A Tale of Two Mothers Pt. 01

"Wow I'd love to be gone for that long," mum replied, "what time's your flight out?"

"Ten in the morning, which is easy because I'll just get a train to Essendon and a cab to the airport, but coming back I'll just have to get the airport bus and book an overnight stay in the city."

"The hell you will," mum straightened up, "I'll take you there and back, it's a bitch getting a cab from Essendon and as for staying in a city hotel, have you seen the prices?"

"I can afford it, I have budgeted money for it."

"Then keep the money for something more important," she replied, "if it bothers you that much you can put some money in the tank, just not too much. The car runs on LPG so it's more economical, but I'm not taking no for an answer."

Birgit actually looked shocked at that and then finally nodded.

"Okay, thank you and I will put money in your tank, it's only fair."

"If you want," mum shrugged, "but it's no big deal," she turned around as Paul stepped into the back yard, "come to see what all the fuss is about?"

"Hi Ms Kristiansen," Paul smiled at her.

"It's Birgit out of school," I pinched my nose, "what is it with boys."

"Please, come in and have some coffee," she glanced at mum, "or something stronger if you prefer?"

"Coffee will be fine," she inclined her head in Paul's direction, "Paul, if you're going to join us can you go back and lock the front door, please?"

"Already done it," he pulled the keys out his pocket.

"Well aren't you the boy scout," mum smirked.

Birgit's house was your basic rental property, three bedrooms, living room, kitchen, laundry and bathroom. She'd turned the third bedroom into a study and kept the second bedroom as a spare and as we toured the house I saw photographs hanging on walls, some were grouped in a geometrical shape like a square, triangle or diamond and others were just hanging on their own. Some of the landmarks I recognised, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Times Square but there were a lot of places I just had to guess at. Birgit was in quite a few photos, often with other women. I counted six different women in total and only one of them looked as if she was related to Birgit.

"I love travelling," she commented some time later as she set down a tray of cappuccinos and biscuits on the table, "and when I travel I take pictures."

"So you like travel and photography," mum murmured.

"Amongst other things," she knelt in front of the coffee table, "life's an adventure, you are the hero of your own story."

"Well according to my ex husband I'm the villain," mum managed a crooked grin.

"But that's his story not yours," Birgit looked up, "I'm talking about your story not his."

Mum opened her mouth but then shut it again as Birgit went on.

"Besides there's always two sides to a story, I've been through several breakups and after each one I try to sit down and take stock of what I could have done better and what they could have done better and in the end it seems to come out even, more or less. Making mistakes is part of being human."

It sounded glib but mum nodded as she reached for her cappuccino.

"I agree, although at this rate I might end up batting for the other team."

"Well that can't be a bad thing," Birgit chuckled, "nothing wrong with broadening your horizons," she handed me a cappuccino.

"I've got a few gay friends, it stands to reason at my age and one woman has sent out signals now that I'm officially separated."

"Mum, please," Paul winced, "you're not thinking of."

"I'm not thinking of anyone, period, male or female but she's right. There's nothing wrong with looking at options, not that I'm on the market yet."

I guess Birgit could have outed herself then but she didn't and the conversation moved onto other things. She'd taught in Copenhagen, Britain and a brief stint in Los Angeles. She spoke Danish, English, French, German, and Swedish.

"I was offered a full time position but I turned it down," she frowned, "too many metal detectors and I never could understand their healthcare system, you wouldn't treat an animal that way. When the Australian job came up I jumped at it, moved here in 2002 and have been here ever since, I may even apply for naturalisation."

"Well you'd certainly be welcome here," mum replied.

And so it was that Paul and I piled into the back seat early on Sunday morning, Paul definitely looked groggy. On the way out to the airport she got a phone call from her mother and we heard her speaking Danish for the first time. After the call she actually apologised.

"Sorry, sometimes I forget."

"It's fine," mum reassured her, "it's your native language."

"Even so, she speaks English too, most of us can speak it back home."

"Maybe I should learn Danish then," mum glanced up in the rear view mirror.

"I could teach you but German is where you should start if you want to learn a Scandinavian language, once you can speak that it makes it easier to pick up other languages. Danish is one of the hardest languages to learn, everything we say sounds as if we are mangling the words."

