Turnabout Mother, Part 3
Careful. Here's where it starts to get rough.
Rewind back to the summer of 2009, or alternately fast-forward about six or seven months after the last story took place. Enter mother, returning from the doctor's office.
She tells me she has macular degeneration, and will be blind in a few years. And, due to genetics, she already knew she was going deaf. My grandmother had it, her mother had it. As far back as I can tell, it's a females in the family thing.
Mom talked about my grandmother a lot, and how she feels she's turning into her. In confidence, I asked if that was a good thing, and she said in some ways. She also mentioned hoping to be in West Virginia again someday.
After this, Mom and Rick started to fight a lot. I only heard bits and pieces; when I would come near the room, they would clam up. If Meegan was in the house, Rick would fight with her instead, implying nothing was really new. But I knew better than that. At one point, Rick got so mad he threatened to leave. Mom said something like "Well if you take off don't think you can come back here." And then Rick pointed around the corner of the room, about where I was hiding and eavesdropping. "If I go, so does his tuition. And you'll have two kids who never finished college."
Mom shut up after this. I didn't hear them fight with this intensity any longer. Whenever a fight ensued, volumes were dropped about ten decibals. I would hear Mom saying she wanted to go to West Virginia, with the faintest of desperation in her voice, and Rick would say he wanted everyone to stay here. And that was the end of that.
Mom cried a little bit more, and we all stopped fighting with Rick. Mom would even stop us if we went too far - she loved Meegan and me too much to see us jeopardize our futures. Yet, for some reason, it was hard to believe she loved herself in this period. Meegan moved back home with no job and no future as always, and this time Mom gave in to all of her childish needs. Instead of taking her job hunting, she got her nails done. She bought new clothes. All with Rick's money, of course. I guess if the threat of him leaving was a threat of the family's finances leaving, Rick staying meant the family having stuff. The family stopped being a family, and starting being a business transaction.
You know what I thought it was? I thought it was that mom was going blind and deaf, and that she wanted to move to where she grew up to spend her last years with sight and hearing. You know, soak up the places she loved. The people she loved. The people that loved her. Rick, from what I could tell, was a workaholic that just wanted to stay here for his career. Moving meant starting over. It made sense - in the last few years, Rick had spent more time out of the house than in it. He'd get up to go to work at about seven in the evening and come home at nine in the evening. That translates to fourteen hours out of the house, ten in. He spent more time where he worked than here.
For the most part, Rick usually came home successful. This journal has heard me express concerns of money all the time - usually only in the context of getting back to Wooster - but at the end of the day, we always had food on the table. And considering that period where Mom didn't have a job for eight years, Rick was all we had. So, whatever he was doing out there, he was good at it.
until next time,
Chalkey
Rewind back to the summer of 2009, or alternately fast-forward about six or seven months after the last story took place. Enter mother, returning from the doctor's office.
She tells me she has macular degeneration, and will be blind in a few years. And, due to genetics, she already knew she was going deaf. My grandmother had it, her mother had it. As far back as I can tell, it's a females in the family thing.
Mom talked about my grandmother a lot, and how she feels she's turning into her. In confidence, I asked if that was a good thing, and she said in some ways. She also mentioned hoping to be in West Virginia again someday.
After this, Mom and Rick started to fight a lot. I only heard bits and pieces; when I would come near the room, they would clam up. If Meegan was in the house, Rick would fight with her instead, implying nothing was really new. But I knew better than that. At one point, Rick got so mad he threatened to leave. Mom said something like "Well if you take off don't think you can come back here." And then Rick pointed around the corner of the room, about where I was hiding and eavesdropping. "If I go, so does his tuition. And you'll have two kids who never finished college."
Mom shut up after this. I didn't hear them fight with this intensity any longer. Whenever a fight ensued, volumes were dropped about ten decibals. I would hear Mom saying she wanted to go to West Virginia, with the faintest of desperation in her voice, and Rick would say he wanted everyone to stay here. And that was the end of that.
Mom cried a little bit more, and we all stopped fighting with Rick. Mom would even stop us if we went too far - she loved Meegan and me too much to see us jeopardize our futures. Yet, for some reason, it was hard to believe she loved herself in this period. Meegan moved back home with no job and no future as always, and this time Mom gave in to all of her childish needs. Instead of taking her job hunting, she got her nails done. She bought new clothes. All with Rick's money, of course. I guess if the threat of him leaving was a threat of the family's finances leaving, Rick staying meant the family having stuff. The family stopped being a family, and starting being a business transaction.
You know what I thought it was? I thought it was that mom was going blind and deaf, and that she wanted to move to where she grew up to spend her last years with sight and hearing. You know, soak up the places she loved. The people she loved. The people that loved her. Rick, from what I could tell, was a workaholic that just wanted to stay here for his career. Moving meant starting over. It made sense - in the last few years, Rick had spent more time out of the house than in it. He'd get up to go to work at about seven in the evening and come home at nine in the evening. That translates to fourteen hours out of the house, ten in. He spent more time where he worked than here.
For the most part, Rick usually came home successful. This journal has heard me express concerns of money all the time - usually only in the context of getting back to Wooster - but at the end of the day, we always had food on the table. And considering that period where Mom didn't have a job for eight years, Rick was all we had. So, whatever he was doing out there, he was good at it.
until next time,
Chalkey