The House We Grew Up In

5 November 2010

Jim writes back to Lorelei. His full name is James Lipton, and he lives in Northern England. Lorelei shares about her early life. She has what others call a “posh” accent because she was raised outside of Oxford. Her father wrote about medicine and died when she was 20, and her mother wrote about gardening and died three years later. Lorelei’s sister Athena was stillborn, and her parents never got over it. She describes her family life as “ramshackle and left-wing middle-class” (31). No one was interested in looks or cleaning. She collected things obsessively, but once she went to university, she separated herself from her childhood, as if she “shed a skin” (32). Her background made her want to provide the best childhood for her own children.

April 1987

Bethan goes on a trip with Lorelei to get her first bra. Lorelei shows more interest in a new Poundstretcher shop and returns home with a large shopping bag. Megan asks why she’s bought so much, but Lorelei says it’s good to have stockpiles. Bethan doesn’t see the problem in having 60 pan scourers and scolds Megan for upsetting their mother. Meg accuses the family of enabling Lorelei and for the first time suggests that she might have mental health issues. Meanwhile, Rhys is becoming increasingly isolated and spends much of his time staring into space.

The day before Easter, Megan goes out with Andrew Smart and enjoys “the feeling of escape from the house and the village” (36). When she gets back, Rhys is still up, so they watch television together. Megan asks if he’s happy and if school is all right, but he says that friends are not that important and talking is overrated. She thinks he seems angry and sad.

In the morning, Megan becomes sarcastic when her mother doesn’t ask about her date, suggesting that nothing is as important as the Easter egg hunt. The children are no longer interested, but Lorelei insists they maintain the tradition. Bob, Jenny, and the children arrive but don’t stay for lunch. Pandora and her family are also away, so this is the first time that the Birds are alone for Easter Sunday.

As this could be their last year together as a family, Colin suggests they go on vacation to Greece. Lorelei goes cold and says they don’t have any money. Colin proposes various saving methods, such as selling one of their cars. This is dismissed as a silly plan, and no one wants to go abroad.

In July, two teenagers break in while the children are there and steal some electronics, jewelry, and meat. Lorelei is distraught, seeing it as “a violation akin to rape” (45). She says Greece is out of the question as she has to stay and protect the house.

April 2011

Meg and Molly take turns sitting in Lorelei’s empty chair and wonder how she spent her time. She wasn’t a recluse; she visited the village a couple of times a week to chat with neighbors, shop, and swim in the local pool, probably to use their showers as her bathroom was unusable. She spent the rest of her time in the chair, often on her laptop. The family knows that she was in touch with Jim, with whom she said she was “crazy in love” (47). Beth calls Meg from an unknown number, and Meg hangs up on her.

March 1991

Megan and Bethan are called Meg and Beth when they’re not at home. Meg works as a secretary in London. Beth visits for the weekend, and they drink at a trendy bar and talk about their childhood. Meg doesn’t want to return to the Cotswolds for Easter, and Beth calls her the only normal one in the family. Their father is not his usual self and is distracted and losing weight. Rory has fallen in with a bad group of friends, who may be using drugs. Rhys spends his time alone in his room listening to grunge music. He’s been in trouble at school for hanging around the girls’ changing rooms. Megan thinks Beth should leave home and live with her in London. She’s also been studying to be a secretary, and Meg could get her a job at her office. Beth wants to leave home, especially given Rhys’s strange behavior. He stands outside the bathroom when she showers, and she has found him lying in their parents’ bed, dressed only in his underpants.

Meg decides to come for Easter, but she has to sleep in Beth’s room because her room is stuffed with junk. Meg says it’s a fire hazard, but Lorelei says Meg is the only one who complains. Beth sees Lorelei as eccentric but full of energy and love, while Meg thinks she is mentally ill and self-centered. She is angry that people see the house as cozy rather than “the work of a disordered mind” (59).

Bob and Jenny have moved away, and their house was bought by Vicky and Tim. Lorelei invites them and their daughter Madeleine for Easter lunch. It is just as before: Leg of lamb served with too many carrots and not enough roast potatoes, chocolate eggs gathered and eaten, foils smoothed out and kept. Vicky returns later with a bottle of red wine. Lorelei doesn’t check on Rhys, who did not come down for lunch; instead, she and Vicky get drunk and talk alone for three hours.

