Joni and Marie had a granddaughter named Lacy. Joni’s son married Marie’s daughter. Lacy was a beautiful child, but Marie was very possessive of her daughter’s child. Joni asked her son if she could take Lacy to his aunt’s wedding and he said yes, so she left to pick her up at Marie’s house. She spent most of her time with Baby Lacy. She was 14 months old and they still called her Baby Lacy.
Joni rang the doorbell and entered. Marie had Baby Lacy dressed so elegant, and Joni told Marie that they had the most precious grand baby ever. Joni was dressed very nice also, and she heard Marie mumble something.
“You said that I can do what?” asked Joni.
“I said that you can take Lacy to your family wedding. It’s okay. I’ll just follow behind you in my car,” Marie said with a smile on her face. She wasn’t at all aware that she hurt Joni’s feelings as she picked up their grand daughter to leave for the wedding.
“You got all dressed up to go to a wedding that you’re not invited to?”
“Sure. I’ll just hang around with you. Is that ok?” Marie asked, but she had every intention of going to the wedding, no matter what Joni answered.
Reluctantly, Joni agreed, but this was the last straw. Later, they would both have to sit down and have a talk about why she couldn’t take her grand daughter to events without having her as an escort.
“Well, being that you’re all dressed up for a wedding, why don’t you come with me in my car,” Joni said as she picked up her purse from the kitchen counter to leave with Lacy in her arms.
She thought that maybe she should have a talk with her son. She kept silent for a whole year now, and the tension that was building up inside of her was about at its end. Not wanting to cause any trouble, she felt as though she was walking on egg shells. Do it this way with Lacy. Don’t do it that way. Give Lacy this. Don’t give Lacy that. She knew how to take care of Lacy. She had five children of her own --- two sons married, two daughters in college and one son still in high school. She and her husband had their share of growing pains in their family, but all of the children were doing well for themselves.
“No, you go ahead and take Lacy in your car,” Marie said as she picked up her purse to leave. “I’ll just follow you. I want you to show off Lacy to everyone on your side of the family.”
Furious, and feeling like she had just been slapped in the face, she walked out to the car with Lacy. Of all of the chirpy words that were slammed in her face over the past year, and all of the times that Marie would come and take Lacy out of her arms when she held her, she thought that this was the lowest thing that Marie had ever done to her since her grand daughter was born. The saddest part of all of this was that she thought that Marie wasn’t aware of what she was doing. It’s like her grand daughter was her own child. Joni watched as her son sometimes didn’t like the way things were handled around Lacy when Marie took over and his wife wanted her baby, but no one wanted to tell her anything. Why? Joni didn’t know. Even her daughter kept quiet when it came to Lacy. She supposed that everyone walked on egg shells when they were around Marie.
Both of them left for the wedding in each their own car. Arriving at the wedding, Marie immediately went over to the car to see if Lacy was okay.
“What, do you think that I can’t handle Lacy as well as you do?” Joni asked in frustration.
“Oh no,” answered a surprised Marie, not knowing where that comment came from. Because Joni had never questioned any of her comments before, Marie took one step back for the first time in a year.
“Then let’s go inside, and we’ll introduce our grand daughter to my side of the family.”
Marie followed Joni, but was shaken up by her one comment. The wedding went well. Lacy was well behaved in church, but Marie didn’t want to sit with Joni, because she wanted Joni to have Lacy in church. Like, she approved that Joni could sit alone with her grand daughter in front of the church. Marie chose to sit in the back of the church. Joni felt like this was another slap in the face, but, she let Lacy sit in front of the church with her. Miracles do happen.
The reception was large, and elegant. Every table was covered with white linen table clothes that had silver candelabra’s centered on each dressed table. In each candle holder was a tapered mauve candle that was lit.
The back drop behind the wedding cake table was filled with so much greenery, that at a glance, they all felt that the reception was actually outdoors. Spaced inside of the greenery were pink roses among the white bridal wreath flowers, which gave the whole place the feel of walking in an English garden. Cream colored, wrought iron chairs were placed along the brick floor path that the florist had designed for the photo sitting area in the indoor garden.
