Mr. Groger's Wife

Mikhail Fischer stepped on the aircraft headed for Tennessee. He scowled when his eyes scanned over the dark blue seats in rows of three. 

“Mike, your little sister needs my and your mother’s care. We can’t just leave her behind,” his father had explained. 

“Then couldn’t she just sit with mom instead? And then we could sit together. Or maybe the adult should sit by himself,” Mikhail protested in response. 

“I’m sorry, but your mother needs my support. Remember, your sister suffers from–”

Mikhail’s father was interrupted by a loud groan. “I know, she has hemophilia and bleeds a little from time to time.” The boy looked away, his eyes focusing on anything but his father’s face. This always happened to him.

The father sighed. He hesitated before speaking again to his son.“I’m glad you understand.”

The memory stung Mikhail’s mind with the persistent reminder of his parents’ priorities. He squeezed through the tight aisle without care for how many people he was hitting with his backpack. He could hear his father speaking to him from behind, but Mikhail promptly went to his seat on the back of the plane, the words merging into mush. Behind him, his father watched him with a sympathetic expression that Mikhail had trouble recognizing. He felt his daughter’s hand grabbing his arm and met eyes with his wife’s, enticing him to sit down. He hurriedly finished putting the suitcases in the overhead compartments and sat down.

Mikhail was, to be frank, unhappy. He couldn’t even get the window seat; the view was blocked by a lousy man that looked to be in his mid-thirties with a carefree smile that irritated him to no end. Loud music in his headphones blocked the sound of the safety briefing, and he glowered at the demonstrations the flight attendants showed. When Mikhail felt the plane begin to fly, he put his feet up on the seat in front of him without any regard to the passenger seated there.

The man with the pleasant expression sat two seats away from him. The seat in between the two was empty. Mikhail had initially thought that the vacant seat belonged to a person running late, but that didn’t seem to be the case. 

The teenager was then struck by a brilliant idea: if there was an empty seat next to him, then his father wouldn’t be able to find an excuse not to sit with him, even if it was only for an hour of the flight. Immediately, his face lightened and he sat up straight. He glanced at the seat next to him, excited at the thought of his father sitting with him. Of course, he had the etiquette to ask the man by the window if the seat was free to use. 

“Excuse me,” Mikhail spoke to the man while taking his headphones off and hanging them around his neck. He asked in a smug manner, since he already knew the answer to the question he was about to ask. “Is this seat available?”

The man’s head turned from looking out the window to Mikhail. He gazed upon the boy with kind, warm eyes. “Yes. This is my wife’s seat.”

Mikhail’s expression soured immediately upon hearing the response. The seat was very obviously not being used. He cleared his throat. “The chair is empty.”

The man chuckled slightly before responding, “I’m sorry, but I must insist we keep it that way for my wife.”

Mikhail resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What a selfish guy. “Where’s your wife, anyway? She hasn’t been on this flight at all.”

“She’s on this flight with us right now.”

This man is crazy. Mikhail shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He had spoken to a man who he believed to be schizophrenic, and was now in a moment of awkward silence. He decided to speak again.

“So…is your wife in the bathroom?”

“I wish she was,” the man chuckled. “What’s your name?”

“Mikhail.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Mikhail. My name is Henry Groger,” the man introduced himself with that same unchanging smile on his face. 

The boy nodded awkwardly. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Mr. Groger.”

The two sat in silence for a little bit longer. Mikhail twiddled his thumbs. “Mr. Groger, I don’t think your wife is here.”

To his surprise, the man began to laugh. “Haha! She’s here, alright. You don’t need to worry.”

“There wasn’t any woman around this seat since takeoff,” said Mikhail before pointing under the seat. “Look, there’s no stuff.”

“Why are you so persistent that my wife is missing? I promise you, I’m leaving this seat empty for her.”

The boy sighed. There was no way to convince this man. “Listen, do you think I can borrow it?”

Mr. Groger’s face hardened the slightest bit. “I’m sorry, Mikhail, but I really must leave it empty.”

Mikhail scoffed and slouched in his seat. He glanced at the solemn-looking Mr. Groger out of the side of his eye. “So…what’s your wife like?”

“She’s beautiful. She loves helping people and often buys food for homeless people on the street. I’ve never met a woman with a kinder soul,” responded the man with a pleasant expression. It seemed as though he was quite fond of his wife. “I’m accompanying her to volunteer somewhere right now, actually. That’s why I’m here.”

“Right, right,” Mikhail said with his arms crossed. “Well, I guess it’s good that you have someone you love.”

“It is, son. When you meet people that love you, you need to love them more. It’s the beauty of how we humans work.”

“What if they don’t love you?”

“Then you try your best to connect and, if it doesn’t work, you need to accept it and move on.”

“What if I can’t?”

Mr. Groger’s gaze softened. “Then you need to talk to them and admit that you love them, first.”

Mikhail thought about Mr. Groger’s wife, then about his father. His father, too, was incredibly kind, especially to children. He ran a charity back home that he would donate to homeless shelters.

