u/Infamous-Thought-765

Let’s discuss “Dreams Come True” and the generically named chapter “Gathering Shadows” (seems every VCA book has a chapter title with “gathering” or “shadows” in it.)

 

Designs created using content and tools available on Canva.  Synopsis from my WordPress blog.

Much Ado About Nothing – Tuesday Teatimes

_______________________________________________________________

Cathy and Chris’s trauma bond is alive and well as they take a walk through Central Park. Cathy wants to keep Chris’s visit quiet, but Chris is like, “F— Julian,” and starts getting all high and mighty for someone who not-so-secretly wants to bone his younger sibling. 

Cathy’s fifteen-year-old sister, on the other hand, is one of Julian’s favorite people in the world! Apparently, Julian has a liking for girls Carrie’s age. Cathy thinks this might be a red flag but, ultimately, she shrugs it off. So long as he promises not to touch her sister (pinkie swear!), and so long as he keeps giving Cathy the occasional ego (and career) boost, whatever. It is what it is.

Months later, Cathy and Julian are vacationing in Barcelona so that they can learn how to put a little Spanish spice into their dancing. (For a second, V.C. Andrews got confused and thought she was writing the screenplay for a ’90s dance movie.) Somehow, Chris’s graduation invite finds them all the way in Spain.  Chris is graduating at the top of his class and expects his sister to be there to cheer him on.  Otherwise, he’ll become petulant like a two-year-old and refuse to accept his diploma.  Way to emotionally blackmail Cathy into risking the ire of her unstable husband, who we know is going to throw a fit at the idea of flying all the way out to wherever it is Chris went to med school.

Cathy tells Julian it’s plain lunacy to miss her brother’s special day.  She tells him their childhood was “no picnic” and that he just doesn’t understand. She should just bite the bullet already and tell him her mother was also her first cousin and that she and Chris are super siblings – siblings who have powered-up, like in some video game.  She should pull a Zack Morris, like that time he tried to gross out Kelly’s younger sister and make her think he was a nerd.  Just because it backfired on Zack, that doesn’t mean it will backfire on Cathy.  This is a completely different situation.  It’s worth a shot!

On second thought, maybe it’s best not to poke the bear . . .

The more Cathy pleads to go to Chris’s graduation, the angrier Julian gets. And that night, he r *pes her. So much for Julian having that one thing about him that made him stand out from the crowd. 

The next morning, Cathy drugs him and then hops a flight.

For graduation, Chris doesn't want a Red Ryder BB g u n. He wants a John Cuff Side Pillar Microscope. So Cathy buys him one. And yes, it actually works!

So Cathy ends up spending “a few days” in Clairmont.  I’m not sure how long “a few days” is.  Three days?  A week?  An indeterminate amount of time that she absolutely does not have available to her, but she clearly just wants to delay the inevitable.

More unwanted touching from Chris.  Her brother has a new fantasy, and that’s to run away with Cathy and buy a tour boat.  He’ll bring along a first-aid kit since he still wants to be a doctor. And fine! They can bring along Carrie too. Happy?

Cathy goes to visit Madame Marisha, who’s currently teaching a class of stupid kids.  That’s not nice, Cathy!  We don’t call kids names just because we’re jealous of their youth and ambition.

While having a talk with Cathy, Madame Marisha makes a ton of excuses for her son, basically telling her daughter-in-law a whole lot of what she already knows about Julian’s childhood.

None of what she says about him is new information!  Yet Cathy acts like, OMG, I now understand Julian so much more!  He’s so much like me!  I hate my mother, he hates his father!  I totally have never thought this very thing before in an earlier chapter.  This is the first time this has ever crossed my mind. 

So Cathy, after learning much ado about nothing, decides to return home so that she can have a talk with her husband. Chris insists on accompanying Cathy because he doesn’t trust his sister alone with the guy for some reason.

To make a long story short, Cathy crashes Julian and Yolanda’s rehearsal. And Julian crashes down on Cathy’s toes in front of a live audience.

Chris comes running to his sister’s aid. Good thing he’s a doctor!

 

Let’s discuss “April’s Fool,” “Labyrinth of Lies” and “Too Many Loves to Lose.”

Designs created using content and tools available on Canva.  Synopsis from my blog:

What Do You Wanna Bet Our Girl is a Fire Sign? – Tuesday Teatimes

Now Back to That Pickled Baby and Jerry’s Final Thoughts! – Tuesday Teatimes

Georges Interruptus – Tuesday Teatimes

 ______________________________________________________________________________

Ballet is super hard. 

