The Fourth Part of Chapter 7: A Turn

After dinner, Kevin was talking to Margaret, who, despite harbouring lingering feelings of dislike for her new son-in-law left over from their first encounter, was feeling happy. For a wedding organised in a month, it was a success, she thought. It was true that they had had a bit of luck with reserving a space for the reception; a manufacturer of seat coverings for cars was going to hold their annual shareholder’s meeting in the banquet hall that she and the wedding party were in, but they had went bankrupt as a sort of domino effect brought about by the restructuring of the automotive industry, as Clarissa told her. Should I feel sorry for those workers? Maybe. On the other hand, they should have thought ahead; they should have seen that certain carmakers’ poor management, and they should have thought of a contingency plan. That may be selfish, she thought, but so what? Humans are a fundamentally selfish species, which was the fundamental cause of the parts makers’ bankruptcy; what was their name again? Oh yes, Inxton Car Seats was their name. They should have diversified, she thought as she sipped a cocktail.

“You’re the mother of the bride?”

“Yes,”

“I’m Kevin; I live in the neighbourhood,”

“That’s nice,”

“Yes, it’s a lovely neighbourhood.”

“I don’t really know the city that much; I last came here four years ago when Clarissa was moving in,”

Kevin asked, “What do you think of James?”

“James?”

“You know, your son-in-law,”

“I think she’s getting off on the wrong foot marrying an economist. Clarissa has always bored me to no end going on and on about the IS/LM model or something or other as it applies to the current situation, and I could not understand a word of it, and was quite bored just a minute in. Having someone else like that in the family will be simply painful.”

“I’m also an economist, you know. I’m personally a worshipper of Keynes, and what he said about the relationship between the savings rate and overall economic performance is highly relevant to understanding the causes of the recession. Did you know that the United States had a negative savings rate until two years ago? Saving is also tied to investment; they are essentially two sides of the same coin, and now, due to its low savings rate previously, its recovery has been sluggish.”

Dear God, thought Margaret, you lost me at Keynes. Is there anyone interesting with whom to talk? Unless she was mistaken, she had thought that economists supposed to have a caustic and self-deprecating sense of humour. Was there some sort of process of self-selection so that only boring people study economics?

“How many of you people are there at this party?”

“I’ve counted at least fifty on the guest list.”

“I mean economists,”

“Twenty, maybe,”

Maybe I should find someone to talk to other than an economist, and not as boring as porridge, thought Margaret.

“Pardon?” Margaret had in fact voiced that aloud; these unintentional windows into one's thoughts were occurrences happened to her friends rather frequently. Clarissa, on the other hand, seemed not to have these lapses.

“And what did you study when you were in university?”

“English,”

“Why are English majors such judgmental assholes?”

Margaret thought that was rude of him, and went towards the punch bowl, which was on the same table as the wedding cake, which had once looked tall and grand, but was now much smaller, as should happen to all good cakes. Margaret took some punch, had a sip, and noticed that it had gone flat because it was standing out for too long.

Andrew was talking to his wife.

“Do you know why the logo of that publishing house looks like a tit?”

“I think it was poor design, but you’ll have to ask mom.”

“Hey Margaret,”

Margaret was glad of the excuse to go and chat with her son-in-law.

“We were just wondering about the Twaddle and Twankfors’ logo,” Andrew held up Margaret’s wedding gift, which was a book published by her aforementioned firm.

Margaret was much less glad. “We thought that it would add some class and panache to T & T, but instead it looked like an elaborate mistake. The chief graphics designer resigned over it,”

“Would you call it a blunder?”

“More like a fiasco,” said Margaret. “Practically everyone calls us ‘Teats’. Thank goodness there’s a new logo on the way. It will be a bell tower,”

“A bell tower? Are you sure nobody will mistake it for a large–”

Margaret’s eyes widened in horror at the thought of his suggestion. “You mean people will mistake it for something worse?” She cursed loudly. Unfortunately for her, Sean was hiding underneath the white tablecloth and had looked in all the boxes hidden there. He exited his hiding place.

“Mommy, if grandma says ‘shit’, can I say it too?” Alice was not standing nearby; rather, she was at the other end of the room, discussing interest rates with David and Pia, who were both nodding in interest. Jacob, on the other hand, was ten feet away, drinking wine.

“No, Sean, that’s not okay. Don’t ever let me hear you say that again.”

“Where’s mommy?”

“She’s around. Now be a good little boy,”

Considering that weddings were chiefly adult affairs, this was difficult for Sean to do.

“Hey mom, Sean was right by you when you said that. And why don’t you change the logo to a house? That can’t be misconstrued as anything phallic,”

“Thanks, Jacob; I’ll call a meeting on that. We really need a better graphic design team,” She would rather not reveal that she was the one who had suggested the bell tower; that would provoke all sorts of awkward questions about her secretly dirty mind. Still, Jacob was right; it was better not to have a logo that could be mistaken for a body part.

While Jacob and Margaret were discussing possible and necessary changes to Twaddle and Twankfors’s logo, Sean was getting into mischief again; just before the dinner, he had been busy taking dollops of icing off the cake with his finger; he, being a very bright boy, knew enough to make it unnoticeable, and was never caught. Margaret had come close, but her back was turned, admonishing James for what she thought were oversights in wedding planning. By now, half an hour after the dinner, Sean had a dirty mouth from all the food, because he would squirm out of the way when Alice tried to wipe his mouth with a cloth. This being after dinner, Sean was exploring the wedding gifts, which were on the other side of the table, and he was picking the more interesting, as in shiny, items up; he had got hold of an ornamental vase with a small bulb and a very long stem when Mary noticed and chivvied him away from the pile; Sean had the vase in an awkward position––it was held at an angle, and she feared that it might break; she wondered who could have given such a preposterous gift.

Now that Sean’s raid has moved, we must nag him constantly, she thought, or rather, muttered; the words “Now raid moved, nag,” were audible. She then brought Sean’s latest misbehaviour to his father’s attention, and he took it in stride; he was well used to Sean’s misbehaviour, which had started nine months previously, when he first learned how to walk; on that day, he was so joyous, he knocked over a lampshade and clapped as the lamp’s ornamental glass flute shattered on the floor. Because of that incident, Jacob had been careful to place any breakables well out of Sean’s reach.

“Thank goodness we’re staying at James’s place for the night; I don’t know how I would have kept him entertained otherwise,” he said. The case was the same for Clarissa’s older sister; given that James and Clarissa were only two people, and given that the house had plenty of room, there was enough space in the house for Clarissa’s siblings, in-laws and nephew to sleep over. Margaret, on the other hand, would need to leave soon if she and Hyram wished to arrive home at any sort of decent time, they would have to leave shortly; it was nearly seven o’clock, which meant that, given a six hour trip, they would be home at one in the morning, leaving just enough sleep for both of them to get to work tired on Monday. Jacob, Alice and Andrew, however, had taken Monday off; Mary had no worries about such obligations, as she was a teacher and this was summer.

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