family matters

catastrophe part 3: the knock-on

W rang my mother in a total state, which was absolutely understandable considering the circumstances. A had a life-threatening virus and they were miles away from home and the big city hospitals. Aside from being dangerously ill, A was agitated, confused, restless and generally unmanageable, which is normal behaviour for a person with a cerebral illness. Although they hardly knew each other, L and W managed to keep it together for those few days until A regained some sense of himself and his father and sister arrived.

Meanwhile, I was trying to work out what to do about this party for L that saturday. V told me to cancel it, while L told me that A still didn’t know she knew and she’d overheard a phone call he’d made to a mate referring to ‘the secret’. V told A the party was off and that L knew about it, which didn’t go down that well. He immediately began making preparations for L’s actual birthday the following week.

By this point, V, A, W and R were back at the beach house like one happy family. L had gone back to work until the weekend. W rang my mother in another state, this time about L returning to the beach house while A was unwell and how they would accommodate her. I can only assume that A was recovering in the master bedroom while V and her parents bunked up next door. The thought of L sleeping in her and R’s bedroom with a sickly A was too much for poor W to handle. Mum agreed to go up and see everyone on the weekend, and drive L both ways if need be.

L came up on the Friday night and stayed until the Sunday. The sleeping arrangements are still unknown but the whole situation was deemed unsatisfactory by W, who resented that her son was going for walks and generally behaving as though nothing had happened. By Monday he was back in hospital. The doctors confirmed everyone’s worse suspicions: A had overdone it and needed to calm right down or he could do himself permanent damage.

V rang me on Monday night because A was being very disagreeable about L’s birthday, demanding L should come up Tuesday night so they could go out to dinner. W was beside herself and A and she were now fighting. I rang L, who was in tears because A had been very difficult and demanded she come up that evening. V had also spoken to L, urging her to stay away for a few days. L was torn: she felt it a time of need for A but also sensed his family’s distress. Not knowing them particularly well, she went up the coast to be with him. Apparently A and W fought the whole night.

Fast forward to Friday: A and W are not speaking. Mum has received various distressed phone calls from W, where she has detailed her frustration with A and expressed her disdain for L. W drops A back at his door in Sydney and continues her travels to Melbourne, swearing to change the locks of the beach house.