Alex Harris 00 - Poisoned

Well, now he’s married to Cathy Lyon.”
    “Who’s Cathy Lyon?” Millie asked as she stretched out on the blanket to soak up some of the afternoon sunshine.
    “Okay, let me give a little background for those of you not lucky enough to have heard this last year. Alex and I went to school with a real nerdy girl named Cathy Lyon, and she ended up marrying the cutest guy in the whole school, Mike McGill, after his first wife caught them in bed together.”
    “Sounds a lot like Esther going after Fred,” Meme said.
    “Viagra Fred?” Sam asked.
    “Generic Fred. Shhh, you two. Let Mary-Beth talk,” I chided my sister and grandmother.
    “Actually, Mike cheated with many others before Cathy. He’d been doing it since the week he and Jane got married.”
    “The week? What kind of a guy is this?” Millie shielded her eyes from the bright sun with one hand.
    “Not a very nice one. Now let me continue. He cheated with a couple of women on his honeymoon in Hawaii. His wife stepped on a sand shark or something equally disgusting and was confined to her bed. Being a nice person, stupid, but nice, she told him to go out and have a good time. Well, he certainly did.”
    “Cathy Lyon was in Hawaii at the same time?”
    “No, Samantha, she comes later.” I looked at my sister and gave her the shut-up-and-listen-and-you-might-learn-something look.
    “As I was saying,” Mary-Beth directed her gaze purposely at Sam, “all this happened on their honeymoon, but afterward things got better. They bought a really nice house and Mike worked as a corporate lawyer. Jane amused herself with charity work, tennis at the club, and classes at the community college. Particularly a pottery class.
    “So one day she comes home from class to find Cathy in bed with Mike. The same bed Jane and Mike shared. She threw her pottery project at him and got a divorce. Cathy and Mike got married after his stitches came out.”
    “That’s where you ended last year. You mean more’s happened?” My eyebrows came together in disbelief. “Do tell.”
    A cool breeze sailed through the tops of the trees and sent a bouquet of color gently to earth. Mary-Beth picked up one of the leaves and continued with her story.
    “Yes, Alex. The plot thickens. Things went well for Cathy and Mike for a while. Then he started going away more and more on company trips to other branch offices in other states. Only there weren’t any other branch offices.”
    “So he’s up to his same tricks,” said Millie.
    “Yes, but this time in reverse.”
    “Reverse?” I asked.
    “Instead of cheating on Jane with Cathy, he’s now cheating on Cathy with Jane.”
    “Oh, my God! What a sleaze bag. Alex, hand me that bag of chips.”
    I took a handful of chips and then tossed the bag of to Sam.
    “Didn’t his company wonder where he was?” Millie asked.
    “No, he never actually went anywhere except to Jane’s house, where, I might add, he kept a whole other wardrobe. So off he goes to work every morning from Jane’s and no one’s the wiser.”
    “Dateline should do a story on this guy,” Meme said as she took a sip of coffee from a thermos.
    “So did he get caught?” I asked.
    “Oh, yes. Turns out Cathy got pregnant. She and Mike were very happy. For a while it looked like maybe he might actually settle down and be a good father and husband. But then Jane calls about six weeks later and says she’s pregnant. Actually, I think they got pregnant within days of each other because the two little darlings where born at the same time in the same hospital.”
    “Did they know beforehand the other one was pregnant?” Sam asked, leaning back, finally stuffed to the gills with picnic goodies.
    “No. But they ended up in the same room and of course Cathy knew Jane hadn’t remarried. Then Mike comes walking in to see Cathy. Well, they both throw their arms out to him and then they look at each other and they both start crying and screaming at the same time.”
    “What a mess. Those poor women.”
    “Yes, Millie. It was not the happy event it should have been. The nurses had to separate them and put them at different ends of the maternity ward. I hear it was really quite funny watching these two women trying to pull each other’s hair out what with their protruding bellies.”
    Meme cackled. “I would have liked to see that.”
    “They didn’t manage to make much contact except in the stomach area,” Mary-Beth continued. “And you’ve got to remember they