Who knew that my world would be upended in less than a minute? My fiance called me into the hall. Since I was getting ready to leave for the university and take a major exam in my graduate course, I was politely annoyed.
"Come and meet my friends," he said.
My nice-lady persona shining through, I spoke quickly and evenly, "It's so nice to meet you. I'm on my way out the door because I'm scheduled for to be sit for an exam shortly. Could we talk later and visit? He does have a way of surprising me with these last-minute intros."
There was a pause that left me waiting for a polite response. Instead, the world stopped.
"My name is Hal and I am Joe's probation officer," he said dispassionately.
"This is a joke, isn't it?" My response continued, "If this is a joke, it isn't funny and I do need to leave to be on time for my exam."
Automatically, my polite manner went into overdrive and I began walking everyone to the front door. Joe and Hal proceeded ahead; Thelma walked with me. I stopped in the kitchen and repeated to her with a smile, "This isn't serious, is it?"
She stopped and took a deep breath. Her voice was low and measured, "This is serious and you need to know about it."
We all ended up at the front door and I opened it and said firmly, "I must leave and get to my exam. Joe and I have a conversation ahead of us and we will have it. Right now I must go to school."
The pair of probation officers left through the front door. Joe began to sputter some nonsensical syllables through the roaring in my head. I threw up my hand in the classic stop mode and asked him, "What is this about?"
"I'm a registered sex offender." He fell silent.
"What happened?" My question echoed in the room.
"mumble, mumble, mumble and she was twelve years old, mumble, mumble, mumble."
"Stop talking to me. I have an exam at school now. We will discuss this later." The numbness settled into my soul.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
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