to be happy, Phillip. She carries a hell of a lot on her shoulders. She’s had no one to support her in that since Dad. He helped her a lot, and now she’s all alone.”
“Bullshit. She has us,” Phillip said, sounding pompous, as John thought about it.
“Not really. We work for her, but we don’t support her. When the shit hits the fan, she’s the one it hits, and she works it out on her own. Did you get in a big fight with her about it?” John suspected that he had, and he was sorry for her. Phillip was always so critical of her, and so was Cass. They never forgave her anything from the past, and this was just the kind of ammo Phillip would use against her to prove all his old theories about how bad she was.
“Yes, I did,” Phillip admitted without remorse.
“Did you actually accuse her of cheating on Dad? An affair she got into four years after he died is hardly proof of infidelity in their marriage.” John sounded upset as he asked his older brother the question. Their mother didn’t deserve to be beaten up for having a discreet affair. And if she’d been involved with Peter for ten years, none of them had ever known, which was proof of how discreet she was.
“As a matter of fact, I did accuse her of that. It shows she has no morals, which casts a shadow on everything.”
“That’s ridiculous,” John said, annoyed at him. “How immoral is it for two people in their sixties, and now her seventies, to have an affair? And so what if he’s married? That’s unfortunate for them, but it has nothing to do with her life with Dad, Phillip. They were crazy about each other, and she was madly in love with him. We always knew that. And if she has someone in her life now, I’m happy for her. No one wants to die alone.”
“Nor in the arms of someone else’s husband. She should be better than that.” He had high standards for her, more so than John.
“She’s human, for chrissake. She still looks great. She looks young for her age. Why not? Why not have some comfort in her life, and a little love? He’s obviously not ditching his wife if they’ve been involved for ten years and he’s still married to her.” It was the sensible point of view, and the humane one, which Phillip didn’t share.
“You sound just like her,” Phillip said angrily. “What’s wrong with all of you? Does no one in this family have any standards? I suppose you think our grandmother should be turning tricks on Long Island so she doesn’t have to die alone either?” He was furious with John for not joining in the fight of outraged virtue with him. He was turning it into a crusade, but John was not signing up.
“Give it up,” John said, sounding exhausted. He had been asleep when his brother woke him. “This is her life, not ours. We all work it out the best way we can. She has a right to make her own mistakes, if this is one, but I’m not convinced it is. The only thing I am convinced of is that it’s none of our business. As long as she’s not embarrassing us or herself, or screwing on her office floor with the door open, or at a board meeting, I don’t need to know about it, and neither should you. You happened on it, like opening a door and seeing something you shouldn’t. This has nothing to do with us. Or with Dad. Now close the door and forget about it. You’re only going to cause unnecessary trouble for everyone if you make a big issue about this.”
“I can see you inherited her morality, or lack of it,” Phillip said coldly.
“It’s not up to us to judge her ‘morality,’ or decide who she should have affairs with or if she should. And she isn’t cramming Peter down our throats. I respect her for keeping quiet about it. And I think you need to back off. It’s only going to upset you, and her, unnecessarily. Find something else to bitch about. Now I’m going back to sleep. It’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. I’ll be home on Sunday, but I’m not going to get on this bandwagon with you. And if she’s having a hot romance or a love affair at seventy, good for her!” John said with feeling.