My Short Stories: Book One

By Anne Shier

This is a collection of my short stories that I’ve written about people, their relationships and the common problems that they face every day. Issues like marriage, divorce, murder, betrayal, seduction and deception, as well as other topics, like the human condition and the many things that affect it. Mainly, these stories are for

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: May 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781949169089

Anne Shier

I have been writing short stories since the mid-to-late 1990s, but mostly since 2004. I published my first book called “My Short Stories (Book One)” in 2011. I am currently employed full time as a teacher at Albert Campbell Collegiate in Scarborough, Ontario. I teach mostly computer studies subjects, but have also taught careers. This coming year, I will be teaching business, as well. I have taught full time for over 13 years. I’ve attended both university and college full time and have done well in my English, social science and computer science courses. I am proud to be both a mother and a grandmother. I currently live in Ajax, Ontario where I have lived for the last 3 1/2 years. I have two roommates who are as much family to me as my own family members.

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My Short Stories

Book One

Anne Shier

Copyright © 2018 by Anne Shier.

Paperback: 978-1-949169-07-2

eBook: 978-1-949169-08-9

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

A Marriage Made In Heaven

A Muskoka Tragedy

On the Road Again

Mystery of the Missing Stripper

Sex Addict

Road to Nowhere

The Trust Factor

It’s a Scam Shame

A Murderer Among Us

Till Death Do Us Part

Let the Judge Be the Law

Working Woman

Voice of an Angel

Cold Shock

Earth Angel

Anatomy of a Swarming (The Prologue)

Anatomy of a Swarming (The Epilogue)

Hero of the Team

The True Cost of Murder

What’s Love All About Anyway?

I Got You, Babe

Headed for Hell

The Girl We All Loved

A New Age (Part A)

A New Age (Part B)

Concerns of a Single Mother

My Memories of Saz (a.k.a. Sandy)

A Call for Help

The One Who Never Quits

To Win or Not to Win

Water

The Ideal Woman

He Said, She Said

Emancipation

When Staying in Paris

Too Little, Too Late

Bet Your Bottom Dollar

A Freak Accident

Dream a Little Dream

This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my first cousins, Susan Harju Aikia and Shirley Seppala Baptie (both deceased), and my second cousin, Heather Baptie, daughter of Shirley.

A Marriage Made In Heaven

Todd and Cheryl were a young married couple I met in the summer of 1995. He was a worldly, handsome man of 35 and she was a lovely 19-year-old nymphet. Still, in every way, they seemed ideally suited to each other. He was a professional engineer and she was a natural-born homemaker and they got along very well. After two years of marriage, Cheryl discovered she was pregnant for the first time and, in due course, they welcomed the arrival of their first-born, a baby girl they named J anie.

After Janie’s birth, Todd continued to work very hard to support his newly-expanded family. He was a dedicated husband and father who never missed a day of work, paid all his bills on time, and was devoted to his wife, Cheryl. For her part, Cheryl was equally dedicated to her family, raising their adorable little girl, cleaning their large and modern home in the suburbs until it sparkled, and faithfully going to the gym three times a week. She knew what pregnancy could do to women’s bodies and she wanted to keep her body trim because she loved Todd and wanted to please him. They were, indeed, a happy family.

Todd, Cheryl, and Janie lived near the city of Boston, Massachusetts, since Cheryl’s immediate family lived in downtown Boston and she was very close to them. Her mother, father and two brothers all thought Todd was the perfect husband. Cheryl regularly took Janie with her to visit them, partly to show Janie off and partly to convince them that she had been right to marry at such a young age. If they were concerned about her, it was only because they thought that Todd might be too old for her, but their concerns seemed unfounded. It was obvious that Todd and Cheryl had a solid, loving marriage and that they considered themselves fortunate to have found each other.

On the other hand, Todd’s immediate family was not nearly as close to him, either geographically or emotionally. They lived in Seattle, Washington. They liked Cheryl, however, and admired her devotion to her husband and baby but, somehow, they were not as convinced as her family about the solidity of the marriage. After all, sixteen years separated them in age and Todd’s family felt that this was no small gap. However, none of their surmising made any difference to either Todd or Cheryl and the marriage continued on, as strong as it had ever been. When Janie turned three, the couple decided to expand their family even further. About a year later, Trisha was born to them and they felt that their family unit was now complete.

As before, Cheryl stayed at home raising the girls and making a comfortable home for Todd. But, this time, she found it more difficult to get out to the gym as often as before. She found she was just too busy and tired to look after herself as she would have liked. There was just no extra time to do this kind of thing for herself – not with her husband absent from home so much, working so hard.

Todd was more ambitious than ever; in fact, his career was becoming a major focal point of his life. Consequently, Cheryl was rapidly becoming the primary caregiver for their two daughters, a task which was very demanding on Cheryl’s time and energy. Unfortunately, Todd couldn’t always be at home to give his wife a much-needed break from her demanding daily routine.

