rake was lying on the floor. I was absolutely, quietly furious. I had spent my own money to buy a tool to do some good and I felt like nothing was ever good enough for this awful woman.

I picked up the rake and took it back into the garage and propped it up in a corner by the door. Then I went back into my refuge and quietly fumed to myself. The fact was, I was totally spaced out with the woman's behaviour and attitude and really didn't know what I could do about it. After about ten minutes she returned to put me on notice.

"You better buck your ideas up or I'll send you back to where I found you. Everything you own is here now in my house and I own it. You are nothing without me. I can throw you out on the streets with nothing more than the clothes you are wearing anytime I feel like it."

At that I lost my temper. "Right, well I'll go now." I snapped as I stood up and walked out across the driveway and through the gates. She suddenly came running out after me pleading with me to go back. With nowhere else to go I reluctantly returned.

This was a life of constantly treading on eggshells and I really didn't know how much more I could take. But what to do, where to go was the problem. I was a highly abused lost soul with no apparent escape. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was at my wit's end.

My wife had taken to working for her aunty close by and for all too short a while things settled down. However, I was in reality just waiting for the next onslaught. Sad to reflect that it wasn't long in coming.

One Friday morning I took our son to a local race circuit for a free tour of the pits courtesy of a member of the Benneton Formula One team who I had befriended the year before when I worked at the local airport. Unfortunately we were delayed returning home to the point that my son was falling asleep as he ate his meal.

My wife kept calling me on the phone, at least half a dozen times demanding to know why we were late getting back home. I kept trying to tell her that I would explain the delay when she got back and to leave me alone to feed our son. She was not a happy bunny, to put it mildly.

When my wife came home she completely ignored me and was clearly in a thunderous mood. She went inside the house refusing to respond to my attempts to talk with her. After five minutes she came out of the house with her mother and our son, got in my car, and drove off with a screech of tyres.

She had decided to go to the coast for the week without telling me. When I found out In a way I was thankful of some peace and quiet.

On the following Monday my sister-in-law returned and with her mother, who made a beeline for me and demanded that I call my wife and try to talk her round. I really didn't have a clue what exactly her problem was, but I promised to call her and give it a try. Later on in the day I called her on my mobile and she told me fuck off. Later in the week I tried again and got the same response. Shortly after that my mother-in-law asked if I had called her daughter and told that I had called her that I had tried but she wouldn't talk to me. It all came to a head at the weekend to come.

I was out in town dealing with a work related matter and taking a mid morning break. I was sat on the balcony of a popular local coffee bar having a nice coffee and toast when my mobile rang.

"Hello?" I said softly.

"It's me. Where are you?" she snarled.

"I'm in a coffee bar having a midmorning breakfast."

"Who are you with?" she demanded.

"I'm not with anybody, I'm on my own." I replied.

"Liar, I can hear female voices next to you."

"Yes, other customers, two middle-aged women." I explained.

"I don't believe you, you're with another woman."

I breathed out exasperatedly thinking oh gawd, here we go again with the unfounded jealousy. I decided this time not to rise to it.

"Why did you tell my mother I wouldn't speak to you?"

"Because she asked me to speak to you and I tried but you told me to fuck off, twice I believe."

"Liar, liar, liar!" she screamed down the line." Get out of my house now you bastard."

Then she cut the line and I decided that that was the last straw. I immediately made up my mind to leave this insane lunatic. In many ways it was one of my better decisions. With a great sense of relief I finished my break, got back into her father's car, which I had had to use since she had my car out on the coast, and I headed home to a new uncertain but exciting future.

Back at her mother's house I had an hour long business appointment with a female client in the garage office cum refuge. At the end of the hour I asked the client if she could drop me off in town at the cheapest hotel in town. Steph was puzzled but very kindly complied. I went into the house to pack two bags and off I went.

I cannot even begin to explain how deeply empowered I felt to have finally grown a pair of balls and walk away from that highly abusive, toxic relationship. I just felt an enormous sense of freedom, at last. I was now well and truly alone without the slightest clue how on earth I was going to survive, but I was free, I was as free as a bird and loving every minute of it.

Later that day, after I had checked in to the cheapest, worst hotel in town I went out for a stroll around town. And I have to tell you what pure and utter delight I took in calling her to tell her I had left and to ask her when she would be coming back into town to hand over my car to me.

"Hi, I'm just calling you to tell you I'm out of your mother's house. So perhaps you'd be so kind as tell me when you'll be back with my car, I need it for work."

From her reply I could tell she was in shock. She clearly thought I didn't have the balls to call her bluff.

"You've done WHAT!" she screamed.

"You heard, I'm out, I'm done with your toxic abuse baby. You have done nothing but treat me with appalling abuse. You treat me worse than a dog. You are a real horror."

"Go back, go back NOW! I'm ordering you, go back you bastard."

"NO!" I said emphatically. "I am not a fucking dog for you to kick in the balls any time you feel like it. You can go fuck yourself. I'm out and I'm out for good. Byeeee."

I cut the call feeling pleased with myself for having at long last stood up to her and her bullying, vicious ways. A new life beckoned me and to this day my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. Still, you live and learn, I guess.

I know myself very well indeed, better than I know anybody, which I guess goes for all of us. And if there is one thing about me it is that I am a survivor.

I was now adrift very far from home, but I was determined that come what may, I would be ok. I was worth a darn sight more than I had been getting for far too long, that's for sure. What I didn't know at that time was just how evil this awful woman was and to what lengths she would go to totally and utterly destroy me. For now, she had only just begun. Only this time she was going to use the full force of a highly biased legal system to grind me into dust.