Page 66 of Thursdays at Orange Blossom House
‘I see.’ Patricia squeezes Grace Maud’s shoulder again before removing her hand. ‘That’s understandable. But you’re coming back.’
‘I don’t feel like it,’ Grace Maud says.
‘I don’t care.’ Patricia stands up and puts her hands on her hips. ‘It will be good for you.’
‘I’m not interested in that.’
‘Well, I am. And I think Dorothy is too.’
‘I am!’ Dorothy declares and stands up herself.
Grace Maud almost laughs because it looks as though she’s being ganged up on by two slightly annoyed library monitors.
‘You need yoga,’ Dorothy says. ‘Just like I do. It’s good for you. And it’s a distraction. I’m so busy thinking about what my body’s doing that I always forget what I’m worrying about.’
‘Same for me,’ says Patricia. ‘So I’ll pick you up on Thursday night, and if you don’t want to come I’ll have to consider hiring a man to lift you into the car.’
‘Do you know such a man?’ Grace Maud says, and is amused to see a slightly guilty look on Patricia’s face.
‘Maybe,’ she says meekly.
‘Really?’ Dorothy is agog.
‘We’re not discussing this,’ Patricia says. ‘We’re going to leave you alone now, Grace Maud, but I’ll be back on Thursday.’
‘And I’ll be waiting for you in class!’ Dorothy says, before following Patricia to the door like a duckling chasing its mother.
The lack of ceremony in their departure and of sentiment in their statements reassures Grace Maud that perhaps these two women do understand her just a little.
Which doesn’t mean she will acquiesce to Patricia’s demand. But as the front door closes behind them, she starts to consider it.
SUMMER 1993/1994
Blue Heelerspremieres on the Seven Network.
Mrs Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams, is released.
Whoopi Goldberg’sSister Act 2is released in time for Christmas.
American TV seriesThe X Filesairs for the first time on the Ten Network.
Heartbreak Highhas its debut on the ABC.
‘All for Love’, performed by Sting, Rod Stewart and Bryan
Adams, tops the Australian singles chart for two weeks.
Schindler’s List, directed by Steven
Spielberg, is released in Australia.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Another Christmas Day, another opportunity for the womenfolk to spend hours in the kitchen, sweating as they roast fowl in the oven and cook things on the stovetop, all in the name of preserving the traditions of a hemisphere many have never visited. Patricia used to think this when she was younger, and now she’s cursing it, because these days she’s the one in the kitchen. Her mother stopped cooking – or was stopped, rather – a couple of years ago, after Patricia realised she could no longer be trusted around anything that involved temperatures above twenty degrees. That’s how Patricia’s found herself having to uphold Christmas culinary practices she disparages because it’s ‘always been done this way’ and who is she to question it?
She’s the one doing all the work, that’s who, but Annette and Peter and their families, in attendance at Christmas lunch this year, think it’s outrageous that Patricia would suggest they have a cold meal. Peter, who can’t even boil an egg. And Annette, who brings a salad – the one cold element she’ll allow apart from the ham – and spends a considerable amount of time talking about how tedious it is to shred lettuce in a hotel room.
So Patricia finds herself in a sleeveless dress and an apron, her hair stuck to the sides of her head because the ceiling fan does nothing to dissipate the humidity, listening to her family members having a wonderful time as they drink and chat in the living room.
