On advice not followed and overburdened meddlers.....

[dreadedcandiru2]

Now that we've returned to the point in the doomed and futile pursuit of Phil Richards wherein Lawrence broke his leg, it seems that we might profit from reminding ourselves how the characters react to this. By doing so, we can get a better handle on who they are and how they see the world:

• Connie: Her initial reaction to this was to sit in her hotel room and wonder if she should do the sensible, decent thing and return home. Since she stayed in Montreal and groused about how she wasn't going let Fate get in the way of her seeing Phil, it seems to me that she might have thought that Lawrence had done this on purpose to make her feel bad and ruin her chances to get a man; what's more, when she lamented her stupidity afterwards, she didn't focus on what had happened to her son but more on how she looked. This tells me that she regards Lawrence as a threat to her image more than anything else.
• Elly: While she started out doing her typical "Look-at-me-and-how-overburdened-I-am" bit, she soon showed actual concern for her charge's well-being and remorse for her oversight. It's too bad that Connie managed to convince her that it was someone else's fault; after someone she trusts tells her that it's the child's fault for getting hurt, she's well on the way to standing beside a river wondering why April is trying to make her look bad.
• Mike: We started this mess with his being more worried about his bike than his supposed friend and we plod onwards with him being all pouty and selfish about how lucky Lawrence is to get all this special treatment. It would seem that the roots of his rushing into a fire to save a manuscript without thinking about his wife and children are fairly deep.
• Phil: He regards at as a misfortune that this might happen but, since he has no real idea how much Connie has invested in her screwball fantasy, doesn't realize that telling her to not worry because the same Elly whose negligence made the accident a certainty can at least not do more damage.

As for Lawrence himself, his reaction to this is somewhat more understated; he knows that his mother is messed up in the head and has screwy priorities so he's learned to accept that he'll always be an ancillary priority to her feeding her monstrous ego and repulsive vanity.

Comments

[howtheduck.livejournal.com]

There's also John, who basically does nothing but compliment Elly on how well she handled the situation, and is probably secretly glad that his wife's martyr complex is so active that it prevents her from asking John for help in dealing with Lawrence.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

This could be because he has no wisdom to impart or it could be that he knows that his opinion is sort of optional anyway. Lynn would have us believe the former but experience teaches us the latter is more likely. After all, his opinion of Ted comes to match hers so it seems that he eventually lets her do all the thinking.

[howtheduck.livejournal.com]

I suspect the real motivation is that the author wants to paint Elly as being the helpful, caring, put-upon neighbour as much as possible. If John were to help Elly, it would take away from that perspective.

[dreadedcandiru2.livejournal.com]

As well as rendering all the jokes she writes about John being either a clueless twit or selfish obstruction obsolete; if she insisted on making remarks like that when John was at least trying to be helpful, it wouldn't make her look all that good.