Lying in Wait

The truth is this: Mac could've lain in the kitchen a lot longer than he did if it weren't for Sissy. As previously mentioned, although newspapers and mail were piling up outside, The Coach and his Wife apparently didn't think to check in on him.

I'd stopped talking to him, him having broken the last straw with me several months before. I hadn't planned on never speaking to him again, but I needed a break from his nastiness and unwarranted accusations.

Sissy tried to maintain some contact with him but he made it very difficult. He wouldn't answer the phone and wouldn't return messages. We both knew he'd cracked but here's another truth: there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it.

She did finally get a hold of him once. She told him he needed to answer the phone or return calls. What if something happened to him? He was adamant that she was worrying needlessly, that nothing was going to happen to him. As he did so often when either of us demonstrated concern, he pooh poohed her.

Sometime a few days or a week or so after this call, Sissy's dog, Ruby, became gravely ill. Mac loved Ruby, so Sissy figured that even if he wouldn't call her back to talk to her, he would respond to a call about Ruby's illness. So she left a message. No response.

At this point, Sissy was just irritated. Days passed. She started saying things to friends at work like, "He's probably dead and the cat is eating him." She and I "joked," wondering how would we even know if he was dead? She couldn't believe, and neither could I, that he wouldn't call to find out how Ruby was doing. Then Ruby died. Now Sissy was pissed.

However, a few more days passed and Sissy's anger became mixed with worry.

At this point, you may be asking yourself, "Why didn't she just go over to the house and knock on the door?" Good question. Here's the answer: because Mac made it clear he didn't want either of us to ever just drop in on him. She did not want to deal with his anger, which he most assuredly would've unleashed on her had she shown up unannounced. Plus, we both knew he'd gone off his nut. He could be very scary.

Finally, however, worry overcame fear. It had been a couple of weeks since Sissy left the message about Ruby, probably four since she'd spoken to him. So one day (June 8, 2008, to be exact), when she and Mr. Wizard had to drop one of their cars off at a shop near The Farm, she asked Mr. Wizard to stop there with her on their way home. She figured Mac would be less volatile with him there.

She said as they got close to the driveway, they noticed all the newspapers piled up and the garbage cans sitting out. As they pulled up into the driveway next to the house, they noticed the smell. They knew.

They fearfully went to the back door off the carport. She opened the door and peered into the kitchen. She could see his feet sticking out from the hallway. For some unknown reason, Mr. Wizard felt compelled to go into the house. He looked at him. He was naked except for a shirt.

Sissy called the police.

We were later able to figure out, based on the fact that the mail went back to May 19th, that he had been lying there for about 3 weeks.