“My dad’s like that, too. He donates a bunch of money to people in need.”

“Your dad sounds like a good man. Is he on this flight with you? You seem a bit too young to travel by yourself.”

“He is, but he’s sitting with my mom. Y’know, he actually took a hit from a guy in the middle of the streets once because he was protecting a woman from being harassed,” said Mikhail, his eyes beginning to glow. “And he even brought a baby deer home because its leg was broken. He said, ‘all life is beautiful so we need to preserve it.’”

Mr. Groger smiled. “My wife believed the same. She wanted to preserve the harmony of life as well.” He took a deep breath and looked out the window. “We traveled together to many different places. I can still hear her laugh.”

Mikhail glanced at the empty seat in between them. “Is she on a different flight?”

“Mikhail,” said Mr. Groger, “my wife is very much on this flight with us.”

“Alright, alright,” the boy sighed. He glanced down the aisle and saw his father’s hand on the armrest of his seat. His lips pursued.

“Are you seeing family in Tennessee?” Mr. Groger asked, trying to keep up the conversation.

“Yeah,” Mikhail responded, his voice turning bitter. He didn’t want to hear about anything related to his family. “I’m going to see my grandparents,” he lied.

“Ah, the old family connection. I bet you’re excited.”

“Not really,” said Mikhail. His mind began to swarm with thoughts about his parents, their priorities, and his relationship with them.

“Why not? Young men like you should cherish your loved ones,” said Mr. Groger sincerely. However, Mikhail’s face had already begun to contort into a frown. 

“Stop talking to me.”

Upon hearing this, the man took a deep breath and sighed. “Did your family force you to sit alone?”

“I said, shut up.”

“Or is it just that you didn’t want to sit with them?”

“Shut up, old man!”

Mr. Groger closed his mouth. Slowly, he turned to face the seat in front of him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I understand your anger.”

“No you don’t,” Mikhail spoke, seething with rage. “Don’t go around patronizing me! You don’t know a thing about me, and it shows, you…you selfish old geezer!”

He felt tears form at the corners of his eyes and roll down his cheeks, but he no longer cared about embarrassment. Mr. Groger remained surprisingly calm at the boy’s outburst. He clasped his hands together, rested them in his lap, and listened calmly to the rest of Mikhail’s provoked words.

“You think you can sit there with your nonexistent wife? That should be my dad’s seat! He’s more deserving of that seat than your stupid wife that dumped you!”

Silence resonated between Mikhail and Mr. Groger. The only sound they could hear with the sniffling of Mikhail as he wiped his tears. Mr. Groger looked down and let out a shaky breath, waiting for the right moment to speak again.

“Listen, son, I need to explain to you why I left this seat open,” Mr. Groger said softly, as if trying not to startle Mikhail. “My wife, Amy, was an incredibly affectionate person. She believed that all people should help one another. Despite my love, I grew tired of her constant efforts to shape the world instead of focusing on me. We began to fight, and our fighting grew frequent.”

Mr. Groger scoffed, as if he was unable to believe his own story. “One day, I slapped her. I’d never felt more regret or shame in my life. But before I could stop her, she already left the house, got in her car, and pulled out of our driveway. I thought she’d return soon enough, but got a call instead from the hospital. Amy had gotten into a car accident and died. The doctors said she was eligible for organ donations and asked me if I was willing to donate her heart to a patient in Tennessee. Normally, I would have said no, but, knowing Amy, she’d say yes without a second thought. So, I agreed.”

Mikhail’s tears had stopped by now. He was breathing loudly while trying to get his thoughts together.

“I’m sorry, son,” said Mr. Groger. “My wife’s not in this seat, I know. The doctors had the gall to throw her heart into the cargo hold of this plane. I saved a seat for her. I know she’s not physically here, but I had to. I need to send her off with respect.”

The man’s face was full of sorrow, shame, and guilt. He apologized to Mikhail, “If you’d like your father to sit here, then feel free to ask.”

Mikhail’s mouth went dry. He closed his eyes and let a tear roll down his cheek. “It’s okay. Let Amy sit there. She deserves it.”

When Mikhail found his family after getting off the aircraft in the airport, he had a peaceful expression. The family had bunched together at a bench. Mikhail’s mother and sister left to use the bathroom, leaving behind him, his father, and their many suitcases.

Mikhail’s father was riddled with remorse. “Look, Mike, about the flight, why don’t we go home together on the way back?”

“It’s okay, dad. We had to come all this way for Lily’s treatment.”

His father sighed, “I want you to know I’m proud of you, sport. And this trip is tiring, but once it’s over, we can go home and play some ball together.”

“Dad, would you save a seat for me in a New York Mets game, even if I weren’t there?”

“Of course I would, Mike.”

Mikhail nodded and embraced his father in a hug. When his mother and sister returned, Mikhail got down on one knee and spoke to his sister.

“Are you scared?”

Lily, his sister, nodded. She was young enough to understand what treatment she was getting but not old enough to overcome the fear. Mikhail didn’t say anything else, but he held her hand as they left the airport.