SHE'S the Cat's Mother
Diane Murray sits in shock, staring horrifically at Adele, after Adele's disclosure of her pregnancy. Adele, unable to comprehend why her mother is showing no reaction, asks if Diane heard what she said and repeats the fact that she's pregnant. Rising from her chair, the girl crosses the room to face her. Diane stands up too. She insists that Adele can't be pregnant, but Adele maintains that she, indeed, is. Again, Diane repeats, in obvious disbelief, that Adele cannot be pregnant. She then asks rhetorically: 'How did this happen?'
Adele is amazed and shocked at the question, so shocked that she takes it literally and laughs at what she interprets as Diane's ignorance. She only manages to laugh briefly, however, before Diane lets swing with the back of her hand across Adele's face, knocking the girls glasses across the room.. Diane, too, has misinterpreted Adele's reaction, telling her that this isn't funny. She turns and walks into the kitchen.
Retrieving her glasses, Adele follows, upset and apologising. She's rubbing her cheek and telling Diane that Diane hasn't smacked her since she was a kid. Diane remarks that she's still a kid. Diane asks who the father is. Adele doesn't answer and Diane asks again. Finally, Adele says that she can't say who he is. Diane raises her eyebrows sarcastically. She wants to know why Adele can't say the identity of the father. Doesn't she know? Adele is horrified that Diane should think she wouldn't know the father's identity. 'What do you think I am?' She asks.
Diane says quite honestly that she doesn't know who or what Adele is anymore. She was like a stranger. She looked and sounded like Adele, but she talked like someone she hadn't met before. Adele asks Diane if she really thought Adele would go with just anybody. Diane asks who the father is again. Adele refuses to identify him. Diane then tries another tack, by saying that Adele will have to tell Marty.
Adele panics and asks Diane not to make her tell her father. Diane maintains that she has to; Marty has to know. Adele begs her not to tell him, at least not tonight. But when does Adele think he should be told, Diane asks sarcastically. Adele can't expect Diane to play happy families throughout the whole evening, keeping Marty in ignorance and knowing what she knows. She picks up the telephone and dials Marty's mobile number, but his phone is switched off. Muttering that there's no point in having a mobile if you keep it switched off, she leaves a message that he's needed at home. In the background, Adele keeps shouting that Diane can't make her tell her father.
Diane rings the shcool. This time, Marty answers the phone from his caretaker's office. Diane tells him abruptly that he has to come home, he has to come home now. Marty is immediately concerned and asks if someone's had an accident. No, Diane assures him, as Adele continues to shout in the background that Diane can't make her tell Marty anything. Diane says that she can't tell Marty the reason over the phone, but he must come hom now. Marty protests that he still has at least thirty minutes of work left to do - for a start, he has to 'do the chairs'. Diane shouts at him to leave the bloody chairs and come home. Adele runs from the room.
Diane follows her upstairs, where she finds Adele packing her clothes, along with a box of tampons.. Immediately Diane warns Adele that she's not to think she can go to her Nin's. Adele says she doesn't think that at all. Suddenly, a thought occurs to Diane. Is Adele going to stay with 'him'? Does 'he' have a flat of his own? Adele shakes her head in disgust at her mother and informs her that she's going to stay at Michelle's. Diane laughs shortly - surely Adele can't expect to stay at Michelle's indefinitely. Adele replies that it's only for a few days and anyway, Michelle's mother won't mind. She tells Diane pointedly that Michelle's mother is one of those mothers who LISTENS to her daughter and doesn't play the rent-a-Catholic card when the occasion suits her. Diane looks at her suspiciously. She wants to know if Michelle's mother knows she's pregnant. Adele says that she doesn't, but if she did, she wouldn't care. Diane reminds her that it's not Mrs Tam's daughter who's pregnant, but Adele says that even if Michelle were pregnant, her mother wouldn't land her one across her face.
At Brookie Comp, it seems that 'doing the chairs' means clearing up after a rehearsal of the school orchestra. Marty enters the auditorium and roughly shoos the students out, asking them if they have homes to return to. When one boy lags behind, Marty tells him to 'do one', reiterating that he'll clear the chairs tomorrow.
Back home, Diane is alone in the kitchen. She opens the fridge to remove a carton of milk and knocks the Tupperware container holding her injections and syringes onto the floor. She looks at the articles for a moment, before picking them up and dumping them into the rubbish bin. As she does this, an incredibly ugly and jealous look crosses her face.
