Requiem for a Secret's Betrayal

Requiem for a Secret's Betrayal

Steve Hirshman and Esther Metz got married in 1939. For the thirty-nine years that

followed, they worked a farm seven miles outside of Gleggston, SD. Five children were born to them during those years, the oldest having been born twenty-one years before the youngest. In 1968 the Hirshmans moved into Gleggston to enjoy the dream home that they had built for their retirement. They had finally arrived. Sixteen years later on a cold December night, right before the New Year, Steve died of a heart-attack, suddenly, peacefully in his bed. Like any small town, people know everybody's history, everybody's business. It was no secret that before Esther, Steve had courted and was engaged to another girl named Mary Scott. It was common knowledge that Mary broke off the engagement suddenly and left town for a very long time. She had gone out west, somewhere in and around Las Vegas. She didn't return until 1977, about seven years before Steve's death. When they were courting back in the 30's, one of their favorite outings was going to farm auctions. Well, fast forward to 1978, all of a sudden, guess who started showing up at farm auctions—Steve and Mary. They didn't arrive or leave together, but they just both happened to show up around the same time and leave at the same time.

And so it was, that at the age of seventy-six, Steve was laid to rest. The turnout at the church was enormous. The Hirshman family was showered with heartfelt condolences, for Steve was a formidable pillar of the Gleggston community. All of the kids were there, including the two son-in-laws, the husbands of Carol and Sharon. Sharon was the ring leader in all of the proceedings having to do with the carrying out of the funeral arrangements. She was the one who thought she had always cornered the market on being “daddy's girl”. She was the one who was most interested in the stories about Steve and Mary making rounds on the auction circuit. None of the Hirshman children knew much of anything about the existence of Mary Scott. People talk, but they don't talk about what they talk about--when--what they are talking about-- is you-- as you are standing in front of them. That is small town, anywhere USA.

Everyone was around for the next four days getting everything sorted out. Based on what little information Sharon had about Mary Scott, she decided that she would pay Mary a visit if Mary agreed to see her. To her pleasant surprise, Mary was more than happy to meet with Sharon. Mary had never met any of Steve's children. Of course she knew Esther from a distance, as their paths had never really ever crossed, and Mary had been gone for so many, many years. Mary eagerly answered the knock at her door. “Oh my goodness, you look so much like your dad,” was the immediate reaction that escaped Mary's excited breath. “Yes, I get told that a lot,” agreed Sharon. “It is so very nice of you to come let me visit for a little while.” “Oh, the pleasure is all mine,” Mary assured. “I imagine that you kids will be kept pretty busy the next few days getting things organized for your mother. How is she doing, by the way?” “Well, all things considered, she's doing pretty good. This was all such a sudden unexpected shock.

You know, dad was feeling fine right up to the day that he died. Earlier that day he helped push Ed Munterfering's car out of a snowbank. Later that evening he said that he didn't feel good. Mom said that he ate a light supper of rice and chicken soup and then went to bed early. In the middle of the night when she got up to use the bathroom, she looked over at dad and saw that he was gone. It all went just that quick.” Sharon choked back her tears.

“Well, what more can be said about dyeing pain free in your own bed, other than it's a reward for a life well lived. It's hell on the family, but a blessing for the one who left this world,” assured Mary.

Mary ushered Sharon to the comfort of her sofa, and Sharon got to the point of her visit. “Mary, I know that you were engaged to be married to my dad. Word has it that you broke it off suddenly without much of an explanation other than that you decided that you didn't want to be a farmer's wife. I just can't help wondering, is that what really happened with you and Steve? It just seems so extreme.”

There was a long pause as Mary got up, walked across the room to retrieve a photograph from a small trinket box. Sitting back down beside Sharon, she held the photograph to

her breast saying, “He was the absolute love of my life!” She held the photograph out for Sharon to see. There they were, forty-seven years ago, two beautiful, young people holding hands at a social gathering, having eyes only for one-another, obviously very much in love. “Well, what happened? Why did you break the engagement? Why did you leave?” Sharon wanted answers.

“Well,” Mary began pensively, “Back then, “nice” girls didn't have sex before marriage. I was determined to up-hold that standard. Steve was sometimes pressuring me— because kissing and hugging can sometimes get a little bit out-of-hand, if you don't put the breaks on. But he never pressed to the point that it became unmanageable. Well, we loved to go to the Milltown dance hall on Friday nights. This was one of those Friday nights. The joint was really jumping, we were havin' a good time. We had been carrying on with some of our friends at a drink table when Steve said that he was gonna go “out for a smoke”. Well, I stayed behind and continued to chat with our friends, when I suddenly became aware that I had started “my time of the month”. I had anticipated that this might happen, so I had come prepared. I had put a Kotex napkin in the glove box of Steve's car. So, I had to go to the car to get what I needed. And that's when I saw them. As I was walking toward the car, I saw the shadow of two figures in the back seat of the car. I stopped dead in my tracks, and did not go any closer. I just stood there in shock. Pretty soon the car began to move in a rocking motion as the shadows disappeared deeper down into the back seat! I backed up as fast as I could. I was shaking and weak in the knees. What was my Steve doing with some hussy in that backseat? How could this be? He was getting from her, whoever she was, what I was holding back, what I was saving for our wedding night! I was crushed! I had all I could do to get myself together to go back into that dance hall, sit back down with our friends and act like nothing happened! It wasn't too long after that, Steve came back to the table, sat back down and acted like nothing happened. The ride back home from the dance was pretty chilly, let me tell you. Steve kept asking what was wrong. I just said I wasn't feeling well and blamed it on “my time of the month. We kissed goodnight and said that we would see

