“And maybe,” Brett
continued, “You decided that children were not your priority. It happens. There are a lot of women who
really don’t want the traditional family life.
They want their careers and nothing else matters. Perhaps, that’s where you are.”
“And maybe,” Taryn
croaked, her voice dry, “We should all just mind our own business. After all, who are we to tell anyone
anything. We’re all here because we just
as messed up as the next one.”
“Not all of us,” Lorena
said sarcastically. “I don’t have any problems, other people
think I do. But look, Paris—not everyone
has to like motherhood, but you made ‘em, now suck it up and deal with it.”
“Wait a minute,” Brett
said defiantly to Lorena. Just who do
you think we are? You ain’t no better than the rest of us. You’re here ain’t you?” She turned to Paris. “Since I haven’t been in your shoes, it’s
hard to say what I would do, but I do know this. I’d love to have a little one in my life that
would love me back, just because. I know,
I know—raising three kids is hard work, but look at it this way. One day, they won’t need so much of your
time. And if you spend time with them
now, shaping and molding them—the way your parents did you—they’ll be some
terrific kids. And besides, you can
always go back to work when they get older.
No one can take your skills or your brains from you. They’re yours to keep.”
Evangeline stopped
writing. She could hardly believe her
ears. Brett, of all people, was becoming
the counselor and was doing a great job of it.
She looked at the women and noticed that they were nodding their heads
in agreement and appeared more relaxed than she had ever seen any of them
before in their private sessions. She
wrote in the margin of her notebook, “group really works”. She cleared her throat before speaking.
“I’ve noticed that many
were taking a lot of notes and some, not so many. Most of you have had something to say, but
then some have had little to say. Let’s
explore those reasons. Farrow, let’s
start with you. How do you feel about
this session?”
Farrow looked around the
room before speaking, directly to Evangeline.
“I don’t think I belong here.
These people have problems I can’t even imagine. I mean, I haven’t been
molested by my family, I don’t have any kids, and I don’t want to change my
sex. I date when I can, but that’s not a
priority in my life. I don’t see how listening to them is going to help me get
a better job so I can pay my bills. I’m
tired of sneaking around doing stuff that could land me in jail.”
Once again, Brett took
that as a cue for her to take the reins.
She sat up straight and looked at Farrow directly. “If you don’t want to go to jail, stop doing
dumb stuff. That’s your choice. It’s also your choice as to when you’ll get a
better paying job. Go to school and stop
feeling sorry for yourself. There’s a
whole lot of people going to school older than you. You ain’t got no excuse. You got no children getting in your way and
no man beating you up trying to keep track of what you doing. Go to school—do something with your
life. If you think somebody gonna knock
on your door and offer you a better job when you don’t have no skills, you
gonna be waiting a long time. I’m trying
to finish college; I know how tough it can be, but I ain’t whining about
it.”
“No,” Farrow replied
hotly, “You sitting here whining about “family” and crying and then trying to
tell everybody else what to do. Before
you can give advice, you might want to take some, ‘physician heal thyself.’ I heard that somewhere. What makes you think you have all the answers
for everybody else anyway?”
No comments:
Post a Comment