Author’s Note: I normally put notes of this nature at the end of a post but thought it would be best suited for the beginning in this instance. Chapter 51 took on a different direction than expected due to me coming to a decision today. However, not to worry! The material originally planned for Chapter 51 will be coming quite soon. Anyway, the decision is in regard to another story I started that was originally going to be a legacy and a crossover story with Forever in Time. Instead of being a crossover legacy, I’ve decided that this can be incorporated easily enough into the mainframe of Forever in Time. I’ve had plans for these characters to significantly interact with the Forever in Time characters, which makes it able to be placed in the main story instead of being a separate story unto its own. I think it will make my life a lot easier, as it will help me keep track of timelines, timeframes, and everything will be in one place. So, I am abandoning the legacy format for the original story and adding the material and characters here since events that have happened will have a big impact on the main story.

With the addition of this material, I’ll definitely be working on updating the cast of characters page. I also plan to make posts with monthly summaries to refresh our memories on what has happened to each character/group of characters. I think this will be helpful because more and more characters are going to be entering with storylines that will effect our power couple, Lenora and Tyrone. With that said, I hope you all enjoy seeing this new material unfold.

From the Journal of Debbie Evans

I was one of “those women” who grabbed at life by the horns and just ran with it. I had it made in the shade; a very lucrative career, prestige, money, and a husband to go along with it. I was at the top of my game and knew it. If a lady could swagger, I most certainly did. I enjoyed my cushy lifestyle and had no second thoughts about flaunting it.

The only dark spot in my life was my husband, Shane’s, constant nagging at me for a family. I’d promised him that we’d start one once I was at a point in my career where I felt like I was on top. Well, I was at the top but still had no desire to have children. I liked our life the way it was and certainly wasn’t mother material.

It all came to a head after we’d come home from a dinner party. Both Shane and I’d had a little too much to drink, which didn’t help the situation along. “Good night to start the baby making, wouldn’t you say, Deb?” he said the minute we got in the door.

“Aww, Shane, not tonight. I’m beat,” I said on a yawn.

He narrowed his eyes at me in a classic unhappy Shane Clayton look, but I glared back defiantly. “You’re always either too tired or busy working. Honestly, Debbie, why are you constantly reneging on your promises? Your promises aren’t meaning much to me anymore.”

Something inside me snapped. I was so sick of the constant talk of babies. I knew what having a baby would mean. I’d be the one pregnant, puking my guts up, and doing the Shamu impersonation. I’d be the one writhing in pain, trying to push the equivalent of a bowling ball through my loins to give birth. I’d be the one staying home to change diapers and wash disgusting clothes. I’d be the one up doing 3 AM feedings. I’d be the one rocking a colicky baby to sleep. In my eyes, being a mother wasn’t glamorous, and I wanted no part of it.

I whirled on Shane and jabbed my finger against his chest. “It’s easy for you to want a baby, Shane Clayton! You’d get the bragging rights while it would be me who stays home to be Miss Suzy Homemaker. I have a job, Shane, a very important job, and I don’t intend to give it up to stay home playing house.”

“It would only be for a little while, Deb. You could go back to work after six weeks and–”

“I said no, Shane! Don’t you get it? It’s always the woman who ends up doing the brunt of the work. If you want this kid so much, why don’t you get paternity leave and you stay home and up to your elbows in shitty diapers. I like my life the way it is,” I said.

“You’re a selfish bitch, Debbie!” Shane yelled.

“Maybe so, but it’s better that way than to be a chauvinistic bastard, Shane. I’m not a baby making machine nor some prized sow that you can lead around by the nose and brag to your friends about,” I yelled back.

I was on the floor the next instant with my cheek stinging. Shane had slapped me! He had never slapped me before. My eyes filled and I felt my face swelling. I slowly got to my feet and gingerly put my hand over the injured area. “You hit me! You…hit me,” My voice held a quiet, almost awed tone.

“I–I-” Shane stammered. I could tell he was as surprised as I was, but the damage had been done. “Debbie, I’m sorry. I–it’ll never happen again. Please…I’m sorry.”

I turned on my heel, hand still over my cheek, and slammed the bedroom door behind me. I locked it and cried myself to sleep that night.

The marriage stumbled along for a few more months, but things were never the same after that. One day, I called my attorney and started divorce proceedings. Shane tried to contest the divorce, but that didn’t work. Since he couldn’t stop it, he made things as difficult as he could possibly make them. Sadly, he took me for just about everything I was worth. I had no choice but to allow our big, beautiful home to be sold. Most of what I got went toward attorney’s fees. I even had to part with my beloved sculptor’s bench, which, ironically, was harder on me than losing Shane was. In my spare time, which wasn’t much, I loved to sculpt. Well, I wouldn’t be doing that for a long time. I came away with only my maiden name of Evans and enough money to relocate and buy a small house in Aurora Skies where I’d been transferred to on request. I’d be taking a major pay cut and would have to start from the bottom up.

As I looked at my new dinky house with packing crates lined up against the wall, I sat on a hard, rickety dining room chair with my guitar in my lap. I wasn’t much of a singer or guitarist, but I’d taken some lessons as a teenager. I’d picked out the chords to my favorite song, which I’d never forgotten how to play even after a lot of time away from it. I strummed and started to sing softly.

“It is the evening of the day.
I sit and watch the children play.
Smiling faces I can see,
But not for me.
I sit and watch as tears go by…”

There was one very hard lesson I learned throughout all this. Just because a person is on top one day doesn’t mean she’ll stay on top. My life, as I knew it, was changing and I didn’t like it at all.

Here is As Tears Go By by the Rolling Stones – Debbie’s favorite song.