Although I was flabbergasted at how utterly powerless I was to put an end to this nonsense, I did manage to make a couple of observations.

Cindy and her husband worked like a Swiss Watch in their carefully orchestrated dance to take care of their daughter. The precision with which she showed up on time and he showed up on time to hand of the forlorn kid to the next shift was a marvelous display of teamwork and cooperation.

When you factor in that both people had to be in deep pain, this precision becomes even more impressive.  They were both deeply responsible, committed parents.

My other observation was that even though I was theoretically a key player in this Greek Tragedy, I sometimes wondered if I was really the pawn in a gigantic domestic power struggle. I clearly wasn't trying to break up their marriage, but I was now certain to be the Fall Guy in this Passion Play.

I saw myself as the patsy, but I have no doubt if husband or wife were to do the rewrite, I would certainly be cast as the villain. Each day I asked myself over and over how did I ever get myself into this mess??

Mercifully, Cindy's "Leap of Faith" didn't last very long. This charade ended after one week. As she rose on the sixth morning, Cindy began to pack. When I asked what this meant, Cindy announced she was moving back home.

I tried my best to look sorry, but the truth was I overjoyed.

I do not recall experiencing any joy that entire week. Cindy cried practically the entire time she was there. This experiment had been non-stop SHEER MISERY!

To my unimaginable shock, once Cindy returned home, she actually got strong again!  In my opinion, that house of hers strengthened her like Count Dracula's castle. The woman seemed to have dark magic to call on.

After Cindy moved home, she quickly reverted to the Blackmail Monster. Quickly Cindy threw me not one, but two major curveballs. 

First she said that just because she had moved back home, I was still officially her boyfriend.  Where she lived didn't matter - I was hers and she was mine.  I pointed out the little technicality that her husband was still there.  That's when she threw a little surprise at me - at her insistence, her husband had begun to look for his own apartment.

Cindy informed me that she had taken the greatest risk of her life, she had done it for me, and for me to desert her at this point would prove to the entire world that my promises had been hollow and empty.

This meant Madame X would have to go.

Second, the lawyer had informed her that in his opinion, she had a strong case against me for wrongful termination if I tried to get rid of her. In fact, Cindy had been told she would be entitled to receive a share of my business or at least compensation for her many contributions... FIRST she would collect her  money and then go ahead and ruin me for good measure.

She looked me in the eye. She told me in no uncertain terms that she was planning to stick around. This was her dance studio too and, based on the brief week we spent together, I was officially her boyfriend. 

In essence, I was stuck with her now whether I liked it or not. Those weren't the exact words that Cindy used, but the chains felt real nonetheless.

AND WHAT DID MADAME X THINK?

That night I visited Madame X to see where she stood.

During Cindy Flipflop's one-week stay at my house in October 1979, I was in constant communication with Madame X.  We talked nearly every day. 

I tried to explain that the experiment was certain to fail. It had been a fiasco from the start.

But my explanations failed to calm Madame X's fears and disappointment. She was completely and totally traumatized.  Furthermore she didn't like sharing me with Cindy one bit.

Madame X kept telling me that I should be with Cindy, that Cindy needed me.  She never said this, but I think she was angry at me for letting Cindy move in. It seemed whenever Cindy snapped her fingers, I would obey.  

Furthermore, like Susie had said earlier this year, Madame X was growing skeptical I would ever have the strength to get rid of this woman. 

I wasn't ready to give up.  I kept in touch with Madame X hoping for an opening.

Sure enough, pretty soon an interesting opportunity presented itself.  In early December 1979 a friend of mine named Larry invited me to go skiing with him. He told me he had a big condo and to bring a friend. 

I called Madame X at work and asked her to come with me. 

She was astonished. "You mean you are ready to stand up to Cindy?" she asked.

"I was ready to stand up to Cindy in October, but you wouldn't back me.  Since then, my relationship with Cindy has been mostly business. The romance stuff is not working."

Then I added, "I am willing to take the chance if you are.  Please go with me."

Madame X thought it over for several days. Finally she decided it was too risky.  There was no way she could go without her fiancé catching on that something was amiss. She would likely have to break up with her fiancé to go with me and she wasn't ready to do that.

In my heart I knew she had been very close to accepting.  It was another near-miss.

1980: PICKING UP THE PIECES

Once Madame X exited Stage Right, Cindy was the only woman left standing. She had vanquished three lovers.

Theoretically to the Victor go the Spoils. However now that Cindy had my absolute undivided attention, she couldn't have cared less!

No serious romance ever came close to developing between us. Affection yes, romance no.

We became boyfriend and girlfriend in eyes of the public, but it was superficial at best.  There were moments of real warmth, but those moments did not occur very often.

Cindy never won my heart.  For one thing, it is hard to capture someone's love when you keep a sword under their chin. Cindy kept her Blackmail Threats hidden somewhere in the background, but I always knew she knew where to find them.

I was fond of her to be sure, but I never believed that this relationship would lead anywhere.  I could sense she had never stopped loving her husband.  And since I never saw her daughter once after the U-Turn, I could read the writing on the wall. So I kept my heart tucked away in a safe place.

As I mentioned, Cindy's husband moved out fairly soon after Cindy moved back in.  Now in his own apartment, he started dating and soon had a girlfriend.  This development caused Cindy to undergo a surprising metamorphosis. She actively began to find a way to get her husband back!

All I could do was shake my head at the sheer folly of this latest chapter.  I remember a note I scribbled down about this time: "Hey Ho, Go with the Flow. Jump in the river and see where you go."  Obviously I didn't see myself being in control of my own destiny.

