Chapter 2 Section 3: Daily Routine
Carolina reached in from the landing on the second floor of the house to turn on the lights. “Rise and shine!” she said, as she entered each of the bedrooms, without cheer. Every day began the same way and, after she had swatted the light switch to the “on” position, George could hear his mother’s wedding ring on the railing. She held onto the rail to steady herself and Carolina made her way down the stairs to the main floor of the house on Twin Oaks Drive. Once in the kitchen, she let the dogs out, and then moved to her place at the table to put her contacts in. Carolina’s four children knew not to disturb their mother until she had a chance to “put her eyes in” and had her first cup of coffee. Her mood remained foul for the balance of the morning, but at least with a little caffeine their mother was approachable.
The children came downstairs, one by one, oldest to youngest, after getting themselves ready. Helen was the oldest, then came the boys, Andy and George, and finally, Sarah. Since they dressed themselves without any adult supervision, at least one of the children had their shirts on backwards or inside out. George slept so hard at night that he didn’t wake up to go to the bathroom, so he frequently went to school smelling like pee. Since their hair and teethe often went unbrushed, and their clothes were disheveled, the Clark children drew a lot of negative attention from their classmates. By the time they went out the back door, their mother had already gone back upstairs to stew. Carolina did not like to see her children off to school because she did not want to witness what a mess they were as they left the house; it gave her plausible deniability.
Andrew Clark III was the last to descend the stairs and he always started his day with coffee and the crossword puzzle. He was good at them too and liked to show his skill by doing the puzzles in pen. When he finished, he liked to drop the puzzles triumphantly onto the kitchen table. When he was done with his coffee and puzzle, Andrew climbed back up the stairs to shower, shave, and put on a suit and tie. When he reappeared from the master bedroom to go to work, he had totally transformed himself: what was unkempt and oily had become freshly pressed and neatly put into place. The final part of the morning ritual was for Andrew was to have one final cup of coffee as he worked his way out the door. Every morning went this exact way without deviance.
All four of the Clark children walked to and from elementary school. When the day was over, they came back home to sit in the family room, and they whiled away the afternoon by watching cartoons. Carolina, who had spent the whole day in the house, fought with her children over the television because she wanted to watch her soap opera stories in the afternoon and the kids wanted to watch cartoons. The kids always won. Aside from vacations and dinner, the only time that the four children were together was in front of the television. When Andrew Clark III returned home at night, his arrival signaled to Carolina that it was time to start getting dinner ready. The kids slid up to their rooms full in the knowledge that their father was going to watch the news and would brook no dissent.
When Andrew first entered the house he chastised the kids for not taking off their school uniforms before laying down to watch television. The house was full of dog hair and inevitably the kids were covered in it, yet they never had enough clothes to change into so they lived in their uniforms, even on the weekends. Andrew breezed by the kids to go upstairs and immediately take off his work clothes to avoid the dog hair and when he returned to the family room, he was dressed in a t shirt and underwear. Whenever he spent any time in the house, Andrew wore the same t shirt and underwear because he didn’t want any mess on his good clothes.
Dinner was promptly at 7:00 because Andrew wanted to watch the national news at 6:30. Carolina hated to cook and there was always pandemonium in the kitchen as she made the last minute, slip shod effort at preparing a meal. After the evening news the whole family filed in to take their assigned places at the table. The children turned their noses up at whatever their Mother had prepared and, inevitably, asked her what was for dessert. This line of questioning always darkened Carolina’s already bleak mood. The television stayed on for the whole meal and Andrew made sure that he turned the volume up to full blast so that he could listen his programs.
Andrew Clark III sat at the head of the table and his two sons flanked him, George on his left and Andy on his right. This was done on purpose because Andy would always act up, or somehow otherwise cause mischief, and Andrew was right-handed. Suddenly, and without any warning, Andrew would do a ‘round the world’ swing that landed flatly on the back of Andy’s head. The blow came quickly and whatever was in Andy’s mouth came spewing out. The oldest Clark boy cried and ran up to his room to avoid being hit again while the other three children ate in silence, their heads slightly bowed, hoping to avoid the same fate of their brother.
On any given night the family dinner was quick, uneventful, and joyless. As soon as Andrew finished his meal, but not until then, the family was excused from the table. When he retired to his lair for the evening, anarchy broke out. The four children fought over who was going to do what chores. Everyone wanted to wash the counters and table, since that took the least amount of time, but no one wanted to be responsible for putting the dishes into the dishwasher, or doing the hand washing, since these chores took a lot more time. The chores were done sloppily and without care so their mother had to redo anything that the children were responsible for. While her husband and children watched television, Carolina remained isolated in the kitchen doing the chores. Sometimes, when anger and frustration welled up in her, Carolina threw the plates and dishes on the floor to break them rather than put them into the dishwasher. Andrew got off the couch to yell at his wife and the four children, taking their cue, ran upstairs to their bedroom to escape the wrath of their feuding parents. It was all so sad..
