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DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN
The visitors from England finally arrive, three hours later than expected, in a Buick rented at an airport in the northeastern United States. Kate puts the kettle on to boil and hopes that the plastic-wrapped sandwiches in the refrigerator haven't hardened too much. She has resolved to be the perfect hostess.
A month earlier, on first learning that Joe's relatives were coming, she felt otherwise.
"Our home is not a hotel where your mother and sister take the reservations," she'd barked at Joe. "E-mail your cousin and his wife in England and find out when they will arrive and how long they intend to stay."
Two nights.
Now, as Joe opens the door, Kate puts on her most welcoming smile.
Derek and Sharon have been sightseeing along the U.S. eastern seaboard. Their two enormous suitcases and big brown paper bag in the front entrance of the town house worry Kate, as there's no room on the spare room floor to open them.
"Derek, we didn't need to bring the black one in," says Sharon. "It contains quilting supplies from the shops we've been visiting," she explains to Kate. "America has wonderful fabrics that we don't have at home."
"How lovely!"
Kate, who doesn't quilt, leads the way to the living room. Apparently Sharon designs and creates quilted wall hangings, works of art. She's like Penelope weaving that robe back in Ithaca, except that, unlike Penelope, she's accompanying her Ulysses to faraway lands.
After serving tea and sandwiches, Kate sits and studies the two guests. Derek has a comb-over; Sharon, long grey hair. Kate suspects that she has given up on her appearance.
Derek has taken over the conversation, sharing his many achievements. Perhaps lack of interest in others is a family trait. On the rare occasions when Joe's mother and sister ever ask about Kate's activities, it's to criticize.
Visiting England early in their marriage, Kate had found the same self-focus among Joe's maternal relatives. On the Sunday before their flight back to Canada, they'd arrived at his uncle and aunt's semi-detached house in north London to find seven members of the extended family waiting to see them - supposedly. After the standard greetings and perfunctory inquiries about Kate and Joe's holiday, they turned inward for a family chin-wag. Kate and Joe had merely provided the excuse for a get-together.
Derek and Sharon hadn't been present on that occasion; they and their two young children had lived too far from London. Now, Derek provides an update on his kids. The daughter is engaged to be married. Their son can't find work in his field so is temporarily at a garden centre.
When dinner hour approaches, Kate goes to the kitchen and begins microwaving a frozen casserole she has prepared in advance. Soon their guests tuck happily into the meal, with Derek pausing occasionally to talk more about his work for a chemical company. Suddenly he turns to Kate.
"And what do you do with your time?" he inquires.
Kate smiles and shrugs.
"Oh, you know the old saying. Man works from sun to sun but woman's work is never done."
"Kate writes and teaches courses," Joe says. "She has a newspaper column. She is the author of the books on the top shelf in the living room book case."
Sharon nods. "There's a writers' club at the community centre where I go for quilting. Do they have writers' circles in Canada?"
"I believe so," says Kate. "My last group of students started one after the course was over because they wanted to continue as a group." She picks up her fork and listens to Derek talk of his work connections in Poland.
The following day Joe takes the visitors sightseeing while Kate works on her column. She wonders if her friend Genevieve's son, George Junior, has arrived in town yet. She would dearly love a chat with Genevieve but doesn't like to bother her, as the elderly woman is resting for her visit with her boy.
Ten years ago, when Kate was hired to teach creative writing at a retirement residence, a dignified older woman who looked like "Miss Mamie" on The Waltons, invited her to stay for tea. Though the course has been over for years, their friendship has continued. As it happens, Kate and Genevieve graduated from the same alma mater - thirty years apart. A conversation with Genevieve is an amusing trip into the past.
Genevieve was happily married for almost fifty years - until her husband developed Alzheimer's Disease and had to enter a nursing home.
"I visited him every second day," Genevieve confided, with misty eyes. "I'll never forget on time when I got off the elevator and could hear him bellowing in the distance. A nurse was trying to take his blood pressure and for some reason he was upset with her. I went over and said, You know better than to act like this. Stop it right now. Settle down. He turned into a lamb. The nurse said, What a marriage you must have had! and I said, We're still having it."
Kate sees similar patterns of give-and-take with Joe. The main thing, she thinks, is to communicate. For instance, once they got down to planning Derek and Sharon's visit, in a civilized way, they'd agreed that on the second evening they would take the couple out to dinner at The Leafy Gourmet.
When Kate issues the invitation, however, Derek and Sharon seem discomfited.
"We haven't eaten out much this holiday." Derek says with satisfaction. "Breakfast, and our food bag, keep us going for the rest of the day."
He's referring to the paper supermarket bag from the hallway, stocked with pots of applesauce, chocolate and granola bars and apples. But Kate is hungry, now, and doesn't feel like cooking, so she waits, making no move towards the kitchen.
