“I am leaving Tom.” The static in the phone line did not soften the blow of this statement with Mary Ellen. This was her sister, her twin, and her best friend calling. Mary Ellen believed, as always, that her twin was the Rock of Gibraltar in her life.
Although she had heard the pronouncement very clearly, Mary Ellen repeated the statement in the form of a question.
“You’re leaving Tom?” She thought that if she could reformulate the statement into a question, it just might have a different response.
“Yes, that’s what I said-I am leaving Tom.” This time her sister was much clearer over the din on the line.
Okay thought Mary Ellen, presuming that if she could only rephrase the intent now, she would solicit a different response. “Oh, you’re leaving Tom? Where are you leaving him, at the Club?” Now, that gave some wriggle room for getting a different response.
But Mary Ellen’s twin refused to waiver from her initial statement. “I am leaving Tom. I am going to file for a divorce tomorrow. And then, I’m in the car and should arrive in Newcastle sometime on Thursday. So, I’m hoping that you will be able to let me stay with you until I can regroup?” The last part was part statement and part question. She knew that her sister would always have her door open in the case of an emergency. And this was an emergency.
Sitting down now in her suburban kitchen in Newcastle, a bedroom community of the ever growing city of Bellevue on the eastside of Lake Washington from Seattle, Mary Ellen gathered her wits and again decided her sister, her twin, must be temporarily delusional and that rephrasing her statement again would clarify that she was leaving Tom and that she really didn’t mean divorce but separation. “If you’re arriving on Thursday, when will Tom be arriving?”
“Listen and get it this time” sounding a bit irritable. “I am leaving Tom, filing for divorce and becoming my own independent woman. Tom won’t be joining me-especially not after being served with divorce papers. Now, do you get it?” This last statement, although a question, did not require any further response except, “Yes.” After a nanosecond, Mary Ellen added, “I look forward to seeing you on Thursday.” With that said the line went dead.
What was to transpire from the time her sister was to leave New Mexico and her arrival in Washington State could never have been predicted.
Mary Ellen sat for a few moments reflecting on her sisters’ news and her own life’s situation. Again, as she almost always did, she decided to deflect this burden to her older sister. Actually, her sister is a Sister.