DEEPEST MISERY

You sit alone, Ray Brandon.

You sit alone in a house haunted by memories...

...memories of the greatest happiness and yet the deepest misery that you've ever known. But you're not thinking of happiness now, are you? You're thinking of the days in which you made this house ready for Charlotte with your own hands...the days thru which the laughter of an adopted son gave new warmth to your life.

Remember the day when the little boy's tiny hand tweaked your nose?

You laughed and laughed!

Those were indeed golden days.

You're also forcing yourself to remember the dead, lifeless months that followed the return of that child to its real mother, Meta Baur.

They were sad days, weren't they, Ray? In your grief you shut your wife out.

Charlotte kept trying to mend things between you.

But you wouldn't let her in, would you?

You thought you could take love, a woman's feelings, Ray, and tear them apart like a piece of cloth, and try to put the love together again...but the pieces never fit quite the same, do they? No wonder Dr. Mary Leland spoke to you as she did.

And now Charlotte's lying in a hospital after you forced her to return to this house, this wife who stood by you thru the most difficult times of your life.

Yes, she was there when in your grief you chased after other women.

She was there when you fought to clear yourself of a crime you didn't commit, a prison sentense you didn't deserve, a battle to build a career as a lawyer for yourself, a wife who believed in you, gave you encouragement, loved you with every fiber of her being, a wife who was ready to forgive you anything, everything, as long as you loved her.

Ray, do you remember the words of your old rival, Sid Harper?

Sid also loved Charlotte, and nearly married her.

Do his words keep pounding in your brain? "You crucified that girl, Brandon! You treated her like a dog!"

"It's your fault she's in the hospital now!"

"You're a fool! A stupid fool!!!"

"A stupid, stupid fool!"

TO BE CONTINUED.............


BTW: Thanks to Rusty for identifying this as an episode of "The Guiding Light." I don't know the name of the original writer.