Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

Sally Bellerose
Brinkmanship
The family gathers at my sister Jane’s house to celebrate
her fiftieth birthday. My parents are telling the same tale they tell
every year. I should say that Mom is marshalling the story through a
minefield of Dad’s interruptions. It’s the story of Jane’s gestation. It’s
the tale of Mom’s aborted suicide.
Except for Kennedy Marie, the newest great-grandchild, we’ve all
heard some version of the story before. The digressions are of most
interest in a story this well-worn. No one in this family expects linear
development from anyone else, least of all my parents.
“You were five. You were barely four. You weren’t even three.” Mom
looks from adult child to adult child, giving each of us an accusatory
smirk. As if the fact that we are close in age got Mom pregnant. This
is the way the tale always goes. Everyone in the family except Mom
seems to have been responsible for Jane’s conception.
“The nerve of me.” We answer the accusation individually, in
descending order. Except Dad who pulls rank, “The nerve of me,” he
says last, and as always, gets the biggest laugh.
“Well,” Mom settles in deeper on Jane’s sofa. “I was beside myself.”
“I was beside you,” Dad says. “And you were a mess.”
“I was a mess,” Mom asserts, as though Dad had not stolen her
line. “You don’t know how hard it was in those days. I was twenty-two
years old.” She shakes her head. “The rhythm method, huh.” This is
the most interesting part for her adult children. How will our eightyyear-old
Mom maneuver the religious and logistical quagmire of
remaining a good Catholic and disparaging Church doctrine at the
same time, this time?
“Priests.” Dad offers the safe ground of our culture’s latest maligned
authority figure. “In those days we weren’t smart enough to shop around
until we found one who would tell us what we wanted to hear.”
“He’s talking about The Pill.” Mom raises her eyebrows at Cora,
Jane’s twenty-year-old daughter. Mom is making a distinction she
doesn’t want overlooked between abortion and the Pill. She’s all for
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