Partial The Personality Changes

Every time Al and Claire want to visit the family, Polly tries to delay their coming. She uses any reasons for it. Al knows about what happens between them and he asks about it but Polly still does not want to tell the truth, on the contrary she uses another reason. “We want to come up for a visit this week,” Al says. He acts as though they haven’t been through this a dozen times before. “Daddy,” Polly says tiredly. “Your mother can pack a suitcase, including wrapping everything in tissue paper, in ten minutes flat.” This is no idle threat, Polly has seen her mother do it. “Absolutely not,” Polly says. “Next weekend,” Al says. “We’ll drive up Friday night.” “I’m going to hang up on you,” Polly tells him. “What have you got against us?” Al says. “What did we do to you that was so terrible?” “Nothing,” Polly says. “Look, I don’t want Mom to be upset.” :p.115 When her parents come and stay with them, they will take care the house. Claire will clean the house and Al will fix the stuffs that broken. Amanda and Charlie are happy if their grandparents come but still Al and Claire’s presence do not make Polly feels comfortable. One night, while Polly sits down in the basement, she thinks about her past, her father for particularly. Polly knows that she has done unpleasant things to her father, and that night Polly thinks about the kindness of her father. But tonight, as she sits in her own basement, she thinks more kindly of her father than she has in years. She thinks of what he taught her: how to change a washer, how to check the underside of a painted dresser drawer and know if it’s made out of oak or pine, how not to be afraid of dark basements, of the noise steam pipes make when they moan and send up heat :p.76. Al and Claire come often. Their routine visit makes Polly accustoms with their presence. Polly starts not to behave cynical anymore. She realizes that her parents help her a lot, in taking care the house or taking care their grandchildren. It was not quite the disaster that Polly imagined, even though Claire, who has never believed that dishwashers do as good a job ass she can, managed to wash the dishes by hand every time Polly turned her back and Al has sworn to return and fix the broken porch step. Al played endless rounds of Monopoly with Charlie and lost every game, and on Sunday he drove Amanda and Jessie to the theater at the mall and took them to see a movie their parents had forbidden them to see :pp.121-122. Polly also starts to forgive her parents. She does not put a wall between them anymore. Suddenly Polly realizes that she needs her parents to accompany her. Polly does not want to be alone. When Al and Claire want to go home, Polly asks them to stay a little bit longer although it makes them trapped in traffic if they go home later. On Monday evening, when her parents were getting ready to leave, Polly felt that she was being abandoned. She insisted that her parents stay for dinner, even though this meant they would hit the worst of the Labor Day traffic returning to New York :p.122. Al and Claire know that her daughter gives signs that she starts to forgive them. Realizing Polly’s responds, Al and Claire use the opportunity to come to the house every weekend. It’s a Saturday, so when Polly hears someone at the door, she assumes it’s her parents, earlier than expected. She gave them an inch and now they’re up every weekend. She has the feeling they start to watch the clock on Friday nights, so they’ll be ready to jump into Al’s car at dawn on Saturday :p.143. The relationship between Polly and her mother is getting better. She feels glad if her mother comes to the house. She feels glad with the presence of her mother not because she can talk in personal with Claire but it is more to the feeling that she has someone who really cares about her condition. Deep down in her heart Polly wants to have a closer relationship with her mother. And when Amanda finally is able to return to school, Claire stays on, and the oddest thing of all is that sometimes Polly is glad that her mother’s there. Not that she wants to talk to Claire. She’s uncomfortable when they’re together, she