She returns upstairs, calling for Adele, but finds her room empty. She tries the loo in the hall outside Adele's room, finding the door locked. She calls out Adele's name, trying a kinder tack now, urging her gently to open the door. As she talks to Adele, she hears the sound of tablets rattling out of bottles and asks her daughter what she's doing.
Adele shouts back that she's going to take an overdose if Diane persists in forcing her to tell Marty. Diane continues to bang on the door, shouting for Adele to open it. Downstairs, Marty arrives and Diane calls him upstairs, telling him that Adele's locked the door and is threatening to take an overdose of pills.
Marty knocks on the door, pleading for Adele to come out, asking her to tell him what's provoked this outburst and telling her that whatever has happened, they can work through it together. Adele refuses. Marty asks her to tell him the problem - is it something to do with school? Is it because she got sick during her exam yesterday, because if that was what was bothering her, she wasn't to worry. Her teacher had told him that it wouldn't count against her. Adele says it's nothing to do with school. Marty then asks if she's fallen out with one of her friends. Adele denies this, as her father continues to cajole her into coming out. He tells her that whatever she's said or done, he'll always love her, they can work through the problem together, but she must come out and tell him what's happened.
He suddenly realises that Adele is silent. In a panic, Marty begs her to speak to him, begs her not to take any of the tablets. Please, he pleads, he wants to help her, but he needs her to tell him what's happened before his can help her. All this time, Diane is standing at the top of the stair landing, rolling her eyes and looking fed up.
Suddenly, Adele speaks from within the bathroom, telling Marty that SHE (Diane) smacked her across the face. Marty glances angrily at Diane, who again rolls her eyes heavenward and shakes her head. Marty attempts to explain to Adele that Diane didn't mean to hit her, but Adele maintains that she did. Well, Marty tries again, even if she did, he's sure she's sorry. Again, he begs Adele to come out of the bathroom, as Diane, increasingly fed up with the situation, starts to descend the stairs.
Marty continues to beg Adele to come out and talk with him. Adele says she can't, because Marty would hate her for what she's done. Marty assures her that he won't ever hate her. Adele is his best girl; there's no one in the world who can touch her. He tells her that, even though Diane was giving him dagger looks at the moment, he'd risk her wrath by saying it again. Adele was his best girl. He could never hate her, no matter what she'd ever said or done. He'd love her even if she wanted to marry an Evertonian. Adele says she's done worse. Marty attempts a joke - does she mean that she wants to marry a Man U fan? Worse than that, says Adele, and Marty - still not taking her seriously, asks what could be worse than that. (How about an Arsenal fan? Or a Charlton Athletic fan? Leeds?)
Suddenly he hears the lock turn on the other side of the door and Adele emerges. She's crying and he takes her in his arms as she begs him not to hate her. Marty looks at her with relief and concern, asking her if she's taken any of the drugs in the family medicine cabinet. Adele confesses that, of all the tablets, there were only two paracetamol and a couple of tablets the doctor had given Marty sometime ago when he was stressed out and not sleeping. Everything else was out of date and she had dumped it. Marty laughs in relief and hughs her again. As father and daughter cling to each other, we hear a slow hand-clap as Diane walks toward the duo with a nasty look on her face, remarking sarcastically, 'How clever!'
Marty just wants to know what the hell's going on, as he's puzzled by both Adele's and Diane's reaction. For the umpteenth time, he asks Adele to tell him what's happened to provoke such an outburst. Adele asks again for him to promise not to hate her. Marty, exasperated, promises. Without looking at him, Adele admits that she's pregnant.
Marty is shell-shocked. He can't believe what she's told him. He asks her if the father is someone from school, demands that she tell him the name of the boy concerned. Again, Adele maintains that she can't say who he is. Diane remarks nastily that she can't say who the father is because she doesn't know. Adele exclaims that that isn't true. She's only done the act the one time. In a mute plea for help, she attempts to lean against her father, but Marty backs away. He asks her if the boy forced himself on her, if she were made to have sex against her will. Adele is crushed. 'I thought you said you wouldn't hate me,' she cries.
Marty remarks that he doesn't know what to believe, he doesn't even know if he knows her anymore. The Sainted Mother smugly remarks that that's exactly what she had said to Adele, who pushes past them both, reminding them that 'it cuts both ways, you know', for she isn't sure she knows them either.
