Thanks — technical errors corrected. I wonder how Grammerly missed them.

As for the inflatable, it was the perfect size.😎

Very few of our friends knew of Linda’s affair. The woman Linda was talking to during the first monitored phone conversation knew, and one other friend of Linda’s knew, that’s it. I didn’t discuss it with anyone. I attributed our separation to the classic — we have grown apart.

None of our friends knew Paul and Regina. I have edited the story to add that as a reason Paul was not invited to the party. That, and the fact that he would have had trouble explaining to Regina what he was doing that weekend. Regina knew that Paul and Linda were acquainted because Mary Ann and their youngest boy were classmates and friends. Once, before I became aware of the affair, we were invited to Regina’s parents' farm. Ironically, Paul and Linda met through the children while picking them up at the end of the school day.

Our county’s population is 80,000. That’s a small county, but not everyone knows everyone else’s business, as the small-town stereotype would have us believe.

I had not planned to include much about Cindy beyond part III of the story. As I was writing I realized that Cindy was an integral part of the whole story. I decided that she had to be woven into the other parts of the story. It was tricky. I’m pleased to learn that I did it successfully.

There are more events involving Cindy. I am writing about them separately, with the possibility of turning them into a separate story.