Julie Stovall awoke at 7 that Sunday morning, forgetting that she set her alarm for the shopping trip to Seattle. Realizing that there was no way she'd be allowed to go after last night, she briefly called her friends and said she couldn't make it after all, with no explanation as to why, then went back to bed.
About 9:30, her mother woke her, saying to get dressed because they were going out to breakfast.
What Mrs. Stovall didn't say was that since she was so busy Saturday trying to track down her wayward husband, she forgot to go grocery shopping.
While waiting by the car for her folks to settle the bill and her father the mayor to shake a few hands, Julie encountered the stranger in the diner parking lot, not realizing the chain of events she set in motion by giving Jeremy Bower directions to the Lawsons' house.
Hardly a word was spoken by any Stovall between the house, the diner, and back again.
But Mrs. Stovall had PLENTY to say when they got back home.
"Now then young lady, while it's commendable that we found you still here this morning instead of trying to scamper off to Seattle with your friends, even if that was a legitimate excursion to begin with and not just another excuse to sneak off to who knows where behind our backs, just what the hell were you thinking?" Mrs. Stovall demanded to know. She and her husband were sitting on the living room sofa together, staring at their daughter, who was standing in front of them.
"Err, in regards to what?" asked Julie, needing clarification.
Her mother started counting off the offenses, raising a finger for each one. "Sneaking out behind our backs. Taking up with someone else and cheating on Eric Anderson in the process. Who, by the way, has now dumped you and I honestly can't blame him," she reminded her daughter. "Going to the lake, at night, unsupervised, when there are still normals out camping that might have seen you and whoever this were-otter is. Should I go on?"
"No," said Julie weakly.
"I've got a good idea where at least some of this comes from," said her mother, while giving her cheating husband a stern look, "but I want to hear it from you," she added, turning to face her daughter again.
"You can't blame dad for everything, and you can't totally blame me either," began Julie, trying to explain herself, "because the truth is I don't know. I liked Eric. I wanted to be with him, maybe more than I should, but he kept saying no, and the last thing I wanted to do was have sex with a normal and risk violating Statue 1-A*. So I sought... alternate recourses to address the situation and my friend was available."
"Definitely takes after you," Mrs. Stovall complained to her husband, before addressing her daughter again. "The only good thing you did during this whole—" then she bit her tongue, for she almost said 'affair', "—mess was stay on your birth control pill, because there's no way either of us want to be grandparents before you graduate college. Now then, whoever he is, you are never to see that were-otter again. While I seriously doubt there is any hope of ever repairing your relationship with Eric Anderson, you will at least apologize to him the first chance you can do so face to face in private, and except for school and family activities, you are grounded until at least the end of the calendar year! That also includes no outside phone or computer use except under strict parental supervision!"
"But mom..." began Julie, wanting to protest the long suspension of her privileges.
"You want to start extending that into next year? Go right ahead and speak young lady."
Without another word, Julie left her folks and went to her bedroom.
When they were alone, Martin Stovall started to say, "Err... dear..." to which Melissa Stovall turned her pent up anger on him.
"Don't you start! I have absolutely no idea why you started straying. I thought you loved me. I certainly still love you, though I'll be damned if I can tell you why right now," she said, almost in tears. "I've put up with a LOT over the last decade, while you've done just about everything you could to wreck this marriage and our happy home. No wonder Julie's behaving the way she is, and it isn't just from being a teenager!"
Her husband was about to say something, when she held up a finger, demanding silence. "I'm still going to keep my promise to you and stay together until Julie graduates high school, but the first time you cheat on me after that, I WILL file for divorce so fast it will make your head swim, whether you're still in politics or not. And I WON'T give a god damn about the scandal, because even if I'm blissfully unaware of ALL of them, my lawyer and I can certainly prove enough of your past... indiscretions to not only take you to the cleaners for everything you've got now and anything you might ever have, but I can ruin you politically to the point that no one would even want to ever elect you as a garbage man! Now, I'm going grocery shopping, which I should have done yesterday but was too busy trying to track you down from whatever whorehouse you were hiding in. While I'm gone, you better take a good hard look at the future too Martin Stovall, because the clock is ticking on whatever time you might have left with me if you don't seriously change your ways!"
With that, a red faced and very angry Melissa Stovall stormed out of the house.
Martin Stovall sat on the couch, staring out the window as he saw his wife get into her car, slamming the door shut.
Then she peeled out of the driveway and headed off toward town.
Once he was alone, Martin Stovall did something he had not done in decades.
He cried.
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*Any were found guilty of changing a normal against their will faces a minimum sentence of 50 years in jail.