She storms downstairs and attempts to leave by the front door, but is stopped by Marty, who tells her that she's going nowhere. Adele says she wants to go for a walk, to get away from this place and clear her head. Again, Marty tries to stop her, demanding to know the name of the boy who got her up the duff. Again, Adele says only that she can't say. Suddenly, Marty draws his hand back as if to hit the girl, prompting Adele to remark, 'Go on. Is it your turn to have a go now too?' She pushes past him and runs out the door. Marty mutters that they'll have to go after her or soon all the neightbourhood would know, but Diane persuades him that she can handle Adele and grabbing her coat, runs after her, as Marty furiously throws his jacket onto the floor.
Diane catches Adele outside on the Close, remarking that Adele had made her go out onto the street in her slippers and what would Brigid have to say about that. She drapes her coat around Adele's shoulder, suddenly kind, saying that, by this gesture, she had probably ensured that Adele would remain outside all night long. She asks her to come inside because they have to talk about this as a family and give her all the support they can. Immediately contrite, Adele tells Diane that she truly only did the act once. It was just her luck to have this happen the first time. Jade Ashton, a girl she knows from school, could do it with half the bus drivers in Liverpool and nothing happened. Putting her arms around Adele's shoulder, Diane leads her back inside. Adele says that she's frightened by her father's reaction, but Diane assures her that Marty is just in shock at the moment - it's as though he's been forced to realise his little girl isn't a child anymore.
Inside, Marty picks his jacket up from the floor as the phone rings. It's Brigid, asking him when he's going to collect Antony. Marty asks if Antony could stay with Brigid for the night. There have been a few problems here, assuring her that no one is ill. When Brigid asks what happened, Marty tells her that Adele's had a sort of falling out and is going to have to do some growing up really fast.
When Adele and Diane appear again, Marty tells Diane that Antony will be spending the night with Brigid, remarking that at least Brigid had come good for something. Diane makes Adele sit down and begins to fix some drinks. She asks Adele if she wants coffee or tea. Adele says that tea tastes weird right now and coffee worse, so Diane suggests juice. Marty opts for something stronger and pours a whiskey.
The three sit around the kitchen table and make an effort to discuss Adele's dilemma. Diane begins calmly enough by asking the girl how far gone she is. Adele admits that she's now twelve weeks pregnant. Her parents are horrified. Diane is visibly shocked. She asks Adele how long she's known. Adele begins by explaining that 'we did the pregnancy test about a month ago'. Marty immediately notes the plural pronoun and demands to know whom Adele means by 'we', thinking it to include the father of Adele's child. Adele explains that the other person covered by the word 'we' is actually Michelle.
She goes onto explain that she's only had sex once, and that after the event, Michelle suggested that she attend the clinic for the morning-after pill. (Diane, playing the offended Catholic mother, crosses herself and looks heavenward). She then asks Adele what stopped her from doing so. Well, Adele explains, she and Michelle ran into her Nin and couldn't go into the clinic without raising suspicion. She tried to attend the next day, but chickened out. Diane is exasperated now, unable to comprehend Adele's rationale - she asks the girl when, exactly, she was planning on telling her parents, or exactly what she was hoping to achieve?
Looking thoroughly ashamed of herself, Adele is forced to admit her naivete. She kept thinking and hoping that she wasn't pregnant. When she didn't come on, she told herself it was normal, perhaps it was the stress of having to study for GCSE's. Then when she got the result of the test, she kept hoping that the test might be wrong, that the pregnancy would go away. (In short, she was in denial). Diane hits the sarcastic button now, full-blast. She thought it would go away. Now she'd heard everything. She wanted to know what had happened to the Adele Murray she'd known and loved? The Adele Murray SHE knew was a nice, obedient girl, a clever girl, good in school - OK, maybe a bit naive (got it there in one, Di) - but ambitious. Why, the Adele Murray SHE knew planned on going to university. Well, she could kiss that idea good-bye right now. No point in planning a uni career when she'd be thinking about nappies and three o'clock feeds. Really, she was no better than those slappers over on Manor Estate - at least they KNEW WHY they got pregnant at fifteen - a chance of a council flat or a fella with a few bob or the opportunity to live off benefits for the rest of their lives. But what did Adele expect and why did she think the pregnancy would GO AWAY?
Adele counters this verbal attack by accusing her mother of calling her a slag and saying she's nothing like those girls. 'So you say,' snaps Diane.
