The Hidden Painting - Title Change Ch-1

I was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, looking out the window watching the snow build on the grass at the park across the street. Another night has passed with her tossing and turning while thoughts of her mother’s worsening condition continues to draw her. Not to mention that it’s going on a month and she still hasn’t found a job. Who in their right mind would be able to sleep under so much pressure?

Thinking that she might have some support from her boyfriend Mike, turns out she was wrong. We have been together for eight years. We started dating in our sophomore year of college, meeting through mutual friends and attending the same functions. After bumping into each so many times we decided to date. Back then everything was fine between us but as time passed and we gotten older, he seemed to start changing into a dominant man. Always dictating what I would wear, what we should see at the movies, to what I should order. After a while it seemed as if I had no opinions.

Lately all he’s been is condescending, unsupportive and angry. Constantly yelling at her about the house, about her spending so much time at the hospital when he comes home from work and most of all, her lack of work or no ambition to find any as he puts it.

I was an executive assistant at Myers & Jacobs Architecture, LLP. I had been there for six years before my mother’s recent bout of Lupus. Mama Rose has been sick with this disease for my entire life. She has always taken good care of her health since the first diagnosis but as time passed her disease progressed until she needed round the clock care these last several years. I am an only child so I started caring for her most of the time since we couldn’t afford a full time healthcare nurse. Which meant taking off work to take her to the hospital or leaving work early when Mama Rosa was having a really bad day. Eventually there were deadlines to be delayed, meeting minutes with numerous errors, not to mention the overbooking of the CEO’s calendar which had been several important meeting and a lunch with the stockholders.

I walked over to the coffee pot and made myself another cup of coffee. The snow started to come down a little harder and I couldn’t even appreciate it any longer. As I started to walk back to my seat, I stopped and looked at my surroundings. I was standing in a dream kitchen of chrome and wood cabinets with matching refrigerator and a drooling, chef worthy 8 burner, double oven stove. Most of the appliance were hidden behind chrome doors that surrounded the large island in the middle like the dishwasher, waste paper basket and wine cooler. My favorite part of the kitchen and where she can be found most of the time is the breakfast enclave behind the walk-in pantry. It was small enough to place a seat Tiffany table and create a bench attachment to the extra-large window. It was her comfort place; where she did her reading and thinking and often day dreaming. But mostly feeling sorry for myself.

It was still snowing and the lighting was helping because I refused to turn on any lights. Since the island and the wine cooler provided illumination she didn’t bother. At least the sun was starting to rise, she thought as she sat down. Which meant that I would need to leave for the hospital soon to visit Mama Rose. Really hoping instead that she would get called for an interview just to avoid hearing Mike call me lazy and incompetent. Again.

It was with that last thought of Mike that she actually heard him moving around the apartment. Waking up to torment her with his condensation before he rubbed it in that he was leaving for another day at work.

I took a deep breathe in and let it out though my nose just to prepare myself. I took a sip of coffee and just waited.

“Thought I would find you here”, Mike said as he came in and walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee. Taking the little coffee that I had left in the pot, “you could have at least made a fresh pot of coffee, it’s not like you are doing something life changing but moping” he continued.

Doesn’t he ever get tired of being rude and mad all the time? When did we become this couple? I asked myself these questions hundreds of times a day and I still can’t pinpoint where we fell.

“Oh, look here, finally decided to open up the newspaper and find pretend to find a job.” Startled by his closeness, I jumped and banged my knee on the table. When I looked up at him to reply to his remark, he had a smirk on his face. He covered it by raising his “I Am King” coffee mug, a gift from his mother, and took a sip.

“I’ve actually sent….” I started to say that I’ve been sending out my resume all morning when I decided to make another pot of coffee before he had gotten up but he cut her off.
“With all of your incompetence, it would be a miracle that someone would hire you. You’re certainly unreliable and ….” He continued.

I tuned him out after a while. I looked at the man that I was in love with for the last six years and wondered how he had become so damn inconsiderate to her feelings and situation that he has no filter and just continues to degrade her. How could he not see that the words coming from his mouth and heart were breaking me and tearing up at my insides? It is the most hurtful thing to see. She stopped crying in front of him a long time ago all it did was feed his desire to hurt me more. So eventually I just held everything in until he disappeared and I could let it all out. So until then the reply would remain
“You’re right as always Mike” in a whispered voice and walk away.

Today his lips were moving as I just stared at him in stunned silence. Mike is a very handsome, smart and creative man. He is six feet four inches tall, broad shoulders, defined arms and legs with a matching six pack. What ties everything together though is his olive, clear complexion and the hazel eyes that no one in his family has but him. Realizing now where the arrogance, manipulative and thoughtless had come from, I let him do it. This was all my fault and didn’t know how to change it.

