Karma is a Bitch Pt. 02

During the last six months he had seen his share of battered women but never one who looked like a mummy. And she was holding two tiny babies. Three garbage bags stuffed with clothes and baby needs were on the floor next to her.

Michael asked the other volunteers who she was but it was so busy no one had paid her any attention. Finally Doris, a regular, said had warned the nice lady DCFS would take her babies and place them in foster care if she couldn't find a permanent place to stay. Unfortunately, Doris terrified the woman without telling her about the help that was available to abused women.

She was huddled on a cot in the corner sobbing; her babies were also crying. Her son had puked on her and she stank. She was thinking,'Without my babies my life was over.'

As Cassie sat there contemplating killing herself her guardian angel appeared and said, "You look like you need a friend." She could hear someone sit down next to her. "How can I help you?"

It took a couple of hours before Cassie was ready to speak but when she started she couldn't stop until she told her whole life story.

"I'm having trouble comprehending what has happened to me...to us. I was hospitalized for a week for surgery on my eyes. On the day I was being discharged my husband didn't come to pick me up. The nurse said his cell phone was no longer an operating number. I had no idea what was going on. I started to panic. I was able to get a friend to drive me home. When we got there I found my husband had abandoned us.

"He left me a note that said the doctor told him I would need at least two more surgeries and he didn't want to play nursemaid to a blind woman with two infants.

"He took everything of value and conned the landlady into watching our six month old twins. She was furious and said I had to move out if I couldn't take care of my children. That was a moot point because when the rent came due four days later I couldn't pay. She handed me something and said it was an eviction notice and she was throwing us out. I had an hour to pack up what I could carry and, with the help of my friend, made our way to this shelter. She only has a one bedroom apartment and her husband wasn't too big on the three of us moving in. They are storing my things...mostly clothes and things for the babies."

She kept talking until Jim Bower flashed the lights to announce it was time to go to sleep.

Cassie was afraid so Michael slept on a cot next to hers in case the babies woke up and needed anything.

The next morning was Saturday so Michael didn't have to work. Instead he prowled the neighborhood looking for For Rent signs. An hour later he had rented her a studio apartment and paid three months rent out of his own pocket.

Then he went around to second hand stores and bought a crib for the twins. His next stop was a grocery store where he bought diapers and whatever else he thought babies would need.

He was back at the shelter by noon. Cassie was sitting on the cot waiting but not entirely sure if this stranger would return. She was too nervous to eat lunch By then every volunteer at the shelter had taken a turn holding the babies.

When Michael walked in he went straight to her. Cassie was so excited she tried to hug him. Michael was rather awkward but managed to help her place her arms around himself.

After he helped them move in he went to a food pantry and returned with a box of groceries.

They didn't have a table or chairs so they sat on the floor and ate cold Chef Boyardee ravioli out of the can with their fingers because they didn't have a pot or silverware. It tasted excellent.

Michael changed the baby's diapers and said he would check in on them in the morning before work. Cassie was so scared she begged him to stay for the night.

That night Cassie slept on the floor with an empty cardboard box as her pillow. Michael covered her with his jacket and slept on the floor next to the crib in case the babies woke up. He was like a guard dog protecting them.

Cassie never felt so safe with a total stranger.

Because of her surgery Cassie was rather limited in what she could do. As you could imagine having two babies would tax a healthy woman and she could barely take care of herself.

Early Monday morning Michael snuck out and came back with a grocery bag full of food for the babies. He also had a pillow and blanket for Cassie. "I'll be back tonight by six." Cassie looked scared he would never come back. He squeezed her hands in his, "I'll come here straight from work. I give you my word."

Michael had a knack for scrounging cast off furniture. On Tuesday he carried a four drawer dresser on his back for over a mile. Over the next few days he managed to find a small table and a couple of mismatched chairs. Next came a TV.

Then Michael did the most wonderful thing anyone ever did for Cassie He switched his hours to the midnight shift so he could help her visit the doctor and get on welfare. He never gave up when they ran into bureaucrats who said she was ineligible because she was still married. "You should hire someone to track your deadbeat husband down and make him pay child support."

Michael never raised his voice but it was very plain he was not going to let them bully him. He got Cassie an appointment with a social worker who insisted on a premises check to make sure the babies were in a healthy environment. She also wanted to see Michael's apartment to make sure he wasn't going to shack up and freeload off of the system.

