Ties That Bind by Debbie White Page B

Louise opened the door and invited us in.
    “Mary called. I’m glad you went and talked to her. She’s a great lady. I know your daddy loved her to pieces, Pat. I’ve been told they were the cutest couple together despite the age difference. And, Thomas, well, he was the most adorable little guy. He turned all the girls’ heads here in town. He ended up marrying Elaine.”
    “Elaine?”
    “Elaine Panelli. A local girl. Her parents owned the meat market in town.”
    “The meat market,” I echoed. “The one around the corner from the pool hall and apartment we lived in?”
    “Yes, that one.”
    “I just had a flashback memory of Daddy giving me a quarter and telling me to walk to the meat market and get three pork chops. The butcher would select three meaty ones, wrap it in paper and tie it with string.”
    “They had the freshest meat,” Louise said. “Anyway, your daddy loved Mary with all his heart. What that bitch Irma did to him was evil. Plain evil.”
    “Well, maybe so, but he did cheat on Mary,” I said. “You reap what you sow,” I added.
    “Cheat on Mary? Did Mary tell you that?”
    Looking puzzled, I nodded my head slowly. My brain quickly calculating if maybe I heard Mary wrong. But wait, I couldn’t have. Charles was with me. He heard the same thing.
    “Yes. Mary told us that Daddy messed around with Irma and she held it over his head. He divorced Mary so that they could live in peace.”              
    “After all this time I thought Mary knew the truth. We never speak of it. In fact, you coming here to Iowa is making all this stuff resurface. Stuff we’d just as soon forget about. Lyle didn’t cheat on Mary. Lyle got drunk and Irma made him think something happened between them. That’s the only way she could ever get a man. She was mean, not the most attractive woman, so she stooped to a new low to get a man.”
    “What? He didn’t cheat on Mary. Irma tricked him? That makes total sense to me. I knew he couldn’t have done that to Mary! Louise, you need to contact Mary and tell her the truth. You’ve not been a good friend letting her think the worst about Lyle all these years. Why are you so hell-bent on keeping these dirty little secrets alive, especially ones that aren’t even true?” I said in a snippy tone.              
    She didn’t have an answer for us about her inappropriate behavior. She was dirty herself, and she knew it. It would be up to her to mend the fences with Mary. I hoped she’d do it sooner rather than later, or I’d have to do it for her.
    “I’ll give you by the end of the week to tell Mary the truth. I’ll be checking in on her before we leave,” I vowed. “Is Mary my mother?” I asked pointedly.
    “No, dear. She’s not. We really don’t know who your mother was. Lyle always said you were discovered inside their house after returning from church.”
    I wasn’t sure if I could believe anything Louise said anymore. She’d not been forthright on many things lately.
    I hung my head. I was right back where I started. No more answers than I had a week ago, or a month ago.
    “I can’t believe there isn’t one living person in this damn town who doesn’t know something about me. I didn’t just drop from the sky. I was someone’s child. I had a biological mother and father, and it doesn’t make sense after all these years to still keep it a secret.”
    Charles could tell I was disgusted. He didn’t want me to take it out on Louise, even though he probably didn’t care that much if I did since she had been kind of sneaky. I knew he wanted to keep the communication open with her, though.
    “Listen, Louise, Pat doesn’t mean any harm. She’s feeling a bit frustrated with the turn of events. She finds out that Lyle has been married more than twice, and she finds out she has not only a half-sister but a half-brother. You can imagine her disappointment in not finding out the main reason for our visit here in Iowa, the