Sunshine Cures All Ills Ch. 02

The rest of my shift continued to be busy and the time flew. I texted my now standard message about working late and getting overtime. More paperwork and getting home after 1 AM. Put some of that terrible smelling med for my 'yeast infection' and I slept soundly. That was a first since Wednesday, the night before I found out the shithead of a husband that I had.

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Monday noon

"Hello Mrs. Murphy, is Paul here yet."

"Come in, come in. You hungry? I get you eat. Pauly not here. Maybe come later. Eat now. We eat, talk. You like kiszka? We have zupa and kiszka."

I cringed, fearing the soup she'd pull out would be czerina. Ducks blood soup. The vinegar in it stops the blood from coagulating and ...

"Zupa borowikowa, mushroom soup. You like. Come eat. You look thin. Eat eat, eat now. Pauly get here when he get here." With that she hustled me into the kitchen.

Walking into the house I saw that this was a real Polish Irish household. The small living room has complementary religious icons, a Celtic cross and an Our Lady of Czestochowa picture. I'd put money on Jameson whiskey and Wyborowa vodka being in the house too.

Mrs. Murphy kept talking and it was impossible to get in a word edgewise. Getting me to sit at the table, she wanted to welcome me and make me feel at home. Family takes you into the kitchen. Visitors are kept in the living room. That welcome I felt in my bones, there was no way to fake it. She was an immigrant, a peasant, a warm and welcoming polish mother of a yet to be determined age, but definitely of retirement age. When she took a breath while she ladled soup I broke in. "Shouldn't we wait for Paul? After all..."

"We no wait for Pauly. Eat now. Zupa good hot. You like?" She seemed eager for us to start eating. I was on time and it was all ready.

Never mess with a cook. It's a point of ethnic pride of having a good meal for others. It was less than 5 minutes from when I rang the doorbell and we were both at the table eating the delicious mushroom soup. It really was heavenly. I decided to go with the flow. This was a stocky short woman that nobody could over run.

Once we got into the soup, her pace slowed, slowed to the point where we were able to talk about what we were eating. I found out that she gets the mushrooms from an eastern European grocery store on Milwaukee Avenue along with other polish foods. We stopped and let the soup digest before moving on to the keiszka with rye bread, and kapusta, sauerkraut with onions and pork.

She cleared away the soup bowls and brought out the plates. Sitting down, she started asking me about me. I told her about being a nurse, working in the ER and that I've been married 2 months. That was when tears came to my eyes.

"Oh Michalina, it ok cry." She reached over and hugged me and held me. I don't really know this woman but I felt safe with her. She reminded me of my grandmother before she passed. I was only a little girl, but I remember her warmth.

"Pauly say that you Marky not treat you good. Tell me about it. It alway better when talk."

With the plates infront of me, I opened up to this Polish woman, Helena Murphy. I talked about what I found out about Mark, what he did and was going to do. I told her that I was not going to let him walk over me. I spoke about what I felt.

She nodded in agreement. She didn't say anything, but her face showed her approval. I told her about the 'fab 4' and I must have vented for 30 minutes without stopping. My throat was dry. She passed me a glass of water then waited for me while she held my hand. I was drained, but not really drained. I was becoming unburdened. Putting my new 'situation' into perspective required that I talk it out, again and again and again. She saw that. For the first time in days I did not feel that I was going to blow up from the pressure.

I was quiet for a minute, and then she broke through my private thoughts. "Vhat you vant now Michalina? Vhat you vant now for you? Vhat your dreams?"

I looked at her in shock. "I.. I.. I.. don't know right now. I've been doing everything to stay away from him, quietly contacting the wives and the boyfriend. I haven't thought of anything more."

"You say you no stay with him, you no longer stay marry to him." I nodded yes. "Where you go? How you move" You toss him out or you go?" My face must have shown confusion and she motioned for me to be quiet. "You think. I get rest lunch. Talking hard work. Thinking of new life hard work. I get rest lunch. You sit, think. We eat more then we talk and we think more." And she got up from the table and brought out the rest of lunch.

