COMMUNICATING WITH DAWN
Although it had taken Dawn and I a dozen years to verbalize with each other the bond and connection we had with each other, once we did, the floodgates completely broke open. Although we remained physically separated by a geographical distance of 100 miles, we began to stay in communication with each other in intervals of ever-increasing frequency.
My two steps forward, I should point out, was first preceded by one step backwards. During the vourse of 2000, 2001, and 2002, the tech stock bubble deflated, and the EMC stock options I had won from David in the divorce settlement became worthless. Not worth less; worthless. Stock options have this funny concept called "out of the money". If the option has a "strike price" of $17, and EMC stock is trading at $13, the stock option is worth $0. If it makes it to its expiration date like that, it expires worthless. Quarter after quarter, I went to my mailbox and watched as dozens, then hundreds, of EMC stock options expired worthless. It was quite painful, and it meant I would be living at home with my parents for awhile.
All I had left to show from thr divorce, financially, was the alimony payments, which David tried valiantly to have reconsidered and reduced, given the downturn in EMC's fortunes. He failed, for two reasons. My divorce attorney, who had originally talked me into separating from David, saw my living conditions and refused to go along with any reduction.
And, David started dating another Marian girl, Karen. Karen was full-on observant Catholic, and was infertile. She wanted a Catholic marriage to David, meaning his marriage to me would need to be annulled. And Karen wanted to be a hands-on stepmom to David and my two daughters, since she could never have her own children. Karen and David needed my active cooperation for both the annulment and the child-rearing, and so the alimony checks kept coming. On my attorney's advice, I did not look for a job--that might weaken my legal case for alimony. So I dropped out of the job market, possibly for good, since the emerging gap in my resume would be difficult to explain to prospective employers.
Besides my permanently unemployed state, other circumstances were facilitating ever-growing regularity in communication between Dawn and me. Dawn's two daughters reached the same childhood milestone mine had: full-time pre-school enrollment. Then, when Dawn's husband Doug made the switch from teaching to school administration (he became a Vice Principal, then later a Principal), Dawn dropped out of teaching, and was home all day like me. And, finally, technology was working to help our communication. Texting on a cellphone was a godsend; then came Skype and unlimited long distance and email and MySpace. So, while actual physical meetup would remain, for now, a rarity (we had young children; and the nature of our relationship was still a secret from Dawn's husband), we just sort of "fell into" being in near constant contact.
And there was pretty much only one topic we conversed about. Fighting.
We talked a bit about how much we enjoyed fighting each other, and what kind of fights we should have when Dawn was up in Framingham visiting her mom for the holidays. And what clothes we should wear-- lots of talk about that, which I'll get into later.
But as 2002 and 2003, as David and Karen started to get more serious about getting married, and as the Catholic annulment process between David and me progressed, and as the relationship between Karen and me deteriorated, the fighting conversations between Dawn and me took a darker turn. Let me explain.
The annulment process, for those of you who have never been through it, is horribly intrusive. The Church Inquisitors ask you, first in writing and then by phone and then in person, horribly personal questions about when and how often you and your husband had sex, before, during, and after your marriage. And what kinds of sex. Making matters worse, this was in 2002 and 2003. The Archdiocese of Boston scandals didn't make the news until 2005, so the people questioning me, all men, were still riding high in their arrogance. It was quite humiliating for me. I blamed Karen, and vented to Dawn.
Dawn started asking me if Karen and I might fight. At first, we used the topic of a Karen/Debbie fight just as masturbation fodder. But, as time went on, Dawn started digging deeper. If Karen and I did fight, would it be at catfight, or a fistfight? Would it be like the Dawn/Debbie fight in 1987 at Shoppers World, or like the Rita/Laurie fight?
We both knew the answer. Since Karen and I had both slept with David, we would fight with fists like Rita and Laurie had done.
Dawn asked me if I wanted to "prepare" for a fistfight like that. By fistfighting her.
She was serious. We talked about how to fistfight each other without losing our friendship. It had taken so long to build up our relationship and the trust between us, for it to become yet another casualty of the breakup of my marriage was unacceptable.
And yet....
We couldn't let it go. Wondering what it would be like to fistfight each other. And so, I started playing a dirty trick on Dawn.
I started making her wonder what would happen if I did fight Karen. Would my love of fighting switch from fighting Dawn to fighting Karen? Would Dawn lose me as a fight partner?
Dawn and I decided to fistfight at Dawn's mom's house in August 2003.
To prevent things getting out of hand, we would both have a safe word. Mine would be "David". Dawn's would be "Doug".
Thru the long, hot summer of 2003, we masturbated, together and alone, to the thought of our upcoming fistfight. We texted each other selfies in our agreed-upon clothes for the fight--cutoff jeans and topless and boots. The boots were to kick with, if the other one of us fell to the grass.
The day of the fight finally came. Hot. Humid. Our boobs were already giving off droplets of sweat.
Dawn said, "I don't plan on using my safe word."
I retorted, "Neither do I."
The atmosphere was completely different from our 1999 bedroom fight, from our 1995 hotel fight, fome our 1991 living room fight, from our 1987 parking lot fight.
I was "training" for what I truly believed was an inevitable fight for status with David's bride-to-be Karen. A bitter wife versus ex-wife brawl.
Dawn was trying to "audition" with me to retain her role as my lifelong fight partner, to pre-empt Karen taking that role.
The stakes were dead serious for each of us. As was the fistfight.
We stood toe to toe in the hot sun for 15 minutes, beating the shit out of each others faces. True to our promise, neither of us used our safe word. The flesh-on-bone-and-flesh "thwack"-ing sound was exactly like what we recalled hearing Rita and Laurie inflicting on each other. We wanted to stop hurting and each other, and yet we wanted to hear more of that sound. So we kept fighting. We watched each others' soaked boobs bounce up and down as we bobbed and weaved.
A right cross of mine caught Dawn on the jaw. She went down on her back, and I moved on top on her with my boots, my bloodlust "practicing" for how badly I would hurt Karen if we ever were the two women fighting. Dawn, from her back, kicked upwardly back at me, just as desperately and just as fiercely. With me standing and Dawn lying on her back, we each landed vicious boot kicks to the others' shins, knees, and crotches. In discussing the fight later, we decided we had each inflicted, and sustained, more damage in this portion of the fight then in the standing part.
The kicking continued for five to seven more minutes, when a kick by Dawn to my knee sent me falling on top of her. We lined up our boobs and crotches, entering our now-familiar rolling position. We came in explosive orgasms, and looked each other in the eye.
"That bitch Karen better think twice about ever fighting you. You'll put her in a fucking hospital."
"And you'll put her in a fucking morgue?"
"How'd you know?"
"Lucky guess."
To be continued.....