A FUNERAL AND A WEDDING
In the previous story, Tess tells of the events leading up to the breakup of her parents and introduces us to Birgit. In this story she tells us more of the secret affair between her mother and Birgit, as well as the dramatic effects of her father's death. This is part two of A Tale of Two Mothers.
Well that was an illuminating first story by mum! I knew about her lesbian affairs but I really didn't think she'd go into such graphic detail. It did fill in the blanks though, because mum was always a very strong-willed woman and a staunch defender of gay rights. It caused arguments between mum and dad, especially when Paul and I volunteered to raise money for AIDS research. Dad was dead set against it and my grandmother had a blazing row with mum over it a little while later. Granny Murphy was always scary. Dad used to say the worst thing they ever did was make it legal. He said he could bust more crooks if he could just charge them with indecency.
Bear in mind though, dad was never a devout Catholic but his parents were and they wanted his new grandchildren raised in the Catholic faith. Thus, dad tried hard but mum always said she wasn't going to church but if he wanted to take them it was up to him, which threw the ball neatly back into dad's court and as any police family knows, getting time off to attend church can be a bit hit and miss, mostly miss.
Dad thought he could handball it to his mother but that was disastrous because the two women hated each other. Granny Murphy was disgusted because mum was a nominal Anglican even though she'd never been a regular churchgoer. But she'd been tainted by a false baptism at birth. When mum stood her ground at the front door and told Granny Murphy that no child of hers was going to set foot in her church I was only five years old but I thought the skies were going to open up and strike mum dead where she stood.
"You're a spawn of Satan," Granny Murphy screamed at her.
"And you're a wizened old crone, now piss off before I call the cops. Oh wait, your son is a cop, should I call him instead?"
"You wait till Lewis hears of this."
"I'll be waiting," mum slammed the door in her face and spun around, "bitch," she muttered under her breath.
But as far as I know, mum never outed herself to dad and yet I'm dying to know more about this Karen because I remember that conversation back in our old house in Essendon.
I mentioned in my last piece that I was relieved to be transferred out of a Catholic school, but one other major relief was not seeing Granny Murphy or my crazy uncles and aunties. I missed some of my cousins but in time they got back in touch eventually but I'm rambling so forgive me!
I left off my last piece with Birgit coming back from Copenhagen and an arrangement that Birgit could stop by and check on us after school. I used to look forward to her visits because she almost always brought cake. Birgit is a bloody good cook and her cakes were to die for.
Paul and I also got our first mobile phones on mum's account. I was rapt to get my new Samsung clamshell purely because Birgit had a similar model, hers was pink and mine was bronze and one of the first things she did was help me set everything up. Another thing she helped out with was a new computer, mine was so old it was a dinosaur. It was actually mum's old computer and there had been plans to get me a new one before she and dad broke up but one Friday afternoon after school Birgit carried in one that looked suspiciously familiar.
"It's from the school," Birgit explained as she put the computer on the kitchen table, "Paul, can you do me a favour and bring in the monitor? There's a keyboard and mouse, and some cables in a bag on the floor."
"Wow," I stared in awe at this new computer, well it was old but when your current computer came pre installed with Windows 98 and you suddenly get a computer that's only three years old it's pretty much a new computer.
"They recycle them, some charity takes them but if you give a donation to charity you can take one home but we need to put on a new operating system."
"Paul's got Windows XP."
"A pirate version no doubt," Birgit pulled a disc out of her handbag, "I've got something better," she smirked.
I'd never heard of Linux but mum had when she came home that night and saw the system loading for the first time.
"You'll turn into a geek if you stare at that screen too long."
"It's my new computer," I looked up at mum briefly.
"Oh right?" Mum glanced at Birgit and then back at the computer with a Lilydale High School sticker on the monitor.
"It's an old one from the school," Birgit explained.
"How much did this cost?"
"A fifty dollar donation to charity."
"I think I have that in my purse," mum replied a moment or two later.
"Don't worry about it," Birgit shrugged.
