Lost & Found Innocence

By Agnes Musa

Lisa and David divorce, and on rebound, Graham seduces Lisa, then dumps her. A now insecure Lisa enters clandestine relationships with Jacob, a younger man and Ryan, a one night stand. This makes Lisa's son Hugh, seek refuge with a religious group.
In desperation, Lisa turns to friends she trusts totally - Ruth, Hope & Trish. Unknown to Lisa, Hope has an affair with Graham while Graham is still going out with Lisa, falls pregnant and gives birth to Kimberly.
After Graham and Lisa split, Hope also splits with Graham and goes after Lisa's new younger boyfriend Jacob. Matters come to a head when Lisa discovers the betrayal and in her attempt to deal with it, coming as it does on top of exhaustion and emotional distress, (because of looking out for her terminally ill sister) Lisa suffers a temporary breakdown which is wrongly construed as attempted suicide by the church people. This makes the church people more determined to separate Hugh from Lisa.
Now Lisa has to carefully navigate single parenthood to get back her son's trust. Lisa's nagging mother comes into the fray purporting to look out for her divorced daughter, to instead, cause mayhem and confusion.
Can Lisa stop her one night stand trait? Is she able to have a reasonable and mature relationship with her ex husband? Can Lisa accept and deal with the pain of a heartbreak and open her heart to find the right man for herself?
Who is the right man for Lisa? Is it the married man? Or the young lover? Or the one night stand or her ex husband?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Agnes Musa
• Release date: Aug 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476490700

Agnes Musa

Agnes Musa is a published author with Hodder UK, Smashwords, Amazon, Lulu, Createspace and Google Play. Agnes is a full time writer passionate about health and welfare, human rights, female empowerment, children's rights and the environment. Agnes strives to produce well written short, exciting books on a variety of subjects.

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LOST & FOUND INNOCENCE

By Agnes Musa

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Agnes Musa 2012

Smashwords Edition License Notes:

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Chapter 1

My name is Lisa. I don’t like to bathe. Basically, this is all because, were it not for time taking pity and begging on my behalf, I would have no skin left from mother’s body scrubbing as we speak.

We grew up with fathers and mothers in homes.

Then, people took matrimonial vows and meant every word.

David grew up with both parents but, does he think enough to do what is right by his own child?

No.

Not only does David abandon a child. He deserts a woman. Me. And, take this from me, a man leaving doesn’t give you, patience. Or flair. Or panache.

You get time. All the time in the world.

Comes from building your lives around each other. One goes and you’re left, not hanging mind, as most people say, but hung.

Hanging implies being supported, which means you could be rescued. Now hung, that’s really making sure that you’re done for.

He left, meaning there was something wrong with my clothes, profession, hairstyle, mother, body odor, face, cooking, star, nails, aura, shoes, laugh, breath, performance in bed.

Or choice of domestic help, genes, pet, hands, friends, brain, voice, underwear etcetera.

My friends say so. They’re quite knowledgeable about such things.

Please do excuse me. In my mind, preference is currently highly placed in favor of mopping, weeping, self-pity, over-eating or related activities.

That’s why I’m looking at myself in the mirror. Nothing like the mirror in telling the truth.

Don’t let your eyes take in more than the lingerie I’m wearing.

People who venture out farther than they’re supposed to sometimes end up losing their way, even though they thought they were smarter and it probably looked like it at the time.

My friends say so and one should listen to one’s friends. That’s why one has them.

Incidentally, I recommend that you try the mirror thing; I mean you, the still loved and you too, the abandoned. The experience gives a pick up.

Best one I’ve had in a while after adjusting to the shock of the flab that’s posing as my body.

No matter, tomorrow is tea day! Tea is at Fournos on a Saturday.

Please allow me to present my friends, Hope, Ruth and Trish. Thank you.

After the embraces, kisses, brief update on children, we start off with new material acquisitions obtained between the last and current tea.

It’s not a woman’s duty to worry about timing of purchases or finance.

It also pays to remember that the very people we squander our lives striving to save money and care for, satisfy, satiate and pleasure, are the ones who leave marriage without a backward glance.

Tea is served.

As I’m sipping this delicious cuppa, allow me to pay tribute to culinary aces everywhere who create tarts, cakes, scones, soufflés, meringues, and tortes.

There. I’m glad you afforded me time to do that, thank you.

The usual concluding topic is ‘Men’.

