Read Online Out of the Box by Michelle Mulder - Free Book Online

away from me when I’m talking to Mom?” Anger prickles under my skin. “I have the right to talk to my own family, you know.” At least I treat them with respect , I want to add, thinking how Mom must have cried after Jeanette snapped at her about the dentist appointment.
    Jeanette looks hurt. “I know you do, Ellie,” she says, “I just don’t think they’re being fair to you.”
    â€œSo you’re trying to save me from them?”
    Jeanette looks away. We walk in silence for about a block before she says, “I’m not saving you from them so much as from their situation. Ellie, I believe your mom’s struggling with some mental-health issues. And it sounds like your father doesn’t know how to help, and the whole situation affects their judgment as well as their emotions.”
    I roll my eyes. “I can’t believe you think that about Mom. She’s stressed out. That’s all,” I tell her. “I should know. I live with her.”
    â€œDon’t forget I know her really well too,” Jeanette says, her tone gentle. “I raised her, and I know what her life was like—all those years with our mom and dad…What makes you think this can’t be a mental-health issue?”
    â€œWhat makes you think it is ?” I counter, my tone not so soft. “I can’t believe you’d call your own sister crazy!”
    â€œI didn’t,” Jeanette says. “That’s your word, not mine. I’m not insulting her, Ellie. I love her too, you know. I’m only saying she’s struggling, and it takes more than stress to make a person cry that much or to fly off the handle over things like burned toast.”
    I flinch. “How do you know about that?” I ask.
    A few weeks before I came here, Mom was running late for work, so I thought I’d make her breakfast. I got distracted, though, and burned the toast. When she came into the kitchen, she was furious. I apologized, and that made her madder still. “Good god!” she shouted. “Why are you apologizing? Did I raise you to be a doormat?”
    She slammed out of the house without her breakfast. I was stunned into silence for most of the morning, but that evening she acted like nothing had happened. I guess she’d forgiven me, but I was careful about apologizing after that. Mom’s got enough on her plate without worrying about having a doormat for a daughter.
    â€œShe called me, crying, that night,” Jeanette says now. “She felt awful for how she treated you that day, but that’s not an excuse. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
    â€œLike I said, Mom has a lot on her plate,” I say, “and she’s right that sometimes I apologize if I think that’ll make her feel better. I don’t see how any of that means she has ‘mental-health issues.’ She gets up and goes to work every day. She…I mean, she doesn’t just lie around and cry or get mad all the time, not the way you make it sound.”
    â€œIt’s not black and white, Ellie,” Jeanette says. “Yes, she gets up and goes to work, and she has good days and bad days, but that doesn’t mean she’s okay. I’m worried about her, Ellie, and I’m worried about you too.”
    I sigh. Jeanette is paranoid, and maybe a bit jealous of how close my parents and I are. When Mom was growing up, she and Jeanette were super close, but they must have grown apart when Mom married Dad, and Jeanette and Alison got together. Now Alison’s gone, and Jeanette’s alone. I take a deep breath and try to be understanding.
    â€œI’m not telling you this so you do anything,” Jeanette goes on. “Your job is to be thirteen years old and do what thirteen-year-olds do. I only wanted you to know how things look from an outside perspective. I’m encouraging both of your parents to get some