The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides [102]
“Okay. God. I’ll use the bathroom. I’ve got to pee, anyway.” She got up, holding the pump and the rapidly filling baby bottle, and went into the bathroom. She closed the door.
Phyllida smoothed the skirt of her suit and sat down. She lifted her eyes to Madeleine’s, smiling with forbearance. “It’s never easy on a marriage when a baby comes along. It’s a wonderful event. But it puts a strain on the relationship. That’s why it’s so important to find the right kind of person to raise a family with.”
Madeleine was determined to ignore any subtext. She was going to be all text. “Blake’s great,” she said.
“He’s wonderful,” Phyllida agreed. “And Ally’s wonderful. And Richard the Lionhearted is divine! But the situation at home is dreadful.”
“Are you talking about me?” Alwyn said from the bathroom. “Stop talking about me.”
“When you’re finished in there,” Phyllida called back, “I want us all to have a talk.”
The toilet flushed. A few seconds later, Alwyn emerged, still pumping milk. “I don’t care what you say, I’m not going back,” she said.
“Ally,” Phyllida said, employing her most sympathetic tone, “I understand that you’re having difficulties in your marriage. I can imagine that Blake, like every member of the male species, has certain lapses when it comes to taking care of children. But the one who’s being most hurt by your leaving—”
“Certain lapses!”
“—is Richard!”
“There’s no other way to convince Blake that I’m serious.”
“But to leave your child!”
“With his father. I left my baby with his father.”
“But he needs his mother at his age.”
“You’re just worried Blake can’t take care of him. Which is exactly my point.”
“Blake has to work,” Phyllida said. “He can’t stay home.”
“Well, he’s going to have to now.”
Exasperated, Phyllida stood up again and went to the window. “Madeleine,” she said, “talk to your sister.”
As the younger sibling, Madeleine hadn’t been in this position before. She didn’t want to humiliate Alwyn. And yet there was something intoxicating about being asked to sit in judgment of her.
Having detached the suction cup from her breast, Alwyn was now dabbing her nipple with a handful of toilet paper, her lowered head giving her a double chin.
“Tell me what’s been going on with you guys,” Madeleine said softly.
Alwyn looked up with an aggrieved expression, brushing her leonine hair out of her face with her free hand. “I’m not me anymore!” she cried. “I’m Mommy. Blake calls me Mommy. First it was just if I was holding Richard, but now we’re alone and he says it. Like because I’m a mother he thinks I’m his mother. It’s so weird. Before we got married we used to divide all the chores. But the minute we had a kid Blake started acting like it makes total sense that I do all the laundry and shop for groceries. All he does is work, all the time. He’s constantly worrying about money. He doesn’t do anything around the house. I mean anything. Including have sex with me.” She glanced at Phyllida. “Sorry, Mummy, but Maddy asked me how it’s going.” She looked back at Madeleine. “That’s how it’s going. It’s not going.”
Madeleine listened to her sister sympathetically. She understood that Alwyn’s complaints about her marriage were complaints about marriage and men in general. But, like anyone in love, Madeleine believed that her own relationship was different from every other relationship, immune from typical problems. For this reason, the chief effect of Alwyn’s words was to make Madeleine secretly and intensely happy.
“What are you going to do with that?” Madeleine asked, indicating the baby bottle.
“I’m going to take it back to Boston and send it to Blake.”
“That’s crazy, Ally.”
“Thanks for the support.”
“Sorry. I mean, Blake sounds like he’s being a total shit. But I agree with Mummy. You have to think about Richard.”
“Why is it my responsibility?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“Why? Because I had a baby? Because I’m a ‘wife’ now? You don’t know anything about it. You’re barely out of college.”
“Oh, and that means I can’t have