General Fiction posted January 24, 2025 | Chapters: | ...25 26 -27- 28... |
Suggestions from Julia
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 27
by Jim Wile
Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 26: Marie begins drinking right away at the Christmas party at the Kendricks’ before the guests even begin to arrive. By the time she is called on to play fiddle on a few numbers with Julia and the bluegrass band, she is quite soused and begins showing off. An embarrassed Julia asks her to rejoin the audience, and Brian helps out by escorting her to her seat. She begins making an obnoxious fool of herself with loud cries and whistles during the remaining numbers.
Brian takes her away from this by offering to show her something down in his lab. It’s the picture collage Marie had made, showing pictures of Julia playing the violin as a child that Brian had mounted on the wall. She begins reflecting on how amazingly talented Julia was and how poor a mother she has been to her, and she sobs in Brian’s arms as he tries to comfort her. She is then violently ill from all the drinking.
Chapter 27
Marie
I did not sleep well last night and still had quite a hangover going. I don’t usually drink as much as I did yesterday, and I was feeling the results now.
I had very little to eat yesterday—that’s part of the problem—and I was starving now. I went downstairs to the kitchen to find Julia feeding Johnny some oatmeal.
“Morning, Mother. Didn’t see you last night. I hope you’re feeling better this morning.”
I sat down at the kitchen table across from her. “I had a very bad headache and needed to be in a dark room. Listen, Julia, I’m sorry for behaving the way I did at the party yesterday and for any embarrassment I may have caused you. I had a bit too much to drink, and it affected my behavior.”
“Ya think?”
“You don’t have to get smart with me. I know I overindulged.”
“But did you really, Mother? Was that amount of alcohol that unusual for you?”
“Are you accusing me of being an alcoholic?”
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“Certainly not. I’m a respected member of one of the premier orchestras in the country. Could I be an alcoholic and still perform at the capacity needed for the job?”
“Maybe. If you’re careful about when you drink, I think you could probably do both. It just seems somewhat ironic that that’s what you held against Brian all those years—that he was a drug addict—yet you’re just using a different drug.”
“I am not an addict, or an alcoholic, or whatever you want to call it. I have a few drinks in the evenings after work, but that’s it.”
“Well, I hope that’s the extent of it, Mother, but that’s not the impression I got the last time you visited. You drank up all our liquor and some of what we replenished it with.”
“Well, you can certainly afford it.”
“That’s not the point. I just wonder why you feel the need to drink so much.”
“It’s a coping mechanism. I feel out of my comfort zone here, especially when in the presence of…”
“All these redneck hillbillies who are our friends?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. Look, I know they are not the kind of people you typically associate with, but they are great people, and they love their music even though it isn’t the type of music you love. They have welcomed Brian and me into their lives. It was serendipity the way it happened, but wonderful things can happen if you let them. I just worry about you, Mother. Do you have friends?”
“None that I’m particularly close to.”
“So, you go to work each day to a job you feel unappreciated in, then come home and have a few drinks to put you back in your comfort zone. Is that the extent of your life now?”
I didn’t have a good answer for her, so I said nothing. Put that way, it sounds pretty bleak.
“Mother, you would make such a good teacher. You could learn a thing or two about being more encouraging, but from a technical standpoint, you are fantastic. Have you ever considered taking on some students?”
“After teaching you, they would all be a disappointment.”
“Well, that’s nice of you to say, but it’s all in the attitude you take towards it. If you can help impart a love of music to your students and can get to know them as people, should it really matter to you how far they decide to take it with the ability or level of interest that they have? View it as a challenge to see how much interest in playing well you can convey to them, and just accept the level that they choose. If you’re encouraging and nice, you’ll probably get a better result. I have a few students myself now. Not all of them are great players or will be, but they all seem to enjoy it, and it’s fun just working with them.”
“That’s because you’re a nice person. I’m not.”
“Would you want to be? What’s stopping you? Look, Mother, Brian told me about what happened down in his lab yesterday when he took you down there. I know you have regrets about how you raised me, but human beings can change. It can be hard work, but it’s possible. Ebenezer Scrooge managed it in one night. So did the Grinch. I know these are only stories, but the important thing they convey is that it’s possible to change; you may just need some help. Maybe professional help might be something to consider. I hate to picture you alone every night drinking by yourself.”