With our own excluded, this undoubtedly used to be the liveliest topic, that’s, before David left.

We talked about married, single, younger, older, tall, short, thin, bald, big shoe-sized men, men with big hands, men who work in offices, factories, men with calluses on their hands, and those whose hands are manicured.

We also spoke about men with throaty voices, with deep baritones, men with laugh lines, frightening biceps, mail, milk, postal and delivery men.

Presidents, generals, directors, governors, - men with own livelihoods, on farms, in boats, crossing the Adriatic, the Atlantic.

Men walking to the Arctic, deep sea divers, dessert riders, aviators, sportsmen, grounds men, big and small minded men, the accomplishing, the accomplished, the envied, the hated, the fancied, the dreaded, the fantasized about, the real and the ideal.

David came home early each time he knew I was going to tea.

He would hide behind a newspaper and raise a hand signaling he didn’t want to hear news of my day. You do know David, or you surely met before he left?

Excuse me a minute. I’m told there’s a visitor to see me.

It’s Natalie, my sister.

Look at her!

Doesn’t she look just fabulous?

Unlike the last time we spent together. Then, Nat was drinking and irritable.

Don’t be shocked that Natalie drinks beer. Women do.

It was when Natalie saw a fly in the beer and decided to make an issue of it that things got out of hand.

They don’t take kindly to drunken women who make noisy complains about flies in their beer at gambling complexes.

After our unceremonious way out from the casino, we walked slowly to the taxi rank.

I didn’t have a car then. David’s overzealous lawyer, the first one to deal with the divorce case, had seized my car.

David fired him.

This was after Ruth mentioned the shame of the car being taken. Mentioned it when they met, Ruth and David, when David was with his mates.

Of course, David was livid and he did go on about it. Still, he did the right thing. The car was returned, the lawyer was fired; someone’s face was saved.

That’s what counts.

That day at the Casino, Natalie looked a bit on the ruffian side with her combination of beautiful Indian dress, earthy colors - brown, gold and green, and the man’s shoes she wore.

Me? I was the usual.

So we went home to the incomplete, huge, sprawling partially roofed simplex in a very choice neighborhood.

Sitting on battered wicker chairs, we enjoyed a big roaring fire in the roofless kitchen bellowing out song, story or quarrel with vigor.

A word here about the kitchen furniture. One doesn’t put designer fittings in a roofless kitchen.

That came later, again thanks to David having prepaid the contractors before he left.

Wow, good on you David!

The routine was simple. I arrived home from work at five. Natalie and I went for a walk.

On our return, there would be a fire, thanks to Mr. Alexander.

Mr. Simon took care of the cooking.

Do you know that some of the best dinners in life are enjoyed by accident?

You can find yourself homeless once thrown out by a divorce motion, which becomes an accidental way of enjoying dinner by candle or moonlight.

Here, we’ve to assume that you possess the mental stamina necessary to see homelessness as a temporary accident.

It can happen.

If one saw the lighter side to disagreeable situations, one could be pleasantly surprised by the lesson there’s in any predicament.

It’s a matter of perception.

I suppose that now is just about the right time to let you know that everything sensible I’ve and will say concerning human behavior is courtesy of my friend Trish.

The heat came in gusts through the uncovered portions of the roof rendering sleep impossible. Did I mention that this was the period just after David left?

The man didn’t waste time when it came to moving out.

They never do, the ones who leave.

Yet they waste so much of their time and yours in marriage, years and years of it. Only to decide they want out at some point.

At which point it usually is not agreeable or convenient for you, but, do they care?

Natalie refused to sleep alone so we shared the master bedroom. The woman adores me and I adore her for the intervals it’s possible to do so between two siblings who come one after the other, even when they’re mature adults.

Me: You left your brain with Gift.

Natalie: Really Lisa! Children live what they see. There happened to be plenty to see in that first house we lived in.

Me: I remember the rows of brown structures, the sameness. Tiny yards. No fence. No electricity. No telephone, but dust! Loads and loads of it. (Pause).

Natalie: Then there was the outside toilet.

Me: How could I forget? It was scary to go to that toilet, especially at night.

Natalie: You’re telling me? Why do you think I wet the blankets?

Me: Mother believed you had a genuine medical condition.

Natalie: If you call imagining the disappearing children that time a medical condition.

There was one boy who disappeared, a teenager. One boy.

Natalie and I, all of our