PARDON ME, ISN'T THAT MY WIFE YOU'RE STALKING?

I soon realised the comments I had discovered weren't just from an internet pest looking to pass the time.  It just seemed too surreal to understand.  She proclaimed the marriage over on September 26, 2010, after I discovered a raft of messages.  I presume I was meant to find them.  It was like being hit in the chest with a sledge hammer.

An affair?  No, that's not us.  With someone from the other side of the world?  No, don't believe it.  The marriage is over because there is someone from the other side of the world named Ranger Tom is stalking my wife on the internet and wants to be the next daddy of my children?  What the hell is going on?

I hope I wake up soon - this dream isn't very nice.  But the dream soon turned into a nightmare.  The ex-wife soon started to live a single life under the same roof as her own family.  Wouldn't eat with us, wouldn't participate in family outings.  Why?  Because she had been advised that's what to do.  By who?  The lonely ex-wives club that gathered around her, or by her new legal adviser - Ranger Tom?  Well - it was best for him that the family disbanded, so he could take his place at the head of the table.  Hang on, does the fact that this person is in America matter?  Of course not.  I shouldn't be so pedantic - a minor detail.  I wonder how the matter was broached with the children - maybe like this -

"Gather round children, I have decided that I'm getting rid of your father and replacing him with someone we have never met.  He lives in America and writes things on the computer.  What do you think about that?"

"Can we have McDonald's?"

"Yes.  So what do you think about replacing your father with someone we have never met?"

"Yay!  McDonald's!"

"Ok then."

One day shortly after that my daughter wasn't sleeping, as none of us were, and came to me and slept next to me.  After I informed my ex that our daughter was suffering physically and emotionally due to the circumstances, she turned her head oddly and informed me that I should be careful.  Careful.  Of what?

"People might think that something could be going on."

What?  What are you saying?

I didn't believe what I had heard.  I couldn't believe what I had heard. I couldn't believe this person I had shared almost half my life with could even say something as horrendous as that.  Since Ranger Tom, his blogsite - rangertomsrants - and his Flickr site of women in various stages of undress had entered our lives, things just changed.  She was able to quote his words of wisdom off the cuff and word for word.  She just couldn't recall his clanger of  -

"I don't get involved with married women - EVER!".

I even received a convoluted mention in one of his blogs, courtesy of me leaving open my emails accidentally and it being passed on to the Ranger.  This good ol' boy was truly running the show - from 15000km's away. 

But the show must roll on.  And boy does it get rolling.

Copywrite   M. Higgins

PROUD AND AUSTRALIAN.