However, life continued on for another year in this way. Every day, Cheryl would look at herself in the mirror only to see a woman whose dull-looking hair was becoming quite brittle and falling out, whose nails were chipping and cracking, and whose body was filling out at an alarming rate. As a result, she became quite depressed and wondered if Todd had noticed what was happening to her, or if he even cared. She finally decided she needed to get out of the house for a while on her own, so she phoned a babysitter who was a good friend of hers to come over one day, as she felt she just might go crazy if she stayed cooped up at home any longer. In fact, she considered asking Todd to hire a regular babysitter (a nanny) for that very purpose.

Meanwhile, Todd’s career was growing at an accelerated rate. He had recently gotten a hefty raise and a promotion to plant manager in just the last six months. Despite the fact that he was now much busier as a result and spent even longer days away from home, he enjoyed his work because of its challenges and the increased status he now enjoyed among his colleagues. It had never once occurred to him that a large part of his present success was, no doubt, due to Cheryl’s efforts at home. Ironically, Todd did not think that he should be paying more attention to his family. In fact, he acted as if they were becoming a relatively insignificant part of his daily life. In addition, he was getting a lot of flirtatious attention from other women. These developments caused him to become even more immersed in his work and less interested in his family life. It was such a gradual process that he hardly knew how it had all happened.

One day, while Todd was at work, Cheryl got the phone call that would change her life forever. The woman at the other end identified herself only as Sheila. Sheila told Cheryl that she knew Todd very well indeed and that she felt that Todd’s life and career would benefit immensely if she, Sheila, were to become a major part of it. Cheryl innocently asked Sheila what she meant by that exactly, and Sheila said, very matter of factly, that she and Todd had been seeing each other for the last year.

Cheryl was afraid to ask her to elaborate, but the damage had already been done. Sheila said that it only happened once, referring to a one-time physical intimacy between them. Apparently, it had never meant more than that to Todd. She said that she might have willingly overlooked this fact and forgiven Todd for his callousness, except that she accidentally became pregnant with his child. She now had a year-old baby girl to show for her one-night stand and her so-called innocent involvement with him. Todd had been partly supporting them and even staying overnight on occasion when he was supposed to be out of town on business. He knew all about what had happened and had agreed with her decision to have and raise their child.

Cheryl, out of a morbid curiosity and a wish to know exactly what motivated this woman, asked Sheila why she wanted to break up a happy marriage that had produced two beautiful babies. Sheila, without apology, said that she was there for Todd when he really needed someone and that their affair was meant to be. According to Cheryl, this kind of comment was the product of a sick mind. It had become obvious to Cheryl that her husband had given in to a moment of weakness, as men often do, and that Sheila hadn’t given a second thought to the devastation that she and Todd had caused his family. Todd’s deception and betrayal of all the hopes and dreams that Cheryl had had for her family would have rivalled any affair anywhere. And she knew she was never going to forgive him for the deep wounds he had caused to their love and life together.

After Cheryl heard this horrifying story from Sheila, she became so overwrought with grief, anguish, and rage that all she could think about was packing up and moving her and the girls out of the house as soon as possible. Though she felt betrayed, she was especially angry with herself for being such a fool to believe that her’s was a marriage made in heaven. Now, all she wanted was for Todd to experience the kind of loneliness that she’d been experiencing herself for the past year or more because of his self-indulgence. At this moment, she didn’t know when their divorce would occur, only that their so-called perfect marriage was in permanent ruins. Cheryl left Todd that very day, never telling him why and never once looking back.

That night, Todd came home to an empty, dark house. The moment he stepped through the door, he sensed a change for the worst. When he discovered that Cheryl’s, Janie’s and Trisha’s clothes and belongings were all gone, he knew she knew. He didn’t know whether to feel relief or horror. On one hand, he felt relief that his double life was no longer a secret to be kept, yet, on the other hand, horror that Sheila had actually had the nerve to tell Cheryl about them merely to get Todd all to herself. Unfortunately, he never once blamed himself for the situation; he was too busy blaming Cheryl for deserting him without so much as demanding an explanation. And he even blamed Sheila for having the gall to interfere with his first family. Todd could not find it in himself to take any responsibility for what had happened because, in his mind, Cheryl had driven him to be attracted to other women by allowing herself to become less attractive to him than she had once been.

Later that evening, he sat alone in the dark living room, chain-smoking, and contemplating how different life would have been if only Sheila hadn’t ruined his life and caused Cheryl to abdicate her role as his wife. He only knew that life without Cheryl and his beautiful girls was going to be intolerable and he wondered how he had ever let it get this far. Todd just could not accept his own role in this scenario. Wasn’t it an accepted fact that men who were work-a-holics simply had to have outlets other than a loving home, devoted wife, and lovely children? Now, he was going to have to face an ugly legal battle with Cheryl in an extremely ugly divorce proceeding and, at the same time, also deal with Sheila and the increasing demands she was about to make on him. All Todd could think about was that he was the one who’d been deserted by Cheryl. Yet, he would also be forced to deal with Sheila – a new challenge that might very well prove his final undoing.

