Chapter 28: Internal Pressure Rising
Our little group had a wonderful time at Schintzelbank. While they all enjoyed their entrees, with special hotdogs for the children, Niki and Helmut explained their maternal connection. Sheldon found it fascinating, Penny suggested a movie could be made of their story, while Leonard asked Helmut to call his girlfriend and invite her to join them, as her play had just closed in London and she had been in town since the day before. It was after Annelise arrived and was introduced to everyone, and the children had nodded off in their father's laps, that Mary finally spoke up, "Has anyone here thought of lookin' for this boy's mama? She's got to be livin' somewhere around here."
Leonard looked at her curiously and asked, "Why would you say that, Mary?"
"Look, I have children. And even if I left their daddy and them, I know I would be somewhere I could keep tabs on 'em. There ain't a mother been born that completely leaves her children. Or at least not that I can imagine."
Helmut put down his glass of wine, looked across the table and addressed Sheldon's mother, "So, Mrs. Hofstadter, you believe my mother is living somewhere close by."
Mary fidgeted in her seat, put down her fork and explained her reasoning to the young man, "I don't know about close, but she sure as heck isn't living in another country."
Now it was Sheldon's turn to question her on her stance, "How can you be so sure of that, Mother?"
"I already told you, Shelly, I'm a momma. And momma's never stray too far from their children. Even when George was in jail, I still stayed in Texas most of the time."
Niki spoke up, "Mary, there are documented cases of some women who do desert their families and are never heard from again."
Mary picked up her fork and nodded at her daughter-in-law, "Yeah, but they got mental problems. There's nobody with that in your family, is there, Niki?"
Sheldon's wife shook her head and answered, "No. I know my Aunt Helga was depressed, but I think that came from something other than a mental illness."
Helmut picked up his wine glass, turned in his seat and blurted out, "Why do you think that? Isn't depression considered a mental illness?"
"Clinical depression is, yes. But your mother's state of mind was more of a situational issue than a medical condition."
Penny, who until that moment had been concentrating on her meal, was now becoming interested in the entire scenario and asked her friend, "How is that?"
Niki played with a breadstick as she explained to them, "From what I can recall and what my mother has told me over the years, Aunt Helga's worst nightmare was to find herself trapped in Milwaukee with a husband who was too distant and children who were too needy. So, when Helmut's father came into her life he seemed very foreign, very into her, and very exciting. My aunt figured life with him was bound to be better than the life she would have lived had she stayed in Milwaukee and married Mike Mier from down the street."
This time it was Leonard who paused his eating and questioned her, "So, what does that prove?"
Niki took a sip of water and continued airing her thoughts, "It proves plenty. Let me finish. A few years after escaping Wisconsin to go to Germany, she found herself living in an area filled with German and Polish people, like much of the population in the Midwest. She was also married to a busy man who had little time to meet her emotional needs. Then she had you," she pointed to Helmut, "and now her worst nightmare had come true. She was trapped in Munich with a distant husband and a small child who needed her. In her mind, she had the same type of life she had thought she escaped from, the only difference was the location. So, depression set in and she ran. She ran away from what she thought was everything she hated. I can now see this was a pattern for her. I wonder, sometimes, if she ever found what it was she was looking for, or if she eventually realized that what she really wanted and needed was back in Munich."
Mary's voice was loud and clear as she proclaimed, "Well, there's only one way to find that out. Honey," here she pointed at Helmut, "we got to go find your mama and ask her."
Helmut gave Mary an intent look and inquired in a puzzled voice, "How would we do that, Mrs. Hofstadter? I've generally avoided the idea of finding her, but now? I'm becoming extremely interested in doing just that."
Mary looked at a loss for words and Niki took it upon herself to answer the young man's question, "We split up in teams and each cover a different area of research. For starters, Penny and I can search local legal documents at the courthouse after I contact my mom and ask her a few things. Helmut and Anna can go online and do a little detective work there. Sheldon and Leonard still have lecture work to do here, so we should leave them to that for now."
Sheldon reached for his wife's hand while voicing his doubts, "Niki, I don't want to be a wet blanket, but this could take some time. We are supposed to be leaving for home in a few days."
"Sheldon, things will be fine at home without us for a bit. Raj and Howard are grown men who don't need us breathing down their necks to get work done. Plus, Bernie and Amanda will keep them in line. We're talking days here, not months."
Sheldon gave Niki's hand a gentle squeeze, nodded to her, and responded, "I suppose you're right. Helmut is family now, and he did help Leonard and me out on several occasions. Okay, I vote we stay and aid our friend in finding his mother."
Penny raised her hand and called out, "Me, too."
Leonard sided with his wife and told Sheldon, "I'm in.
Niki looked around the table and smiled at everyone, "Good. Now, tomorrow, what do you say we take a day off and do something with the kids before we start our search?"
Leonard had a sudden inspiration and voiced his idea to Sheldon, "Hey, buddy, we could take them to Heidelberg Castle."
