The Santos Factor

There were so many incidents with this man and two of his kids, it initially felt he was trying to provoke me, and I was not going to allow that to happen.

The first such event was at a party at Wendy's house when I came upon him and asked him "where's your better half?" His response, "Who Bear?" Which was his dog. I simply walked away and he did not say a word, but I've no doubt now of the truth in those words. At the time he later gave my sister and mom the standard "corporate reply", "just kidding".

Then during Courtney's graduation party when he and mom came over she said, "We just came by to get something to eat." At the graduation Wally sat in the back seat and had mom chauffeur him to her graduation; much of his harassment was symbolic, like this and not marrying mom for "business reasons".

Another incident came after the harassment had started with Courtney and when Jordan and I were in the back yard at Wally's house. Dana came outside with her new dog and decided to almost get in my lap with an apparent sudden desire for closeness; I'd take a step back and she'd step close again. Finally the dog got the hint. Anyone with a dog IQ could tell you that if one has a dog with this known behavior, a form of jealousy, the way to trigger this behavior would be to stand very close to the target. Dana and Wally's response to the 'mistake' were the very revealing events, the first was complete silence on the part of Dana. Jordan said, "Boy if my dog did that I'd be saying I was sorry all over the place!" However, there's a big difference between them and she; Jordan has a heart. Then Wally and Dana walking over to the gate and Wally saying in his loudest voice, "Let's give him some more water." Thankfully, Jordan had walked into the house and did not have to hear that overt rudeness.

In the interim Wally had taken up playing Boce and volunteering at John Muir and the latter of which surprised me until it was later apparent he knew more than he was saying and was likely building up an incredulity cache ala Rockefeller.

When I went over to see mom during her last months he was very nasty to me about silly things like dirt on my shoes; it made mom so uncomfortable and she would feel the need to intervene and my reading about how this makes cancer come back made me want to literally avoid him like the plague; mom and I spoke on the phone two to three times weekly. He literally did everything in his power to make me uncomfortable on almost every trip made to see mom. I'm also convinced the terrible things she said and did after the scene at Scott's were of Wally's doing.

I will never understand why if she knew, as I did, her priority with Wally came not only after his money, then his kids, then his dog, why she would not leave. Why she would not take me up on my offer to have her live with Ida and I; someday she will tell me herself, but it seemed like he had some sort of hold on her that I could not comprehend. She told me he liked to watch the blood and guts scenes on the CSI shows and would replay them on his TIVO; "I'd have to close my eyes." she said.