Voicelessness and Emotional Survival--Holiday Blues

has happened. Charles, Patty's older brother, gulps down his fourth glass of wine, and while his mother is out of the room, he coyly puts two serving spoons upright in the bowl of sweet potatoes. As soon as his mother returns he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a quarter, stands it on edge on the table, and then flicks it with his index finger between the "goal posts".

"Three points!" he says, as the quarter clatters across the table and comes to rest next to Patty's water glass.

Estelle explodes. "What are you doing?" she screams. "I spent hours cooking this meal."

"Lighten up, Mom," says Charles. "I was just joking. I didn't kill anyone."

"Stop being obnoxious to your mother," says Andrew, Patty's father, half-heartedly and out of obligation. He has learned not to get involved in the hopeless struggle that will follow. "I have an idea," he adds. "Maybe we can get back to the task at hand--eating dinner."

"I wasn't being obnoxious," says Charles. "I was fooling around. And screw the dinner. This family is way too uptight. I can't even swallow." He slams down his napkin on the table and says "I'm going to go watch the football game." On his way to the den, he stops at the refrigerator to grab a beer.

Patty looks on silently. Throughout the meal she continues to shrink until now she is now a speck of dust floating in the air. She hates the helpless feeling. She struggles to re-inhabit her adult size

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