Sharon says brightly, "I'll go up and change my shirt." Derek follows her.
****
At the restaurant, the relatives seem to like the wooden tables graced with flowering houseplants, the stained glass panels hanging in the windows, and the well-organized hot and cold buffets.
When they are seated, Joe turns to Kate. "Did you talk to Genevieve today?"
"I didn't like to disturb her. George Junior is visiting her this week."
"Right." Joe explains to the others who Genevieve is. "She's our favourite octogenarian and George Junior, her son, is an interesting fellow. He took early retirement from his law practice and has learned to play the dobro."
"What's a dobro?" asks Sharon. Derek is chewing.
"A type of guitar," Kate explains.
"When George Junior is in town he always sings and plays for the residents at Genevieve's retirement residence," Joe adds.
"Why are so many Americans called 'Junior?'" inquires Derek.
"To differentiate them from their fathers," Joe says.
Kate smiles. "Genevieve says it was either George Junior or George the Second."
Sharon cracks a smile.
"Genevieve is sweet," Kate continues, mostly to fill the dead air. "Once, when talking about her husband, George, who has been dead many years, she said, I feel that he's still very near me. It's as if he's in the next room."
Derek chews rapidly and swallows.
"That's interesting," he declares. "Although I'm a chemist - a scientist - I believe there's a world beyond the material one, and that not everything can be explained rationally."
"Like Toby and the cheese," Sharon pipes up. "Tell them about that, Derek."
"Do you want to tell it?" He gazes at her fondly.
"All right. It happened a few years ago at tea when the children were both at home. I had made a macaroni and cheese casserole and we had eaten all we wanted so I told Derek to put it down on the kitchen floor for Toby, our terrier, to finish. Derek did and joined us in the dining room for ice cream, when suddenly I got a terrible feeling of anxiety. In my mind's eye I could see the dog choking on something, coughing, then tumbling over on his side and lying perfectly still. It was so clear! I said to Derek, Go and help the dog. He's choking. Derek looked at me as if I were insane but then we heard a cough and he ran out and found the dog struggling with a big chunk of mac and cheese in his throat. So he knelt down and pulled it out and the dog could breathe again. It was a prescient moment."
Derek, who has been on the edge of his chair throughout the anecdote, opens his eyes wide and whispers, "Deja vu."
"Extraordinary!" exclaims Joe.
Kate can't think of a response. This story seems so foolish, so inappropriate on so many levels. She's afraid her food will come up.
Sharon and Derek are looking at her for a response. Then Derek takes over.
"It was uncanny, really," he says. "Sharon said to me, Derek, I think the dog has macaroni and cheese caught in his throat. But there hadn't been any choking noises. In fact, she'd known what was going to happen before Toby actually took a bite. So I went to the kitchen and the poor animal was gagging..."
As he tells the story a second time, Kate realizes that he thinks she failed to comprehend the magnitude and significance of the incident. She fights back a giggle. It's deja vu over again.
"Incredible!" She presses her foot against Joe's. He nudges back.
She takes a deep breath. "I find such incidents fascinating!" she declares. "Whenever I teach a new group of writing students I always meet someone with a supernatural story. In one group, a man told about an occasion when he'd missed a flight, and then the plane crashed. A woman said that, in the delivery room while giving birth to her baby boy, she felt the presence of her late mother. The people who tell me these things are serious and responsible, not weird in any way, yet in every new class I hear a new anecdote along these lines. It isn't a case of people egging each other on to tell the strangest story."
Now that she has begun to speak, she won't relinquish the conversation. Let Derek get a little taste of what it's like to endure a monologue. She speaks of the writing guru Julia Cameron who believes in synchronicity. She mentions the real live Alison Dubois, police psychic, who inspired the TV series Medium. When Derek tries to interrupt, she wags her finger at him.
"Just let me complete this thought," she says, and segues into a related anecdote about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualism. She runs out of breath just as the waiter appears to offer more coffee.
"No, thanks," Derek and Sharon say in unison. "We should make it an early night."
As they enter the house the telephone is ringing. It's Genevieve. George Junior will be singing and playing the following day, at 2:00, and Kate is invited.
"Talk about synchronicity!" she says. "I'd love to come. Unfortunately, Joe can't. He's driving his cousins to the airport."
Genevieve chuckles. "I didn't think you'd mind missing the send-off."
****
Late the following afternoon, Kate and Joe arrive home at the same time.
"How was the performance?" he asks.
"Everyone loved George. Genevieve was pleased. How was the airport?"
He smiled. "Derek talked non-stop from the moment we left the house. As we walked through the airport, Sharon was carrying the food bag, and when we passed a garbage can, she dropped it in. He didn't notice."
Ruth Latta
Email: Ruth Latta
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