Same But – Jenny 50

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.

For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and more recent Jenny episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Once upon a time Helen had been jealous of Peter because Peter had a fire engine for his birthday. Jenny worked long and hard to explain to Helen why this was the case and that at different times of the year they’d have different things. She went further, explaining that the age difference, such that it was, would inevitably mean they had different things at different times. In the same way, she went on to say, more people in her life would get different things at different times and it was something everyone got used to in the end.

Having got to the point where she felt Helen understood this, Izzy stepped in and bought Helen a fire engine. It then became clear that it wasn’t the fire engine she was jealous of, it was the birthday. 

“Well,” said Izzy, making sure Helen knew the problem was solved as of right now, “You’ve got one too so you can’t complain. And you can definitely play with it on your own.”

Birthdays were one thing, actual birth days were something else. Obviously no one got a fire engine - well, Astra might have done in some way - but just because some one was born didn’t mean...

“So you’re not saying you want a baby?” said Jenny.

“God no,” said Helen. “I mean, please, why? Who? And other pointless questions because just no. God no.”

“So..?”

“I mean something should happen to me,” said Helen. “I want something significant to happen to me too. Something life changing and interesting and...”

“So the pandemic isn’t significant..?”

“Everyone’s got the pandemic,” said Helen, obviously. “That’s nothing.”

“And your social media popularity, that..”

“That’s disappeared…”

“And can be got back if you want to get it back.”

“Adrian is now refusing to…”

“Don’t wait for some geek to do something for you,” said Jenny. “You’ll be here forever. Do something about it yourself yourself. Like you did before.”

“Yeah, but look what happened,” said Helen.

“So you learn from your mistakes and you move on,” said Jenny. “It’s very simply really. There’s no clever trick to this, just decide what you want to do and go for it.”

“Is that the secret behind your success?” asked Helen, letting the question hang there. Jenny’s mind roamed over this, deciding what to do with it. She could just throw it back at her daughter, perhaps, telling her how she was only trying to help and if that was her attitude then why was she bothering? She could ignore it and persevere or she could let it fester and bug her. As many small trivial comments often did when she felt her guard was down.

“I’m not pretending this is easy,” she said diplomatically. “I was only trying to help.”

She turned and left Helen. It was perhaps a little passive aggressive, but there was a limit she thought.

And of course Helen’s comment did fester, so  after tea Jenny logged onto her computer and tried to make a plan. It wasn’t much of a plan in the end, it was more a list of possibilities, things that could happen but which would still require some thought and energy, neither of which Jenny thought she had at the moment.

Nevertheless it occupied her quite effectively because it was only after half an hour of this that she realised she hadn’t heard from Peter recently. She sent him a text asking for his whereabouts.

After a worrying ten minutes she received a photo showing him holding a bundle of Astra, smiling down at her, not really registering anything else around him. Yes, thought Jenny, he won't register anything around him for a while. Time, distance, parents, school work. It will all be an irrelevance. Jenny showed Izzy the picture and Izzy also felt her heart warming. Maybe being grandparents was going to be the best thing yet.

She didn’t show the picture to Helen. She’s wasn’t overly worried about her reaction, it was just that at the moment when she went to show her she found Helen was in her room painting again. No video to record it, no apparent attempt to put it on social media, just to be creative. It would be a shame to interrupt this, especially if it stirred up more of the sense of being hard done by, and maybe, just as she and Izzy were working things out, Helen would work out what she felt and how she could relate to the latest member of their family. It was something only she could decide and it was something only she could do.