To my readers, please feel free to leave feedback for me so that I know that you liked my stories, what you would like to see, and perhaps maybe suggest one. Please also vote on how you liked it, every vote does count. If you'd like to read it over and over again, favorite it and come back to enjoy it like an old friend. I look forward to hearing from you...K'Anne
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Being 'outed' in front of my family was not in my plans. It certainly wasn't a fun way to spend this Saturday. It certainly was a surprise to all of us but especially to me as I had thought that my being a lesbian was a carefully guarded secret, not that some of them hadn't suspected from time to time but it was more of a 'don't ask, don't tell' type of situation. Maybe I should go a little farther back though and explain from the beginning...
I was bored, simply bored. For years I had played at being the quintessential housewife and mother. I so wasn't either but I played at it. My sons were grown, now in colleges of their choices, my marriage had disappeared years ago, and I was running my husband's companies which I hated in the first place. It was time for a change. Since my husband hadn't lived with us in say seven years now I started divorce proceedings based on abandonment. I asked for everything. The lawyers said I would be lucky to get half. Wisconsin you see is a no-fault state. Everything is split down the middle. Since the middle was part of my contribution I felt I should get it all. Caleb had done nothing to contribute but be there at the beginning, part of the insemination process, and just when I was building up something for us; he took the money and ran. It wasn't just me that he abandoned though. He abandoned two little boys that needed him, needed a male figure in their life, and needed a father. They didn't get any of that and I did the best I could to make it up to them. I made sure each had a trust fund so they could go to college and start out debt-free. I made sure their father or as I now refer to him the 'sperm donor' couldn't touch those sacred funds, because we all knew he would, if he could.
It took forever and a sympathetic judge but I got him on abandonment. He left us, he left the houses, he left the cars, and he left the businesses. I got it all when I was finished with the courts. I then proceeded to sell it all one piece at a time. It was quite a chunk of change if I do say so myself. I kept a house here in town so the boys had somewhere to escape to when they came 'home' to town. It also allowed me to store those things I had inherited from my side of the family. Caleb' things I gave away, sold, or burned. I no longer cared and I certainly wasn't going to store them indefinitely until he came out from under some rock. The really sad part for me, he didn't know how badly I had screwed him in the divorce, he might never know. If he knew how much I got alone for the companies I had built up he would have been on my doorstep in a heartbeat hand held out and expecting his 'fair share.' Thank goodness none of the newspaper advertisements I had to place had gotten him to show up for the divorce. Yes, I could have hired a private investigator to look for him, but at this point, and given how much I stood to have after the divorce, why should I? He didn't deserve the courtesy of giving him half the wealth I had accumulated for both of us. I'd done the hard work, why should he benefit from it in any way?
I invested the funds in a way that would support me very nicely the rest of my life with room to play. Quite a lot of room to play when I wished, I decided it was time for me to play. I hadn't been many places in this country but growing up in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin I knew there was a whole new world out there for me and I was going to find it. I applied for a passport, got a few new credit cards-just in case, and I subscribed to a phone that had international capabilities. I set up automatic payment for my phone, for my credit cards, for my gas, power, and electric and I was ready to go. But where to go?
Back in the dinosaur age, better known as the high school years I took 3 1/2 years of student German. I had family in Germany. Some I had even met. Maybe it was time to go back to my roots. Nothing was keeping me here, so why the hell not? In reflecting out the window as I flew out of my country and on to my future, I realized the woman next to me was kind of grossing me out. It was that she had a bit of body odor. Okay, okay, you think I'm exaggerating? We had cows back in Wisconsin that smelled sweeter. I was miserable and never so glad to touch down in Germany as I was. I felt like screaming 'let me outta here, let me outta here' but no, I played the sophisticate and calmly followed the herd out of the plane.
As I read the signs (thank goodness they were in both German and English and was that French?), I found the way to the baggage area and collected my two cases. Turning around I could see where people were being met but I had to go through customs first. I bravely stepped up to the line. The clerk was very helpful and spoke English (thank God, I wasn't ready to try out my very bad student German). I told her I was here for a visit with my family, had nothing to declare (I didn't watch TV shows for nothing) and I expected to be here for a month. She kinda laughed at me but I guess I looked and acted okay, she stamped my passport and I could go through.
Holding up a sign was a woman that looked vaguely familiar. Since the sign read MEUNIER I had to assume it was not only for me but this was my cousin Mandy. It's hard to tell since it's been ten years since I saw her last and her Facebook picture doesn't do her justice. I smiled as I walked up and said "Guten Tag Mandy!" (Good Day or Hello Mandy).
"Analisa! Wie gehts?" (How are you?) She smiled. Mandy wasn't a tall woman and considerably older than me. I wasn't sure how she was related, I am not even sure she is blood, but somehow we are cousins, at least that's the rumor. "How was your flight?"
"Ach, gut, aber ich bin mude." (Good, however I am tired).
Mandy took the shoulder bag that held suits and dresses and some shoes and I followed her with my larger bag outside to a parking garage. Nothing different here except for the signs. We were soon driving in traffic, which was just as bad as anywhere else I might add! Alarming but I was sure I would get used to it in time. I was surprised though that the steering wheel was on the left side and not the right like I was expecting, didn't they all drive on the opposite sides here in Europe? Apparently not here in Germany. Apparently it's a British thing, but I didn't learn that until later.
It took about an hour to get to Tante Dorla's house. She was staying with my Onkel Friedrich and his family. She was the matriarch of my family. She really isn't just an Aunt but my Great Aunt. My grandfather's youngest sister and at nearly 90 quite a spitfire. I hadn't seen her in nearly 30 years. Amazing but she really hadn't changed much. She was shorter of course, grayer too, but still the robust woman I remembered from years ago. I didn't think I had changed much either but she couldn't tell me enough how lovely I looked, how beautiful I had become, what an honor it was to have me as their guest.
I got to meet about fifty relatives that day alone. Like I was going to remember any of them! Onkel Friedrich was actually Dorle's nephew. One of my Great Uncle's son's. So technically Friedrich was a cousin. It was all very confusing but I pretended to understand. I just kept pleading, "nicht so schnell, nicht so schnell" (not so fast) when people spoke to me. It got so they spoke to me like I was some frigging idiot they spoke so slow but I didn't mind. Enough knew a few words of English that we got along fairly well.
The room they stuck me in was under the roof so I had to watch my head getting in and out of bed. I was grateful to stay with the relatives and thought this was a good way to get to know the language. I could have afforded to stay in the best hotels but I wasn't a frivolous kind of person. Besides, I suspect the family would have been insulted had I not stayed with them.
The family was great about showing me about the immediate vicinity. I was in Bavaria near the Czechoslovakian border. How many trees do you want to see? Actually, the landscape wasn't that different from Wisconsin. I'd been all over there as well and so far, no surprises. What I really wanted to see was the castles, the old houses, the cities, the tourist destinations. No one seemed to want to see those though and I was kind of stuck. I didn't have a clue how or where to rent a car around here and I certainly didn't want to insult the family but after a month of listening and learning very little I was a bit bored. Yes, I liked seeing the cemetery where ancestors of mine had been buried for centuries, but not every week. Yes, it was interesting the little shops in the village. But was that all? The linen factory that most of the family had worked in was boarded up and most people commuted to the cities to work now so that left me with a lot of free time on my hands.