each other on Sunday. I couldn't sleep that night. I was devastated!” Mary had exhausted her composure reliving such a painful memory from so long ago. She excused herself to go to the kitchen to blow her nose and retrieve a glass of water. Left seated on the sofa sat Sharon, eyes as wide as saucers, mouth agape. Now she really needed some answers! “So, you never told him what you saw?” “No, I never ever did tell Steve what I saw,” Mary replied half apologetically. “Why on Earth didn't you?,” Sharon's tone rose an octave. “Well, you see, back then you just didn't talk about things like that. It was too embarrassing, too shameful. What could I do? How could I marry a man who was unfaithful to me even before we were married? I decided that I had to leave. I had to get away. Telling Steve what I saw wouldn't have changed anything,” confirmed Mary. “I had a cousin in Las Vegas. He had gone out there to work on building the Hoover Dam. He and his buddies went to Vegas to let off steam after work hours. He told me that there was lots of work out there for gals in the gambling casinos. I decided that was my next step. I wrote him a letter explaining my wanting to get away. He told me how to go about purchasing the railroad tickets, first for the Chicago & North Western, from there catching the Union Pacific line all the way to Vegas. And with that, I was on my way,” Mary concluded.

Sharon remained undaunted and determined “How did you tell my dad that your were leaving? How did you break up with him?”

“It was the hardest thing I ever did,” countered Mary. “I told him that I had changed my mind about how I wanted my life to be. I told him that I didn't want to be a farmer's wife. I told him that my cousin was going to help me get a job in the casinos and that my mind was made up.”

“So you left and lead a whole other life from the one that you had planned to live,” Sharon concluded. “Yes, that's right,” Mary agreed. “It turned out to be quite an interesting life too. It was so different from anything I'd ever seen in South Dakota. I worked for quite a few years in the casino as a black jack dealer. I married a nice man that I met at the casino. His name was Frank. He managed the beverage service for the

casino's bar. We were pretty happy. Then he developed lung cancer and died just three days before our 12th anniversary. After all that I couldn't go on at the casino. It just held too many memories. I decided that maybe getting out of the state all together for something new might really do me good. Since there were no kids to consider, I picked up and moved to Dallas, TX. Things were really shakin' down there at the time. The whole state was moving from rural to urban. Cities were springing up overnight. It was a very exciting time for new ideas and a whole new life-style. I got a job as a telephone operator. In a lot of ways it was a lot like being a black-jack dealer. You had to be quick on the draw. Well, it wasn't too long after I got that job that I met Roy. Roy was a supervisor at one of the big textile factories that was doing a bang-up business. He was in charge of no less than 100 employees, most of them women. I met him through one of his employees who was a friend of mine. Roy and I dated for about a year and got married. We had 20 happy years together before a heart attack took him from me. That was a hard pill to swallow. It took me a long time to make sense of it, to get myself together. Now by this time I was close to retirement. Roy and I didn't have any kids either. So I took my time in making my decisions. I had some money and some good lady friends to travel around with. I had memberships in some nice clubs, learned to play golf and all that sort of thing. It was a nice life. But for some reason, and I really don't know why, around the time that I was close to turning 70, I started thinking more about my roots back in South Dakota. All throughout the years, I had been in touch with my sister Marge. She kept encouraging me to come back to be with her and our brother Max. Well, it worked on me over the years and in 1977 I moved back to Gleggston. And the rest, as they say, is history.”

Her seat, becoming increasingly uncomfortable, Sharon rose to take her leave. She thanked Mary profusely for this rare, candid interview, realizing that its emotional effects would require some “recovery” time.

Sharon's visit had its own effects on Mary. For over forty years, she'd kept the secret about why she left Steve. Now that Steve was gone maybe it was time for her to

unburden herself. She went to see her sister Marge. Over the years, Marge had kept Mary in the loop about what was going on with Steve. Mary was aware that he married Esther Horstman after a year-long courtship. Marge told her that they had 5 children, the oldest suffered brain damage from some sort of birth trauma. Mary knew that in 1968 Steve and Esther moved to town into the dream house that they had built for their retirement. She also knew that Steve still painted houses in the summertime. He did it more as a hobby than for the money. He was good at it and it kept him busy. So yeah, maybe it was time for Mary to tell her truth to somebody, somebody trustworthy, somebody like her sister Marge. Why not after all these years? It would be good to have a come to Jesus moment and reveal just why she ran away all those years ago. And so the sisters sat in Marge's front parlor on a gray January day to talk about the events of recent days and Steve's passing, with Marge comforting Mary in what she knew was an emotional time for her sister. “I've come to tell you something,” Mary began. “It's time for me to tell you after all these many decades the truth about why I left Steve.” Somewhat startled Marge recited the oft-told reason, “Well, I thought it was because you suddenly got crazy about living the high life and ran off to Las Vegas to go find it.” “Well, that's not really true,” Mary corrected. From there she went on to reveal what she saw that fateful night back in 1937. Marge's face was a mask of contorted disbelief. “Oh my God, Mary! Oh my God! Mary, do you remember all that gossip about Harry Wentzel and Gloria Goldhammer, about how they “had to get married” because Gloria was pregnant? I'm sure I wrote to you about it. It was the scandal of the year! They got married about 6 months after you left and Gloria had the baby about 7 months later. Mary, Mary, now you sit here and tell me that you never told Steve about what you saw in the car that night? If you would have, you would know that it was not Steve in the back seat of that car. It was Harry! You know Harry never had a car back in those days. He always hitch-hiked to those Milltown dances! Steve was being “a pal” and just let him use his car to “get cozy” with Gloria. Oh God, then you came along in the dark, and saw what you thought you saw. And the rest is history!” THE END