A Muskoka Tragedy

(Based on an article in the Toronto Star, July 2008)

The car burst through the metal guardrail, as if the guardrail had been made of cardboard, and struck a tree before smashing down the embankment and rolling to a stop, on its side, in the river. It was almost 6:30 pm when the residents in the area heard a big bang on the Joseph River bridge. A man whose cottage was near the crash site ran outside in a panic to see what had happened. What he saw there was a young woman standing, soaking wet, on the shoulder of the road, on the opposite side of a peeled-back and twisted guardrail, near the bridge, appearing to be in total shock. A pine tree behind her had been split in half and below the bridge was an Audi in the Joseph River with three male victims still in side.

The man called 911 right away, while some boaters who were in the immediate vicinity rushed over to see if they could be of assistance. Shortly after the call to emergency, rescue workers arrived and extricated the three victims from the semi-submerged car. The three young men in the car were then rushed to the hospital by ambulance, along with the young woman who had also been in the car with them. The car was later removed from the water around 3 am, and the road was closed for about 6 hours during this time.

Tragically, the three young men, one aged 19 and the other two aged 20 were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. The young woman, aged 18, was the only one to survive, miraculously, with few physical injuries except for some scratches and bruises, no doubt because she had been the only one wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. The police surmised that the driver had lost control of the car, which had careened down the river’s embankment, but they were unsure what had led to the crash.

Just after midnight, a blue Buick, finding the road closed and trying to turn around, also hit a metal guardrail and caught the attention of Muskoka Lakes firefighters and police. Bracebridge OPP officers caught up with the car, which was careening dangerously out of control, and arrested the driver on impaired driving charges. Whether this kind of behaviour had been the cause of the original accident to the Audi was still to be determined. When police later examined the scene of the accident, long, black skid marks could be seen along the two-lane road, along with car debris strewn about on the road and along the sides. One of the police constables later reported to the news media that he had never, in his 34 years in the OPP, seen such damage before done by a single-car crash. A small pile of daisies was later put on the crash site with a note that said Rest in Peace, Tim. I’ll always miss you, buddy. The note was signed by Adam Peters, one of Tim Moliere’s many good friends.

In some ways, it had been the perfect summer day to spend at the cottage. The sun was shining, the water was clear and there wasn’t much for a group of young friends to do except to hang out together and enjoy each other’s company. The group consisted of Calvin (Cal) Morelle, and his two buddies, Timothy (Tim) Moliere and Kyle Thomas. They had been spending the weekend at Cal’s family cottage on Muskoka’s Lake Rousseau, close to the crash site, just hours before the awful tragedy that would cost these three young men their lives.

Another male friend, George Cole, who had visited them briefly that afternoon, had had to leave earlier because of his job at a nearby summer camp. Cal had invited him to stay for lunch with them at a restaurant in a club that was located on the shore of nearby Lake Joseph, but George declined and left shortly afterward. Natalie Bonheur, a friend of Cal’s family, had agreed at the last minute to join them all at the restaurant.

On later reflection, it wasn’t clear what the group had eaten and drunk at the club’s restaurant for lunch. It was thought that they had had something to drink of an alcoholic nature, but how much was anyone’s guess. No one who worked at the club recalled seeing the group leave, so the time they had departed was also unclear. It was thought by police that both alcohol and vehicular speed had been factors in the crash.

These three young men had had such promise in their young lives. Two of them, Cal and Kyle, had met at Crestwood, a private prep school in Toronto. They had both played hockey in high school and had become fast friends through their mutual love of hockey. Kyle’s family and friends consoled each other, trying to cope with this horrible tragedy. Kyle was the son of an engineer and homemaker and was the pride and joy of his family. He was much loved by his parents, who felt he had both the aptitude and the motivation to eventually attend law school in Toronto.

Cal was the guy that everyone seemed to know. He was always the life of the party and young people naturally gravitated toward him. Condolences from his many friends were posted on his Facebook page and in the memorial book at Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel, which arranges Jewish funeral services. Cal had attended the University of Western Ontario in Fine Arts, aspiring to be a musician, but had returned recently to Toronto to pursue a film-making career.

Tim’s friend, Adam, talked of Tim’s great athleticism and his love for the game of golf. He had, in fact, aspired to be a professional golfer on the PGA tour. In essence, Tim would be missed very much by his family consisting of his two loving parents and two younger sisters. He had moved to Toronto from Caledon, joined Upper Canada College (UCC) in grade 9, graduated from UCC in 2006, and had been attending the University of San Francisco (USF) when the accident occurred. While at USF, there wasn’t any subject that Tim would not tackle. He was an excellent student and did very well