One
I was heartbroken. My fiancé Kathy and I were invited to go along with my father and stepmother on a camping trip to the Adirondack Mountains. We were going to spend two weeks hiking and canoeing through the many beautiful lakes and trails in the state park.
As we were preparing to leave, Kathy was nowhere to be found. She wouldn’t take my calls or return my messages. Her mother refused to answer any of my questions about her and asked me to quit calling the house.
My dad tried talking me into going anyway but I knew that there was no way possible for me to enjoy myself not knowing what was going on with Kathy. It wasn’t like her to do something like that. Things were great between us. At least that’s what I thought.
They held up leaving for a day in hopes of me hearing anything, from anybody. Finally, around midnight the phone rang, it was her. Kathy was crying. I can’t or don’t want to remember, what she actually said, but the essence of the conversation was that she wasn’t interested in “us being us” anymore, and no longer wanted a future together. We were through, although she wouldn’t offer any explanation beyond saying that she felt that she needed a clean break from me. Whatever the hell that meant.
Needless to say, the old proverbial knife went straight through my heart. My head was spinning like a whirlpool being sucked down the drain. It was decided, and not by me, that I should go to the mountains anyway. I think my father was afraid to leave me alone for fear of what I might do.
After my emotional dust had settled, I found myself being more pissed than hurt. I didn’t like the way she went about dumping me, but for some strange reason, I was overwhelmed by this feeling of freedom and was looking forward to the trip once again.
This is the part that gets interesting. You see, my mom died when I was young, leaving my dad to raise my brother and me by himself. We never needed or wanted for anything, and he waited until we were both grown before he tended to himself.
Then Beth entered his life. I don’t remember seeing my dad as happy as she made him, ever. He became a different person. He still treated us the same, but he seemed more excited about life in general. Beth was good for him, no doubt. 
My high school crush/stepmom,