It used to be "What Cindy Wants, Cindy Gets."  I decided to amend that to "Whatever Cindy Has, She doesn't Want, but Whatever Cindy Doesn't Have, Cindy Wants."

Urban Cowboy was released in July 1980. The city entered a western lifestyle frenzy, so I stayed very busy.

In my post-U-Turn relationship with Cindy, my notes reflect one overriding theme - she and I functioned almost exclusively as business partners. I wrote several letters to her during this time period and not one of them even mentioned our relationship.  Throughout 1979, we had worked side by side.  But early in 1980 this relationship began to change.  Cindy, till now always front and center at the studio, increasingly lost interest in the limelight.

Her constant pain forced her into therapy. Now Cindy started a campaign to learn more about herself.  Eventually she also set herself out to win back her husband (1981).  As her interest in the studio rapidly dwindled, she did little more than show up for classes and teach. All I could do was shake my head. After all that struggle and all those threats, she basically retreated back to becoming little more than a part-time teacher for me!

As time went by, she began losing interest in the job. Cindy began her gradual decline as a force at the studio. She no longer worked at improving her dancing, she really didn't care that much for western dancing and hoopla that went with it, she begged off coming to events, and even began to cancel private lessons when she wasn't in the mood. 

In 1979, Cindy was just as important to the studio as I was. In 1980, she started to back away.

By 1981, Cindy taught a few classes and kept a very low profile. At this point, I ran the studio by myself.

So much for my "Life Partner Working Side by Side to Create a Dance Empire". 

However I wasn't bitter about her decision to retreat to the background. Why should I be bitter?  By 1981, my studio was fabulously successful!! Let's give the woman her due.  Cindy deserved a ton of credit for getting me to this spot. She possessed that marvelous intangible known as "popularity".  People loved being around her.  Cindy used her charm to persuade one person after another to get more involved in the dance classes and to come to the parties.  The beehive was buzzing whenever the Queen Bee was around and Cindy was the Queen Bee. Meanwhile my only skill was a knack for teaching classes. I did not possess her charisma in the least. I was shy, I hated hawking my own classes and most of all I hated the schmoozing and small talk that came so naturally to Cindy. But you know what?  I watched carefully and learned how it was done. Once Cindy began her disappearing act in 1980, I was ready to step up. Cindy was like a booster rocket that shoots you into outer space, then burns out and drops off.  Now it was my turn. I took over the reins as the undisputed leader of my program.

During her soul-searching period, Cindy slowly withdrew from the studio. However, let me be clear Cindy didn't desert me or leave me hanging.  Any time I needed her, Cindy was there. For all our misery, we were always friends. And friends look out for each other.

For example, in July 1980 Cindy really came to my rescue. Just as Urban Cowboy was being released, I had to miss the movie's debut because I was in the hospital. I had acquired a bizarre throat infection from a tooth extraction because the dentist had forgotten to prescribe penicillin afterwards. What a stupid mistake!  All that infection drained right into my lymph gland system.  My throat got infected and puffed up like a balloon. I had to go into surgery to have it drained. And the first set of antibiotics didn't get the job done. Fortunately the second set did the trick.  It took two weeks to get back on my feet.

Fortunately Cindy covered all my classes.  She was always so marvelous on the business side. I believe if we could have sidestepped the romance, we could have been an unbeatable business team.

But Cindy wouldn't listen to me. She was always convinced that she was in love with me. I was ready to give it a try when Susie left in July 1979, but Cindy's cold feet gave me the chills.  Typical Cindy - I was only attractive when I wasn't available.  Fed up with her flip-flops, I backed off of Cindy and brought Madame X into the picture.  And we all know how that turned out.

Once Cindy showed up on my doorstep, it was too late. The passion of the spring was long gone.  Now in October we were both too depressed for any sparks to fly.  Cindy was out of control.  She forced the issue simply because I was unavailable again. 

During the U-Turn we made a morbid discovery - we did not do well as lovers. That phase of our relationship fizzled out like a defective firecracker. Cindy was just as aware of this as I was.  Who knows?  Maybe that's another reason she moved back home.

In the coming months after the U-Turn, we went back to what we were good at - being friends and business partners. However, this would work only if I promised not to pursue other women.  Even though her eyes began to drift back towards her husband and even though we did click romantically, Cindy was determined to keep her shackles on me.

I accepted these terms because I had seen first-hand with Madame X what would happen if I defied her again.  So I entered a period of Limbo while Cindy sorted out her life. This odd state of near-celibacy gave me the luxury of no more women problems for two years.  It was just as well - after 1979, I definitely needed to catch my breath.

Instead I settled back into my catbird seat and watched the psychodynamics of Cindy and her Husband as they danced the Sadomasochistic Tango.  Oh how they loved to torture one another...

THE BEAUTIFUL COUPLE

After the U-Turn, Cindy moved back to her home. Her husband soon moved out. At first Cindy claimed that she had thrown him out, but as time passed I realized he was too disgusted for words and had left of his own free will.

1980 was mostly about the two of them punishing each other. Her husband was furious and I can't blame him. There was a lot of blame thrown around.  This was a very unhappy year.

Cindy mentioned that her husband was weak. Maybe he was.  He had been trying to appease her to save the marriage, but her U-Turn stunt put an end to that.  From this point, he began to stand up to her.  Amazingly, once he developed a backbone, she was soon attracted to him again.

I honestly think if he had stood up to her long ago, this whole thing would never have happened. But then who am I to lecture him about standing up to Cindy??  

Cindy was scared to death of losing him and losing me. She wanted to keep us both. Confused and unable to decide which way to turn, Cindy was unhappy and filled with guilt most of the time.  This was a very difficult time for her.