A fountain of pink water was centered in the base of the wedding cake, and the cake was trimmed with mauve pastry flowers. The porcelain bride and groom that was perched on top of the cake were adorned with mauve pastry flowers, also. Attached to the second layer of the cake, were two curved stairways on each side of the cake that held the porcelain bridesmaids on one side of the stairs, while the porcelain groomsmen lined the other curved stair case. There was so much champagne, food, good music and lots of presents stacked in the corner at the entrance. Their family weddings were always done with style. It was a family tradition that everyone was trying to keep.
Marie mingled with Joni at the reception as she showed off her granddaughter to her family. Everyone took turns holding her and everyone thought she was a precious baby. Marie watched closely. She was amazed at the settings for the reception. She commented to Joni that she had never seen such an elegant wedding in the church as well as for the reception.
“When anyone in our family has a daughter, they begin to save money for her wedding day when she is born, so that she can have a huge elegant wedding with lots of food, family, and friends, if this is what she wants. If she prefers to go to college, the money is used for her education. If she wants to have a smaller wedding, they plan something smaller, and give her the money that they saved as a wedding gift.”
“I’m truly surprised, at all of this expense.”
“Why?” asked Joni. “To us, this is the last gift that the family will give a daughter before she leaves their home to live in her own home.”
“Well, it just seems so extravagant. It’s very lovely in here, but so -- well extravagant,” Marie answered as she shook her shoulders, wanting to take Lacy in her arms. It had been a whole hour since she held Baby Lacy, and Joni was wondering how long she would go on without attempting to take her. She had set a new record.
Baby Lacy went with Marie, and Joni told her that she would mingle around and talk to some of her relatives that she hadn’t seen in a long while. Marie
assured Joni that she and Baby Lacy would be fine at the table that they were assigned to.
Another hour passed by. Joni met many of her older relatives who she hadn’t seen in years. She talked with everyone, ate with her grandma and danced with her great uncle, but she had no champagne because she had Lacy with her and she had to bring her back home. She fondly enjoyed her time with her family at the wedding, because sadly enough, living in this fast paced world today, the family seemed to only see each other at weddings and funerals. It was pleasant to see everyone at a wedding. With all of the latest chit chat to catch up on, she didn’t notice how much time had passed by.
She looked at the table where Marie was seated, and she wasn’t there. She asked some of her family if they saw where Marie was. One of her cousins said that she saw her take her purse, and leave with Baby Lacy.
“She left with Lacy?”
“I guessing that she left. She took her purse and walked to the exit door. I thought that she was going to the ladies room, but she left.”
She felt another slap in the face!
Joni stayed until the end of the reception, and went home without Lacy, but she was going to have a talk with Marie. She couldn’t take any more.
__________________
About 10:00 o’clock in the morning, Joni started her car to go for a visit with Marie. When she arrived at her house, she saw that her car was out of the garage, so she knew that she was home.
Upon entering, Marie greeted her with her usual smile. “How about a cup of coffee?”
“Sure, I’ll have a cup with you this morning. Where’s Lacy?” asked Joni as she sat at Marie’s kitchen counter.
“Oh, last night she was getting a little cranky, so I left the reception and brought her back home.”
“Here, or at her home?” asked Joni as she took her first sip of coffee.
“Lacy is at her home with my daughter. Why?”
“Because you left without telling me. I brought Lacy to the wedding, and I expected to bring her back to her home with your daughter and my son.”
“I’m sorry. But, you were busy dancing. I didn’t want to disturb you with your family gathering, so I brought her back home. Is something wrong?” asked Marie as she joined Joni at the kitchen counter with her cup of coffee.
“Yes, something is wrong.” Joni decided to confront Marie with all of the why’s that she had been wondering about for a whole year now. “Last night, you got to see how big my family is. And, you also saw that we are all sane people, right?” She looked at Marie with her face as red as the apples that were in the fruit bowl at the end of the counter. “You could have left Lacy with my brother or one of my sisters. You knew them well,” she said as she slapped her hand on the counter top. “What? They aren’t good enough to take care of Lacy either?” Joni’s blood was boiling.
“What are you talking about?” Marie asked, shocked that Joni confronted her.
“Don’t you think that you’re just a little over possessive with our grand daughter?”
“What?”
