Motivational talk – Jenny 3

Jenny wanted Peter to do something. Something new. No, not necessarily new. Anything. Anything at all. The problem was what.

“Do you have any homework?” she asked

“Suppose so, sort of,” said the top of Peter’s head.

“What kind of homework is it?” – deploying the ‘interested’ voice.

“Boring.”

“I meant subject wise.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Pause.

“Are your teachers in touch with you? Through the – app – thingy?”

“Suppose so.”

Pause.

“And what about your friends – are you…. Are they OK?”

“Yeah. Bored mainly.”

Over a pot of herbal tea Izzy told Jenny not to worry. Peter was finding his own way through this and it wasn’t up to them to direct him on what to do, feel or think. He was old enough to understand entirely what was going on and what it meant. He was also old enough to judge whether things were going well or not and what the future might hold and even what he should be doing now as a result of that.

“But he doesn’t get up and – do – anything,” fretted Jenny. “That’s the thing. You have to be able to get up and do something, whatever it is. This is a great time for – you know, for…”

“For what?” asked Izzy. “Start a hobby? Woodwork? Play the recorder? Astronomy?”

“Putting on clothes would be nice,” said Jenny. Then regretted it because of the look she received. “I’m not saying what he should but…”

“You shouldn’t be saying anything.”

“But what if he gets to the end of this and regrets all that time that he’s just spent…”

“He won’t regret this time. Unless you give him a reason to.”

Jenny let it stew like the tea, not stirring but not accepting either. Just letting it permeate her being, gnawing at the edges and fraying her nerves little by little, day by day.

Until one day she decided to wipe the surfaces in the front room. Only obviously she was not just wiping the surfaces. Actually the surfaces didn’t need to be wiped at all. And having admitted to herself this oh so subtle approach was not an all an oh so subtle approach, Jenny deserted the quiet sighs and the heavy coughing ‘I’m here' signals and just went straight for the jugular.

“You could at least help,” she said.

Peter actually looked up at her. Well, it was a start, even if it was a horrendous start that bode no good.

“I just think…”

“What do you want me to do?” asked Peter. “I mean apart from clean which it looks like you’ve got entirely under control so what’s the point? I’ll take over if you want me to, you just have to ask.”

“Oh yes, of course,” spat back Jenny way too forcefully, “I just have to ask, that’s right – ask. Like it’s not obvious. And I always have to ask!”

“Do you want me to wipe the coffee table?”

“I – I don’t care,” Jenny shot back. “Wipe it if you want. I can do it. I just think you should do something too.”

“Fine I will,” said Peter, getting up, grabbing the spray from Jenny and over-dramatically over-wiping the table that Jenny had already wiped during one of her previous heavy sighs – except Peter hadn’t seen this because he’d been at a critical point with his phone – and Jenny had forgotten she’d already done it too because she was already way too swept up in this sudden battle.

“Well,” she said. “Thank you. I suppose.”

“You’re welcome,” said Peter, handing the spray back to her, picking up his phone and lying back down on the sofa.

There was a pause.

“Is that it?” asked Jenny.

Peter looked at the table. “Think so. Looks pretty clean.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“So what did you mean?”

“Is that all you’re going to do?”

“Is that all you want me to do?”

Another pause.

“You need to enter into the spirit of this,” said Jenny, realising that her teeth were becoming a little gritted now. “You can’t just – lie here. You need to do something.”

“What?” barked Peter. “What do I need to do?”

“I don’t know – do something crafty, go outside for a walk.Bake a cake.”

“Fine, I’ll bake a cake. What cake shall I bake?”

Peter was already on his feet.

“Well, you, you, you can’t do one now – I need to get tea ready,” said Jenny.

Peter stared at her.

“Thursday,” said Jenny hastily. “Let’s make a cake on Thursday. Or you can. Or we could do it together – let’s do it together. That would be nice, I’d like that.”

“Any particular time?” asked Peter.

“No, no, I’m around all day.”

“Fine, then!” said Peter, sitting down.

“Fine, then!” said Jenny, walking away.

She took the cloth back to kitchen to rinse it out and tried to work out if she’d achieved the result she intended.