"Michael took her to his windowless apartment. When he turned on the lights an immaculate room greeted her. She looked through his dresser and refrigerator to verify he lived there. She took out a half empty gallon of milk, "This only has two days before it expires so you had better drink it soon," was her only comment.

And through it all Michael kept apologizing that he wasn't doing more.

That was almost five years ago. They've been a family ever since.

Chapter IV

Michael had exactly one living relative, his cousin Katherine, and she was getting married. He planned to send a card with a check congratulating the newlyweds. He didn't want to go because his ex was the groom's aunt and she would no doubt be there.

That all changed when Cassie answered the phone. "Is there something you forgot to tell me?"

The date was circled on the calendar in red ink. They were going to the wedding; all four of them.

One night out of the blue Michael asked Cassie what was her favorite movie was. "Scent of a Woman because Al Pacino doesn't let blindness stop him from living. He laughed and asked, can you Tango?"

"No but if you hold my hand I'll follow you anywhere." Nothing more was said about it.

Money was pretty tight so they didn't go out very often. Michael had an idea for the night of the wedding reception to make it special for Cassie.

Michel bought a copy of Scent of a Woman and began practicing dancing the Tango in the basement of the apartment building. The children, being properly nosy, soon learned what daddy was doing. "It's a surprise for mommy."

Samantha suggested she be her father's practice partner while her brother directed their movements. They hunted down a youtube video which showed the dance steps.

When their mother would ask what they were up to the children would respond in harmony, "It's a secret."

Chapter V

Merilee grew nauseous watching her husband trying to talk up a couple young ladies at the bar. She knew he cheated on her but had always had the decency to be discrete. Tonight was different; the room was filled with family and friends and he was showing off.

The two were rescued by young men more their age. Allen yelled out for a double scotch...the good stuff on the top shelf not the crap hiding down in the well. If he couldn't get lucky he could at least get drunk.

She had seen it far too many times and knew the evening would end with a couple of drunken gropes on the way to their hotel room followed by a loveless fuck that would leave her feeling like a cheap whore.

She scanned the room for Michael hoping to flaunt her surgically enhanced body and expensive jewelry. With any luck she would make her husband jealous.

Instead she spotted his mystery woman. She decided to wander over to see what her ex had said about her. She sat down and introduced herself as the "woman who made Mikey what he is today."

Cassie fought the urge to strangle her.

"So where's Mikey?" She always thought it was uppity for a factory worker to want to be called Michael.

"I believe he's with the children."

"Do you mind if I wait for him. It's been ages since we talked."

"I've got a feeling I'm going to be whisked off to the dance floor any minute."

"Mr. two left feet is going to dance! I can't wait to see that."

"If Michael says we're going to dance , we're going to dance so good everyone will be jealous of me."

"It sounds like you have him trained."

"Trained!" Cassie laughed. "He is my hero. If I lived a thousand years I would never be able to do enough to make me his equal."

"My only regret is that I've never been able to see a smile on his face when he comes home from work."

"So Mr. perfect still comes home dog tired and expecting dinner be waiting for him."

"No, he's still dog tired but that changes the moment he walks through the door. He makes us know he has missed his family every second he was gone. I hear the smile in his voice as he asks us about our days. The children babble on because they know he is listening to him."

"That doesn't make any sense. If you can hear him, why don't you see him smile?"

"You really don't know, do you." Cassie took off her dark tinted glasses. "I haven't seen anything in over five years. Michael is my eyes. He words paint vivid pictures on my soul.

Merilee was speechless.

"Every night I say a prayer of thanks for you being a selfish, money grubbing bitch who kicked the greatest man I ever met to the curb like he was garbage. If you hadn't I wouldn't be alive today."

Before Merilee could answer two children rushed over and pulled their mom onto the dance floor for a surprise. Her son reached up and placed a red rose stem between her lips.

That was the sign for the DJ to crank up Por una Cabeza, the Tango from Scent of a Woman,.

Cassie got her Tango. It might not have been good enough to win Ballroom Challenge but it got a standing ovation from everyone there. Well almost everyone.

As she slunk away Merilee couldn't figure out how she could be so damn jealous of a dirt poor blind woman...one whose husband treated her with respect and worshiped the ground she walked on.