{"id":3602,"date":"2013-12-30T15:04:34","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T21:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/?page_id=3602"},"modified":"2026-02-23T01:06:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T06:06:39","slug":"mina05","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/extras\/vignettes-outtakes\/confessions\/mina05\/","title":{"rendered":"Mrs Hollander Stakes Her Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WINTER 1987<\/p>\n

Mina: 18
\nAllentown, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

WELL, HER MOTHER was right about one thing: The books and movies lied.<\/p>\n

\u201cKinda awkward, huh?\u201d Mitch said hesitantly as they lay in bed together Saturday night, naked. The room stank. They don\u2019t tell you that in books and movies. He reached for her hand and twined her fingers in his.<\/p>\n

She pulled the covers up over her body, and wondered if it would be impolite to get up and put her garments back on. \u201cYeah, it kinda hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he was. His voice was full of regret and confusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe it\u2019ll get better,\u201d she said, not really believing that, but she loved this man and so it wouldn\u2019t matter anyway. As long as she got her babies.<\/p>\n

And him.<\/p>\n

And a life together.<\/p>\n

And not Greg.<\/p>\n

They tried again a couple of times over the weekend. They figured out another couple of things, but it didn\u2019t really get better<\/em>. Not like the books and movies.<\/p>\n

But whatever Mina didn\u2019t care for about that<\/em>, it disappeared the minute she stepped into their apartment late Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you don\u2019t mind,\u201d Mitch said hesitantly. \u201cMy mom and sisters came in and kind of cleaned, and spread your stuff around. Maybe so you\u2019d feel more at home because you didn\u2019t get a chance to do it before we left.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was so touched she started to cry, and she turned into Mitch, knowing he thought she was crying in the bad way but unable to explain it right then, and he apologized. Kept apologizing.<\/p>\n

No, she wouldn\u2019t mind being isolated from her family with Mitch.<\/p>\n

Monday morning she started at a new high school\u2014an inner city school\u2014with a new name and a ring on her finger. It was an odd feeling, but she kind of liked the looks of shock on the faces of her teachers when they said, \u201cMiss Hollander,\u201d and she said, \u201cActually, that\u2019s Mrs. I\u2019m married.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homeroom was so shocked, the girl in front of her turned around and said, \u201cWhen are you due?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mina stared at her. \u201cDue? I just got here. I don\u2019t have anything due.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, your baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mina felt herself blush dark red. \u201cI\u2019m not, uh, I\u2019m not pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure you ain\u2019t. Okay, when\u2019d you have your baby?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a baby.\u201d Then it dawned on her. \u201cI didn\u2019t have<\/em> to get married, if that\u2019s what you\u2019re asking. I wanted to. So I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was foreign to everyone, and no less Mina and Mitch and their parents. Paperwork was a nightmare, since Mitch, barely twenty-one, was, for a few things, nominally Mina\u2019s legal guardian now and would be until she turned twenty-one.<\/p>\n

\u201cUgh,\u201d he said when he realized that.<\/p>\n

They stayed up late at night at their kitchen table, going over their finances. Mina had never had to learn how to handle money. If she wanted something, she told her mother, and her mother made sure she got it, but she knew that wouldn\u2019t work with Mitch.<\/p>\n

He had no money.<\/p>\n

Well, he had some, but it was collecting interest in a savings account.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a friend,\u201d he said, \u201cmy best friend, actually. He knows this stuff. Taught me what to do and how to do it. When we get enough, I\u2019ll start investing it and we\u2019ll get student loans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut \u2026 that costs interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interest we make on our investments is more than the interest we would pay on student loans. Watch. You watch. We\u2019ll make money on our debt. It\u2019s called arbitrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

They could have stayed with Mitch\u2019s parents, but they would be in the same ward and stake as her father and Greg, and neither of them wanted that headache.<\/p>\n

Mitch would sketch out his plans so he could show Mina, and she would get excited that she could help if<\/em> she learned how to be frugal, how to cook, how to pinch pennies until they screamed. It was more fun than calculus, although it took a great deal more discipline than calculus did.<\/p>\n

She had to learn how to use the public library and public transportation, what there was of it. She took Mitch to work when she got home from school, and picked him up from work the next morning because he wouldn\u2019t let her go without a car. In the afternoons, she\u2019d go shopping at thrift stores and grocery stores and figured out how to most effectively spend what little they had.<\/p>\n

She never, ever wanted to give Mitch a reason to be sorry he\u2019d married her, especially after the afternoon she\u2019d met up with Inez Guerrero at the grocery store. She was decked out in clothes that Mina recognized as designer, and expensive. She would never forget the way Mitch had kissed Inez the first night she had become aware of Mitch as a person and not a name.<\/p>\n

\u201cMina?\u201d Inez said when Mina attempted to pass her with her head down. She wasn\u2019t dressed anywhere near the way Inez was. Mitch had told her when she dropped him off at the mill that she looked hot, and she believed him. Then.<\/p>\n

