#20 GOLDIE'S SISTER

"We're always bailing her out of some unexpected trouble. She seems to have terrible luck with men and money. When she gets home she has to go back into therapy for sure, she can't keep going on this way and we can't keep bailing her out, her father is set on her getting in treatment this time."

Goldie's sister Karin listened patiently as her mother went on and on about Goldie who is a problem but Karin wished that her conversations with her mother could, every now and again, be about her and her troubles, God knows she has them, but it's always Goldie and Goldie's troubles.

Karin rarely gets to talk about her problems; it's not that she can't or they would stop her, it's just that they would not find her troubles worthy, these highly intellectual people must become interested, you must become interesting to merit their attention. As such, it's always Goldie this and Goldie that--her interesting troubles that defy logic or reason will capture the attention of her parents for days. Goldie broke in London in need of money, Goldie's clothing stolen in a laundromat in Madrid, her latest boyfriend arrested in Prague, her jumbled mind spinning a sort of familiar yarn interesting to her parents for days afterward as they hike to the bank or the travel agent to do Goldie's bidding, so very concerned for their eldest daughter.

Goldie and her problems change only in detail nor ever completely resolve but continue on in a steadfast monologue running through family life, all focus on Goldie's latest caper or dilemma and although she is more interesting, as a rule, than Karin or her troubles, Karin is sick of Goldie and her troubles; she would like to share her own troubles but the broken clothes dryer and what it would cost to fix or replace would not make rank. Her parents would glaze over simultaneously with the merest flicker of ennui, and Karin would retreat back into her shell and pretend to commiserate with her mother over Goldie's aberrant behavior and how much she costs them, and Karin decides not to ask for a small loan to repair the dryer; Goldie needs a fast ticket out if Istanbul where she feels political unrest will force her to leave, knowing exactly what spin her parents will fall for or rather, take an interest in, and her parents feeling the panic, respond appropriately and book her a ticket asking Karin if she could do it online before she has dinner as she is so good with computers...and she can do nothing but acquiesce because; "it's for your sister, and we have to help her," her mother would chirp gaily. "She will be going back into therapy, her father will insist on it."