Adele repeats that she only had sex the once. But you got pregnant, accuses Diane. Yes, admits Adele. And you thought it would go away, Diane repeats again. Adele takes a breath and - looking even more ashamed of her actions - admits that she had hoped she would lose the baby.
Diane is speechless for once, doing a good fish impersonation with her mouth opened. When she finds her voice, it is to utter a Catholic oath. Marty speaks for the first time in a long time. Calmly, he tells Adele that they want to help her, but they can't do anything unless Adele provides them with the name of the father. Why? Adele wants to know. So they can kick off and make a scene. Anyway, she can't say who the father was - it would only cause trouble knowing. Marty asks patiently if the father is a boy from school, or a teacher. Did the culprit force himself on her?
Suddenly a thought occurs to him, if Adele says she only did it the once, co uld the father be ... Father Pat? Now Diane explodes in horror. Father Pat? Never! Why, Father Pat is a saintly man. Father Pat is a man, Marty reminds her. And you know these priests ... You read about them every week in the paper, touching up some kid. Diane is sputtering with rage now, insulted that Marty could even imagine Father Pat would be vile enough to do such a thing.
Adele shuts them up with a sarky remark. Why not accuse Jimmy Corkhill or Ron Dixon? You know that Adele Murray, she'll go with anyone. She throws in Marty's face the fact that he would rather she had been raped rather than face the fact that his fifteen year-old daughter had willingly slept with someone. The truth is, she says, she only had sex once. She admits that she didn't think a girl could get pregnant after just one time. She thought it was hard to get pregnant.
The Sainted Mother rises steaming from the table and - like a butterfly in metamorphosis - turns into the Wicked Stepmother. 'Rub my nose in it, why don't you?' She snarls to the baffled girl. 'Marty, did you hear her? Do something about that?'
Marty is quietly, yet frantically trying to calm Diane, for Adele's benefit, when suddenly Adele utters an utter truism, hitting the nail right on the head with regard to Diane.
'This isn't about me at all, is it?' She says with cynical enlightenment. 'It's ALL to do with HER. SHE'S jealous!'
Diane runs from the room. Perhaps she's afraid of facing the truth squarely.
Marty follows her up the stairs as she runs directly into their room and collapses on the bed. He tells her to go easy on Adele, she's just a kid. Diane reminds him succinctly that the 'kid' was three months' pregnant and growing up fast. Marty sadly agrees, saying he wished she still played with dolls, but there was no stopping what had happened now and they had to deal with it.
Diane reverts to her favourite topic then, herself. Did Marty HEAR the way Diane spoke to her downstairs? Did he hear what she said? Marty is trying to calm her down, when Diane suddenly asks him exactly why he married her. Marty is gob-smacked. Diane tries to relate how hard the IVF procedure has been for her, relating to him how she spent the better part of the previous day lying on her back with her legs around her ears, whilst some uncaring bod in a white coat 'fiddled with her bits', all the time with his mind on his next round of golf.
Marty tries to protest that it isn't like that. Diane whinges on about the fact that her eggs will be fertilised now, theres a chance that at least 60% of them will be viable for implantation. Did he seriously think that she liked the idea of going through that with a chance of it not being successful while his daughter had one quick bunk-up behind the bike sheds and got up the duff?
Marty quietly tries to reassure her that he wouldn't change anything with her, but the fact remained, as she said, that they had to give Adele their support. All the time the pair are talking behind the closed door of their bedroom, Adele listens outside. Marty mentions the fact that Diane hit her and Diane reiterates the fact that she didn't know Adele. Marty says that it's imperative that they get Adele to identify the father of the Baby. Diane is vindictive. She maintains that Adele won't tell, and even if she did, she'd only lie. Marty didn't know what a liar Adele had become. As Adele hears this, she smiles ruefully and shakes her head at Diane's performance. Marty tells Diane that one thing Adele is not and that's a liar. Diane then begins to berate him again for suspecting the priest.
As she hears her parents move toward their door, Adele sprints down the stairs and sits in the lounge, pretending to read a magazine. As Marty enters the lounge, he snatches the mag from her hand.
'Right,' he demands. 'I want an answer and I want the truth. Who is he? You're underage and I'm having him.'
For once Adele remains calm, reiterating that she can't say. 'Can't or won't?' Asks Marty again.