“Are you even paying attention? Mike asked irritated, snapping his fingers in my face.

“Yes Mike, I am.” I answered shutting down my laptop and walking over to the sink. “Listen, I am going to the hospital to visit with my mother and should be done in the afternoon.”
“I need you to pick up my dry cleaning and run to post office and send out the cards. It’s not like you have a day planned of working. I will be home by dinner and since it’s your day to cook, make something that I can actually taste and enjoy.” Mike started to walk out of the kitchen before he turned around to glare at me “and don’t forget to wash that cup before you leave the house.” A few seconds later I was alone.

I started taking deep breaths to avoid an anxiety attack that was approaching. The tears were starting to fall from my eyes. All I could think about is why me? What did I do to deserve this type of verbal abuse? What if it never stops and only gets worse? After finally letting the tears fall, I headed toward the shower to try to start my day.

Finally out of the apartment and on my way to the hospital, I looked into the rearview mirror and realized that I had not put on makeup on. There were dark circles around her eyes from lack of sleep and stress, they were red and swollen from all the crying I did in the bathroom. Mike had finally broke her and took all the pieces with him. If only one of the jobs she applied for would call, then I would be able to leave him. With her meager savings and almost drawn out credits cards, she was stuck right where she was.

As the drive progress it started to rain harder, with luck being on my side, I was able to find a parking spot next to the visitor entrance of the hospital. Taking the makeup kit out of my bag, I hurriedly applied eye shadow, mascara and nude lipstick and ran out of the car. Dressed in a pair of black skinny jeans, rain boots and a hoodie which I pulled over my hair so that it doesn't frizz up. I ran out of the car and as I got closer to the entrance I hit the alarm to lock the car.

"Hi Cindy, how you holding up?" Asked Jason, the security guard at the visitor's desk. He was a grating but handsome older man with a round belly. He always made me smile and he also reminded me of Santa Claus. His personality was very infectious and if you were having a bad day, Jason was sure to make you feel better. I loved talking to him, he was a walking wealth of information about almost every subject.

"I'm good today Jason. How are the grandkids? Still at the house driving you nuts?" I asked. He had 4 and they were under the age of 10. So he and Linda usually had their hands full.

"Good, good. Staying until the weekend, then me and the Mrs. will be heading to vacation for a month. Lord I can't wait. How's the job hunting going baby girl? Still having trouble?"
As I said, he had a wealth of information.

"Yeah, sent a batch out this morning. Hopefully while I'm visiting mama, someone will call. How is she today?" I asked as we walked toward the elevator. Everyone knew that Mama Rose was dying and as of yesterday the doctors informed me that it was only a matter of days.

"Good on up, she's expecting you. Very peppy today." He said with a sad smile.

"Thanks Jason." I gave him a kiss on the cheek and stepped into the waiting elevator. Getting off the elevator on the third do floor, I took a deep breath and walked into my mother's room with a smile on my face hiding my sadness.

"Hey mom, how are you feeling?” I knew how silly the questions was but still felt the need to ask anyway, whether out of habit or to make conversation, she just didn’t know.

“Hi baby girl. I actually feel fine today.” Mama Rose said. As I sat down in the chair next to her i looked at her and came to the conclusion that she really did look better. She looked as if just came out of the shower and was sitting up straighter. She had on a new clean gown and her hair was pulled back into a chignon like she wore when I was younger.

“Well now, it’s going to be a good day. I am really looking forward to our visit and there are some things that I would like to talk to you about.” She started to say but stopped as nurse Vicky was taking her pressure. She seemed to have an abundance of energy. IO leaned over to her to give her a kiss on the cheek, she grabbed my shoulder to pull me further down and kissed me on my forehead. It almost brought tears to my eyes. She hadn’t done that since I was a little girl.

“Thanks Vicky, is it possible to give us some privacy?” she asked the nurse

“Sure Mama Rose, I’m done anyway.” Nurse Vicky gathered her equipment and left the room.

“Come closer angel.” Mama Rose pushed herself up a little straighter. I pulled the chair closer to her side and waited.

Mama Rose was staring out the window lost in thought. From the look on her face, whatever I was about to learn was something that would change me forever. “Mama?” I tried to get her attention.

She started talking as if she were talking to someone out the window and not me.

“When you were younger, your father and I used to have their bad, explosive arguments. They could stem from almost anything for him the house not being maintained and from me having to pay the bills for the month but not having access to any account numbers and not giving him the money at the time it was due. To the type of clothes that i would wear to work, everything too tight and i was considered to him a slut.” As she is talking there are tears in her eyes like she wants to cry but amazing not one tear fell while she continued

“One day I received a call from my father's lawyer stating for me to contact the office. At first I thought it was your dad trying to play tricks on me because he stated he would take you from me. After a few more messages and realizing your father never mentioned any calls or lawyers, I decided to take the call.