"What a great idea, Leonard! And the next free day we have, we could all go to the zoo. Oh, wait. We have that University Banquet the day after tomorrow. We must attend that before we start any sort of detective work."
Niki finished her dinner, turned to Helmut and Anna and pledged, "Okay, we'll all go to that dinner and enjoy ourselves. After that, we will seriously start looking for Aunt Helga, I promise."
Helmut smiled broadly at his friends and his newly discovered cousin, "That sounds wonderful! Thank you all so much. Now, I suppose we should all go home and get some rest. The ladies have had an especially long day."
Penny sighed and replied in a tired voice, "You can say that again." She then asked Sheldon's mother, "Mary, when is Alfred meeting you here?"
Mary's face brightened at the thought of reuniting with her husband, "Day after tomorrow, honey. Now, you younger couples should take the chance and spend some private time together," she looked lovingly at the two small children nestled in their father's arms, "and I'll watch those two precious babies tonight. Does that sound like a plan?"
Niki smiled thankfully at her mother-in-law, "Sure, Mary. We'll pick up the kids for breakfast and a visit to the castle about eleven. Is that okay?"
"That sounds just fine. Now, let's get me and these little ones back to the hotel and you lovebirds can go back to the apartment."
Sheldon handed his daughter to his mother and the payment for their dinner to the waiter. He then stood up as he addressed Mary, "We will see you tomorrow, Mother, at eleven sharp."
As everyone rose from the table with Sheldon, Mary gave a little laugh, "That don't surprise me none, Shelly. You always were punctual, even as a boy."
With their dinner at an end, Sheldon called Mary a cab to take her and the children back to the hotel, while the rest of them headed over to the university lodging and some alone time with their significant others.
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Thirty minutes later found the two California physicists cuddled up on the couch with their wives as they related their adventures in Heidelberg since their arrival, with the notable exception of the Powers incident. Eventually, Leonard got tired of talking and decided to make a move to get himself alone with Penny, whom he hadn't seen in an intimate way for several weeks. He removed his arm from around his wife to stretch, yawn, and declare, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had a long day and I think it's about time Penny and I went to bed. I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm beat."
Sheldon looked fondly at his wife as he replied to his friend, "I agree with you, Leonard. It has been a long day. But I do believe it has been even longer for our wives. Even in a private jet, that must have been a long flight, and having to deal with the children on top of that, you both must be dead on your feet. Still, I do believe we should thank our better halves for coming halfway around the world just to visit us. Ladies, we are truly touched."
Niki decided the time had come to reveal exactly why their group had come to Heidelberg, "Sheldon, we didn't exactly come all this way just to say 'hi'. I had a very important reason for coming here."
"I hope this has nothing to do with that Powers woman. Trust me, Niki, I never had a romantic or sexual thought about her for even a nanosecond."
His wife patted his arm and reassured him, "No, this has nothing to do with her. I very much believe that nothing happened between the two of you outside of that one kiss she attempted to give you. No, this is about something else completely."
"What would that be?"
Niki grinned up at her husband slyly, "I came to bring you something you forgot."
Sheldon gave her an impatient look and responded, "Niki, have you forgotten I have an eidetic memory? I forget nothing."
"Is that so? Well, you forgot something very important to you."
Sheldon gave her an amused grin and conceded, "Okay, I'll play along with you. What is 'something very important to me'?"
Niki dug deep in her purse and produced a small prescription pill bottle, "This. You forgot your shaving kit, which had your Paxil in it."
Sheldon's face held a pained expression as he asked her, "You came all the way from Los Angeles to Heidelberg to give me those pills?"
She nodded, "Yes. It seemed the right thing to do."
"Niki, you didn't need to do that."
"Yes, I did. You're my husband and I love you. A loving wife does things like that for her husband."
Sheldon moved away from his wife a bit and informed her, "But Niki, you really didn't need to do that."
Niki sighed and explained her reasoning to him, "I told you, Sheldon, I felt that you needed these pills, so I got them to you asap."
Her husband shook his head and made his point, "No, you misunderstood me. You did not need to bring me those pills. Those were extras I had left in my spare shaving kit. I had that one packed and ready to go in case I couldn't find my primary one. As I found the original kit easily that morning, I left the secondary one on the floor in the bedroom."
Niki's eyes went wide and burned with a hot intensity neither Sheldon, nor anyone else in the room, had ever witnessed before. Her words were short, clipped, and foreboding as they came out of her mouth, " ' . ."
Sheldon didn't completely catch on to her intent as he smiled at her sweetly and replied, "I just told you that, Niki. I have them stashed safely in my medicine cabinet. Now, don't you feel silly?"
Niki's eyes began to burn even brighter and Leonard advised his friend, "I don't think you really needed to say that, buddy."
Penny took one look at her friend and summed up the entire situation when she uttered a simple, "Oh, shit."
Yep. Oh shit.
