I wouldn’t mind-I mean this is the sheer irony of the thing-but I’m the only person I know who doesn’t think it would be delicious to go in to “someplace” for “a rest.” You’d want to hear my sister Claire going on about it, as if waking up one morning and finding herself in a mental hospital would be the most delightful experience imaginable.
“I’ve a great idea,” she declared to her friend Judy. “Let’s have our nervous breakdowns at the same time.”
white bed linen, white sofas, white orchids, everything white...”
“Like in heaven,” Judy said.
“Just like in heaven!”
Not just like in heaven! I opened my mouth to protest, but there was no stopping them.
“... The sound of tinkling water...”
“... The smell of jasmine...”
“... A clock ticking in the near distance...”
“... The plangent chime of a bell...”
“... And us lying in bed off our heads on Xanax...”
“dreamily gazing at dust motes...”
“... Or reading Grazia...”
“... Or buying Magnum Golds from the man who goes from ward to ward selling ice cream...”
But there would be no man selling Magnum Golds. Or any of the other nice things, either.
“A wise voice will say”-Judy paused for effect-“?Lay down your burdens, Judy.’ ”
“And some lovely, floaty nurse will cancel all our appointments,” Claire said. “She’ll tell everyone to leave us alone, she’ll tell all the ungrateful bastards that we’re having a nervous breakdown and it was their fault and they’ll have to be a lot nicer to us if we ever come out again.”
Both Claire and Judy had savagely busy lives-kids, dogs, husbands, jobs and an onerous, time-consuming dedication to looking ten years younger than their actual age. They were perpetually whizzing around in minivans, dropping sons off at rugby practice, picking daughters up from the dentist, racing across town to get to a meeting. Multitasking was an art form for them-they used the dead seconds stuck at traffic lights to rub their calves with fake-tan wipes, they answered emails from their seat at the cinema, and they baked red velvet cupcakes at midnight while simultaneously being mocked by their teenage daughters as, “A pitiful fat old cow.” Not a moment was wasted.
“They’ll give us Xanax.” Claire was back in her reverie.
“Oh lovvvvely.”
“As much as we want. The second the bliss starts to wear off, we’ll ring a bell and a nurse will come and give us a top-up.”
“We’ll never have to get dressed. Every morning they’ll bring us new cotton pajamas, brand new, out of the packet. And we’ll sleep sixteen hours a day.”
“Oh, sleep...”
“It’ll be like being wrapped up in a big marshmallow cocoon, we’ll feel all floaty and happy and dreamy...”
It was time to point out the one big nasty flaw in their delicious vision. “But you’d be in a psychiatric hospital.”
Both Claire and Judy looked wildly startled.
Eventually Claire said, “I’m not talking about a psychiatric hospital. Just a place you’d go for... a rest.”
“The place people go for a ?rest’ is a psychiatric hospital.”
They fell silent. Judy chewed her bottom lip. They were obviously thinking about this.
“What did you think it was?” I asked.
“Well... sort of like a spa,” Claire said. “With, you know... prescription drugs.”
“They have mad people in there,” I said. “Proper mad people. Ill people.”
More silence followed, then Claire looked up at me, her face bright red. “God, Helen!” she exclaimed. “You’re such a cow. Can’t you ever let anyone have anything nice?”
Thursday 1
was thinking about food. Stuck in traffic, it’s what I do. What any normal person does, of course, but now that I thought about it, I hadn’t had anything to eat since seven o’clock this morning, about ten hours ago. A Laddz song came on the radio-the second time that day, how about that for bad luck?-and as the maudlin, syrupy harmonies filled the car, I had a brief but powerful urge to drive into a pole.
There was a petrol station coming up on the left, the red sign of refreshment hanging invitingly in the sky. I could extricate myself from this gridlock and go in and buy a doughnut. But the doughnuts they sold in those places were as tasteless as the sponges you find at the bottom of the ocean-I’d be better off just washing myself with one. Besides, a swarm of huge black vultures was circling over the petrol pumps and they were kind of putting me off. No, I decided, I’d hang on and-
Wait a minute! Vultures?
In a city?
At a petrol station?
I took a second look and they weren’t vultures. Just seagulls. Ordinary Irish seagulls.
Then I thought, Ah no, not again.
Fifteen minutes later I pulled up outside my parents’ house, took a moment to gather myself, then started rummaging for a key to let myself in. They’d tried to make me give it back when I’d moved out three years ago but-thinking strategically-I’d hung on to it. Mum had made noises about changing the locks, but seeing as she and Dad took eight years to decide to buy a yellow bucket, what were the chances that they’d manage something as complicated as getting a new lock?
I found them in the kitchen, sitting at the table drinking tea and eating cake. Old people. What a great life they had. Even those who don’t do tai chi (which I’ll get to).
They looked up and stared at me with barely concealed resentment.
“I’ve news,” I said.
Mum found her voice. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here.”
“You don’t. We got rid of you. We painted your room. We’ve never been happier.”
“I said I’ve news. That’s my news. I live here.”
The fear was starting to creep into her face now. “You have your own place.” She was blustering but she was losing conviction. After all, she must have been expecting this.
“I don’t,” I said. “Not as of this morning. I’ve nowhere to live.”
“The mortgage people?” She was ashen (beneath her regulation-issue Irish-mammy orange foundation).
“What’s going on?” Dad was deaf. Also frequently confused. It was hard to know which disability was in the driving seat at any particular time.
“She didn’t pay her MORTGAGE,” Mum yelled, into his good ear. “Her flat’s been RECLAIMED.”
“I couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage. You’re making it sound like it’s my fault. Anyway, it’s more complicated than that.”
“You have a boyfriend,” Mum said hopefully. “Can’t you live with him?”
“You’ve changed your tune, you rampant Catholic.”
“We have to keep up with the times.”
I shook my head. “I can’t move in with Artie. His kids won’t let me.” Not exactly. Only Bruno. He absolutely hated me but Iona was pleasant enough and Bella positively adored me. “You’re my parents. Unconditional love, might I remind you. My stuff is in the car.”
“What! All of it?”
“No.” I’d spent the day with two cash-in-hand blokes. The last few sticks of furniture I owned were now stashed in a massive self- storage place out past the airport, waiting for the good times to come again. “Just my clothes and work stuff.” Quite a lot of work stuff, actually, seeing as I’d had to let my offi ce go over a year ago. And quite a lot of clothes too, even though I’d thrown out tons and tons while I’d been packing.
“But when will it end?” Mum said querulously. “When do we get our golden years?” “Never.” Dad spoke with sudden confidence. “She’s part of a syndrome. Generation Boomerang. Adult children coming back to live in the family home. I read about it in Grazia.”
There was no disagreeing with Grazia. “You can stay for a few days,” Mum conceded. “But be warned. We might want to sell this house and go on a Caribbean cruise.”
Property prices being as low as they were, the sale of this house probably wouldn’t fetch enough money to send them on a cruise of the Aran Islands. But, as I made my way out to the car to start lugging in my boxes of stuff, I decided not to rub it in. After all, they were giving me a roof over my head.
“What time is dinner?” I wasn’t hungry but I wanted to know the drill.
“Dinner?”
There was no dinner. “We don’t really bother anymore,” Mum confessed. “Not now as it’s just the two of us.”
This was distressing news. I was feeling bad enough, without my parents suddenly behaving like they were in death