And stress, apparently, brings out the worst in Julian because all he seems to do lately is yell at Cathy.  Is anyone else around while they’re practicing?  Are the onlookers just gonna stand there and silently watch this woman be verbally abused by her dance partner?  I guess so.  I know there are others present because someone’s providing the piano music.

Later on, a woman stops by to talk to Cathy in her dressing room. Turns out it’s Paul’s older sister, Amanda.  You know, that woman who refuses to visit her younger sibling but has no problem wasting her time and her money knitting him fabulous sweaters for his birthday? A woman of contradictions!

She showers Cathy with shallow praise, while also reminding her that old age will come soon enough and make her undesirable to e p h e b o p h i  l e s like Amanda’s brother. 

And everyone in town sure does love to gossip about the “juvenile delinquents” he invited into his home. You know, the procedure Cathy assumed was just a routine D&C for missed periods?  According to Amanda, she miscarried a pair of conjoined twins.  Amanda assumes the young girl was impregnated by Paul.

Finally, the conversation turns to Paul’s late wife, Julia, who’s apparently not so dead after all.  She survived the ordeal of trying to drown herself and her young son and has been placed in an institution, where she remains to this day.  And Amanda’s got the undated photos to prove it.

During the after party, Cathy gets a little tipsy and finds herself saying yes to Julian’s advances. 

Next thing you know, the two of them are getting married.

***

On tour in London, Cathy has some thoughts on British plumbing/heating (she hates it), and also some thoughts on what it’s like to be tied to her new husband’s hip (she hates that too).

Julian gets suspicious when she doesn’t invite him to join her in the bathroom (did he also grow up in a household where family members went to the bathroom together?), and he wants to know all about her childhood trauma.  She lies and says her parents are dead, which is only half true.  She tells him that she and her siblings were rescued by a “huge fat black lady,” who, I guess, shall remain nameless.  By now, you would think she could refer to Henny by name.

Julian warns her that she should start getting used to looking the other way when he acts up because deep down, he’s really kind of an ahole (isn’t everyone?), and there isn’t much that can be done about it at this late stage.

After their time in London, they travel to Clairmont to visit with Paul and Carrie.

She invites Julian inside for dinner, but the two of them hide their wedding rings.

After the meal, Paul wants to talk with Cathy alone in the gardens.  That should be fine, so long as no one brings along a shovel.  A shovel would be too ominous. He's getting a strange vibe here.

Cathy tells Paul about Amanda’s visit, accusing him of lying to her, which is just about the worst thing in the world he could have done, next to locking her in an attic.  But I suppose the night is still young.

The doctor admits that Julia was in a coma for years, but she did eventually die.  In fact, would you believe she passed just shy of a month after he and Cathy first did the deed?  Gee, that’s interesting timing. 

She asks him about the D&C because you know that’s the one thing weighing most heavily on her mind.  Apparently, Paul has a two-headed fetus in a jar in his office.  Could Paul be macabre enough to keep the deformed baby his adopted daughter miscarried after getting pregnant by her brother? 

Paul says there was no two-headed baby, just a backlog of missed periods, but he doesn’t even care if she did miscarry Chris’s child because he knows Cathy and her brother have a very “special” bond.

She confesses that their one and only time was actually a f’ng nightmare.  And he’s like, Uh . . .sorry you didn’t enjoy it more . . . I guess?  Talk about a buzzkill for this Dr. Paul guy.  But he reassures her that whatever happened, it wasn’t a sin.  It was a very loving act.  That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it!

Thanks for that final thought, Jerry Springer!

He switches topics and starts talking about how exciting it will be to travel with his famous ballerina wife and the other good-looking dancers in her company, all while she’s still crying over memories of her brother r a ping her and also trying to muster up the nerve to confess to him that she’s just jumped into a hasty marriage with an abusive jerk who wants to control every single aspect of her life, and all because, when she was very young and traumatized and needing the best therapy money could buy, a certain doctor decided instead to isolate her from her siblings and buy her lingerie to wear around the house.

She finally tells him that it’s over between the two of them.  He stumbles around like he’s just been shot in the chest before collapsing on a bench.  He makes this big to-do about how he’ll always be triggered by ballet music for the rest of his life, and can she just sit and hold his hand and give him a moment to grieve before he inevitably picks himself up, brushes himself off and moves on with his life?  Can she just do him this one last favor? 

Sure she will. 

Would three minutes be sufficient time? 

OK then.

***

Meanwhile, Georges Rosencoff is on his deathbed.

Marisha forces Julian to say something nice to the dad who has only a minute or two left to live.  She has to physically restrain her son to keep him from running.

