Ann-Marie MacDonald - Adult Onset

Unless she was having a heart attack — heart disease often went undiagnosed in women. What were the symptoms? She would google it when they got home. She got them moving again down the crowded sidewalk. Pigeons poked along in front of them, incense wafted sweet and cloying from Indra Crafts, the Native guy with the bandana bounced past them looking free but purposeful, his dog loose at his side. Across the busy street, the neon swirls of Honest Ed’s were still bolstered by blinking wreaths and angels. Outside, a line had formed, women in saris and parkas, people from the four corners, the darker faces among them diminished by drab winter clothes, all waiting to cash in on the special. It might be chickpeas, it might be towels, turkeys or toothpaste, all for a dollar ninety-nine.

“ ‘Come in and get lost!’ ” cried Dolly. She stepped abruptly from the curb and onto busy Bathurst Street—

“Mum!”

“You don’t have to grab me, Mary Rose!”

“You have to wait for the lights.”

“ ‘By your children be ye taught!’ ”

Mary Rose ignored the pretend slap, the lights changed and they crossed.

“ ‘Secrets from Your Sister,’ ” said Dolly.

Mary Rose stopped her mother at the door, gently this time, with a hand on her forearm. “Mum? What were you afraid of?”

“I was afraid I was going to hurt you,” said Dolly, as if this were self-evident, as if they had been over it a thousand times.

“Hurt me how?”

Dolly’s brow contracted with effort, she gestured with her right hand, as though urging something on, attempting to rouse memory and dress it in words …

“I was afraid …”

“What were you afraid of?”

“I was afraid of my hands.”

She said it with an air of bemusement, as though she had just come across something at the bottom of a drawer, something she had forgotten she’d lost.

She disappeared into Secrets from Your Sister. Mary Rose followed.

A young woman whisked Dolly away — she had chopsticks in her hair. Mary Rose heard giggles and chit-chat coming from the change room as two young women went in and out with various sizes and styles. Laughter gave way to murmurs and Mary Rose made out the words, “Well, she started crying, so I said, ‘I’m not crying, don’t you cry …’ ”

Half an hour and a bra fitting later:

“Your mum’s amazing.”

“I love your mum.”

Home.

Supper.

Tea.

Dolly went out for a walk without telling anyone, got lost and was escorted home by another “nice young fella.”

Scrabble.

Dolly placed two letters for thirty-seven points — the origami of Scrabble. Mary Rose placed VIOLINS and got the bonus fifty. Dolly won.

She ensured her parents were settled comfortably in the guest room, then headed upstairs.

Her mother’s ramblings were the most unreliable form of evidence: eyewitness testimony. And what did it change? Her parents were old, they had reached cruising altitude. What right had she to roughen their ride with questions belched from the past?

She got into bed and reached for The Origins of Totalitarianism .

But she did not grow drowsy, she was … vibrating. It wasn’t Hannah Arendt. The tea . Her parents drank it like water and slept like babies.

“Do you think they’re warm enough down there?”

“I put the heater in their room,” said Hil.

“I don’t want them to catch cold.”

There was a missing piece of the puzzle that plagued her: why had her father sat by while her mother savaged her over that ten-year period? His glassy silence, his averted gaze.

I was afraid of my hands .

“So it wasn’t the first time she tried to kill you.”

Hilary was sitting up in bed moisturizing her feet.

“She didn’t try to kill me, that’s the point.” She knew she shouldn’t have told Hil. “She was afraid of her thoughts.”

“She pictured harming you.”

“She … I don’t know what she pictured.”

“That’s a sign of depression.”

“I’m not depressed.”

“I mean your mum. She probably had postpartum depression. How could she not have?”

Depression was a word Mary Rose had never known her parents to speak unless prefaced by the words the Great .

“Well yeah, of course, that … makes complete, perfect sense.”

“I think that’s what happened to me after Matthew was born,” said Hil.

“But … we adopted him.” This was the danger of downtime: true confessions. Intimacy. When can we all just go back to work?

“That doesn’t matter,” said Hil.

“Did you … picture harming him?”

“I pictured harming myself.”

“Jesus. I thought you went into therapy because I was driving you crazy.”

“I actually don’t think it had anything to do with you.”

“Oh. I guess now you’re going to tell me climate change and the Middle East aren’t my fault either. I don’t know if I can handle this much mental health, it’s killing my ego.”

Hil leaned forward, gave her a peck on the lips and put the jar of ultra-rich foot therapy into the drawer of her nightstand. Mary Rose glimpsed the fuchsia dolphin-shaped vibrator and said, “Do you want a back rub?”

“Sure,” said Hil, surprised.

And fell asleep five minutes in. When it came to sex lately, Mary Rose had begun to wonder how much less she could take. She lay, conscious of her own mature largesse in not resenting Hilary for falling asleep. Hil worked hard. She needed her rest. “Hil? Are you asleep?”

“Mm? Sorry.”

“That’s okay.”

“I just — can you not sleep? I’m sorry, babe, I’m just not in the mood while we have guests.”

“You mean having my parents in the guest room doesn’t function as an aphrodisiac?”

Hil chuckled.

Mary Rose continued, “Oddly, somehow it does for me. Maybe my parents were right, I am sick.”

“Stop it.”

“What? It’s funny, I was … being funny.”

“It’s not funny. Come here.”

“What? No, not if you’re not into it.”

“I’m into it.”

“You don’t have to just to please me.”

“Why shouldn’t I want to please you?”

“Because …”

“I love you, I want to please you.”

She pulled Mary Rose on top of her and bit her neck, took hold of her hips, started to move beneath her.

“I’d rather you were into it,” said Mary Rose.

“I am.”

“… I’m not.”

“I guess you’re not ‘sick’ after all.” Hil rolled over.

“Don’t be mad. Are you mad?”

“No, Mister, I’m not mad, I’m … I feel for you.”

After a few moments, Mary Rose became aware of the peaceful cadence of sleep on Hilary’s side of the bed. “Hil? What did you mean, ‘it wasn’t the first time’?”

Hilary sniffed awake, then said, “When you came out she tried to kill you.”

“No she didn’t.”

“You said she wished you had cancer. She wished you were dead, choking on shit—”

“Not ‘choking’—”

“She cursed you.”

“Exactly, she didn’t try to ‘kill’ me.”

“I’m happy for you.”

Tug at the duvet, reprised roll-over.

“Why are you being mean now?”

“I’m sorry, that was mean, I just …” Hilary turned to her and propped her head on her hand. “They were cruel to you. Young people commit suicide over that kind of thing.”

“Yes, well I didn’t kill myself and that’s a huge difference: I’m here. She didn’t stab me or get someone to drive me into the canal.”

“No, she was a wonderful mother. And I’m sure your father would have drawn the line at honour killing.”

“Why are you so down on my mother all of a sudden? She’s over eighty and she plays on the floor with the children. She runs into the freezing cold Atlantic like a kid. She brings gifts and sends cards and prays for us constantly and thinks you’re wonderful. At least my mother’s not a snob.”