The goodbye at the airport was brief but warm. Birgit hugged mum, thanked her for helping out and promised to email photographs. I got a hug too and although she was going to shake Paul's hand even he got a hug, I think he was smiling all the way back home!

And on that note I have to shut down the computer and go to bed.

***

Okay I'm back now, Karin is home because it's her day off and we did our weekly shopping at Netto in the morning and then went out to her sister's place in Østerbro. Mette is three years older than Karin and has one child from a previous relationship and one from her current one. We got talking about the five years she spent on her own before meeting Søren and she said that although it was harder she doesn't regret being that long on her own.

"I learned about setting my priorities and distinguishing between needs and wants. My first priority was to Katrine, I had to keep a roof over our heads, put food on the table and have enough left to take her out."

And that much is true. Single mothers have it tougher, they've not only got to be both mum and dad, they have to be the sole providers and considering the pay gap between men and women just makes it even harder. It's unfair to think of single mothers as gold diggers and I'm generalising here, but many times they're simply trying to provide for their kids as well as themselves.

I'm getting ahead of myself though! Mum actually had enough money to get by with, the weekly income might have dropped dramatically but she was still in the same job. It was just that instead of driving into work and paying for parking, she chose to take the train into work because she could buy a rail card and save on petrol and parking. She got home sometime between 6:30 and 7:00, depending on workload and train timetables and thus it was left up to me to walk Sam for the next two weeks and that first day I immediately ran into trouble.

You see, Sam missed his owner and even though I took him for a walk in the morning, he wasn't happy at being locked in the back yard. I dropped in sometime in the early afternoon to check on him and by then he'd stopped barking but when I went back home he started barking again. I put up with it for nearly half an hour before going back and this time I collected his bowls and food, and brought him into our back yard.

Mum was less than impressed to come home after a day at work to find Sam in the back yard.

"What's he doing here?" Mum shrugged her jacket off, "he has a home."

"But he's stopped barking," I replied and then went on to tell her all about it. She listened as she poured herself a wine and then stepped over the back door. We had a concrete patio with a holey roof, it had been raining earlier but by the time mum got home the clouds had all but vanished. Sam was lying on a dry bit of the patio and when mum opened the back door he got up and went to meet her with his tailing wagging furiously. Mum nuzzled his head thoughtfully and I waited for the axe to fall but instead she merely stepped back inside and turned around.

"Okay, he can stay in the back yard at night but during the day he goes back to Birgit's yard, and no bringing him in here. I don't want to be vacuuming dog hair out of the carpet."

Which seemed like a good enough compromise, but a funny thing happened that fortnight, Sam ended up spending more time with me over the holidays than on his own. I used to walk him twice a day and that second week I'd walk him down to Lilydale station to meet mum and a couple of times we'd stop off at the Olive Gardens mall and I'd wait outside with him while mum picked up a few groceries for home. Midway through the second week mum actually broke her own rule when she let Sam come inside and thus by the time Birgit came back from Copenhagen, Sam had found himself a second home.

She arrived home on Thursday night at about 11:30 and mum drove her car to work that day and had dinner with an old family friend before driving out to the airport to pick her up. I was sleeping on the couch when the car pulled into the driveway and Sam was lying beside me on the floor. When he started barking and whining I thought something was wrong until I heard mum's voice outside, she was saying something to Birgit and then Sam went crazy, turning around and around in circles as his mistress came in the back door. It was an emotional greeting for both of them and when Sam finally finished whining and licking her face he licked his balls, which is why I hate dogs licking my face!

"I certainly didn't expect to find him here," she sank back on her haunches, "I thought for sure he would be quite happy to stay in the yard."

"He even slept in the house the last few nights," I glanced at mum, "mum broke her own rule."

"So, now you break the rules?" Birgit smiled at mum, "I like women who break the rules, just as long as I do not have to visit them in prison."

"There's no chance of that happening," mum chuckled, "I'm a good girl."

