500 Annies Ch. 02

"We grew together. He was a salesman, a top earner, having to travel a good bit. I hated being away from him but realized it was for our future, we wanted a house full of kids."

"Then I was diagnosed with a degenerative muscle disease, that ran in our family, usually hitting the females more often than the males. I was devastated. Without a doubt, I would be in a wheelchair before I was sixty."

"Also, I swore I would never have kids if I caught it, the pain of passing this on to a daughter was too great for me to bear."

"I had my bags packed and ready before Harry got back from his latest trip. I met him at the door nude, and took him straight to bed. I put every ounce of love I had into it, knowing it would be for the last time."

"We spooned afterwards, he was stroking my hair and telling me how lucky he was to have me when I broke down."

"I told him about the disease, my decision not to have children, and my intention to leave him so he could find another."

"He collapsed completely. My strong man, my protector, cried like a baby and begged with all his heart for me to stay with him."

"He didn't care about the disease, he could live without children, but he couldn't live without me. I'd never felt so loved."

I interrupted her.

"But you've got kids. I've met the twins, they're what, seniors now?"

She looked me in the eye.

"This stays between us[she relented later and let me put this in the book]and Harry. We adopted the kids when they were nine weeks old. They look a little like me because they were my cousins' children, the parents were killed in an auto accident."

"The ironic part is since they're related they may end up with the disease anyway. I had gotten my tubes tied to make sure I couldn't accidentally conceive. But no one else wanted them, and Harry fell more in love with them than I think I did."

"As far as I'm concerned it feels like we have some sort of physic link. He knows when I'm down without being in the same room with me. I get a little knot of pain in my forehead and know he's upset about something."

"I should tell you this. Harry and I were avid dancers, even entering a few contests. When I couldn't dance anymore he stopped, refusing to dance with any one else."

"My sister was getting married. Harry started going to the gym about four months before the wedding, saying he was getting a little flabby. He was bulking up, at the wedding he suddenly grabbed me and carried me out to the dance floor.

For six minutes he held me completely off the floor as we swayed around. That's why he was going to the gym, to gain the strenght to do that."

"How do you compare love like that. I may not be the best one to talk with, Joe. I doubt anyone has the love we share."

So did I.

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She was right. So far all I had done was talk to two women in happy, lasting relationships. I needed more data.

I thought about it a lot over the next few days.

Did I really want to do this? How many women should I talk to? How much time was I willing to invest? Would it be worth it in the end?

Ultimately, I decided to do it, just for my own satisfaction. At the time I was pretty sure it would only exist on my computer, I didn't think I had the arrogance to publish it.

Now, time to establish a baseline. I relistened to my tapes of Annie and Jane, both came in at under two hours.

How many to interview? I didn't think a hundred was enough, just as I thought a thousand was too many. I settled for the middle. Five hundred.

Five hundred at two hours each, roughly six months of work at forty hours a week. No way could I invest forty hours a week, so who knew how long it would take.

Early on I decided on a few guidelines. I never expected to see them again after I talked with them, unless we traveled in the same circles.

I didn't want to set it up first. I wanted to catch them cold and off guard. That way they couldn't anticipate and filter the answers, so I would get a more honest response. That's why I wanted to talk to strangers, with no expectations of a relationship and the assumption that I would never see them again, they might be a little more candid. I talked this over with Anne and Jane.

They agreed strangers would be best.

Although I didn't need their name. there was some information I needed, so I developed a checklist.

Age.

Status of relationship.

I realized not all women I would meet would be in a current relationship, but probably had been in one at some point in their lives.

Race.

I was going to try to be diverse as possible.

Level of education.

I wanted to see if smart people made the same mistakes average people do.

Cultural background.

Did traditions you were raised in affect you and your mates?

Are you happy in your relationship?

Was it what you want?

Anne and Jane liked most of my list, and agreed to help me with my first interviews.

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"Well, there I was audience, ready to start my big adventure. Now I'll spend a bit telling you about the most memorable interviews, and how the book came to be published."

"How many of you have ever heard of The Law Of Unintended Consequences? Good. At the end I'll tell you how that law changed my life forever."

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That concludes this segment, dear listeners. Tune in tomorrow, and hear how he finished the book. Did it make it better? Listen and decide."

"This is Barbara Barnes, and remember, this is Book Report on WORD. Goodnight."

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Chapter three soon. And I did screw up. Jaime is Annie. I've learned to never develop two stories at the same time. It leads me to senior moments and confusion for everyone.