Mizeria, cucumbers in sour cream with dill; kapusta, sauerkraut pan-fried with fried onions, cooked pork, whole pepper; kopytka, potato dumplings; and keizka, a blood sausage with barley. This is comfort food for me. The foods of my youth. There is nothing like comfort food and the serenity that it provides, however fleeting.

We talked for the next hour. I had shared some of this with my brother, but he's on the west coast. Phones can only do so much. My parents in Florida are dealing with their own immediate cancer health crisis. Later we can talk. Now it would be an impossible overload for them. Being able to do this in person with Mrs. Murphy was really needed. I started to look at the time. It was almost 2 and my shift started at 3. "I think that I have to go now. I have to get to work."

"Work good. Pauly say that you come for lunch tomorrow. We talk more. You feel better Michalina?" I nodded yes. "More talk tomorrow. You no alone. You have Pauly and his mamma. We help. We help good people. We no help bad people. Tomorrow." It was an order from Mrs Murphy, not a request.

"Yes Mrs. Murphy, I'll be here tomorrow."

"You call me Helena, ok?" and with that she hugged me. I drove away to work wondering what the heck just happened. There are some people that will be going to heaven. I think that I just met one.

Monday evening

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"So, how was lunch with my mother? Sorry I couldn't make it. I was called in to the station this morning and I'm working a bit of overtime this week."

I looked up and saw Paul and his partner Jeannie Reynolds standing there, smiling at me. It was more than a smile, they were grinning ear-to-ear. They probably were laughing at me too. "You really set me up didn't you?" and the two of them broke up laughing. His partner Jeanne spoke up first, "Come on, she is one warm and tough woman. Nobody gives her shit more than once. Why'd you think that this guy is so nice to work with? That short little peasant woman would beat the living shit out of this 6 footer if he did anything bad to a woman." Paul looked a little embarrassed but he grinned from ear-to-ear.

"Michelle, my mother is one tough cookie. But you have to admit, her cooking is out of this world."

"Paul, how did she know what my comfort foods were?"

"I didn't. When I spoke about you to her and she heard that you swore in Polish, it must have been kindred spirits."

I shook my head in embarrassed amusement. My mouth had preceding me. "I'm very grateful that I've met her and you've gotten her involved, but why? I don't get it." That's when Jeannie answered, "You don't know her that well. There was no way to try to stop her when she makes up her mind. Get used to it."

"What? Wait a minute..."

"Michelle, you are going to my mother's for lunch tomorrow. Be there at 10:30. I've got someone set up to meet you there, a family member. She'll be there for technical assistance, to ask and answer questions. You have a rough road ahead of you. I hope that you don't mind I set this one up."

I was starting to get a bit pissed, and I show it when I do. That's when Jeannie came to his defense. "He and his mother did this for me too. I may be a cop but that didn't mean I wasn't in an abusive marriage. I don't want to say more at this nursing desk, but I'll share things with you if you ask and we have a quiet place."

At that point an ambulance came in, a burn case. All hell breaks loose with bad burns and the three of us scattered to our jobs, helping people in need.

Tuesday late morning

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"Good morning Mrs. Murphy. Paul told me to be here at 10:30 today."

"You no call me Mrs. Murphy, You call me Helena. Go to kitchen table, Brygida wait there. Go, go."

I'm starting to understand. At the table is a tall thin red-haired and very very pale woman with green eyes. She's in her early 30's with a ton of freckles. She probably has stock in sun block companies. Irish as the day is long, from his father's side.

"Hello Michelle, I'm Bridget. What has Paul told you about today?"

"Besides that you're family and are here to help, not that much."

"Sounds like Paul."

"Actually, he and Jeannie" Bridget nodded, "were at the ER last night and half way through our conversation, a burn case came in. I can't really fault him on the communication."