Meg takes Rhys some food in the evening. Alice in Chains is playing at full volume, and she opens the door to his room and finds that he has hanged himself.

24 November 2010

In her email to Jim, Lorelei mentions the heavy rain in her area and tries to make light of her situation, saying that if her place flooded, her collection of newspapers would swell up like a cork and plug her in. More family secrets are revealed, though some are still being held back: Jim’s son had a drug addiction and died at 31, and Lorelei shares about Rhys’s suicide. There was no note, but she thinks she knows why he did it, though she has not admitted that to anyone. She says she can’t tell him her deepest secrets. Moving on to the more neutral subject of horoscopes, she says she’s a typical cancer: “home-loving, nurturing, sensitive, creative” (62).

April 2011

Meg and Molly realize that Lorelei must have slept in her chair as it is impossible to reach any of the beds. Meg contrasts this with her own house, with its king-sized bed and clean linens. Bill, her husband, calls; he and their three other children are on vacation in Switzerland.

April 1995

This is the first Easter Sunday that the children aren’t home, apart from Beth who is “becoming as difficult to prise out of the Bird House as her mother” (70). Meg has just moved into a new house with her partner, Bill, and she is pregnant with their first child. She calls her mother, but she is preoccupied with the egg hunt. Since Rhys’s death, Lorelei has become close to Vicky, who visits every day with her children. Vicky’s first boyfriend also died by suicide at age 18. It’s the anniversary of Rhys’s death, but Lorelei claims she and the family can’t visit his grave. Meg gets angry and hangs up.

Rory met Kayleigh three nights ago in a pub, and he’s in love. For the first time since his twin’s death, he no longer feels numb. He brings her a chocolate Easter egg and a handful of daffodils from someone’s garden. When Kayleigh unwraps the egg, Rory says their mother always wants them to save the foil, which Kayleigh thinks is odd. He invites her to Easter lunch, but she wants to save meeting his family for another day. Instead, she offers to accompany him to Rhys’s grave. Rory is mystified by his brother’s suicide and wonders if there is a clue in the song he had playing on repeat. In the graveyard, Rhys’s headstone says “Sweet Sixteen Forever.” Rory doesn’t think it reflects Rhys, who was aggressive. Kayleigh cleans up the stone and places new flowers. She and Rory declare their love for one another.

Rory brings her home the next week, and he is both worried that his mother won’t like her and that Kayleigh will judge his mother and the state of the house. It is the last day of the school holiday, and Vicky is there with her children. Kayleigh asks why Vicky is always at the house, and Vicky says that Lorelei enjoys the company and having the children around. Lorelei agrees that she would be lost without them. Kayleigh remarks that she and Rory are the only ones who visited Rhys’s grave recently and that Lorelei’s house is full of stuff. Rory sees his home with fresh eyes, noticing how the jumble of bowls is “completely excessive.”

Kayleigh asks who found Rhys’s body, and Rory is glad Meg found him since she is the most steady family member. They go into the garden and lie in the hammock, smoke a spliff, and have sex. Rory feels that he is becoming an adult, then starts crying and thinks about how he needs to leave his family situation. They discuss going abroad once Rory gets some money together and applies for a passport.

A week later, Lorelei can’t locate Rory’s birth certificate; she doesn’t have time to sort through her piles of paper because she’s watching Vicky’s children. Rory points out that they are not her responsibility, and Lorelei retorts that she doesn’t understand why he wants to go abroad. Rory asks why she never wants to talk about the past, especially Rhys, or the future. They argue, and Lorelei says he’s become “hard” like his girlfriend.

Colin finds Rory’s birth certificate in a folder marked “Kiddies,” which contains plastic hospital bracelets that say “Baby Bird.” They go to the pub for the first time together. Colin says he is pleased Rory is going away, but notes that Kayleigh is a “drama queen.” He says that when he met Lorelei, she was carefree and full of life, and now he can’t help her because she insists she’s happy when she’s not.

Colin takes Rory and Kayleigh to the airport. They are going to stay in a commune in Spain with Ken, to whom Kayleigh lost her virginity when she was 17 and he was 49. They can stay there for free if they look after the numerous children and animals there.