Hell hath no fury . . . . .

So I'm standing in the doorway to Crim Law staring at Mrs. W and she turns and gives me a, "What's YOUR problem" kind of look. At the time SSG W was not in the office, he was out in the hallway getting congratulations and hand shakes, etc. There was one other female in the office, another male Sergeant and our Crim Law NCOIC, SFC B. I was hoping one of them would speak up on my behalf but you know, I think they wanted to see how this was going to play out.

I slowly approached my desk and said, "This is my desk and that's my mail." I could tell it infuriated Mrs. W and mostly because I think she was just embarrassed but she was too proud to admit that. Her face turned as red as every accessory on her body and she slammed the letter down on the desk and angrily said, "Then where does my husband sit?"

Now listen, you don't approach an angry lion, do you?  Do you snatch a bone away from a big yard dog?  No, no you do not and see this is why I was smart enough to approach with caution and not snatch my private personal mail out of her hand.  I was in no way demanding, rude or mean --I knew better.

But apparently, other Sergeants in our office had no such common sense and this one in particular wanted to you know --might light of the situation, be funny, get a rise out of the obviously upset Mrs. W.  So I was getting ready to direct Mrs. W to her husband's new desk after she inquired, "Then where does my husband sit?" and before I could say anything one of the Sergeants blurted out, "Oh, he just sits on Private Dodge's lap."

Hell hath no fury . . . . .

You could both feel and hear everyone in the room trying to contain their laughter.  I was shocked.  I just looked over at the Sergeant like, "I can't believe you just said that!!!"  I knew this was going to be ugly and I knew that despite the fact I did nothing wrong and I wasn't the one that made the comment, I was going to be on the receiving end of Mrs. W's wrath!  So I walked up to my desk and said, "I"m sorry, Mrs. W, when SSG W moved over to post-trial he moved over to that desk *points across the room*.  This is now my desk."  I wasn't being snotty at all I mean, if the Sergeant had not made that comment perhaps I would have been more inclined to be but Mrs. W was in no playing mood.  I was trying to eliviate the tension by being super duper polite and respectful and on the other hand, I really thought she was going to haul off and hit me across the face --so I was doing all that I could to defuse the situation.

Mrs. W stands up, trying to maintain any level of dignity she may (or may not) have had and picks up my stack of mail.  She goes to walk over to her husband's desk and the Sergeant that made that comment says, "And that's Private Dodge's mail too."  So she drops the mail on my desk, giving the Sergeant a look of death and slowly walks over to her husband's desk while saying, "Well, I thought this was my husband's desk and that it was his mail."  She went over to SSG W's desk and shuffled some papers around as if she had a right or reason to do so and then she walked out of the office.

As soon as she was out of earshot, everyone except me, bursted into laughter.  I just looked over at the Sergeant and asked him why he said that!  Everyone was still getting a good laugh at Mrs. W's expense when the Sergeant said to me, "Oh please!  She deserved it!  I understand she thought that was her husband's desk but she knew well and good that wasn't his mail but she proceeded to keep reading it anyway.  Before you came in I sat here watching her go through all of that mail and I just wanted to see how far she was going to go.  Even if she made a mistake in opening, as soon as she saw who it was addressed to she should have stopped reading but no --she read that entire letter front to back."

And thus began my relationship with the ever lovely Mrs. W.