Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum Series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: The whole Helen/Ellen issue has bothered me. This was the solution I came up with a while ago to resolve it for myself. For some reason, today my Muse decided it needed to be shared.
Rating: Suitable for people over 13 (just to be safe)
Feedback: Email TT
Secrets Of The 'Burg
By TT
I sat in the painfully familiar kitchen in my parents house and couldn’t help but wonder when I had stepped into the twilight zone.
The three women sitting across from me had just turned my world upside down. I had just been let in the biggest secret of the Burg.
“Not the biggest secret,” Grandma Mazur stated. “But one of them.”
I could feel my jaw drop open. “One of them?” I squeaked.
A sigh escaped my mother – I think she was my mother. I wasn’t entirely sure anymore.
Grandma reached across the table and covered my hand with her own. “Helen is your mother,” she said, indicating the woman on her left. “Ellen is your Aunt and Valerie’s mother,” she continued indicating the woman on her right.
“But, Daddy…” I stammered.
“Frank is married to Ellen, but he isn’t father to either of you,” Helen inserted.
I looked at the woman, my mother, and had no idea what to say. “But, why? Does he know? Were you always here? What… Why…?” I asked. I was so confused.
Earlier that evening, I had been having dinner at home. I had to race out to follow up on a lead for one of my skips. In my haste, I’d left my apartment keys and phone here at my parent’s house – or what I thought was my parent’s house.
By the time I was finished dropping my skip off, I had realized I was missing my phone and keys and headed back to my parent’s house to get them.
I slipped into the house and made my way to the kitchen where I found my mother and my mother sitting at the table talking. Grandma Mazur walked in before I could say another word.
That’s how I ended up sitting at the kitchen table across from three of my closest female relatives.
I wanted some answers.
Leaning back in my chair, I was able to shake off some of my shock. I crossed my arms in front of me and borrowed a line from Ranger’s book. “Explain,” I commanded.
Mom and Mom… er … both Ellen and Helen smiled at the command.
It was Granma Mazur who began the explanation, though.
“I was a little girl when my family moved to this country,” Grandma explained. “I grew up here and always considered myself American, but when I got older, I found out the government didn’t consider me a citizen, so I would have to become one. I met your Grandpa during one of the citizenship classes I had to take. We hit it off immediately.”
This was a story I hadn’t heard before. I was fascinated.
“Well, he was a hottie, but there was so much more than that to him – to us,” she continued, a wistful look in her eye. “We got married the day after we became citizens and were bound and determined to do whatever we could for our new country.
“When World War 2 came along, we knew we would do whatever was required to help our family still in Europe. When Pearl Harbor happened, it became our war, too, and we wanted to do what we could for our country.
“I won’t go into all the details, but your grandpa and I ended up working intelligence for the government. Our connections not only in the community, but overseas and through our citizenship classes, put us in a position of receiving and disbursing large amounts of data.
“As you know, we won World War 2, but a new threat was on the horizon and we had acquired a taste for the game.
“We stayed in and did what we could. I eventually had to drop out when I became pregnant.
“Back then there was no way to tell if you were going to have twins or not, so when the girls were born, I was shocked to say the least. With two babies to take care of, I had no choice but to stay home and your grandpa pulled back a bit from the missions he was still running.
“We still did our bit, but our lives were the girls – at least for a while.” Grandma reached to either side and grasped her daughters’ hands before continuing her story.
“At the time, we were living just outside Chicago,” she informed. “You never knew that, did you? But that’s where we were from before we moved here.”
“A situation came up here in Chambersburg that our family was needed for. The only problem was that Helen was sick at the time and in the hospital. She couldn’t be moved and we didn’t want to leave her, but the job was too important. So, I left Helen in my sister’s care and we moved here. Our cover was as a family of three.
“By the time Helen was able to travel, we were already so involved that we couldn’t just introduce another little girl,” Grandma’s voice was getting weaker and Ellen went to get her a drink of water.
Helen took over at this point. “As you can tell, Ellen and I are monozygotic twins.”
“Super-identical,” Ellen inserted. She must have noticed the blank look on my face.
“So, we were used to playing jokes on people from a very young age,” Helen continued. “Even Papa couldn’t tell us a part, only Mama. So, when I wanted to see my family or spend time with them, Ellen was sent out to Chicago and I would take her place here in Chambersburg.”
“It wasn’t the best solution,” Grandma said, sadness weighing down her normally perky voice, “ but it was the only solution we had at the time.”
Ellen picked up the thread of conversation now. “When the people who Mama and Papa worked for found out what we were doing, they decided they could use it to their benefit. So Helen and I went through some training.”
Grandma’s lips were pinched at the memory. “It wasn’t what we wanted for our daughters, but we didn’t have much choice.”
Helen squeezed Grandma’s hand. “Ellen is terrific at the research and analysis,” she informed.
“Helen excels in the field,” Ellen added.
“When Ellen found out she was pregnant with Valerie, she was approached about having a third generation involved, but it wasn’t a life she wanted for her child, and I had to agree,” Helen explained.
“Frank and I met before I knew I was pregnant and we fell in love. He was good enough to marry me and we made a home here,” Ellen added. “Helen was away when we got married and we were so used to not telling anyone about the other existing, it just never occurred to me to tell your father.”
“When I found out I was pregnant a little bit later, I was approached with the same deal, but, like Ellen, I didn’t want that life for my child,” she said. A wry smile appeared on her face when she added, “I should have known better. You found something almost more dangerous on your own.”