"That's good, I know that he's gotten better." She shifted in her seat a little and continued. "Let me explain what we are here about and then we can talk about your concerns." I nodded and she continued.

"You've found out your husband's been unfaithful, repeatedly. You've been married 2 months and want to end it." I nodded yes again.

"You and I need to explore that before any legal action can happen. I make recommendations to the legal practice that I am part of. We're not into saving or condemning any marriage that comes to our door, but we need to be sure of where you are at and what you feel. With our experience, and your blessing, we all decide on a course of action."

"That sounds reasonable Bridget, how do you want to start?"

"How about at the beginning, when you met Mark."

For the next hour I went over my history with Mark. Starting with our early college days and the courting after that. What I came to realize more and more was that Mark was a two faced jerk who treated me well to my face. What was I thinking? He sells cars and is part of that group that lie and abuse their customers to make the sale. Anything to make the sale. Anything to get the extra fuck?

Talking about him from the very beginning, I started to unearth things that I had not paid much attention to before. I started seeing a clearer picture of my life with him, putting things together for both Bridget and me to see. She would occasionally ask a question, refer me to something I said before, or ask that I think about it again before I answered. Memories are sometimes disjointed, but she kept me on track and allowed me to connect the dots.

This wasn't pulling teeth. I've been going over my relationship with him since last Thursday and Bridget helped me put more things together. The calls to my brother and not contacting my parents in Florida helped too. Neither me nor my parents needed more drama right now. Dad was due for more cancer tests this week and they were both frazzled. Mom and Dad had always been polite to Mark, but it was always evident that they did their best to tolerate him for me. They saw more clearly than I did.

I realized that I was infatuated with Mark. I made excuses for him or overlooked things repeatedly. I was a rug to walk on. Not anymore. I had a part in this marriage going bad, but not anywhere near as much as he did.

He is a self-centered little boy. But I enabled him. I was bull headed enough to not let anyone stop me, including me. What a shock, a bull headed Pollock. I just wouldn't ever let myself see it until now. By the end of the hour I had gotten to last Thurday evening, the point last week of overhearing him on the phone. Bridget called for a break.

Mrs. Murphy, I mean Helena, popped in and asked for help to set the table. Well, it was not really an ask for help. It was more of an order, a kind order in her broken Polish/English speech. This was more Polish than broken English. I knew what she was talking about, but Bridget looked a little confused. Then I told Bridget, "No work no eat." She smiled and started to get the silverware. No work no eat was the attitude from my grandparents and parents. Talk about feeling like being a kid at home again.

Helena provided another meal of my youth, more comfort food. While we were eating, Helena asked how things were going. "I was just married two months ago, and it all went up in smoke last Thursday. We were only dating seriously for about 7 months but we've known each other for about 2 years." I took another sip of water. "I really wanted to have a great marriage, I really did. I wanted it so bad that I would overlook just about anything as long as I felt I was being treated right, felt warm and wanted. Then I saw who he really was.

"I've done a lot of crying over the past several days, a lot of screaming too. Did it in my car when I was all alone. I'm not over the hurt, but now I don't fear it either." That's when Helena put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a hug while I wiped tears from my eyes.

We quickly finished the rest of the meal and I was not allowed to help clean up.

Bridget began with "Ok Michelle, tell me, starting with last Thursday, what you've done since then."

By 2 PM, we agreed that her practice would file for divorce. I had gotten checklists of things to do to protect myself. I also decided that I was going to be fair on the financial break up. What we came in we would leave with whether it was money, furniture or debt. By luck, the apartment lease renewal came in on Saturday and Mark already signed it. I told him I'd sign it and mail it in. His credit was so bad before we got married that the leasing company required two on the lease a year ago when he first got the apartment. As a renewal, it still required two. His parents reluctantly signed last time. As a married man, it was now going to have to be me. Fat chance of that happening.