She rose with the sun, reached under the guest room bed to pull out her journal, and opened to a fresh page. Too tired to write out a narrative of last night’s suicide scare, she resorted to a list of bullets. • I feel as powerless divorcing Jeff as I did in my marriage. • I do not want to watch what’s happening to him. • I don’t think it helps that I’ve been picking up Jeff’s slack. • But I do not want to become a nag. • I do not want to let Jeff manipulate me into staying married. • I don’t want to manipulate Jeff either. But. • I worry for the boys. Ronnie shoved the journal under the bed, woke the boys, and drove them to school late. She then went on a mission to rid the farm of booze. When she and Jeff started dating, they were both working in restaurants, and drinking after work was typical.
