Michael’s mother, Savannah had came from a city called Rotterdam which happened to be
home to one of the biggest port’s in the world as well as a city which had been much like Warsaw flattened to the ground by the German Luftwaffe during World War II.
As far as Michael himself was concerned it could be said that he was the emblematic “office worker” or “clerk” as he preferred to be called. He being typical in the sense that he worked hard always doing what was expected of him but rarely going in to what some would call “far and beyond the call of duty”. It could be said that despite being a hard worker he had never been ambitious as he was content to make what he called a “descent living”. This factor giving cause as to the why in the ten years he had been working in the back office of “John Hancock Clearing Corporation” he had only been promoted once to the position he now held which was of clerk in charge of redemptions in the mutual funds department.
Looks wise Michael was not the kind of man most ladies would refer to as being handsome; he quit frankly speaking had that look that was so average that very few people who saw him ever remembered. His hair being red to the point that everything about him was red even the many freckles he had on his face which was long as was his body; him standing at 6 foot 2 inches and weighing a what could be qualified as a slight 180 pounds given his height. Michael’s face though not handsome or even attractive was pleasant to gaze upon. He had the sort of face that gave him the appearance of being the kind of person who was not threatening or imposing in any way; giving him the look of the kind who people tended to trust.
As the stations went by and he was getting nearer and nearer to his station on 86th street between Park and Lexington; he got an SMS from his wife, Els both asking him if he was on his way home and reminding him of what he had already forgotten which was to stop at the “Food Emporium” and get some items for that evening’s dinner which would be a special one even for a Friday.
Michael was truly glad to be going home and that his wife; Els had refreshed his memory regarding her request to pick up those special things on the list she had given him when he left home earlier that day. It was this list of items he now held in his hand which would have slipped his mind entirely had it not been for Els’s SMS which made him feel relieved knowing that he would not have to go out again once he had arrived home.
It was simple things like that SMS she sent him telling him not to forget what he ought not have but also how delighted she was that it was Friday and that they were going to be spending the weekend together that had made their relationship go on for so long. This also being what made him love her so much and want to guard her from all of life’s injustices and pettiness which they so often had to face from those who knew what he preferred to keep secret about his wife and himself. The basis for this lying not in infamy but in theirs being a relationship which was unacceptable to most. They were not only husband and wife but brother and sister. Granted they were only half brother and sister through their father but to most this was too much closeness or not enough distance to make their relationship qualify as acceptable as theirs was still incest. To a group of individuals who numbered far too many theirs was pure and simple incest; making them the recipients of insults such as degenerates and having their relationship labeled an affront to God and other even harsher sounding declarations from most of the people who had learnt the true nature of who they were to each other.
Of course there were those who offered something in form of endorsement rather then condemnation of what their relationship was for they saw what others did not which at least allowed them to see with eyes that saw space for tolerance if little else. To those whose longing to understand went beyond their being brother and sister; they were not involved in an incestuous relationship for the sake of profaning God or going down perverse roads but for the fault that they had fallen hopelessly in love with the wrong person. One of these who counted among them who did not revile their marriage was the elderly Mrs. Jimenez from Madrid, whose job it was to help Mrs. Repp take care of their ten year old daughter.
Mrs. Jimenez or senora Jimenez as she was known to the family was a woman who despite or perhaps because of her deeply catholic background could not find it in herself to judge them always maintaining that it was God’s and God’s place alone to pass judgment. Senora Jimenez was definitely a friend in deed as she had taken a deep affection toward the child whom she lovingly dubbed “Elsita” because she at first believed the child’s name to be Elsa which would have made the diminutive of her name just that. Elsita was a name that was liked not only by the child who was three years of age at the time but by her parents who took to calling their child Elsita not only because it met their taste but as a way to distinguish; mother from daughter without having to resort to calling their daughter “Little Els”.
Michael was in a specially good mood even for a Friday; his favorite day of the week added to the fact that it was the first real day of summer with the temperature being a balmy 30 degrees Celsius despite the time of day having gone into the evening. Everything that passed his senses that evening seemed to be pushing him toward a better frame of mind; the sweet smell of the trees which were in full bloom, the sight of happy people going to where they had made their plans for the night, all those cars in the late rush hour traffic which was coming to an end and last but not least their was the sensation on his skin that the summer’s heat was providing. This making him feel a joyous sensation which he knew was only to be had and appreciated during the months of summer.