Cast In Tattoos

Several years ago, before I had my drinking "problem," I had the perfect life. I was educated, employed, financially secure - and best of all - married to a wonderful woman. We had a pretty little house in the suburbs, and we both taught at a very prestigious private school. Isabel taught elementary school Reading, and I taught Math in the junior high grades.

Isabel and I met in college and married soon after we graduated and we were both virgins on our wedding night. She was smart and pretty and demurely affectionate. If there was anything less than perfect about her, it was the fact that she kept a very tight rein on her emotions. Serious, insecure, and uptight, Isabel even dressed very conservatively, and it was only for those too-brief moments when her hair was out of the bun and she was naked, that I could appreciate the true beauty that she was. Her insecurities even affected her professional life because other teachers were promoted around her as she remained docile and submissive to the administration.

One weekend, I found out that Isabel's bottled-up emotions took a toll on her, and when the dam finally broke, it had shocking results. Teaching junior high, I was familiar with young adults going through their rebellious stage. It was a fact of life for me, and I did everything I could to make their angst as painless as possible, while still teaching my subject. Also, teaching at a good, and very expensive, private school, meant cooperating with the parents as much as possible. One troubled young lady was a beautiful girl named Susan. Susan was a young adult and in the midst of a powerful revolt against her very wealthy parents.