Just wanted to pause to thank the wonderful reviewers. You make my day every time you review. It keeps me going. It's fuel. I'm having a bit of a rough week and my savior has been the hours that I spend writing this. It keeps me sane.
Peace
-elodie
Wisp
Chapter 10
It was about noon when they stood in front of a rundown house. Mark reached to ring the doorbell, but Winnie shook her head.
"That broke years ago. I'll knock." She tentatively reached her hand up to knock on the door, but hesitated, looking to Mark for reassurance. He nodded her on, squeezing her hand. She sighed and knocked on the door. Three sharp raps.
"I'm coming!" A female voice called from inside. The door swung open and a tiny woman with auburn hair and freckles stood in the doorway, her mouth agape. "Winnie?"
Winnie smiled slightly, her stomach flip-flopping. "Um, h-hi Ma," She laughed nervously. "Did you miss me?"
The woman grabbed her in a huge hug, rocking her back and forth. "Winnie, I can't believe it's you. Winnie, Winnie, Winnie… Oh, my baby girl, sweetheart, I've missed you so much."
"I've missed you too," Winnie whispered quietly, gently pulling out of her mother's grasp. She grabbed Mark's hand again. He noticed that she was starting to shiver again. "Ma, this is my boyfriend, Mark. Mark, this is my mother."
Mark held out his hand to shake, "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Wielkopolski."
"Pleasure," She said quietly. "Honey, I don't know if this is such a good time." Mrs. Wielkopolski glanced back inside the house nervously. "I don't know how happy your father will be to see you…"
Winnie placed her hand on her mother's shoulder to calm her. Her mother was shivering, just like Winnie always did. "I-I just came to see you. I figured that since I'm eighteen, I'm old enough to face everything and… Well," She glanced back up at Mark and smiled. "I wanted you to meet Mark."
"Helen, who's at the door?" Winnie cringed and gripped Mark's hand tightly. "Oh, it's you." A towering man appeared next to her mother in the doorway. "What the fuck are you doing back here? You fucking left, you little slut. We're not good enough for you, remember?"
Mark could feel Winnie stiffen and freeze. "H-Hi Dad…"
"Gary, don't yell, please… The neighbors will hear."
"Well, Helen," He spat out her name. "Invite them in, why don't you. God, you're so stupid. You don't leave guests out on the steps."
"Sorry Gary," Mrs. Wielkopolski mumbled. "Winnie, Mark, do come in."
Winnie was shaking so hard as she led Mark in the house, following her mother. Her father had opened a beer can and took a loud slurp.
"So, who's your little boyfriend, slut?"
"Dad, don't…" Winnie said softly.
"Nah, I wanna know. I want to know who's fucking my only daughter. What're you with this geek for? Drugs? Money? Don't tell me you're a fucking prostitute."
"Please…" Winnie whimpered. She felt like she was going to cry. "Leave him out of this."
Mark broke in. "Mr. Wielkopolski, I know this really isn't my business-"
"You're damned right it isn't! Shut your fucking mouth, you little punk."
"Please, Winnie just wanted to visit. You're her family."
"She's no daughter of mine."
Winnie was crying now, desperately trying to hide her face. "Dad, stop!"
Mr. Wielkopolski looked as if he was going to start crying too, but the way he was swaying just showed that he was drunk. "No! You left. We weren't fucking good enough for you. You left!"
"Dad!"
"Shut up!" He raised his hand to hit her, but Mark stepped in front of him and blocked his fist.
"There's no need to use violence, Mr. Wielkopolski. Especially against your own daughter. From what I heard, that's exactly the reason she left." He was getting a bit nervous. This guy was huge…
Mr. Wielkopolski shook off Mark's hand. "Fuck off. This is my daughter; I'll do what I want with her."
Winnie gazed up at her father with her big green eyes and grabbed Mark's hand for reassurance. "Good bye Dad," She whispered, tears in her eyes. "Mark, let's go." They began to walk towards the door.
"Honey!" Mrs. Wielkopolski ran after them. She said to them in a low voice, "Come back tonight at about eight. Your father goes off to the bar. It's been so nice seeing you." She wrapped Winnie in a big hug.
Winnie smiled sadly and kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Ma. I'll see you tonight."
As the door closed behind them, Mark grabbed Winnie and pulled her to him tight. "Winnie…" The tears overflowed and she sobbed into Mark's shirt as he led her away. "Let's go back to the hotel. You look like you could use a nap."
* * *
"Can we go to the cemetery now?" Winnie asked Mark. She yawned and stretched, rubbing her cheek against his sweater-clad chest.
Mark yawned too, prompting a small laugh from Winnie. "Anytime you want."
"I want to go now. What time is it?"
"Four."
"Ok, so we have four hours until we go see my mother. I want to go now and get this over with."
