P.E.G. Academy

By Donna Fair Conn

P.E.G. Academy focuses on the principles of truth and forgiveness. Tracy Bryant, a recently separated wife from her husband Ben gets counseling after she was involved in a fatal car accident following a Ladies Night Out. Tracy feels the sessions at the Academy are useless, but they are far more important than she can imagine. Counselor Harvey from the Academy tries desperately to help her accept her truth before she leaves the Academy. Meanwhile Harvey has his own challenges to resolve with his ex-wife.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donna Fair Conn
• Release date: Feb 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311430533

Donna Fair Conn

Donna Fair Conn was born and raised in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Donna graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science degree. She also has a MBA in Marketing. Donna is married to her college sweet-heart, William Conn. They are parents of three children; Sara, Jared, and Jordan.

Book preview

Chapter 1 – See Saw

Oh here she comes . . . She’s getting out of the car, informs the neighbor peeking out the window from across the street.

Who? questions her husband.

Tracy…she just pulled into the driveway in her red convertible.

Get away from that window and stop being nosy.

I just want to see what happens when Tracy sees Ben putting his boxes in his car.

Ben said they are going through a trial separation, he is just staying in his friend’s basement while they see if they can work things out . . . Now get away from the window, show a little respect, Darla.

.  .  .

Ben and Tracy Bryant have been married 17 years. The pair makes an attractive couple. Ben is tall with wavy brown hair and well-trimmed beard. Tracy is average height and wears her blonde hair straight and long. They moved to the suburbs of Reston Village, Virginia 11 years ago after the birth of their second child, Maya. Their first child is their son, Bradley. The couple was very friendly and their two children got along well with the other kids in the neighborhood.

Two years ago the couple went through some changes. Their careers seem to see-saw.  Ben’s Bio-Tech company went through some downsizing and he was laid off. Tracy’s career was steadily moving upward at Sampson, Jacoby, and James better known as the SJJ accounting firm. After losing his job, Ben sent out resumes, attended job fairs, and tried to network with family and friends but was unable to land a position in his field. While looking for his career job, he was substitute teaching at schools in the county. Eventually, he was offered a full time chemistry teacher position at a high school about two districts over from where he lives.

At first the transitioning of careers didn’t seem to affect the loving couple’s relationship. Ben had paid extra on the principal of the mortgage from the beginning so they only had five more years until their home was paid off.  Of course, the family had less disposable income, but they were able to pay their bills and still live comfortably. Ben enjoyed teaching and the students he taught loved his class. He now had extra time to help his own children with homework and attend their after-school activities. This was completely different from when he was working at the Bio-Tech company. Ben often worked late at the company and missed several of their school functions. Bradley played basketball and baseball, while Maya participated in science fairs and talent shows. Tracy attended a few more of the children’s activities than Ben when he worked for the Bio-Tech company.

At SJJ, Tracy had started out as an assistant account representative which equated to a glorified administrative assistant, even though she had an Accounting degree. She made copies of documents, set up meetings that she seldom attended, and made coffee and tea for management. Tracy did not mind some of the jobs she was requested to do but she detested bringing coffee or tea to her boss. As the years went by, Tracy was given more responsibility and promoted at a steady pace.

Ben was very supportive of Tracy as she progressed in her career. Often, within the last two years, Tracy would joke with him on how she was wearing the pants in the family. Or how she made more money and how her job was now more important than Ben’s.  Ben was a good sport about Tracy’s ribbing because he knew she was just being playful.

But four months ago, Tracy’s behavior changed dramatically. At dinner, she would constantly complain how she was doing more work than her boss, Mr. Blair.  How he belittled her by asking her to get tea and coffee when big clients had come to visit the firm.  Ben agreed with Tracy and suggested she talk to her boss directly about her concerns. But, she ignored his suggestion and just grumbled about something else.

Some of Tracy’s statements were benign. One constant target of Tracy was Gail. Gail was a team lead from another group at SJJ who talked constantly. She would bore Tracy with details of how late she worked and tell her about everything she had to do. But many in management didn’t see any tangible results of anything Gail was working on. Ben would laugh and agree when Tracy talked about Gail.  Ben knew of employees at his old Bio-Tech company with similar personalities. Other statements from Tracy bothered Ben. Her target became her own staff; how incompetent they were, and how much smarter she was than everyone else. She mocked their physical appearance and the way they dressed. This seemed a bit petty and immature. Ben disagreed with her arrogant and opinionated statements, especially when she said those things in front of the children.  Tracy did not like when Ben disagreed with her and challenged her, so her complaints moved from her work environment to Ben.

Tracy would state how disappointed she was in him for settling for a teacher’s job. Ben tried to explain to her, he enjoyed what he was doing and was going to continue teaching. He also assured her their finances were still intact and they could buy a used car for their older son, Bradley, liked they had planned. Ben having an answer for her concerns did not sit well with Tracy.  She started to come home with shopping bags of designer clothes and shoes, which were way beyond the family budget. Ben confronted her about her spending habit, but it fell on deaf ears. Tracy was very prideful and she wasn’t going to listen to Ben. Unfortunately, their relationship had more challenges to address.