“Apparently my grandmother had recently passed and since my dad was dead, I would be inheriting some items from her. I needed to go to the office to sign some documents since I was next of kin and the only living relation to them.”

I was in shock as my mom relayed the story of her life with my father. I was finally getting some information on my father. For years I’ve asked about him and Mama Rose would change the subject or get upset and leave the room. This was different, very different.

Mama Rose continued…
“I scheduled an appointment for the next day to go to the lawyer's office. That night I made sure that I got off work early and went home to attend to everything that needed to be done in the house before your father even came home, I even cooked his favorite meal. I never told your father about the call from the lawyer's office.”

Mama Rose started coughing, at first it was a small cough, I handed her some water to take moisten her throat. This is the most she talked since she was admitted five months earlier.

“Mama Rose, maybe you should finish another time. Get some rest and I will still be here when you wake up. If you want to talk some more when you get up, we can.” I stated to her, worried that the story was making her too emotional and stressing her. As I stared at the heart monitor, I watched it slow down and the coughing starred to subside. Nurse Vicky was standing at the edge of the bed waiting for it to pass as well.

Once she caught her breathe, she told the nurse she was fine and started...

“The next morning I got ready for work as I would normally would a day made sure that you had everything you needed including breakfast. It was raining that morning so I used it as an excuse to take the car and dropped you off and headed to the lawyer's office. As I sat in the conference room, I was so nervous and felt is if I was doing something wrong.

There was a large package wrapped in brown paper and it was ominously sitting in the corner. I was surrounded by glass walls and empty chairs but saw everyone else working, walking around in the office that I couldn't inspect the package that was addressed to me.

The door opened and a portly man with glasses, bald hair and a badly wrinkled oversized suit came into the room.

“Good morning Mrs. Mattherson. My apologies for making you wait so long. I'm also going to apologize for rushing you but we've had an emergency drop on our lap and I need to tend to it immediately.” He introduced himself as Daniel Rothstein executor of my grandmother's estate.

“If you will sign these documents where each are marked, there are two sets. One for our records and another for yourself. When you're done reviewing them, please leave a set with my secretary at the front and the package is yours. There is also this envelop for you as well with your grandmother's document ts of what is now yours.” He finished.

“I really do apologies for my abrupt behavior but I really must be going.” Grabbing his briefcase and tablet, he walked to the door and started to exit before turning and saying “my secretary will notarized the documents before you leave. My condolences.”

Mama Rose was still staring toward the windows when she continued. “I signed the documents, had they notarized as he stated and left with the package. I was in such a daze that I didn't realized I was at the house until the neighbor knocked on the window and asked if I was ok. I said yes, grabbed the purse, envelop and painting and went through the garage.

“Your father was still at work so I had enough time to look at the painting and hide it in the attic. I forgot about the envelope in my purse never having opened it. Actually forgetting about it as well as the legal documents. I picked you up from school and made dinner and never mentioned anything to your father.

“Over the next several weeks, things between him and I worsened. Arguments became fights and turned into violence that I just couldn't take it anymore and I packed you up one day and we left. I emptied out our joint bank account as well as the secret account I started keeping. I drove until I knew we wouldn't be followed to a state that no one would voluntarily go on their own. It's amazing what you learn in Amish Country, Pennsylvania.”

Mama Rose turn her head and looked at me for the first time since starting this story. There was sadness, embarrassment but also a fierceness in her watery eyes. She looked as if she aged just telling me the little bit of her life. I felt bad for all the years I thought that she was not interested in teaching me about my past. Now I understand that it's a story that I would probably not want to hear back then.

“Mama, please stop. There really is no need to go any further. I'm sorry for bothering you with this and you felt the need…” she interrupted me.

“NO! You don't understand.” She reached over and grabbed my hand. She squeezed it so tight I thought that her hand was going to fall off along with my fingers. “I never took the painting with me. I left it behind because I was in a hurry. The painting is still in the house!” She started raising her voice and I started to panic because her pressure was rising again and it was higher than earlier.

“You have to get it back! You have to go get the painting” she kept repeating the words over and over until I promised her that I would get it. She laid down and closed her eyes but she wasn’t sleeping yet. She was actually giving me the address and the location of where she hid the painting in the house. Then her voice turned until a whisper and she fell asleep. As she slept all I could do was stare at my mother in total shock. I could understand how she held in all of this information. I had so many questions to ask her about she just told me. It seemed that I would have to wait until she was awake again.