Not now.<\/p>\n

\u201cMina Monroe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mina gulped and looked up into Inez\u2019s smiling face, but the smile didn\u2019t seem right. It seemed \u2026 sad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, Inez. I didn\u2019t\u2014 Uh, I didn\u2019t know you knew who I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughed. \u201cOh, everybody always knows the bishop\u2019s kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mina flinched.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I\u2019m sorry. Did I say something wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, well, I\u2019m not really a bishop\u2019s kid anymore. I, uh\u2014\u201d Got kicked out of the family.<\/em> \u201cI got married,\u201d she said abruptly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou did?\u201d she exclaimed, half puzzled, half delighted. \u201cWell, that\u2019s \u2026 good, right? Who\u2019s the lucky guy?\u201d<\/p>\n

And jealousy hit her in the gut. Hard. She looked Inez square in the eye and said, \u201cMitch Hollander.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inez\u2019s smile dropped and she drew back a bit. \u201cAh,\u201d she said after a bit. \u201cUm, well. Congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ll fight you for him,\u201d Mina blurted.<\/p>\n

Her mouth tightened, but she shrugged and looked away. \u201cI had my chance,\u201d she said. \u201cHe asked me<\/em> to marry him, but I said no. I<\/em> wanted more than what he could give me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mina felt like she\u2019d been kicked in the head.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the night you saw us making out in the parking lot.\u201d Her face flushed deep red, but Inez only laughed. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s terrible in bed, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you saying these things to me?\u201d Mina whispered. \u201cWhat have I done to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou took the only good thing I had left.\u201d Inez flicked her gaze up and down Mina\u2019s shabbily dressed body. \u201cBut clearly you aren\u2019t living on daddy\u2019s money, so I\u2019m not sure what he sees in you. What, was he rescuing you? He has a terrible rescue complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Mina got it.<\/p>\n

Why Mitch wanted to get her away from Greg and her father.<\/p>\n

Because she<\/em> wanted to get Mitch away from this woman, but she would also have to get this woman out of his mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rescue?<\/p>\n

Maybe so, but Mitch needed as much rescuing as Mina did, and she was the only one who could do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou listen to me good, girl. He loves me. He\u2019s loved me <\/em>since he was fourteen, and marrying a little girl still in high school, wearing rags and pretending to know how to be thrifty, isn\u2019t going to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mina gulped. Okay, maybe Mitch still had a thing for Inez, but if he did, he hid it well, and in the those moments when he was inside her, stayed still, and they were kissing and she could concentrate on how good he felt against her, in her, his tongue in her mouth\u2014and not how much it hurt her whole body when he moved\u2014she knew who he loved.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay what you want, Inez,\u201d Mina said, with suddenly clarity of exactly who had the power here and how to wield it in this case, no matter how much against the grain it went, \u201cbut I\u2019m the one he married. He sleeps with me<\/em>.\u201d Mina saw her flush underneath her creamy olive complexion and suddenly felt<\/em> powerful. But her dignity would not allow her to take any more cheap shots. \u201cGood evening, Inez.\u201d<\/p>\n

She walked away.<\/p>\n

THE LETTER SHOULD have hurt, but it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It was from her father\u2019s lawyer, apprising her of her place in the family, which was to say, she had no place. Her trust had been converted back to the family trust. She had been cut out of the will. She was not welcome to the family\u2019s home, and if she showed up, she would be escorted off the property and, likely, arrested for trespassing.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t hurt because Mina had just graduated from high school with honors, having lettered in soccer. Coach Leonard and her teammates, her new ward family, and Mitch\u2019s family had shown up to give her a big surprise party.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t hurt because Mina was too busy packing for their move to Missouri. Mitch was pulling double shifts at the mill, and they had a good nest egg to start there. It was cheaper there where they were going, and Mitch had a long, detailed letter from his clever friend telling him exactly what to do with their student loans and how to do it.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t hurt because her in-laws had welcomed her into the family genuinely if a bit gingerly, as if they expected her to be a rich witch spoiled brat. Mina might miss the finer things in life (desperately, at times), but she was a good girl and she knew how to act, especially when her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law were helping her pack.<\/p>\n

It also didn\u2019t hurt because Mina was pregnant.<\/p>\n

Her life was just starting now, in a new place with her new husband and a baby on the way. They could use a little\u2014okay, a lot<\/em>\u2014more money, but otherwise, it was all she\u2019d ever dreamed of.<\/p>\n

Mitch had made her dreams come true.<\/p>\n

Now it was time to make his come true.<\/p>\n

★<\/p>\n

\nMina Part 1<\/a>
\nMina Part 2<\/a>
\nMina Part 3<\/a>
\nMina Part 4<\/a>
\nMina Part 5<\/span>
\nMina Part 6<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
20260223<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINTER 1987 Mina: 18 Allentown, Pennsylvania WELL, HER MOTHER was right about one thing: The books and movies lied. \u201cKinda awkward, huh?\u201d Mitch said hesitantly as they lay in bed together Saturday night, naked. The room stank. They don\u2019t tell you that in books and movies. He reached for her hand and twined her fingers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1599,"menu_order":4315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3602","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23580,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3602\/revisions\/23580"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}