Georges has been waiting for this moment so that he can have that final talk with his boy.  He opens his mouth to speak but then dies before he can get his thoughts out. You would think if he was able to force himself to hold on for two weeks, he could have waited a few more minutes before he let go of his tenuous grip on life, but nope.  He totally did that on purpose.

Later on, Marisha has a private talk with Cathy.  She admits that she was never a touchy-feely kind of gal, so Cathy should make up for her motherly deficiencies. 

Carrie’s clearly been watching way too much Investigation Discovery.  She predicts Cathy won’t last long in the dangerous city. And she’s probably been watching lots of TLC as well because she has big plans to get back at her sister for abandoning the family by marrying Paul herself and having six kids!  That’s a lot of kids!  Will Paul live long enough?  And these revenge plans of hers are awfully specific. She’s been giving this predatory marriage arrangement way too much thought!

Paul calms down enough to reassure Cathy that she should never second-guess her marriage to Julian.  She’s just a confused child who doesn’t know what she wants.  Except when she decided to marry Julian because clearly that was the right decision and exactly what she wanted all along! Look at Paul, mainsplaining to Cathy who she loves and who she doesn’t love. 

Don’ t you worry about good old Dr. Paul with his s e x y moustache, he says. He’ll find someone else in no time.  The two of them have a good laugh, and Cathy makes a point to assure the reader that it’s not a forced laugh but an authentic one.  Which means it was probably the most awkwardly forced laugh ever.

To sum up, a middle-aged predator had some fun with the girl he took in, but it’s time to move on.  He’s got smaller fish to fry. 

And as for the girl, she’s going back to New York to be another man’s 24/7 servant.  And possibly never see her brother and guardian again because her new husband doesn’t want her spending time with her exes.

And I think that’s fair.

Here's a synopsis for "Toward the Top," "New York, New York," "A Fighting Chance" and "Winter Dreams." Let's discuss!

From my WordPress blog:

Could Cathy Be on the Verge of Doing Something “Impulsive”? – Tuesday Teatimes

Cathy Takes Manhattan – Tuesday Teatimes

Christmas Stalkings – Tuesday Teatimes

____________________________________________________________________________________

Look at Cathy.  She’s the best ballerina this town has ever seen. She just got the lead in both Cinderella and The Nutcracker. It’s probably because the dance instructors’ son wants to find her lost glass slipper under his apartment futon. But hey, it’s all about the connections in life!

She feels bad that they’re being financial vampires, sucking Dr. Paul’s money dry, but at least they can count on Carrie to have small-town dreams. Paul hopes his adopted 11-yo will one day shack up with someone local.

Maybe she’ll keep it real local, like under Paul’s roof . . . Let's hope not.

Now Cathy is off to New York, and it’s time for her to hug and make out with her brother as they say their goodbyes in the airport. Why is Julian looking at Paul and Chris so funny? Doesn’t he ever hug and make out with his family when they part ways? Probably. I bet that’s the real reason why he wants to get Cathy on that plane to NY and as far away from her predatory relatives as possible.

Chris is afraid Cathy will act impulsively if he’s not around to closely monitor her behavior. “Impulsive”?  What would ever give him the idea his sister would ever do anything “impulsive”?

On the plane ride to New York, good ole Jule promises he will always look out for her. Starting tomorrow. Because he kind of forgot to tell her ahead of time that Madame Zolta is more handsy than a 3-yo at a petting zoo.

Julian admits to having unrequited feelings for Cathy, and Zolta agrees to accept the girl into her company for that reason alone. She figures there’s nothing that will drive up ticket sales quite like seeing a young man, on stage, pining after a young woman who wants nothing to do with him.

Cathy shares a cramped apartment with two young women. Her roommate Yolanda is loud, doesn’t think much of wearing clothes and can’t stop bragging about everything, and everyone, she’s done. 

Julian’s roommates are Alexis Tarrell and Michael Michelle.  Michael Michelle?  He might as well have been called Michael Michael.  Why not Peter Pierre or John Jean? 

Zolta is insufferable.  She demands Cathy cut her hair.  Good luck with that!  She goes on tirades about that modern music all the young people are listening to.  Probably while they’re partying on her lawn as well.  Cathy doesn’t suffer tyrants gladly, and she gives Madame a piece of her mind.  As a result, she gains the old woman’s respect.

Cathy eventually gets to play the leads of both Clara and Aurora.  Madame convinces a television producer to broadcast their production of The Nutcracker on TV. 

Cathy’s family comes to see her perform with Julian in Sleeping Beauty.  That night, Paul asks Cathy to marry him.  Their happiness is only sullied by the thought of having to announce to Cathy’s brother that his legal guardian will soon become his brother-in-law.  Wait a minute.  Does that also make Cathy his mother? 