“Why don’t you let me hold her when you have your family here?” Joni pushed her chair back to walk the floor while she had started the why session.
“Why can’t I have Lacy sleep over when our children want some time alone? Why can’t I feed her, change her, buy her clothes without an okay from you?” Joni was now in Marie’s face. “Why can’t I take her to a wedding alone without YOU tagging along to make sure that she’s okay?”
“What?” Marie asked with another look on her face that surprised Joni. She knew what that look was.
“Don’t give me that look, Marie.” Joni walked over to the refrigerator.
“What look?” Marie asked, coyly tilting her head a little as though she didn’t know what Joni was talking about.
Opening the refrigerator door, Joni grabbed a raw egg. “You have been in control of Lacy for a whole year now, Marie. Don’t you think it’s about time that you let your daughter have her daughter back? She is your grand daughter, not your daughter, remember. You have a daughter who is married to my son now, and she has a home of her own, and a child of her own. Our grand daughter!”
Marie put her head down. There were no tears.
“SEE this egg?” Joni told her. “This egg is YOU!. When I’m around you, I try very hard not to upset you. I feel like I’m walking around this egg and trying very hard not to crack the shell, YOUR shell, so that I don’t hurt your feelings. But you don’t care about my feelings. You just ignore all of our feelings. Well, I’m breaking the egg --- NOW. I’m tired of walking on egg shells.”
Joni went over to the sink and threw the raw egg into her sink. It splattered all over her sink.
Marie jumped in her seat at the table.
“You could have been nicer telling me all of this,” Marie told her while she was looking at her long, well manicured fake nails.
“NO, I couldn’t tell you this in a nicer way. We have all been trying to tell you this in a nice way. But you don’t hear what we are saying. You just keep doing the same thing over and over.”
Marie was still looking at her long nails.
“Will you look at me?” Joni said loudly.
“You’re jealous. That look on your face told it all to me a while ago. You’re jealous that baby Lacy won’t like you, so you hold on to her, not letting any of us be near her. Right?”
Marie looked at Joni. “If I let go of Baby Lacy, I won’t have anyone,” she admitted.
“What do you mean you won’t have anyone. You have your husband and you do have another daughter. She needs you. What about her?”
It was then that Joni began to cry, admitting that her other daughter was an addict to pain pills, and that her well-to-do husband was seeing a younger woman.
Joni just stood there in total shock, because Marie admitted this to her. This was so unlike Marie, because in her eyes, everything was always perfect in her home. Marie never admitted that anything was wrong -- ever. She paused for a minute watching Marie cry, not knowing what to do, and then walked around the kitchen for another minute trying to let what she told her sink in.
Joni went back to her stool at the kitchen counter. “Do you want another cup of coffee?” she asked Marie.
“Yes, I can use another cup of coffee,” Marie said, still crying.
Joni filled her coffee cup and brought it to her. Taking a deep breath and almost feeling ashamed that she confronted her about Baby Lacy in the first place. She put the cup of coffee on the counter in front of Marie and gave her a friendly grip on both of her shoulders.
“Do you want to tell me about it, or do you want me to leave you alone?”
“No!” Marie almost begged her to not leave. “Stay for a while. Okay?”
Joni walked back to the coffee pot and filled up her cup again. She sat at the table and listened to Marie talk and cry for about an hour. Joni cried with her. She had no idea that she was going through so much turmoil. Lacy’s birth must have been such a fresh beginning for her. But by taking control of Lacy, she wasn’t facing her own problems that she needed to address in her own home.
Marie got up from the table to go and wipe her face with a cold towel.
“Marie, go and freshen up your face. We’re going for a walk at the mall, and I’m driving,” Joni told her in a commanding voice.
“To the mall? Just you and I?”
“Yes. Just you and I. If you feel like having lunch, I’m paying.”
Marie hugged Joni, which was a rare event in itself, and told her that she wasn’t jealous, she was just so lost.
“I know that now,” answered Joni as she returned Marie’s hug.
__________________
The End
Waking on Egg Shells
© 2005
Mary Lynn Plaisance
Right now I'm caught in a dispute between two women in my house. They both are being unreasonable, but I have no way of settling it. They will have to do it themselves. In the meantime it's not very pleasant.
Ron