"Good," she opened a large bag, "I bring gifts for all of you," she glanced over her shoulder as Paul came into the room and I caught mum's look of disapproval. He was only wearing his jeans and Birgit chuckled as she tossed him a tee shirt.

"You must have read my mind, here, put that on before you catch a cold."

It was a tee shirt with a cartoon angry Viking and the words, Don't Mess With A Viking. I got my seven postcards, mum got a bottle of double malt whiskey and she even had a Danish calendar for all of us.

"I know it isn't much," she perched on the edge of the sofa, "but I really am grateful for your help, but your mother will tell you more later on."

Her eyes shifted and she looked at mum.

"I really need to get to bed, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," mum rose, "we'll get your stuff out of the boot."

She farewelled us and left, and it was while I was sitting at mum's computer with my postcards a little while later that mum returned from Birgit's place. I had looked up the names of the places on the postcards and she squeezed my shoulder and picked up one of Amelienborg Palace.

"Very pretty."

"I know, I want to go to Copenhagen one day. I know I said Ireland because that's where grandpa and grandma are from but I've changed my mind," I glanced over my shoulder.

"You don't think I'm being silly do you? I think she's so cool, even though she's my teacher."

"It's not silly," mum moved past me and glanced up the hallway, "is Paul back in bed?"

"He's playing Grand Theft Auto on the Playstation," I murmured.

"I really need to talk to that boy about that," she nodded at the couch, "take a seat while I drag him away from killing mobsters."

Mum looked a little pensive as she sat on one of the sofa chairs.

"It's about your father," she took off her glasses and started cleaning them.

"What about dad?" Paul's eyes widened.

"He and I will not be getting together, I'll be filing for divorce as soon as I can and the intervention order still stands until a judge is satisfied that he won't attack me again but that doesn't apply to you and I've tentatively agreed to supervised access. He can see you either at mum and dad's place, or either of my sister's places, once every fortnight for the moment and we'll come to some kind of arrangement for the term holidays."

"Can we call him?" Paul asked.

"Of course you can call him, I'm going to put you both on pay as you go contracts. I'll get you each a phone so he can call his children, but he can't have this number. All he knows is that we live in Lilydale and if he's caught in Lilydale then he goes straight to prison."

"Has he lost his job yet?"

"He's on a six month suspension, the case comes up in just under five months but it's more than likely that he will lose his job. I'm not involved in any way, it's in the hands of the Review Board and the court, the divorce is a separate matter entirely."

"What about you?" I wanted to know, "are you going to find someone else?"

"What?" Mum's eyes shifted as she put her glasses back on, "um, no, not as far as I know. Getting involved with anyone is just not an issue for me right now, I'm just trying to sort this mess out as best I can," she fiddled with her watch as she continued.

"On another matter, I've been thinking about the length of time it takes me to get home from work, I can't really do much about that right now and I'm not about to change jobs but Birgit gets home from school not long after you two. I was going to give her a spare key so she can drop in and keep an eye on you, and seeing as you've started later in the year she's even volunteered to help you catch up with your French. You can't mention this to your friends at school because, well it might look bad if you're getting extra help from the teacher outside of school hours."

She trailed away and kept playing with her watch.

"I'm sorry that all this has happened by the way, things had been going badly for a while but I know I've done the right thing for all of us in leaving."

I felt the lump in my throat. I loved my dad but I didn't like what dad had done to mum, I came over and hugged her and told her it was going to be fine. Paul rubbed her shoulders and she shed a few tears and a few minutes later she sank back and eyed the bottle of Scotch.

"I don't think I've ever tasted double malt before."

And so that's how Birgit became a part of our household, I blame Sam for starting it all in the first place but over the next few months she would be a frequent guest in our house and by the end of the year she and mum would be lovers.

But all that was in the future and at that point in time all we needed to know was that we were safe and our mother was still there. The fact that we lived next door to the coolest teacher in school was a bonus and that night I pinned the postcards to my wall. Little did I know that by this time the following year I would be standing in the middle of the square at Amelienborg Palace with mum and Birgit, but for now I have to stop writing and get into bed. However, mum just called as I was shutting the computer down and told me she's just finished the first draft of her version, so I'm waiting with bated breath for the final draft.

To be continued...