Angela has brought her sister, Maxine, visiting from the West Coast, on the older sister’s customary visit to see their mother, who lives in the memory wing of a sprawling assisted living community across town. Sitting in the colorful wooden chairs facing Roberta, the two sisters recount stories of their mother’s childhood, told the girls decades earlier by the young Roberta, as well as tales of their own childhoods. Angela’s husband, Baxter, sits silently, along a back wall, by a large bay window.
As in previous visits, Angela hopes to spark a recollection or two in the brain of their implacable and uncomprehending mother, who doesn’t seem to have a clue about the identity of these two younger women. Several times, Angela sees her sister quietly crying.
On one long-ago morning, the younger child, Maxine, had been trying to build a tall tower of wooden blocks in that red sandbox, After her tower fell down for the second time, she let out a yell and threw one of the blocks at, but narrowly missed, Angela, just as their mother was coming out on the back steps from the kitchen, to call them in for lunch Their mother was pleased to see Angela trying to console her little sister, and said nothing more as they followed her into the house.
In their early teen-age years, Roberta had more than once asked Angela, in private, to try to watch out for Maxine when the two were out in the world, when Maxine would start to “act up.” Or was it “act out?” Nowadays, thought Angela, her sister still seemed to have a hard time in life, in LA for years, constantly struggling to make ends meet, both emotionally and financially.
For the second part of their Saturday ritual, Baxter rearranges the blue and green chairs in a circle and joins the sisters as the three of them describe some of their doings of the previous week, what Roberta’s grandchildren are up to in school, Baxter’s medical practice, Angela’s volunteer activities.
Maxine sits there, silent. until, suddenly and softly, she says “Mama, I haven’t given up. I came back East looking for the right job for me. One that will make me feel fulfilled. And, this time I will!”
When the aide enters the room to take their mother to the dining room, the three visitors quickly get up to leave for their own lunch. Just before their exit, quietly sobbing once again, Maxine turns to lock eyes with Roberta, and is happy to see what looks like a glimpse of recognition and a bare trace of a smile on her mother’s face.