Stiletto

Things don't get any better down here and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Mummy P.'s hearing just drives Plotnik nuts.

It's getting worse -- she can barely hear a female voice at all. It won't be long until all the women in her family, including her caretakers Lillian and Gloria, will be standing and screaming in her ear. Does this make sense? -- that a sensible woman who has already lost most of her eyesight, about which she can do nothing, would still refuse to wear a hearing aid, although that would restore her hearing? 

If so, what sense is that? Pride? Come on. It. Makes. No. Sense.

Plottie tries very hard not to be angry with his mom. She has, on one level, certainly earned the right to be obstinate. 

But after the third time she stands in the den with a lit cigarette in her hand, Plottie asks "Mom, why are you smoking in the house again?" and she answers "I'm not smoking. I'm just standing here. I'll go outside in a minute. Does this bother you?" and Plotnik wishes he didn't say, but he does say "Pretend I took a trumpet and blew it in your ear and then said "I'm not blowing the trumpet in your ear, I'll be walking outside in a minute," but in the meantime just kept blowing the trumpet, how would you like it?" and she says "I wouldn't," and Plottie says "Well, there you go."

Her face falls. 

Plot's heart sinks. 

We all smile a lot. Plotnik knows his mom has so little left that she likes to do, and smoking is on the absolute tippy top of that list. Who would deny her that pleasure? 

So Plotnik knows he is in the wrong. It's her house. She's the boss.

It was easier for Plotnik a long time ago, when it was his Mom against the world, protecting her two little boys. But it wasn't easier for her. She kind of likes things the way they are.

But The Great Plotnik refuses to roll over himself and treat Mummy P. like a baby, like just about everybody else does.

"Oh, she's so cute," the lady at the bank says, herself maybe 35. The woman does not think Mummy Plotnik is cute. The lady just wants Plot and his mom to go away.

Plottie spins on the woman with a scowl on his face that is probably a bit scary. "I mean, uh, I mean she's so pretty," she says. 

"Well, then why don't you just say it to her? She's standing right here in front of you," he says. He says it softly so his mom won't hear. But he is that angry. 

Why? Why is he that angry at this stranger in a bank who doesn't understand the third person form? What good is this doing anyone?

It looks like he still wants to be his mom's dream captain. He still thinks he can shake her softly and wake her up from this ridiculous situation she's in. He is willing to try. But he wants her to try too.