These family relationships just keep getting weirder and weirder.

One evening, Cathy and Julian get into an argument because she doesn’t love him. Why doesn’t she love him? Gee, I wonder why she can’t stand this jerk?  Anyway, this leads to him taking her on a wild ride and nearly causing her to crash through the windshield. He ultimately abandons her in the city with no way to get home.  It’s kinda like that scene in Clueless. Remember when Elton abandons Cher in the valley? Only Cathy doesn’t get held up and ruin an expensive dress.  And she has no money and, since this is the early ’60s, no phone. At least Julian didn't make her listen to a Cranberries CD before kicking her out the door.

She tricks a cab driver into driving her back to her place.

She has to borrow the cab fare from her roomie Yolanda, who is determined to make her pay a steep price in return.  Yolanda wants Cathy’s brother.  Cathy’s like, Oh h e ll no, not my Chrissy boy! This escalates to the point where Cathy punches her roommate in the nose. And is surprised when “Yolly” bleeds. She could have sworn she’d just tapped her! Apparently, there’s a delicate way to punch someone . . .

Cathy gets a new apartment.

Julian slams his fist against her door one morning, threatening to bust it down. Turns out he’s got good news! They’re going to London!

So Cathy will be home for the holidays, and she’s so excited to spend quality time with Paul.  Forget that older brother and little sister of hers.  It’s Paul she can’t wait to see.

If Cory were alive, I think she would have been anxious to see him too. Cory and Paul. Those are the only two family members Cathy needs!

Chris gives Cathy a locket with the world’s tiniest diamond on it.  He tells her he paid for it by waiting tables.  As opposed to what?  Burglarizing wealthy mothers?  He’s done that too.  But those days are in the past.  He’s respectable now.  He hands her a note to go with the gift— a sophomoric little rhyme that ends with a flimsy promise to keep things brotherly.  If he continues writing maudlin, insincere poems like that, Cathy might just ruin her mascara!

Paul gives Cathy a fur coat.   Expensive furs remind Cathy of death.  Not so much dead animals.  More like the fact that her own mother tried to poison them all so that she could afford coats like this.  Paul also buys a color TV for the whole family.  Cathy doesn’t say it, but I’m sure that must also remind her of Momma and their first Christmas in the attic.  Paul sure is great at picking out the most thoughtful, sentimental gifts for his loved ones.

Chris spends the holiday sulking because he’s not the number one man in his sister’s life anymore.  Cathy wants him to move on but, deep down, she hopes he never does.  And I’m sure she’s thinking about how fantastic he looks in that new shirt, tie and blue sweater she gave him.

Cathy does more spying on Corrine when she spots her in town. Apparently, this woman has soft, white pillows to rest her head on comfortably at night and perhaps even a white noise machine to send her into peaceful dreams. That’s how little she seems to care about the children she’s lost.

Cathy and Chris have a fight. Paul, Carrie and Henny are probably listening in, just outside the door because Cathy sure ain’t whispering.

Chris threatens to tell Paul their dirty little secret.  Cathy actually believes he has too much integrity to stoop to that level.  Apparently, there’s a bar in h ell that rests right below r a p ing his sister in the first place, and that’s telling their guardian all about it.  But it doesn’t matter, she says, because Paul already knows everything anyway, and he doesn’t care. 

In fact, it probably kind of turns the doctor on.

***Designs created using content and tools available through Canva.***

Let’s discuss “Owl on the Roof,” “Momma’s Shadow,” “A Birthday Gift” and “Foxworth Hall, from the Outside” 

From my WordPress blog:

All the Girls are Laughing at Carrie – Tuesday Teatimes

Big Game Hunting – Tuesday Teatimes

The Real Reason Why Paul Invested in a Bedroom TV for Henny? – Tuesday Teatimes

Worth Millions but Too Cheap to Spring for the Angel Monument – Tuesday Teatimes

 _________________________________________________________________________________________-

So, we need to talk about Carrie for a minute.  Cathy’s gonna tell you all about her little sister’s troubles, but first she’s gonna get out her tissues. This poor third grader is really going through it at the private school where Paul sent her, possibly so that he could be alone with her older sister.

Cathy admits she has pieced together this tale from talking to Carrie and other third parties.  That’s good because hearsay from third parties is probably more reliable than anything coming from Cathy herself.

The Miss Emily Dean Calhoun’s School for Properly Bred Young Ladies holds certain values above all others, such as being ultra-feminine and submissive.  Certainly not traits that our protagonist admires, though she is a fan of the school’s outward appearance.

