Dirty Laundry

By Marilyn Slagel

As ten-year-old Marly Colone stands in front of her tiny, four-room house in a small Illinois town in the autumn of 1966, she takes one look at the dark-haired, handsome stranger walking toward her on the sidewalk and knows. He is her destiny, and nothing will change her mind. She has just found the man she
will marry.

Her beloved father had died abruptly the previous spring, propelling Marly from the innocence of childhood into the uncertain, often tumultuous world of a blended family after her mother remarries. In a bizarre twist of fate, Marly comes face-to-face once again with her soulmate, Johnny, who happens to be her new stepbrotherand twelve years her senior. Determined to do anything to make Johnny notice her, the love-starved Marly embarks down a dangerous path, desperate to replace her father with a man who happens to share many of the same mannerisms. Lost in the murky world between adolescence and adulthood, Marly has no doubt she has claimed her destiny.

Dirty Laundry is a tale of forbidden love as a young girl desperately searches for validation and affection in an unlikely place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abbott Press
• Release date: Nov 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781458206572

Marilyn Slagel

Marilyn Slagel enjoys reading, needlework, quilting, and regular board meetings (wine, food, and gossip) with her friends. She is a member of the St. Louis Writers Guild. Marilyn currently makes her home in a tiny, rural Illinois town with her very spoiled dog, Shadow.

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Copyright © 2012 by Marilyn Slagel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0656-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0657-2 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0658-9 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012920502

Abbott Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Abbott Press

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.abbottpress.com

Phone: [phone]

This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Abbott Press rev. date: 11/05/12

Contents

Acknowledgments

Part I Love’s Beginnings

Chapter 1

Marly Meets Destiny

Chapter 2

Summer Flip-Flop

Chapter 3

Here Comes The Laundry

Chapter 4

Mom Marries Eddie

Chapter 5

Three Females, Three Males

Chapter 6

Best Friends

Chapter 7

Johnny

Chapter 8

Dinner For Six

Chapter 9

Campaign Overhaul

Chapter 10

Miss Me, Johnny?

Chapter 11

Psychology 101

Chapter 12

Those Hot Summer Nights

Chapter 13

Junior High (Please, God, Don’t Make Me Do This!)

Chapter 14

Live And Learn

Chapter 15

Sex, The Dirty Word

Part II High School

Chapter 16

George And Drew

Chapter 17

The Freshman

Chapter 18

Marly Meets Mike

Chapter 19

A Drink Or A Joint?

Chapter 20

Will You Marry Me?

Chapter 21

The Engagement

Part III Together And Apart

Chapter 22

Marly And Mike Marry

Chapter 23

Babies Times Two

Chapter 24

Tom’s Wedding

Chapter 25

The Affair

Chapter 26

Time Marches On

Chapter 27

Johnny And Lisa Lou

Part IV Divorced

Chapter 28

Johnny Goes First

Chapter 29

Grace, Johnny’s Little Princess

Chapter 30

I’ve Had Enough

Chapter 31

Yes Or No

Epilogue

About The Author

For my parents:

Daddy—I still love and miss you

Mom—my hero, thank you for a lifetime of sacrifice.

Let us dare to love each other just as we are.—Unknown

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IT ISN’T POSSIBLE TO THANK everyone who contributed to this story. I’ll do my best. My family is my strongest support now and throughout my life. Without my mom and my sister, Gina, there would be no book to read. We are a trio, and we stand together. I want to thank my children for loving me in spite of our times of great troubles over the years. I could love no one any more than I love you!

To my Facebook friends, the Mourning Dawns, my local friends, and those I’ve met on this journey—thank you for the encouragement and support, and most of all for your patience.

To Jan Jones, Michigan Jan, your words and expertise were invaluable to this story. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

To the Board: Jan, Jane, Lois, Dee, and Diane. You have supported me through thick and thin for more than twenty years, and I cannot imagine my life without our Board meetings. Thanks to Jane for giving me the title Dirty Laundry. The Board meetings let me out of the cage of solitude and give me hope with food, wine, gossip, and humor.

Thanks to Judybug, my big sister who thinks I can do no wrong. We all need a Judybug in our lives. I love you, girlfriend!

Thanks to Bill and Sharon Hopkins, my friends in Marble Hill, Missouri. You graciously allow me to pick your brains and follow along after you in this business of writing and publishing. I’m so thankful to have made such good friends. Keep writing those mysteries, and I’ll keep coming to book signings.

Thanks to Caleb Van Deman, Publishing Specialist at Abbott Press for your encouragement at the beginning of the publishing process. I would have folded if not for your encouragement and support.

