Underestimating Wife 2, The back story

This evening, I got an e-mail from D that explained what went on with this business about the phone bill. Apparently she had talked to Wife and the subject had come up. Here is her news:

Dearest Hosea,

We came damn close to being found out. She mentioned the bill to me, and she most definitely had calculated the minutes you spent on the phone. She wasn't able to scrutinize it more closely because the boys were nagging her to do something with them. She left it on the table, planning on going back [where I (Hosea) found it, picked it up, and whisked it out of sight]; she wants to see it again and check the recipient of the long calls [aha! so she didn't get that far!], but I doubt that she'll ask you for the bill. She will, however, surely grab the next bill, so call me from work, on the work line, or buy a cell phone card with minutes and use that, but stay away from calling me from your cell phone. And for heaven's sake, just pay the bill and make the paperwork disappear. I was right to think that [the city listed on the bill, which is near where D lives but not the same town] would not register, and she did not check the times of your calls, but she clearly thinks that your late night absences can probably be explained by looking at the bill. She's right.

I asked her why she did not confront you about these calls this afternoon [in Counselor's office], and she told me that she is worried that you will get angry at her when you receive the next bill because there are so many long calls from Friend on it (which explains why she opened this bill). Wife says she has not mentioned the calls from Friend, so you would have no way of knowing about them until you received the bill. You *won't* mention them...you do not want to engage in a conversation about last month's phone bill. If the calls don't set the family finances behind, I think you should just leave them alone. Again, we were lucky this time. Let's be more careful next time.

So she was prevented from studying this more closely by nagging kids and my sudden arrival home. Who says there is no special providence?

More seriously, this explains everything nicely -- both the open envelope and her failure to say anything. I only hope there are no long calls on my part on the next bill; but certainly there won't be many because this one covers most of January. D is right that we have to be more careful.

Still, it is nice to have a reprieve, if only for a month.