An over night visit

I am going into my third week of not having to go to school. My life was so busy with school and work the past five months that I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Now, I don’t have a job and I don’t have to prepare schoolwork every day. I was sure I would have some semblance of order in my house by now, but I got sick last week with a sinus infection. Today I woke up at 5 a.m. to start getting some order in my life. So far I have made coffee, looked up a donut recipe and now I am writing. You can see where my
priorities lie.

Since I have felt that I have had more time on my hands, I am making an effort to see people that I have not had time to visit with, because of all the home work I had for school. Last week, I spent Thursday night with my brother, Steve, as this was the day that his divorce was final. At first Steve didn’t think he needed anyone to stay with him, but when I showed up he said that he felt awful and that a part of him was missing.

“I don’t know what it is like to have an abortion, but that is what I feel like I had today. I feel empty and hollow and I am very glad that you are here,” Steve said.

He made egg plant Parmesan for our dinner. He had also found five morel mushrooms the size of his fist earlier in the week in his backyard. He found them by the roots of the huge elm tree he had removed at the start of his divorce proceedings. I fried the mushrooms up in I butter and olive oil. They were a delicious accompaniment to the eggplant Parmesan. That night I slept in his five-year-old daughter, Siobhan’s bedroom. I was still sick with the sinus infection and spent the night tossing and turning and being miserable with my sinuses draining. I woke up at 6:30 a.m. feeling dizzy and off kilter. Steve was up and had fresh coffee made. He said that his now ex-wife was coming over at 7:30 a.m. to she take care of their two kids, Siobhan and three year old Bob at the house while he went to work. I left Steve’s house before his ex showed up and went to my daughter, Mary’s apartment that is a two miles away.

That evening, Steve called and said that I had left my underwear in Siobhan’s room and she had told her mother that a pair of women’s underwear was in her bedroom. Siobhan’s mom called Steve at work and angrily said, “I don’t want women’s underwear left in Siobhan’s bedroom,”

Steve thought it was funny as his ex-wife constantly was up in arms every time he spoke to another woman when they were married. It didn’t matter if the woman was married to someone else or even if the woman was related to Steve. His ex-wife was suspicious and accusing Steve that he was cheating on her and now that they were divorced she had evidence of hanky panky with my black, silky underwear. Steve said that all the guys at the nursing home where he works as a maintenance man thought the underwear story was really funny. I was embarrassed, but there is nothing I can do about it now. I have to be more careful when I stay somewhere and make sure I take everything when I pack up to leave. Steve said he would get the underwear back to me. He said he understood how it could have happened, as I was so miserable being sick. I am feeling better and will start cleaning this filthy house.