Two phone calls later Evan and Ruth felt they knew all they had to know, and the very next morning Joanna’s parents decided to intervene in their daughter’s unwholesome and unhelpful isolation. They knocked on Joanna’s door and came into her room without waiting to be invited in. Joanna was lying in the middle of her bed, face down, in a tee shirt and jeans. She may have slept in her clothes. They sat on the sides of the bed, one on each side of her. Ruth spoke to her daughter in soft soothing tones, not really expecting her daughter to join in the conversation but wanting Joanna to hear what she had to say.
“Your father and I are saddened by this turn of events in your life, Joanna,” said Ruth. “But we suspect that you may have exaggerated the seriousness of whatever it was that Pete said or did to you.”
No, Mother, thought Joanna. You haven’t a clue how serious this really is.
“We know how much you love Pete, honey,” said Evan. “You mustn’t forget how much your love means to him. He must be heartbroken that you walked out of his life so abruptly.”
Sure, Dad, thought Joanna. Take the man’s side. The prick’s side.
Ruth smoothed Joanna’s hair with her hands, and then rested her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “He wants to apologize to you, darling. He needs to apologize to you. You should at least give him the chance to do that.”
Evan bent and kissed Joanna’s cheek softly. “And we love you too. It hurts us to see you so deeply unhappy. You must let us be of help to you in some way.”
“We’ll just stay here with you awhile, sweetheart,” said Ruth. “If you feel like talking about it, we’ll be here to listen. We both want to help you deal with this.”
Ruth lay down full length on the bed close beside Joanna. Ruth was also on her stomach, facing her daughter’s moist and reddened eyes. She draped an arm affectionately over Joanna’s shoulders. She gestured to Evan that he should join with her in this physical demonstration of solidarity with their daughter.
Her father lay down too, close to Joanna’s other side. He let his arm fall gently across her waist.
Joanna felt the warmth of her parents’ closeness and of their love for her. She whispered a thank-you to them, and kissed them both lightly. She was facing her mother’s smile. Why couldn’t Pete’s love for his own parents be as ‘right’ as Joanna’s was for her own parents? Why did he have to turn it into something he was so ashamed of that he wouldn’t even tell her about it?
The three of them lay side by side, in silence, for several minutes. And then Ruth kissed Joanna again, and began to gently caress Joanna’s neck with the hand that had rested on the girl’s shoulders. Joanna sighed, showing Ruth that she liked the affectionate gesture, so Ruth went on with it. Ruth cuddled even closer to Joanna, and her cheek touched her daughter’s. She kissed Joanna’s cheek again.
Evan got the hint, and his hand on Joanna’s waist began a gentle massage of the girl’s lower back. Joanna sighed again, and she turned to give her father a thank-you kiss on the cheek. He used his fingers and thumb to add some intensity to his massaging movements, showing that he had a lot of experience in this sort of thing, and soon Joanna was wriggling unconsciously with the very pleasant sensations flowing through her.