Ellen interrupted, “We discussed all the option. Helen wasn’t at a point where she could retire. So, we did what we had done for years, we swapped places.”
My jaw dropped open. “You swapped places? Didn’t Daddy know?”
“Ellen and I have always acted and reacted similarly to situations. We went over her life in extreme detail over a few weeks while Frank was at work. Anything I got wrong or that seemed off, we would just blame on the pregnancy,” Helen explained.
“It worked right up until Frank found out about the pregnancy. It turns out he couldn’t have children and thought I had stepped out on him. We didn’t have any choice but to inform him of the whole situation. He agreed to play along, though he was far from happy about it. After you were born, Helen and I switched back,” Ellen informed.
A million questions were swirling in my mind, but I wasn’t sure how to ask any of them. I decided to open my mouth and just let the questions find their own way out. “Is that why you’re so extreme?” I asked. Huh. I wonder where that came from.
“We’ve played roles our whole lives,” Helen informed, sounding sad. “We discovered that the more of a stereotype or character we were, the easier it was for us to slip in and out of it.”
“So, dinner ever night at six, the ironing, being the perfect ‘Burg wife…” I said, my voice trailing off.
“Made it easier for us to switch off,” Ellen informed.
“And pushing me and Joe together?” I wondered.
They exchanged a look and Ellen nodded at Helen to answer that one. When Helen looked like she would resist, Ellen prompted, “She’s your daughter.”
“Fine,” Helen said, with a sigh. “Since you’ve started bounty hunting, the people we work for have shown an increasing interest for you. The fact that you’re working so closely with Carlos has heightened that interest even more.”
“Carlos,” I asked, stunned. “Ranger? My Ranger?”
Ellen’s mouth twitched and Helen just sighed. “He doesn’t know about us, but he has worked with some of the same people over the years,” she admitted. “Joe, on the other hand, represents a chance for a life firmly outside the one we have lived our whole lives.”
“So, Helen decided we would push you toward Joseph if we could and try to steer you away from anything that might involve you more with Carlos,” Ellen answered. “Only she’s not around to see how you and Joseph are together.”
“He’s the better option,” Helen snapped at her sister.
“You’ve never been married,” Ellen snapped back. “How would you know what would make for a good marriage? You supported Dickie before I could do the background check on him.”
“Girls,” Grandma Mazur called. Looking me in the eye she said, “The life we’ve led isn’t pretty or glamorous. It’s not even exciting or thrilling most of the time. This life is one of shadows and half-truths. It is something we never wanted for you or Valerie.”
I studied her eyes for a few minutes before something else dawned on me. “That’s why you come on so strong to Ranger,” I stated. “You’re trying to chase him away or turn me off or something.” Grandma said nothing, just met my eyes, her own blank, but I knew it was true. I thought about what they’d said and remembered a lot of what Ranger said. He was trying to scare me off too. So many people were trying to keep us apart, it made me wonder why we were still so drawn together. I shook those thoughts off, I had enough to deal with right now. “So now what?” I asked, exhaustion suddenly sweeping over me.
The three women exchanged a look and sighed.
“Now we’ll have to report back to our bosses that you know about what’s going on,’ Helen said.
“That’s going to make it easier to recruit you,” Ellen added quietly.
Grandma wasn’t so easily convinced. “She’s a local celebrity. With the press she gets, it’s going to be hard to keep her under the radar,” she stated. “I’m sure if you check, you’ll see Carlos has had to scale back his activities since Scrog got his face plastered all over the news – if they’re keeping him active at all.”
“They will for his planning and insight if nothing else,” Ellen stated. “He knows his stuff.”
“Yeah, but he’ll hate being out of the field,” Helen added. The look on her face told me she knew what she was talking about.
“So I’ll sign some papers, say no to being recruited and that’s the end of it, right?” I asked.
I received three pitying looks.
“Not quite,” Ellen said.
“You do understand you can never tell anyone about this, don’t you?” Grandma asked.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I’d choose not to tell myself either if I could,” I mumbled.
“You also realize that we’re not going to be able to treat you any differently than we have in the past?” Ellen asked.
I sighed. “I know,” I answered. “But now that I know there are two of you, what do I call you?”
“You still call both of us Mom,” Helen answered. “It’s who we’ve both been to you regardless of which of us is here.”
“Now that I know, do I get to find out about who you really are?” I asked, curious about who both women really were and wondering who my father was.
“We’ll see,” Grandma answered. “Why don’t you go home now and we can discuss more of this tomorrow.”
“O. K.,” I agreed rising from my seat. I had a lot to think about between now and then.
I headed for the door, but looked back over my shoulder at the three most important women in my life and realized there was a lot more to them than I’d ever dreamed. Part of me was in awe and part of me wondered if I was a disappointment to them, if I’d failed to live up to their standards, their legacy.
“You could never disappoint us,” Ellen said, obviously reading my thoughts.
I couldn’t help but smile at the warmth that flooded through me at her comment. Those were words I so desperately needed to hear, but never thought I would.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said, looking at both sisters.
With a new spring in my step, I left the house and made my way to my car.
After all these years, I’d finally found out one of Chambersburg’s biggest secrets and it had been in my own home the whole time.
Turning key in the ignition, I headed off for my apartment. I really did have a lot to think over, not the least of which was, who in the world were Helen, Ellen and Grandma Mazur. I hoped they’d let me find out.
End