Carrie’s “roomy,” Sissy Towers, is a red-headed, green-eyed demon child.  Bottom line, Sissy and some of the other students taunt Carrie. Miss Dewhurst ultimately punishes the girls with demerits.  At first, Miss Dewhurst shows compassion toward Carrie, but Carrie has severe PTSD, requiring sedation — or perhaps airtime on Jerry Springer if this was the ’90s — and so, Carrie loses her weekend family visit as well.  Cathy thinks this is bs because no way could her little Carrie have done anything worthy of such a punishment.  How quickly she forgets what her little sister is like when you spend more than a minute and a half with her in a stressful situation.

Paul and Chris side with Miss Dewhurst because they’re men!

Carrie, meanwhile, is in a bedroom all by herself. 

A dozen girls come into Carrie’s room, wearing white nightgowns and pillowcases on their heads.  They’re carrying candles like they’re part of some demonic sorority in a ’90s TV movie.

When Cathy finds out from Miss Dewhurst that Carrie didn’t show up at the chapel for Sunday service, she immediately goes into a panic.

Once at the school, Dr. Paul, Chris and Cathy throw their weight around. Cathy eventually locates an injured Carrie, and they take her home. She’ll be going to public school from now on.

Cathy knows who to blame for all their problems. She sends another letter to Momma and comes up with passive-aggressive names for all of Corrine’s unwanted children, like “the praying-to-grow-taller doll” (do dolls pray? I know they can probably chant) and “the dead doll.”

About eighteen months have gone by since they escaped the attic, and everything seems to be falling into place for Cathy. She and her siblings were taken in by a kindly stranger on that very first Sunday, and ever since, it’s been a whirlwind of shopping sprees, precious holiday memories and professional ballet lessons with aspirations of eventually moving to New York. Furthermore, Cathy will be graduating high school in January, and she’s really stoked about that.

Carrie is ten and too old for dolls.  Says who?  Mr. and Mrs. Parkins and little Clara are her only friends.  She talks to them and, I presume, they talk back. 

Cathy condemns Momma to h e ll some more.  She sends her additional letters, and because Momma never responds, she assumes she must not be getting them.  Apparently, the idea of Momma trashing the correspondence without a second thought is too far out of character to even consider.

Cathy is collecting articles and photos of Momma in a scrapbook, like some serial killer. But she doesn’t have the guts to confront her mother just yet.

Cathy plans a birthday dinner for Paul, featuring a super inconvenient Creole jambalaya that she never intends to prepare again.

Everyone admires Cathy as she descends the stairs in a flattering dress, like she’s some plain Jane who got out the blush on prom night. Her stairway descent also foreshadows a moment that will come later on, near the end of the book. But we’ll get back to that!

Hours tick by with no sign of Paul.

Apparently, the doctor has been attending a two-week medical convention.  When he finally arrives home, it is 10 pm.  Cathy is mad that he ruined her little surprise and, also, made her have flashbacks of Daddy.  She’s ready to s h o o t him dead and hire the lawyer from Chicago to get her off. But she tells the reader that she cares about the doctor too much to do that. Is that the only reason he narrowly escapes being wheeled out the front door in a body bag? Knowing Cathy, probably.

Everyone else has left by this point, so it’s just Cathy and Paul at the dinner table.

Cathy gives Paul a piece of homemade artwork (and no, it’s not an ashtray she made in Ceramics). 

But wait, there’s still more to come . . . (pun fully intended).

Dr. Paul eventually lures the teen out into the garden for a little midnight stroll.  He calls her Cath-er-ine, just like her brother does.  What do you wanna bet he’s heard Chris say that to his sister before and is manipulatively mirroring the young man?   

So bottom line, he kisses her. And then she kisses him back. And he’s like, No! But then, he’s like, Oh yeah. . . .

Cathy and Paul have to hide their affair from the housekeeper and Chris.  Cathy suspects Carrie is too distracted by some little trauma of the day, or else just too stupid, to know what’s going on right under her nose.

So for Christmas, Cathy wants to return to Virginia and try to locate her little brother’s grave.  

Paul agrees to take Cathy to her family’s home, which she is disappointed to see hasn’t been burned to the ground (give it time, Cathy). And because Paul’s a doctor, she’s sure the hospital will just hand over all kinds of privileged patient information to him. And even though they don’t know what name Momma admitted Cory under, or even if she took him to a hospital in the first place, she’s sure it will all work out.

Cathy is horrified to learn that there is no record of a child Cory’s age having been taken to the hospital in the fall of 1960, nor is there a record of him being given a proper Christian send-off. Momma lied! The horror of that woman is beyond words.