Mum stepped back and nodded at her.
"Can you step into the bedroom? I bought something in town and I need your opinion, red isn't really my colour."
Birgit rose and followed mum into the bedroom and they were alone for a good ten minutes before they returned. Mum had changed out of her work clothes and into a pale, patterned blouse and jeans, she stepped up behind me and squeezed my shoulders.
"Do you like it?"
"I love it, mum."
"Good," she glanced over her shoulder as Birgit moved past her and took her seat at the kitchen table, "you are staying for tea aren't you?"
"I'd love to, I just have to go and feed Sam."
"Bring him over, but he eats outside."
With the benefit of experience I now know what went on in the bedroom that night. Birgit had crossed a line and mum was just reminding her that the line existed for a reason but over the next few months that line would gradually disappear.
And speaking of mum and Birgit it's time to call them again.
***
Well that was an enlightening conversation. Mum and Birgit were very helpful when I read out the last bit of this piece. That conversation in the bedroom was not just about Birgit forking out fifty dollars for a second hand computer.
"It was the first time I admitted my past to Birgit," mum told me, "I knew she was most likely gay or at least bisexual and that night in the bedroom I outed myself and then confessed that right now I felt like I was an emotional time bomb. Birgit admitted she liked me but was hanging back because she was unsure if she should even be thinking that way about me."
Birgit's own comment was touching.
"I knew your mum needed time, so I said let's just stay friends, that way we both win."
It explains why mum became more relaxed in general. Birgit had backed off and given her space to reinvent herself and mum was good at adapting to new situations. As I've mentioned earlier, she was and still is a very strong-willed woman. Her marriage had dissolved but life went on in spite of that and so she started making changes. The first change was enrolling at a gym, she went there every Sunday afternoon, it was the only all-woman session available. Her exercise routine didn't stop there though, she used to exercise every night and also started learning Danish at the same time and it was bloody hilarious to hear her trying to pronounce words like brød, skildpadde and my all time favourite, jordbær."
Birgit would burst out laughing and mum would sigh and stare at the ceiling or the floor, she often did her Danish lessons while she was doing her nightly exercises.
"Fuck, I will never get this right."
The direct translation of those words are bread, turtle and strawberry.
She did manage to progress though, to the point that they could exchange phrases, it used to crack me up though because mum always got her pronunciation muddled and Birgit would be trying hard not to burst out laughing.
Another thing she did was join a ceramics class and it led to an unexpected encounter with a gay woman that ultimately drew mum and Birgit closer together. The class was mainly made up of women, although there was an old guy who came with his wife and a recovering alcoholic, but on her third week, sometime in mid July, mum brought her first piece home. It was a statuette of a stone age woman standing on a rock with a spear in one hand and her hand on a wolf beside her, and it was a startlingly beautiful piece. I took pictures of it to upload to the computer with Birgit's digital camera.
"And I've got a date on Friday night with Ellen. I thought she was taking the piss when she told me she was gay but I've agreed to go out for a few drinks."
"Where?" Birgit asked her.
"She wanted to meet up at the Manhattan because she's within walking distance but I told her I'd meet up at the Olinda. At least that way I can walk there and she'll know she can't come back here with me, this is just a get to know each other drink."
That was on the Tuesday night and on the Friday night mum came home via her hairdresser in town with highlights in her hair and a dress in a shopping bag. Birgit actually looked a little pensive as mum stepped out into the living room with her face made up and wearing a dark red, strapless dress that fell to just past her knees.
"Well, here goes nothing," she kissed me on the cheek, Paul on the forehead and Birgit got a hand on the shoulder, "God, I can't believe I'm actually doing this again."
Birgit looked even more tense that night and even when I asked her to review my maths homework she was kind of distracted. Eventually I got out the chessboard and challenged her to a game of chess and that did lift the atmosphere slightly.
"So, do you think mum and Ellen will you know?"
"I don't know," she pondered the chessboard, "it's only a few drinks."
"Have you ever done it with a woman?"
