The 158-Pound Marriage

'Bender didn't get up for it,' Utch said, her back still turned to me. 'Just what the paper says - he shot his wad the night before.'

'"Shot his wad!"' That disgusting sports talk!

'"I just never rose to the occasion,"' Utch said, quoting Bender, but suddenly she burst out laughing. I did not like the tone of her laughter; harsh and derisive, it was not her tone.

'You talked with Edith,' I said. 'What happened?'

'You'd have liked to talk with her, wouldn't you?' Utch said.

'Never mind,' I said. 'What did she say?'

There's nothing vengeful in Utch, and I was surprised to see her face so suddenly determined to pay me back. For what? 'Edith was angry that Severin made her come along,' she said.

'See?' I said. 'What did I tell you?'

'Shut up,' she said; her temper was quicker than I'd ever seen it. 'If you want to hear the story, shut up.'

'OK.'

'You're going to love this story,' Utch said; there was a meanness in her voice I'd never heard. 'It's just your kind of story.'

'Just tell it, Utch.'

'Edith was angry that he didn't trust her, angry that he wouldn't leave her here for three nights and three days because of you. He said he trusted Edith but not you; that's why he wanted her to go.'

'What's the difference?' I said. 'If he really trusted her, it wouldn't matter whether he trusted me or not, right?'

'Shut up,' Utch said. She was wound up and seemed on the verge of hysteria. 'Edith resented what Severin had made of her independence - or so she said,' Utch went on. '"I wanted to teach him that he couldn't cram his life down my throat and not leave me free to live mine," was the way she put it. "Within reason of course; I'd always accepted the limits that he set up," she told me. "Therefore, when he said the whole thing had to stop, we all stopped." That's what she went on and on about,' Utch said.

'Go on.'

'Well, he wouldn't even let her do what she wanted when they got to Stillwater,' Utch said. 'She wanted to fly to Denver for a day and a night; she'd never been to Denver. But Severin made her stay. Finally, she just wanted to amuse herself in her own way in Stillwater, instead of going to the wrestling every day.'

'And he wouldn't let her?'

'Edith says he wouldn't.'

'Jesus.'

'So,' Utch said, 'she decided to show him that if he wouldn't trust her, she wouldn't be trustworthy. She hit him close to home.'

'"Close to home!"' I yelled. 'Would you stop that language, those horrible sportscaster phrases!'

'Bender was exhausted after Friday's semifinal,' Utch said. 'Severin told Edith to drive Bender back to the motel; Severin said he'd meet her there after the rest of the semis were over. They had a rented car, and Bender doesn't know how to drive.'

'He doesn't know how to drive?'

'He doesn't know how to do a lot, apparently,' Utch said.

I stared at her. 'Oh, no,' I said, 'Oh, no you don't. You're lying.'

'I haven't told you yet,' she said.

'You're lying anyway!'

'Then Edith was lying,' Utch said. 'She took Bender back to the motel.'

'No.'