On a Monday, three weeks ago, Tracy went into work. Her boss, Mr. Blair, who was an experienced pilot, was in an accident. The information the firm was getting was he crashed his Cessna plane into a remote wooded area in West Virginia over the weekend. Many feared he had died. Tracy and the other employees at the firm were shocked and devastated by the news. Many employees recalled seeing Mr. Blair on Friday in the office.  He had met with a potential client Hazelwood Industries. Tracy had worked on the numbers for Mr. Blair and it seems like the meeting was very successful. All of the executives were excited on Friday because the deal with Hazelwood would be very lucrative for SJJ if they landed it.

Two weeks later, rescue efforts had failed to find the plane wreckage or Mr. Blair due to the densely populated tree area.  Reluctantly, the firm had to move forward and gave Tracy some of Mr. Blair’s responsibilities. The executives disseminated the other tasks amongst the other VPs of the company. Tracy was promoted from manager to director. Her salary increased by 10 percent. Although Tracy was just a director and Mr. Blair’s title was Vice-President of Finance, Tracy lobbied and got approval to move into Mr. Blair’s office.

Tracy did not hesitate removing all of Mr. Blair’s personal items. Mr. Blair had framed pictures of his wife, children and family dog, and other pictures of him playing with his grandchildren. Mr. Blair and his wife Blanche had three adult children. Ned was the youngest and lived nearby. His daughters lived overseas, one in Japan; the other was married with two children and lived in England.  There were awards he had received from the firm, a signed baseball, his coffee cup which still was half full, two model airplanes, and his desk name plate, amongst other items.  Tracy emptied his cup and dusted off his awards. When Tracy finished collecting his items she placed them in a large box and left it near the door. She sat down in the big black office chair and twirled around looking at her new office. She was extremely proud of herself.

On the way home from work, Tracy decided to stop by a car dealership.  She took a test drive in a shiny red Chrysler 2015 Crossfire Convertible. She talked with the car dealer for a while and then returned the keys. The following day, Tracy returned to the dealership, then later pulled up into the driveway beeping the horn. Her son, Bradley and daughter, Maya ran out of the house, and were very excited about the new car. They jumped in and asked their mom to take them for a ride. Ben, on the other hand, was livid. Tracy did not mention anything to him about purchasing a new car. Compounding the situation, she also traded in the Lexus he bought her for her birthday four years ago without a thought to Ben’s feelings. For the next three nights, they tried to discuss the disconnect that was happening between them. The discussions turned into arguing and yelling, mixed in with bouts of silent treatments. Ben began sleeping on the couch. Now he was moving out to stay with a friend, Clarence Day who taught auto repair at the same high school Ben was teaching chemistry.

.  .  .

As Tracy got out of her car, she walked around to the back of Ben’s Toyota 4Runner. The back was open. She glanced in at some of the items Ben was taking. She saw some sheets, blankets, a few pants, shirts, and sneakers in a duffle bag.

Tracy walks down the driveway to the mailbox in her designer shoes; she flips her blonde hair to the side as she bends down to peek in the mailbox to discover it is empty. She smiles lightly to convince any nosy neighbors she is just fine. It was important to Tracy to keep up appearances as though she had everything under control.

Tracy heads into the house and walks into the kitchen. She flips through the mail that is lying on the kitchen island. Ben comes downstairs with some more of his clothes.

I took the kids for some fast food and dropped them off at your mother’s house. Jamie said she will bring them back tomorrow, Ben stated as he laid the clothes in his hands over the back of the couch in the living room.

That’s fine, Tracy replied quickly as she opened the refrigerator door.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a while, and then Ben picked up his clothes and went out to the truck.  He placed the clothes in the back of the truck and closed the trunk door.  He paused and then decided to go back into the house.

Tracy was on one-side of the island in the kitchen and Ben walked over to the other side. 

I really want to try and work this out, for us as well as the kids, offered Ben.

Really?  You are the one leaving, Tracy replied.

All we do is argue, and I don’t think it’s good for the children.  .  . all the yelling.

You think I am the one who has changed, you are the one.

Seriously… are you kidding me?  You buy a pair of shoes and handbag for over 2000 dollars and purchase a car without talking to me, Ben says with great restraint trying not to yell.

I am moving up at the firm and it’s important that I look the part.

You can look the part for under 500 dollars and the paid off Lexus you traded in.

Ben’s cellphone rings and he answers it. Hey Clarence . . . Yes, I think I have one in the garage, I’ll bring it. Ben gets off the phone.

Yeah, go ahead have fun over there in the slums.

What are you talking about; Clarence’s lives in the Orchard Valley Townhouses just five miles from here, those townhouses are nice.

I’m only kidding.

Yeah right, you really think you are better than everyone.

LEAVE . . . GET OUT! yells Tracy, as she points to the front door.

Ben ignores her and heads to the garage. The garage is well organized and he finds his small tool box. He notices some antifreeze and D-CON rat boxes are on the ground in front of the shelves near the gasoline container. He figured Bradley left the gasoline container out when cutting the grass with the lawn mower. Ben places them on the top shelve to ensure the kids don’t accidently ingest them, especially his 12-year old daughter.

He returns to the house and yells up the stairs, "Make sure Bradley puts things back where they belong in the garage, all