So Cathy comforts herself by getting naked in the shower with her legal guardian.

Dr. Paul reassures her that a seventeen-year-old taking showers with a middle-aged father figure is all part of God’s plan. (For the record, I’m here to tell you it’s absolutely not, but since when has a fictional character ever listened to me?)

***Designs created using content and tools available on Canva.***

So moving on to chapters 7, 8 and 9.  “Enchantress . . . Me?”, “My First Date” and “Sweeter Than All the Roses” (or as I call it, Sourer Than All the Morose Brothers.)  Here is the abridged summary from my Wordpress blog.

Be Careful!!! I give away a Garden of Shadows plot point in the images (and also possibly in the comments that follow).

_____________________________________________________________________________

In my opinion, there’s nothing more sinister than a man smoking a pipe in front of a fireplace late at night.

And yet, when Cathy comes upon Paul doing exactly this, she feels drawn to him.

Now that he’s got her all alone, the doctor seems to think he’s Jerry Springer because he asks Cathy for the 411 on her trauma bond with her brother. I hope he’s only asking because he’s a professional who wants to get her the best help money can buy. But I have a feeling that’s not at all why he’s asking.

Dr. Paul? More like Dr. Phil!

It was the dancing, she says. Chris made her a ballet barre and would watch her do her little routines. While doing the pirouettes and the jetés, she would escape the confines of the attic and go away in her mind.

I love that she answers his question in such a roundabout way, and yet, it’s so succinct and to the point. She doesn’t come out and say she did the deed with her brother. She basically leaves it to the doctor to connect the dots. He’s the one with the medical degree. Let him figure it out.

At one point during their heated discussion, the doctor is horrified to discover his hand is caressing her without his consent. 

Of course, Cathy forgives him because all she knows is abusive love.

She makes more excuses for herself and her brother. She says they didn’t even have to speak to know what the other was thinking, and they communicated with their eyes alone.

Oh come on, now, Cathy.  Chris did a lot more than just look at you.

Turns out Paul knows a thing or two about being a frustrated young man and how it can just grab you by the throat and make you wanna assault somebody. Apparently, Chris isn’t the only one in that boat.

On a separate occasion, a little later on in the book, Paul and Cathy are having yet another heated conversation in the living room while he smokes in front of the fireplace like some movie villain. I will call this Discussions by the Fire Part II.

Their argument starts over something silly.  A hair product. But soon enough, it becomes clear that Cathy’s still working through a lot of crap, and Paul coming home late, and not bringing her the shampoo she asked for, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Paul is annoyed because this teen of his won’t shut up about her childhood trauma and her need for revenge. So, he decides to put her in her place by telling her the story of his ill-fated marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Julia. 

I wrote a poem to sum up Dr. Paul’s story. 

How to Respond to Your Mother Trying to Kill You

By Dr. Paul Sheffield

You’re angry your mother locked you and your siblings in a room

while your grandmother beat and starved you

and constantly accused you

and your brother

of committing evil acts with one another

until you finally gave in and did the very thing

she always expected you to do?

And your mother always said

she’d let you out when her old man died,

but then she had to change her mind

and go and poison you instead?

And she succeeded in killing the little brother

who was more of a son to you.

And your little sister doesn’t grow and is,

at this very minute,

being tormented by bullies at the private school

where I sent her so the two of us could be alone?

And your older brother is still pestering you,

and you’re constantly having to fight off his unwelcome advances,

while worrying that you’re the spawn of S a t a n,

just as your grandmother always said you were?

Well, hold my beer

because here

is the story of a man

who r a p e d his wife and cheated on her,

and then she and his son went and mysteriously drowned,

face up in shallow water,

which I will blame on the wife because she’s dead

and can’t contradict what I say.

So there you go.

Don’t cry to me, ballerina.

I lost my son.

My wife could have just taken him away and divorced me.

Why didn’t she just do that?

Then I could have been rid of them both

without having to suffer the guilt

of having let her watch Medea on television

a few nights before their deaths.

But did I seek revenge?

Do you see me whining about my problems?

Noooooo.

 

Paul’s twisted little bedtime story gives Cathy quite a lot to think about.  Such as that women are inherently evil and that part of motherhood is wanting to kill your children.

This only reinforces her desire to really stick it to her mother. 

She’s already plotting up a way to get all her old neighbors and friends in Gladstone to serve as witnesses to the truth!

Meanwhile, Julian has been spending a lot of time in Clairmont despite being a New Yorker.  He likes to brag about how wonderful it is in the big city.  Then why is he wasting time at this little whistle stop?

