Page 121 of Atmosphere

Joan blinked. “I’m confused.”

“I don’t have to host Thanksgiving for the whole family, you know. That’s not my responsibility.”

“I know, but why are you bringing Frances to Gstaad for the few days she has off for Thanksgiving? You can’t drag a kid that far across the world and back in four days.”

“Don’t be absurd. She’s staying at school.”

Joan gripped the receiver. “What do you mean, she’s staying at school?”

“She has asked to not come home,” Barbara said.

“I don’t believe that for a second.”

“Well, I don’t care what you believe. I asked if she wanted to abide by my rules or stay there and she said stay there. So we booked a trip to Gstaad instead.”

“You can’t leave her alone for the holiday. Even if she said to.”

“Okay, first of all, it’s Thanksgiving, not Christmas. No one likes Thanksgiving. We do it because that’s what people do. And she’s not alone. There’s a whole program there where kids have Thanksgiving together. Lots of her friends will be with her. That’s why she wants to stay.”

“I don’t buy that. Something must have happened for her to make that choice. What was it?”

“I mean, ask her. We went for a parents’ weekend and it was horrible, Joan.”

Frances had told Joan that Barbara and Daniel had left early, but Joan hadn’t been able to get much more out of her than that. “I don’t care if it was horrible!”

“She kicked me in the shin!”

“But why did she do that? She wouldn’t do that for no reason.”

“I don’t know, but I’m really getting tired of you always taking her side. She kicked me. And she told Daniel she wished I’d never married him. I really don’t understand it, because she’s getting glowing reviews at the school. Her grades are good. She finishes her work early most of the time. Her teachers say she has a lot of friends. Everyone loves her. Apparently, she won an essay contest that included the entire middle school. She actually won!”

“Well, that’s great.”

“So I don’t get it. And I’m not going to waste more time trying to. She’s perfectly well behaved when she’s there. So let her stay there.”

“Of course she is well behaved there—she isn’t mad at them.”

“Well, why on Earth would she be mad at Daniel? He hasn’t done anything to her.”

“But she can’t see that. All she can see is that he showed up and you suddenly stopped paying attention to her.”

“I swear, sometimes you act just like a child,” Barbara said.

“Hey.”

“No, I mean it. It’s like you can identify with a child’s point of view because there’s still something very childlike about you.”

“That’s completely out of line.”

“I’m really not trying to be mean. But think about it. You’ve still never even gone on a date outside of high school, have you? Have you even had a real kiss? Do you know how adult life goes? Of course you don’t understand what I have with Daniel. Because you’ve never hadit.

“And you could certainly never understand how to actually raise Frances. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings. It’s just that I’ve felt judged by you for such a long time. Such a long time. And I’m finally seeing the situation as it really is. Which is that you judge me because you don’t understand what it is like to be in an adult relationship. You don’t understand what it means to love. You may never understand that. You’re probably just not built for it. And that’s not your fault. I just have to stop letting you get into my head.”

“Barbara, that is completely…”

“What? You may not like it, but nothing I said is factually incorrect.”

“Yes, it is.”

---