Mary-Ad

Elizabeth Milligan
Writing Assignment for November 19, 2007
Prompt: “Our ancestors survive somewhere in our faces” & Dialogue

Mary-Ad

When I was a child living at home, it always used to distress me that my mom treated her aunt Mary-Ad’s frequent phone calls so casually as to seem disrespectful. Mary-Ad would call several times a week, sometimes several times a day, and often when my mother was preparing dinner.

Mary-Ad would talk and talk and my mother would hold the receiver on her right shoulder tucked between her ear and her chin and listen, uttering a few words here and there so that her aunt knew she was still on the line. Standing near my mother, usually by the sink, I could hear my great aunt talk away and it did seem that she was oblivious to whether her niece was really there. Usually, she talked about things that worried her.

All this time, my mother would be rattling pans, running water, chopping, and cooking within the area circumscribed by our brand new twelve foot curly telephone cord. Sometimes, she would get all tangled up in the cord. Sometimes she would roll her eyes. Most times, Mary Ad spoke loudly enough that I could hear her.

“Louise, I can’t believe you are letting your children learn to drive on the junkers that Jake insists on keeping. It is so unsafe. It worries me so.”

“They’ll be fine Mary-Ad.”

“Louise, I can’t believe that you are taking the children to that optician in the run down town near you. That place seems shady to me. Well, not so much shady as that the optician does not seem to be terribly skilled. I’ve never heard of her. You don’t want to fool with eyesight. I hope you are not doing this just because the price is lower. After all, you get what you pay for.”

“True, the town has seen better days, but I like the optician and I know her mother – the best science teacher in our high school.”

“Louise, I can’t believe that you take the children to that orthodontist for braces. I know braces aren’t cheap, but I have never heard of this fellow. I mentioned his name when Mildred and Fred came over last night for cocktails and they both raised their eyebrows. They didn’t know him either and they have heard all about the city’s best orthodontists because their daughter just researched them for her own children.”

“Well, Jake’s nieces and nephews all went there and their teeth look fine.”

“Louise, I can’t believe that you are putting Betsy on a city bus to get to her tutoring sessions this summer. That neighborhood is very dangerous. I don’t want her standing out at a bus stop in the evening. I know that this is Jake’s doing. I’ll buy passes to Yellow Cab that she can use for the summer. You just tell them where to be when and they will have a cab waiting for her.”

“That’s very generous of you, Mary-Ad. Thanks”

“It’s the least I can do, Louise”

“OK. I have to run now. Jake and Johnny are leaving now to pick you up. I see them backing down the driveway. They should be there in about fifteen minutes. Just wait in the lobby and watch for them. They’ll pull up to the front door.”

“Alright. I’ll watch for them. Only fifteen minutes? I hope Jake drives carefully. And Louise, I made some meringues for dessert.”