Turns out he’s the son of Madame Marisha and Georges, but he doesn’t like to talk about it. His father is one of those impossible-to-please perfectionists who forced him into ballet and wouldn’t let him play football.  He wants to be a famous dancer but on his own terms. 

Julian says that he’s the thirteenth dancer in his family.  Talk about practically begging Jason Voorhees to come and get you!

He invites Cathy to come with him to New York.  He promises not to force himself on her. 

I mean, how can she say no to an offer such as that?

They go on a date.  And though he’s far from being a gentleman, at least, when she tells him no, he stops touching her!  I mean, he does twist her arm at one point.  But he doesn’t force her to go all the way!  For a VCA character, that’s a start, I guess!  It’s definitely a bar in h e ll!

We do eventually find out the name of the street Paul lives on, by the way.  Bellefair Drive.  Not Spanish Moss Way but just as generic.

Cathy just can’t get enough of her image in the mirror, and her brother calls her on it. 

Once again, Cathy has got to point out how fantastic Chris looks.  Just like their poor dead daddy up there on Mt. Olympus, who’s probably playing tennis with Zeus as we speak.  Cathy also notes how sad her brother seems lately.  It’s almost like he’s never hinted at anything that could possibly be wrong in his life.  But whatever it is, it’s a good look for him.  Girls absolutely gush over tortured men, and Cathy is no exception, especially when it’s her dreamy older brother who looks so much like her tanned, tennis-playing, swimming champion, Caddyshack father. Nothing more charming than a man who walks around looking like his dog just died. In Chris’s case, he’s lost his father, his younger brother and a domesticated rodent. And then there’s the fact that he wants to commit i-n-c-e-s-t with his sister, but she keeps telling him that ship has sailed. And sunk! So, lots of issues going on in this young man’s life at the moment.

Cathy turns sixteen.

More about her being thrilled to look like her mother while also feeling bad about it because she’s got to be better than Corrine Foxworth in every way.

She stalks Momma’s second husband, Bart Winslow, who’s having his South Carolina home renovated.  She clips a newspaper column featuring her mother and shows it off to her brother, even though she also says she doesn’t want him to be privy to her plotting. A real bummer when you can’t celebrate your revenge plans with your older brother because he has to be so darned sensible!

Hope you all had a good weekend! Let's talk about Chapters 12 and 13 in FitA.

Here is my condensed synopsis, taken from my Wordpress blog.

______________________________________

Cathy’s growing older and stuck in a very special kind of Judy Blume nightmare. It’s like a Judy Blume book turned up to eleven because she’s dealing with the same crap, only locked in a room at the end of an abandoned wing with her creepy older brother and a couple of obnoxious 5-year-old twins.

Before you know it, the time has come to have a private woman-to-woman talk with her mother.

Momma tells Cathy that she’ll one day fall in love with a cute guy (preferably a non-relative, though certainly not a hard and fast rule in this family).  But first you gotta bleed, so that you can eventually surprise him with a couple of kids, made just for him! Now I’m wondering if Corrine only had kids because her husband wanted them.  What does she plan to do with her children now that he’s dead?  Send them packing on a one-way trip to visit him? 

Momma tells the kids more about her two older brothers who died in accidents at the ages of 19 and 22.  They were artsy fartsy types and, therefore, of no use to their father anyway. Cathy thinks there have been way too many accidents in this family…

Chris Jr. still thinks highly of their mother even though she’s been revealing herself to be quite the neglectful witch as of late. Cathy’s said before that he has basically modeled his ideal woman after Momma — a woman who, in his mind, can do all the things. Cathy is jealous of both Momma and this Mary Sue he’s dreamed up in his imagination.

Another year goes by, and the grandmother hasn’t done anything really awful, besides locking them in a single room 24/7 and saying hateful things to make them feel like they aren’t worthy of life. Other than that, her bark is worse than her bite.  So the kids get a little reckless.  They don’t always walk around with clothes on.  They don’t always feel like it.

Our protagonist admits that was a mistake.

On one particular occasion, Chris walks in on his sister in a compromising position. And let’s just say he sticks around for a little bit instead of doing what he should have done, which is to run screaming back up into the attic with his eyes covered, singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” like he’s Veronica Sawyer being told she just shot and killed two men.

The grandmother catches them in the act of being indecent and gives them a tongue-lashing before storming out of the room.  Of course, Chris says it’s all Cathy’s fault!  And he’s terrified of what the grandmother will do next.

As it turns out, the old woman is gonna do something unexpected. She’s got the ultimate punishment in mind for Cathy. And it involves her hair!

