Bloody Hell and a Slice of Pie

Henry met Margaret during the gap between the Great Depression and World War II, Henry was a sailor with a "girl in every port" attitude, a gunner’s mate on the USS Saratoga. Margaret had gone through a painful divorce a year earlier and promised herself never again to let a man mistreat her. They laughed together, fell in love, and married. He learned early on it didn’t pay to be so stupid as to lie to his wife. As he told his buddy, she caught him in a lie once. "She sets the coffee on to perk and the whole time it’s brewing, she gives me bloody hell," Henry said. "Then she sets a slice of pie on the table with the one hand and smacks me across the kisser with the other."

But then the war came. He was deployed, assigned to a mission where he could not take his wife and three children. Margaret carried the weight of the family alone, especially after his bigamous marriage to another woman. They’ll talk it over, but not in this world.

-- P. L. Hughes