Divorce

The Swamp Road Chronicles^®

"Divorce"

I know it sounds crazy, but I feel that Swamp Road Sally is responsible for the break-up of my marriage. She may not have meant to, but that is what happened as a direct result of her messing around with people's lives. I will never forgive her; not that she cares, I guess. She has ruined my life.

My wife and I had been married for 7 years. Like every marriage, we had our ups and downs, our ins and outs, but we always made it through every tough time. I admit it that it was mostly my fault whenever we had fights. I did things I'm not proud of and she had lots of reason to not trust me, but I would swear on my mother's grave, if she were dead, that I did nothing wrong that last time. It was Sally that messed me up and ruined my marriage. I had been trying hard to make our marriage work, I had given up drinking and I quit my bowling league that met on Friday nights and I quit coaching the women's softball team in Jacksontown. My wife and I had just come off of a bad time and things were very touchy around the house.

Because we had too many bills, I had just started working nights at a pizza place in Pataskala to make extra money. My wife and I lived in the mobile home park in Buckeye Lake. I would get off work about 1:30 am and by the time I got home it was 2 am and then, I had to get up at 7:30 am to go to my regular job at the truck wash. From Pataskala to Buckeye Lake it saves a lot of time, usually, to go by way of Swamp Road. I knew about Swamp Road Sally and even thought I had seen her twice, but I wasn't afraid of her.

I was driving home one Friday night, going down Swamp Road when I saw a young woman standing beside the road. I assumed it was Sally, but you can't be sure, so I slowed way down so I see if she needed help.

I pulled up beside her and rolled down the passenger-side window. I said, "Do you need help?" She turned toward me and I looked into her eyes.

Dead. There was nothing there; no emotion, no look of intelligence, no look of anything. As I stared deeply into those eyes she suddenly simply vanished. Instantly, no fading, no wavering, just gone.

Once the young woman vanished I hurried on home. It was unsettling, I didn't know if I was just seeing things because I was so sleep-deprived or if I had actually had a real-life ghost encounter. I couldn't wait to tell my wife about it.

As I was driving east on State Route 204 I noticed that the sky was slightly pink in color as if the sun would be coming up soon. I thought, "It's only about 2 am, so it must be a grass fire or something." When I made it home and walked in the front door all hell broke loose. My wife's best friend was there, her parents too. Sheila, my wife, was raging like a maniac. She demanded that I leave and not come back. She said she was through with me and she would not hear any more of my lies. We were DONE, she said.

Well, I was at a loss, I had no idea what brought all of this on. Sheila wouldn't talk to me, her friend and her parents just kept saying I should leave, I was totally confused. It turns out that I had gotten home at 6:30 am. I had taken 5 hours to drive 18 miles! Sheila obviously thought that I had spent the night with another woman again. Sheila would not even talk to me after that. Not once. I had to talk to her through her lawyer. She got everything, the house, the car and even the cat. And I even had to pay her lawyer.

I can't explain it other than to say that Swamp Road Sally did something to me that caused me to lose over 4 hours of time and I lost my wife to boot. I hate Swamp Road Sally! I keep a pint of Holy Water in my glovebox now and if I ever see her again, I'm going to throw it in her face. Maybe you think I'm being vengeful, you'd be right.

As submitted by Mike McMahone 8-01-22 Outville, Ohio

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