Chris threatens the grandmother with a chair (the threat to Cathy’s hair was apparently his point of no return).  The grandmother could take this boy, no problem.  Instead, she goes all Jigsaw on him. She gives him an ultimatum. He must choose wisely. Or else they will starve!

Chris ultimately settles on a hunger strike. They were clever and stored away crackers and cheese for an occasion such as this one.  Actually, the cheese is sitting in mousetraps as we speak, but they can take it back.  No problem.

The grandmother decides to take matters into her own hands by coming into their room late at night and getting a little creative.

Chris finally decides to meet the grandmother halfway.  But the grandmother doesn’t bother to come around to check on them. 

They don’t see the grandmother for two weeks.  They’re about ready to sit down to an unorthodox dinner of dead rodents when Chris discovers that the grandmother has returned. She’s left a little surprise for them. And it includes four doughnuts, covered with a powdery substance. Cathy assumes it’s just sugar.

Let’s talk about chapters two through four.  Here is a little synopsis of what has happened so far.

--------------------------------------

So Momma’s acting kinda sus.  No talk of insurance money to tide them over until their mother finds a job.  Instead, it’s the middle of the night, and they’re on the run.

They have to walk for miles in the dark in order to get to their destination.  And Momma’s mumbling to herself that the twins better walk outside in the fresh air while they can. 

When they finally reach Foxworth Hall, they are ushered into a room in the northern wing by a woman in a gray dress. 

In this little room, with the luxury of its own toilet and a closet with stairs leading to the attic, the children are informed that nobody downstairs must know they exist. 

Cathy thinks it’s only going to be for one night, even though Momma warns her it could take up to a week. Meanwhile, the mother and grandmother have been talking long-term plans for when the maids enter the attic room once a month to clean. 

The grandmother has given them a list of rules to live by.  Keep quiet! Keep clean! Kindly refrain from flashing your siblings at every opportunity (or, you know, maybe just don’t do it at all?)  That last one might be especially tricky because they grew up with Momma, who clearly had no problem flashing them on the regular in her airy negligee. 

And these are just a few of Grandmother’s many instructions.

Chris Jr. thinks it’s all a joke.  He’s that guy in a horror movie who doesn’t take the threat seriously. 

So we’ve reached the part of the book where we learn more about why the author decided to call this story Flowers in the Attic, as opposed to something more literal, like Imprisoned in the Northern Wing: A Tale of I n cest, Murder and Survival. 

The kids have been informed that they must wait until 10 am before they can venture into the attic.  So that’s what they do. 

The attic is huge and smells of death.  Hopefully, it’s just dead mice. 

They find a lot of cool junk up there.  And they also find a hidden schoolroom.  But why? Cathy wonders.  Surely there were no other unwanted children in the Foxworth clan.  Surely the Dollanganger kids are the only ones wicked enough to be locked away from the world.  This seems like a one-off situation.  The grandmother and grandfather are probably very nice people otherwise.  And they probably descended from a long line of very fine people.

Cory and Carrie want to go outside. 

This is when Chris first raises the idea of transforming the attic into a garden.

Chris and Cathy spend some time fantasizing about what they will do when they’re rich.  Chris figures he’ll be a “playboy” but only for a minute because their father would expect him to be a productive human once he’s done farting around. 

Cathy just wants to eat cheese and crackers all day, working off the calories by doing ballet.  Talk about living the life!

Of course, there is the fact that they are currently living in a legit fire trap.  Cathy, being her cynical self, thinks up a plan in the event the house burns down.  Chris is proud of her for thinking ahead instead of just wasting time whining about their circumstances. 

 

I saw this meme template on imgflip, and I knew exactly what to do with it.

Let's talk about the ending of My Sweet Audrina.

How would you have ended it? Or did Audrina make the wise and "noble" choice she believes she did?

So, who do you think the people are in this stepback?

I'm thinking it's supposed to be Uncle Joel in the back, then Cathy and Chris, then Bart and Cindy, then Darren and Deirdre.

But the young woman looks more like I picture Melodie looking. She's got more of a brooding look. Either way, why is Cindy or Melodie front and center?

And where's Jory? He's the twins' father. Has he been banished from the family?

The old man could also be the ghost of Malcolm.

By the way, Cathy and Chris are in their mid-50s! By 1984 standards, this tracks, I guess. But in 2026, it's funny.

Do you think Paul watched or overheard Cathy and Chris's "conversation" under the tree or their awkward goodbye at the prep school? Or do you think it was the D&C that did it for him? Do you think she miscarried and that's what made him wonder if something was up??