Diane, tantrum over, tries the logical approack with Adele. She tells Adele she shouldn't feel the need to protect the boy. Her parents weren't going to kick off at him. They just felt that he should be made to own up to his responsibility. Diane asks Adele if the boy in question knows she's pregnant. Adele says he doesn't and she doesn't want him to know. But her mother persists. He might want to know. Things might be different if he knew.
How? Adele wants to know. He wouldn't want anything to do with the baby. He wouldn't want to know. Diane asks her if she's still seeing the boy. Adele replies in the negative, saying that she hasn't seen him almost since it happened. Anyway, he thinks she's a pest. He wouldn't want anything to do with her, especially after this. He wouldn't want to know, and besides, if he did know, he'd be utterly hopeless.
All this time, Marty has stood quietly with his back to Adele and Diane, facing the Welsh dresser in the Murray living room that sports all the kids' pictures. Diane is still arguing about the identity of the baby's father. She thinks that, even if the boy wouldn't want anything to do with the baby, perhaps his family, if they knew might want to make some sort of contribution. The culprit should be made to recognise his responsibility. You hear too much of these lads having their ways with girls and then disappearing without a clue. But Adele is adamant.
Diane becomes resigned at her obdurance. She apologises to Adele for likening her to the Manor Estate girls and reassures her that she won't be like other single mothers because the Murrays were going to pull together on this one as a family. Adele could bank of a full measure of support from both her parents and Diane, as if to emphasise the point, asks Marty for confirmation of the fact. Marty, however, is lost in thought and has to be prompted by Diane before giving a half-hearted and very despondent assent to her request.
Adele is calmed by the abrupt about-face of her mother and appears to have forgot the recent slagging off she received at the end of Di's vitriolic tongue. She looks hopeful at this promise of support. Glancing up at Diane, she remarks that she can still go to university. Diane looks a bit puzzled and then soothes her, saying that someday, Adele might well go to university; but at the moment, it would prove hard with a small child.
At the moment Adele says this, Marty picks up on the gist behind the girl's meaning and turns to face his daughter. The awful truth behind Diane's placating stance begins to dawn on Adele. Suddenly troubled, she faces Diane. She says that she could go to university ... if she didn't have the baby. Diane stares at her for a moment, but it's Marty who speaks first. 'What are you saying?' He asks.
Without looking at either of her parents, Adele murmurs, 'I don't want it.'
After a moment's pause, Diane asks her to repeat what she's said again. Adele then launches into an explanation of her statement rather than repeating her original turn of phrase. Diane was right, Adele says, she was just a kid, herself. She had no business with a baby; she couldn't even cope with one. She has other concerns - her exams, her schooling, her life. There was no room for a baby there. She wanted to get rid of it.
Diane's face screws ip into a terrible imitation of a stone-cold gargoyle. She stares at Adele as if looking at something nasty and sits down opposite her on the Murray sofa. She muses aloud about Adele being 12 weeks pregnant, reminding Adele that she, herself, had been 11 weeks pregnant when she lost her baby. Diane reminds Adele of the poem she wrote when Di suffered her miscarriage, saying that she'd never forget those words, and she quotes them:-
'You will always be our baby, you will never be an IT.'
So, asks Diane, how can Adele have written such moving words about something Diane considered to be a real person and talk so callously about getting rid of IT, her own child.
Adele shakes her head sadly, at least realising that what she thought to be understanding on her mother's part was anything but. In the meantime, Marty has fallen on his knees in front of Adele, asking her if she means what he thinks she means. Adele says she doesn't want the baby; she isn't ready for a baby. Marty supports her. Whatever she wants, whatever's best for her. But Diane is like a dog after a bone and baits Adele.
The girl says she never wanted to tell her parents about this and she wished she hadn't. She really didn't have to, you know. In fact, THEY recommended that she not tell her parents, if it were going to cause so much strife.
'Who is THEY?' Asks Diane. Adele replies that she saw a counsellor about her pregnancy. The counsellor told her that she needn't tell her parents if she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. Again, Diane is beside herself. Where on earth did Adele find such a consellor? Who put her in touch with this person? Adele admits that she got a number from the Yellow Pages. What number? demands Diane. Adele tells her it's the number of the Pregnancy Advisory Service, whom Diane interprets to mean 'the abortion people'.
But Marty isn't listening to her rantings. He's focused entirely on Adele, looking relieved and hopeful. He asks Adele if she's absolutely sure this is what she wants.
'Yes,' Adele replies, 'I want an abortion.'
Diane looks heavenward again in a mixture of jealousy and exasperation.
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001