Wish She Had Stayed With the Carpenter

Joanne’s first husband treated her like a queen. He was handy with a toolbox, and built her a fabulous salon. I was in high school when she asked for a Cinderella stairway. So the girls who were trying on gowns could walk down the stairs. Making a Cinderella entrance, showing off for the old ladies. The gowns she sold reeked of sequins, feathers, lace, pearls. I remember how excited she was when he finished the stairway. All of the seventeen and eighteen year old girls in town ran to see it. We had to try on dresses and walk down those stairs many Saturdays. Joanne was lured away from her husband by a snake of a guy. None of us knew what he had but he whisked her off. She divorced the carpenter, and married the narcissist. He tried to keep her to himself, but couldn’t. She finally disappeared; never to be seen again. We all figured it was his way of keeping her to himself. Her son was fifteen at the time, and was locked out of the house. “I never liked that kid!” the narcissist was heard to say. We all wished she had stayed with the carpenter.