PART FIVE - THANKSGIVING

SECTION ONE (Pages 285-288)

Summary

It is five years since Dad has died, and the family, minus Maureen, is getting together at Jeannette and her new husband, John's, old country farmhouse for Thanksgiving. Mom arrives with Lori on the train, and the two of them make quite a pair - Mom in four ratty sweaters and a shawl and Lori in a cape and a fedora. Mom is grayer now, but she still has rosy cheeks and bright eyes. John tells Lori and Mom all about the countryside as they drive home from the train station. Jeannette mentions how she loves John for all sorts of reasons, but especially because he finds her scar interesting. The scar means that she is stronger than whatever it was that had tried to hurt her.

Brian is there and is now a decorated sergeant detective. He is no longer married, but has taken on the renovation of a dump of a house in Brooklyn. He is doing pretty darn well. Mom nods at all the preparations Jeannette and John have made in their home, appreciating self-sufficiency. Jeannette points out to her niece, Veronica, that Grandma Walls is different from her other grandma. Veronica says, Way different, but she laughs just like you.

Jeannette goes into the office once a week, but mostly she lives and works from home. It is the first house she has ever owned. Mom admires an old Egyptian couch Jeannette and John purchased from a flea market. She comments, Every household needs one piece of furniture in really bad taste.

When Brian sees all the food John has cooked for Thanksgiving dinner, Jeannette can tell what he's thinking - it's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do. Jeannette reminds him that there are no recriminations. During dinner, Mom tells them that the city has finally decided to allow the squatters to buy their apartments for one dollar each. She also announces that she's been in touch with Maureen, who is still living in California. She says that the youngest of her children is thinking about coming back for a visit. Jeannette hasn't seen or spoken to Maureen since Dad's death. They all reminisce about the times they spent together in the past, and then, John proposes a toast to Rex Walls. Mom thinks on it and says, Life with your father was never boring. They all raise their glasses to that. Outside it has grown dark and the candle flames suddenly shift, dancing along the border between turbulence and order.

Notes

By the end of the book, the reader can appreciate that most of the Walls family have come to terms with how they have lived and loved all these years. They have walked the border between turbulence and order and in the end, they have survived.