The cemetery was in walking distance from the hotel. Winnie shivered in the brisk Atlantic wind, still chilly from winter but without the usual bite. Wildflowers had sprouted. Winnie grabbed a handful and clutched them so tightly in her hand that Mark was surprised they didn't burst.
In a small section of the crowded cemetery, a small stone set into the ground read Louis Oliver Wielkopolski, 1978-1997.
Winnie kneeled down in front of it, placing the flowers over the name. The wind was starting to really pick up, blowing her long hair out behind her. Mark wished he had his camera; it was such a moving sight.
"I hate you, Louis," She murmured. "I really do. I can't not love you but I can't not hate you. You caused me so much pain and suffering when all you were thinking about was yourself." Winnie was beginning to cry. Mark ached to wrap her in a hug, but the perverse observer inside of him made him stay back and watched what unfolded before him.
"Louis, I almost made the same mistake you had; only there was no one there to cry over me. I was so alone. But then someone saved me. Louis, this is Mark. Mark saved me. He saved me when I couldn't save you. You were too far gone that even if I tried, you'd have just done it again. Damn it, Louis! I was seventeen years old, afraid, lonely… But you chose to leave me? Do you leave a suicidal person by their self in a butcher shop? A claustrophobic person in a closet? You don't leave your lonely little sister that hero-worshipped you alone.
"I always thought that you were the brave one. You always rebelled against Dad even when it meant getting beaten up twice as hard. You stood up for me sometimes, too. Remember that? Remember the love and adoration that shone in my eyes? God, I thought you were so brave. You were my hero. You never let anyone talk shit to you, you had all those nice girlfriends, your grades were insane, you cut longer, deeper lines. I was such a failure compared to you."
Winnie began openly sobbing. She hated him so much then. She just wanted to beat the ground with her fists. Her palms stung as she pounded at the stone, hunched over, her long hair hanging in her face. She hated him, she hated him, oh how she hated him… "I hate you," She sobbed, her hands covering her face.
She felt a surge of anger and repulsion. She tore her hands away from her face and held her face directly over the stone. "Look at me, Louis! I'm crying! I'm crying and people can see me. Guess I'm weak, huh? Look at my eyes! See the red? See my wet cheeks? It's called emotion, Louis and it's part of being human. Humans aren't perfect. You might have thought yourself a god, and lord knows I did too, but guess what? You weren't. You weren't perfect. Emotion isn't perfect. But emotion is part of being alive. Guess that's why you prefer to be dead." She started crying harder, hugging her arms around her. "Mark," She whimpered, turning towards him.
Mark helped Winnie to her feet and wrapped her in a hug. "You did good, kid."
"Mark?" She asked as they walked together out of the cemetery.
"Yeah?"
"I'm hungry."
"Let's go get lunch."
* * *
"May 2nd, Eight thirty PM, Eastern Standard Time. A mother and daughter reunited. Pan left on the photos on the wall. And chuckle at the picture of Winnie with glasses and braces," Mark murmured to himself, kicking himself for leaving his camera back in New York.
Winnie and Mrs. Wielkopolski sat on the old overstuffed couch underneath the window, chatting and smiling. Mark was overjoyed to see Winnie smiling like that. She'd been so tense and stressed about this trip that she hadn't been herself for weeks.
But then Mrs. Wielkopolski asked Winnie the question that made both she and Mark freeze. "So, how did you two meet?"
Winnie chewed her lip nervously, looking up at Mark. He sat next to her and grasped her hand, urging her on. "Well, Ma… You're going to hate me for this, but… Well, I had been living on the streets for a few months, I'd gotten beat up and mugged, I was so cold. And then I met Mark at this café that he goes to a lot, the Life Café. I felt that I had nothing to live for. And at that moment, I didn't. So I locked myself in the bathroom and," She shivered, leaning against Mark. "I slit my wrists. But Mark's friend Maureen found me and the dragged me to the hospital and saved me."
Mrs. Wielkopolski stared at her agape. "You tried to kill yourself? After your brother's death, you didn't learn that it isn't the right thing to do?"
"Ma, you don't understand! I was so lonely. I was so cold. You try sleeping on a park bench on Christmas. I was slowly going insane and I didn't have anyone to set my head on straight before I, well, you know…"
Mrs. Wielkopolski sat in silence, refusing to look at her daughter.
"Ma?" Winnie pleaded, grasping both her hands. "Ma, please, I need you now…"
"Oh, Winnie," Mrs. Wielkopolski slowly drew Winnie into her arms, holding her gently, almost as if she thought she'd shatter into a million pieces. "I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you." She turned to Mark and tried to stop herself from crying. "Young man, I can't thank you enough for saving my baby. Thank you."
Mark smiled softly at her. "I didn't actually save her. I just got her to the hospital, the doctors really saved her," He said modestly.
Winnie sighed contentedly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Ma, Mark Cohen's my hero."