I reached across the table and put my hand over hers that was resting there. “I’ll think about it.”
She placed her other hand on top of mine. “That’s good.” She patted my hand a couple of times. “Good.”
I smiled at her. “Julia, I’m starving. Why don’t you let me take over feeding Johnny, and maybe you could scramble me a couple of eggs?”
“I’ll be happy to, Mother.”
One nice thing about being down here in the south during December is that the weather is a lot better than in New York. The day after Christmas turned out to be a beautiful day, and by mid-afternoon, the temperature had risen to a very pleasant 64 degrees. Julia and I decided to take Johnny to a park in town.
Brian was back at work today in his lab with Abby and Patty, or he probably would have come with us. He said they were getting very close to a solution, and with one final push over the next couple of days, he thought they would have it. I don’t know what the hell they are working on down there, since they won’t give me any clue about it, but it must be important if the FBI has commissioned it.
It was a long walk from the parking lot to the playground at the park, and we’d forgotten to pack Johnny’s stroller. I started out by carrying him, but my back has been hurting a little lately, and I told Julia I wasn’t quite up to it. I handed him to her, and she carried him the rest of the way.
She put him down when we reached the playground, and he immediately toddled over to the swings. “I’ll push him, Julia.”
I lifted him up into one of the baby swings. “Johnny, can you say ‘swings?’”
“Ga-ga.”
“Close enough.”
Julia sat down on a bench about 20 feet away and watched as I began pushing him. My headache had cleared up, and I was feeling better since I’d gotten some food in me. My hangover was dissipating rapidly now that I was out in the fresh air and moving and enjoying the company of my grandson.
A young girl of about 12 came up to Julia and sat down next to her on the bench. “Hi, Miss Julia. Merry day after Christmas.”
“Hi, Sherry. Back at you. Are you here with Patrick?”
“Yeah, he’s over there on the monkey bars. He’ll probably want to play with Johnny after a while.”
“Sherry, that’s my mother, Johnny’s grandmother, pushing him on the swing.”
She waved. “Hi, Johnny’s grandma. Hi, Johnny.”
“Mother, this is Sherry—one of my students I told you about.”
“Nice to meet you, Sherry,” I said. She was a chubby kid and not very attractive, but I could tell she adored Julia. They were holding hands.
“Miss Julia is a very good teacher. She said she learned most of what she knows from you. You must be a good teacher too.”
“I don’t know about that. She was a good student.”
“Well, I’m not very good yet, but someday I’d like to play in a band like she does.”
“Imagine that. Well, just keep practicing. That’s what it takes.”
“I will.”
All this niceness was beginning to overwhelm me a little. Plus, my back was paining me with the pushing. Johnny also began squirming in his seat, so we stopped, and I lifted him down.
Sherry’s little brother must have spotted us because he came over to play with Johnny and took him by the hand as they went over to the sandbox. It was not far, and we could keep an eye on them from where we were. I joined Julia and Sherry on the bench.
“So, what makes Julia such a good teacher, Sherry?”
“Well, she’s nice. She doesn’t yell at me when I mess up, and she tells me how good I’m doing when I play it right. And if I have three hours a week on my practice card, she gives me candy. We just have a lot of fun at the lessons.”
“Is that what you typically practice—three hours a week?”
“I have to babysit for my little brothers a lot of the time because my mother is working part-time now. But I practice as much as I can after I finish my homework.”
My goodness. Julia used to practice at least three hours every single day. Yep, this girl probably will never amount to much as a musician. Is it worth even bothering then? Julia seems to think so. “Well, it sounds like you’re doing the best you can.”
“Yeah, I really like it.”
So different from my upbringing. I may have had a kook for a mother who was a narcissistic taskmaster, but at least I became an excellent musician. This girl doesn’t have the advantages I had but seems to be doing what she can do and has a loving teacher to boot. Maybe she won’t become much of a violinist, but she appears to enjoy it, and that counts for something… I guess.
So much to think about and reevaluate here.
Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.
Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.
Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.
Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.
Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.
Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.
Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.
Picture courtesy of Playground-v3
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