I took up the challenge!

1347 words

(c) Ruth Latta 2022

                                    The Elephant in the Room

“Hello-o! I’m back!”

Jacy was sticking a gummed marker on a significant passage in Far from the Madding Crowd when the voice pierced her consciousness. Damn!

“Hello-o!”  

    It came again. Honestly, the woman should get a job yodelling in the Swiss Alps.  Where was Barry?  They’d agreed that he would take his mother out for the afternoon, to the art gallery, while Sheba was having her afternoon nap and Jacy was stealing an hour to work on another chapter of her thesis.

She waited. Perhaps Barry was on his way in and could continue to play host to his mother.  There was also a faint chance that Sheba would be too deep in sleep to be roused by her grandmother’s voice, though it was shrill enough to wake the dead.  Mrs. Maclenahan had been a teacher, and Barry told Jacy, confidentially, that he’d been embarrassed because she’d been known in the school as “Screech” Maclenahan, or “Screech the Teach.”  

If Sheba slumbered on, then Jacy intended to stay at her work. She had exerted herself to please her mother-in-law throughout Christmas week, and felt drained.  Right after New Year’s, when Mrs. Maclenahan was flying back from central Canada to Victoria, Jacy was expected back on campus to present her next chapter to her academic advisor and to go over her teaching assistant assignments for the next semester - basically, a lot of marking.  Her advisor, who knew she was married and the mother of a three year old, seemed to doubt that she was a serious Ph.D. candidate.  Nobody ever asked Barry if he could combine his employment with fatherhood.

Then Jacy heard the patter of little feet. She sighed, saved and closed her file. Her train of thought was derailed anyway. She was out of the bedroom and into the living room to see Grandma Maclenahan scoop up Sheba in her arms.

“You poor little darling. All alone while your Mommy has shut herself away to read!” exclaimed Grandma. “You must have been lonely.”

“I slept with my elephant.” As Grandma released her, Sheba picked up the purple stuffed toy, a gift from her grandmother, and patted its head.

“Why don’t we get you and the elephant some pop and cookies,” trilled Grandma.

“Well, hi there!” cried Jacy, holding out her arms, and felt gratified when Sheba ran to her.  

“Mummy, I’m up. And Grandma’s home.”

“I can see that. Where’s Daddy?”

“Barry went to gas up the car and he let me off first,” Mrs. Maclenahan said, taking off her coat. “It’s cold out there.”

“I’ll put the kettle on.”  

With one little hand in Jacy’s, and her elephant in the other, Sheba accompanied  her mother into the kitchen.  There, Jacy lifted the girl onto her tall chair, a bar stool with a back, actually, which brought Sheba up to adult height at the table. Quickly, Jacy got out milk and arrow-root biscuits instead of the pop and chocolate cookies that Grandma Screech probably had in mind.

Jacy was sure that her mother-in-law had many friends who thought she was a wonderful person, and who valued her opinions and her supervisory tendencies.  She only wished that the older woman had stayed in Victoria with these amigos instead of announcing that she was flying east to be with her only grandchild for Christmas.  The one good thing about the Covid-19 pandemic was that it had kept her at a distance, giving Barry and Jacy a chance to bring up Sheba without a barrage of criticism and advice. Barry was the first to say that his mother was domineering, as if this awareness somehow made her presence easier for Jacy to deal with.

When, just the other day, his mother had said it was a pity that Jacy hadn’t qualified for elementary school teaching instead of academia,” all Barry did was say, “That’s where her interests lie.”  He didn’t say, “Quit criticizing Jacy, Mum. It’s getting old.”

Now, Barry’s mother appeared in the kitchen, just as the kettle came to a boil and shut off. As Jacy poured hot water into two mugs and got out two tea bags, an Earl Grey for Mrs. Maclenahan and a peppermint for herself, her mother-in-law sighed.

“I don’t see why you don’t use the teapot and save on tea bags.”

“Because we don’t like the same flavour.” 

Jacy set the mugs on the table. 

“I’d love one of those chocolate swirl cookies,” Mrs. Maclenahan said.  Jacy glanced at Sheba, who was happily chewing on an arrow-root, then went to the cookie tin, removed a chocolate swirl, and placed it on a serviette in front of her mother-in-law.  She was hoping that Sheba wouldn’t want one, but of course Sheba said, “I want one too.”  As Jacy gave her one, to avoid a fight, she noticed her mother-in-law’s mouth twitching.

“These are delicious even if  not home-baked,” she said. “It’s hard to stop at just one.”

“Let’s not pursue that thought,” Jacy warned. She was no shrinking violet when university students complained about their grades, but she had kept her temper this holiday, not only out of consideration for Barry, but also to set Sheba a good example of civilized behaviour. After a week, though, her patience had eroded.

“I don’t know why you deny ‘Someone’ the pleasure of a sweet treat at holiday time,” said Mrs. Maclenahan.

“Why? Because I don’t want ‘Someone’ to grow up fat, diabetic, hyperactive and with rotten teeth,” Jacy said. "My child, my rules.”

“Your rules?  Do you think you’re a good mother, always with your nose in a book or away on campus?  I didn’t go back to teach until Barry was seven.”

‘And didn’t wean him till he was nine,’ Jacy thought, but did not say.

“And you think you're so smart, planning to be a university professor. When I taught, I did something beneficial for society. I taught generations of children to read. I didn’t spend my time  studying some long-forgotten writer.”

“Actually, he's not forgotten.  Did you see the movie, Tess?  It’s based on Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles.  Did you see Far From the Madding Crowd, starring Carrie Mulligan?  It’s from Hardy’s novel of the same name. Both are fairly recent movies.”

“I don’t waste money going out to movies when I can watch nice, wholesome Hallmark ones them for free on WTN."

“I don’t think movies, or my studies, are the issue here.” Jacy said, “I think you have other issues with me that you won’t articulate.”

She wished Barry would come home; then Screech would be all sweetness and light. Barry thrived on avoidance, though. Likely he’d found a way to prolong his trip to gas up the car,  to avoid his mother.  He would never speak up in Jacy’s defence, though privately he agreed that his mother was hard to take.

“Just what do you see as the elephant in the room?” demanded Barry’s mother.

Jacy hesitated. ‘Your jealousy,’ she could have said. ‘Your controlling, intrusive nature. Your refusal to treat us as adults. Why don’t you focus on your daughter and her partner and get them to reproduce?’  

    But no. Best to rise above it all - and take Sheba to visit her other grandparents and her cousins on New Year’s Day, leaving Barry and his mother to have mother-and-son bonding time.

“Here it is, Mummy. The elephant in the room.”   

Sheba’s little voice broke the silence. She held out the purple elephant to Jacy, who began to laugh.

“You’re right, Sweetie,” she said.

“Do you like your elephant, Honey?” cooed her grandmother.

“I love her.”   Sheba hugged the toy.

“And what is her name?” her grandmother inquired.

Sheba took a deep breath. “The elephant in the room,” she announced, “is Thomas Hardy.”