Day 4

Day 4

Think of two very different people you know. Invent a character who combines

characteristics of both of them. Then put this character in a stressful family

situation...

Day 4

With all respect to Jody, he behaved like an idiot when his mum started dating again. . Instead of being happy for his mum, after her years of being a single parent, he started to whine and moan each time she went out in the evening. He didn’t seem to realize that she was an adult and could make up her own mind about who she should see or not, he decided that he would control her actions and decide on who she could or could not go out with.

Although his mum was a strong character, since she had been alone for many years – in fact shortly after Jody was born, her then husband had run away with a bottle blonde from down the street, Jody had grown up with a huge chip on his shoulder about men in general and his so-called father in particular. According to Jody a father was someone who stuck around and helped bring up children.

His mother had shown no bitterness against her husband, merely indicating that life had a habit of changing a person’s direction, and that she had Jody to care for, so hadn’t really been alone after all.

Still Jody saw that as a weakness, not a strength, which made him all the more determined to make sure that his mother did not get involved with any other man who was going to leave her in the lurch.

His bitterness and controlling attitude spilled over at his job too; the girls who worked in the same office were constantly being told they shouldn’t go out on dates “ men only wanted one thing, and then they’d leave you with a baby” sort of thing.

His attitude was also that he was going to run this company some day, so everyone had better learn who was the boss- in- waiting, so to speak.

Although everyone knew Jody felt like that, it became worse when his mum started to take advantage of her freedom. And that’s when he started behaving like an idiot. We all knew of his attitude problems, but there were times when he could lose the state of mind and relax , and at those time he could go out for a drink with us, and be relatively good fun.

Not this time; obviously his mum was being courted by a guy who meant something serious to her, and Jody simply couldn’t cope with it. He was so angry inside that it was eating him up; we could see it happening, but nothing any of us said to him, made any difference. He was in a fighting mood all the time, and if he couldn’t control the situation; he was certainly not able to control himself. We watched and waited, knowing that at some time his bitterness and anger was going to spill over, but none of us was ready when it did finally happen.

And none of really knew just how bad it had become till his mum rang up in a terrible state. Jody had gone missing, and she wondered if any of us knew where he might be. She finally called the police in, when he had been missing for 48 hours. They were reluctant to intervene, quoting the fact that he was a grown man, and could have just gone off the rails or found a place to live. We knew that he wouldn’t have just disappeared like that; his mum was too important to him to walk away from; that would have made him the same type as his father. He would have wanted to be where he could control her , he wouldn’t have just left her without telling her where he was going.

Even so, it was still a huge shock to us all, when the police called to say he had been found; he had remained in control after all. They found him in the woods……………… he had controlled his own life – and his death.

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Day 4:

“You did what?!”

Andie winced at her mother’s shrill voice, one she had come to recognize as trouble. A small part of her was relieved she had escaped her mother’s fabled wrath and sharp tongue; she had experienced it many a time before and knew just how damaging it could be. The rest of her was concerned for her younger sister, Mia, who was currently bearing her the full force of their mother’s anger, her arms crossed against her chest defensively.

It had been just the three of them for many years now, their father having left before Mia was born. Although the small, tight knit family got along well, the sisters knew what their mother’s temper was like, having to suffer many a burnt dinner and sharp tug of the hairbrush because of it. They had always banded together in the face of it and Andie didn’t see any reason to change that now.

“I turned down my place at Stanford.” Mia repeated, staring her mother straight in the face.

Andie watched with morbid curiosity as her mother’s face darkened to crimson. She too thought her sister foolish to turn down this opportunity and had told her very loudly and pointedly the mistake she had made when she had been told a week before but now, without anger clouding her judgment, she was starting to feel that maybe this wasn’t a mistake after all. When Mia had told her how she planned to volunteer at an orphanage in Africa for a year, Andie had felt a strange sense of pride settle over her.

She had always known her sister was meant for something more than books and degrees. There was an innate goodness in Mia. Even as a child she had forgone homework in order to nurse an injured bird. It was something she had never quite understood. She had simply humored it, humored her baby sister.

Andie stood from her seat at the table and headed to stand beside her sister. She wouldn’t let her handle this alone.

“Maybe it’s not as bad as you think mum,” she began, trying to placate her mother, “I mean she’ll be out there helping people, making a difference –“

“For once in your life, stay out of this one Andrea. You’ve made your mistakes. Now let me stop your sister from following in your footsteps. “

Out of the corner of her eye, Andie saw her sister tense but ignored it, seething.

How dare her mother bring that up? How dare she?!

“Well I guess it’s hereditary then.” She snapped. She heard her mother’s sharp intake of breath, heard her sister calling her name but she was gone.

She headed to her local library, seeking solace in her studies like she always did. Andie was the brains of the family, much to her mother’s delight, and had a sure place at a law firm if she wanted it, which she was planning to take as soon as she could. It would get her out of this dead beat town and the house she had long found suffocating. It was her ticket to success, her dream for as long she could remember.

It was strange then that suddenly she could no longer see the importance in her plans, her future. The hope of success was bittersweet and Andie couldn’t help but feel she had been outwitted, out maneuvered by her baby sister, the kid who never went to college.