A huge thanks to Monica, my editor. You did a fabulous job, and I would trust you with anything. I promise to learn how to use a comma next time and to always spell out numbers. You rock, Monica!

Lastly, I want to thank three gentlemen who played very different roles in my journey with this book: Gary Canup, friend and fellow writer, who gave me much needed pokes and prods when I was frustrated and wanted to quit. Thanks, Gary, for believing in me. John Schroeder, my friend and the one person on earth who thinks I’m just about perfect. You are wrong, but that’s okay. I hope you find the one you are looking for and you live happily ever after.

Last, but most certainly not least, thanks to Don, the man who pulled me out of the swamp of self-pity three years ago. You had me at the first yes, ma’am. My biggest critic and biggest cheerleader, without you Dirty Laundry would still be a one-chapter story.

PART I

Love’s Beginnings

CHAPTER 1

Marly Meets Destiny

WHEN I GROW UP, I’M going to marry him, I thought back in late autumn of 1966, standing in front of our tiny four-room house on the main drag of a small town in Illinois, truly the middle of nowhere. I was ten years old, soon to be eleven, an ugly duckling hoping to someday turn into a swan. (A girl has to dream, doesn’t she?) Walking toward me on the sidewalk was a dark-haired, handsome, six-foot-tall man. He was dressed in loafers, white Levi’s (very fashionable back then), and an olive-green corduroy coat.

One look at him and I knew. This was my destiny. Nothing would ever change my mind. You may ask how a ten-year-old child could know anything about destiny. It wasn’t for me to understand. It just was. My heart skipped a beat when he murmured a low Hi upon passing. I was mute and couldn’t have spoken if my life depended on it.

Life would take many twists and turns after that first encounter. My daddy had died in the spring of that year, leaving Mom, my little sister, and me with virtually nothing. Mom did not drive, so we were dependent on friends to take us wherever necessary. Before Daddy died, Mom worked swing shift in a factory in the next town, a few miles north of us, sharing rides with others to and from work. Upon Daddy’s sudden death, she quit her job to stay home with us. This was a brand-new experience for Beth and me. We had always stayed with babysitters or Daddy. Without Mom’s paycheck from the factory, our family income consisted of a small monthly widows-and-children Social Security check and an even smaller veterans pension.

It was hard for all of us. I wanted normalcy, even if it meant poverty and alcoholism, which is what normal meant to me back then. My poor mom wanted the love of her life back. At only twenty-nine, she was far too young to be widowed. My little sister was clueless at only five years old. I wish my daddy would come back, she said one summer day as she blew the fuzzy seeds off a dandelion and made a wish.

Early summer brought the widow hunters. My mom was and still is a very attractive, petite lady. She has never weighed more than 115 pounds in her life! Honestly, wouldn’t you think God would have planned a little better when he created my sister and me? Both of us could give Mom a few pounds and never miss an ounce! Men would call or stop by our house trying to date her.

Trying is the operative word in this case. No way was my mom going to date them. She wanted no part of somebody new, as she was still grieving Daddy. One gentleman was probably a very nice man and a good catch. He was very tall with jet-black hair. He was also divorced, with a crazy bitch for an ex-wife and two little girls. No way was my mom going to get involved with that! She allowed him to come to the house for Sunday dinner once. After that, he was history.

It’s strange how memories work, isn’t it? I can clearly remember the pink-and-black-flecked Formica table in our kitchen that day. Mr. Eligible was very polite but quiet. The poor man was probably terrified of the ten-year-old brat sitting to his left. Did I mention I did not want a replacement daddy?

Others tried to wiggle into our lives that summer, but Mom resisted. She was too busy trying to house, feed, and clothe her girls. A few more twists and turns had to take place before her destiny and mine would appear.

CHAPTER 2

Summer Flip-Flop

A BIG CHANGE THAT SUMMER was our home. A young couple lived in a mobile home up the street from our four-room house. Their trailer was very small, too small for the addition of either a baby or a beauty shop, so the young couple needed more room. I don’t know what Mom’s reasoning was, but in July she traded our house for their trailer. Forgive me for using the word trailer, but saying mobile home back then just wasn’t done.

Beth and I thought the trailer was a huge step-up in the world. An indoor bathroom and running water in the kitchen were things we had experienced only when visiting relatives who were financially better off than we were in our little household of three. The trailer’s kitchen had pink appliances—a pink stove, pink fridge, and pink sink. The bathroom had pink fixtures as well. I loved it! A girlie-girl from birth, pink was just fine with me.

The trailer sat on a corner lot about a block north of our house. Two classmates of mine lived on opposite corners. Things were