Toxic Situations

[mallorys_camera]

I was asleep when the phone rang.

The Spawn's mother.

Apparently, she'd called multiple times. Third time is the charm.

She was trying to get into the house & the extra key was not in its hiding place.

I doddered down the stairs. "What's up, Christine?"

Christine was raised a Mormon, so even her hysteria has a pleasant, friendly, upbeat edge. "Oh, the boys just got back from the City. They were staying with Rahav"—Icky's birth certificate name—"and Gus is in bad shape, just very, very bad." She took a deep breath. "Rahav hasn't been giving him his medication!"

Gus is on some heavy-duty antidepressants.

"Wow," I said. "Did he forget?"

"Who knows? But for four days, Gus didn't get his antidepressants! Dante didn't get his ADHD meds either, but that's not as much of an issue. But Gus's antidepressants—" She shook her head involuntarily.

"Wow," I said. "That could be dangerous. I mean, with most antidepressants, you're supposed to taper when you go off them."

"He's in such bad shape," she said. But she didn't cry. Because she used to be a Mormon! Instead, she began rifling around in one of the kitchen drawers where Icky keeps vials & vials of his children's meds.

"What are you going to do?"

"What can I do? All I can do is try to counteract the damage he does to them—"

We chatted for 20 minutes. She wanted to get back to her semi-suicidal teenage son but she also wanted to decompress. Icky, she told me, is a complete narcissist (no news there!) and bipolar—

"Wow!" I said once more. "Diagnosed?"

No, not diagnosed, but it was so obvious. The boys had called her at 2 in the morning the night before, both completely drunk: They were out, wandering around Manhattan—

"Wait!" I said. "Rahav let two underage kids get drunk?"

"Oh, he wasn't with them. Who knows where he was? They were completely unsupervised. And he didn't send their medications back with them! Thank God you were home! I knew he had some meds in this house. Look at this!" The vials she pulled from the drawer were filled with pills & pills.

"Are you sure he gives the boys their medication when they're here?" I asked.

"No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure of anything when it comes to him—"

"Wait here for a sec," I said. I dashed upstairs to the Patrizia-torium and fished out the key I'd had made for my pet sitters. Ran back downstairs & presented it to Christine. "Here. Now you can get into the house whenever you need to."

###

I was wide awake by the time she left. There wouldn't be any falling back to sleep for hours & hours. And I was too wired to settle in comfortably to the Thomas Jefferson bio I've been reading.

So instead, I watched a couple of episodes of something called Sharp Objects. Contemporary Southern Gothic! I admired the art direction. Though I found the characters mystifyingly unrelatable. I mean, I get functional alcoholism! But none of the functional alcoholics I've ever run across have had hair quite so luxuriant as Amy Adams'.

My interview with the beautiful history professor's collective household in T-burg is tentatively scheduled for August 16th.

I am crossing fingers, legs, eyes, and ancient enemies as tightly as I can.

Comments

[fuzzilla]

**Are you sure he gives the boys their medication when they're here?" I asked.**

Honestly, I’m on both your sides - of course a concerned mother would want as much information as possible, but of course it’s not your responsibility to monitor your landlord’s parenting or lack thereof.

Damn, Iggy is a nightmare. So glad to see you have a date set up to check out the new place.

[fuzzilla]

Okay, I mixed it up - I thought she asked you about the pills. Comment still mostly stands.

[mallorys_camera]

Oh, I monitor everything. I'm a writer, you know, and monitoring is one of the tools of the trade. 😀

And I like Christine.

I made the remark because I wondered whether this possibility had ever occurred to her.

I don't understand her passivity in the face of this situation, though. Part of our conversation (unrecorded here) concerned how much Gus hates being in this house & around his father generally. If I were in her shoes, I would take the info about the missed meds & Gus's aversion to hte lawyer who hammered out the custody agreement & get that custody agreement changed.

[fuzzilla]

Yeah, same. I’d be like, “this frazzled hippie dad thing ain’t cute anymore. Things are changing if I have anything to say about it.”

I monitor and record little stray details, too. If I’m never published I won’t tell everyone I’m a writer, but I sure the hell do write a lot, even if it’s just stray thoughts in a journal. Point is, yes, my mind also works that way. But I’d be freaked out if someone else was depending on me to monitor *for* them, if that makes sense.

Anyway, Iggy sux and 👀 my forward to hearing about your new digs!

[mallorys_camera]

At the very least, she should file an incident report with the local Child Protective Services. This is dangerous neglect.

But I guess Christine's essential passivity is part of the reason how she ended up having children with this dick.

[halfmoon_mollie1]

I am crossing fingers, legs, eyes, and ancient enemies as tightly as I can.
me too.

[lethe1]

And me!

[mallorys_camera]

Thanks, my friend! ❤️

[mallorys_camera]

Thank you!!!

[suzannareads]

My youngest brother lives in Provo, Utah. People there are unbelievably courteous.

Sharp Objects was an excellent novel! I haven’t seen the series, but I hope Gillian Flynn has something else in the works.

May your new living situation materialize soon!

[mallorys_camera]

You know, I quite like Mormons. Sure, their belief system is wacky. But they're really nice people, & I admire how well they come through for one another. Back when I was living at L's, she had a young Mormon culinary student living in her basement apartment, and when he was too poor to pay his rent for a couple of months, the local Mormon Church paid it.

Gillian Flynn

Fun factoid: Gillian Flynn was my Entertainment Weekly editor's assistant. 😀

[suzannareads]

Gillian Flynn is an absolute enigma to me, I know nothing about her, so if you’d told me that she grew up imprisoned in a Southern Gothic mansion, I’d believe it!

[mallorys_camera]

She essentially had the job she bequeathed to Nick Dunne in Gone Girl. 😀

She was nice! I only talked to her a couple of times, but my EW editor (whom I absolutely adored—and still adore!) loved her. So, she must be great! 😀

[asakiyume]

I am crossing all those things as well (the ancient enemies are surprised to be re-crossed).

What a piece of work that Icky is!

[mallorys_camera]

Thanks, my friend.

And I suppose I should be sending out backup feelers as well in case the Ithaca situation doesn't work out.

[asakiyume]

Probably, but sometimes you can only do one thing at a time. I have always had a really hard time applying for more than one job at a time, even though it OBVIOUSLY makes more sense to apply for several at once. (... when I've been desperate I've managed it. But by and large I've always had a first choice I really am hoping for.)

[mallorys_camera]

sometimes you can only do one thing at a time.

True.

Sigh.

Really, I want to be rescued & not to have to do any of the hard stuff on my own! 😀

[asakiyume]

AMEN!

I wish that for you too.

[mallorys_camera]

If you were really my friend, you'd buy me a winning Lotto ticket with a million-dollar jackpot!!!! 😀

[asakiyume]

If I were realllly your friend I'd rig that Lotto so you'd win ;-)