Meant To Be by Karen Stivali Page A

mentioning her mother before. “Are you close with your Mum?”
    “Not exactly,” Marienne said, in a way that made him think she meant not at all. “We have issues.”
    Daniel sensed her hesitation and decided to let her off the hook. “Everyone has issues. Seriously, I know. I read people’s journals as a mandatory part of my job description.”
    “You read people’s journals?” Her eyes widened, but her voice sounded normal again.
    “Yes. Have to.” He helped her lift the last prop box onto the shelf. “My first time teaching Freshman Writer’s Workshop I assigned journal writing, as it specified in the curriculum, but I didn’t read them. It felt too invasive. Someone must have complained because word got back to the department chair, and I got a talking to about how all journals needed to be marked and commented on by professors. So I started reading them. I warn my students every semester, assuming they’ll select their topics accordingly, but it doesn’t seem like they do.”
    “Personal stuff?” she asked.
    “Heaps. Super personal. Health issues, sexual conquests and failures, lies told to significant others, fantasies.”
    Marienne was silent.
    “And,” he said. “Lots of people complain about their parents.” He paused to gauge her reaction. She seemed more relaxed. “What sort of issues do you have with your mum?”
    Daniel knew that women often had a hard time getting along with their mothers, but he didn’t really understand. His own mother had been great, at least with him. Surely she’d have been a wonderful mother to a daughter as well, if she’d had one.
    “Well,” she said. “My mother is very controlling and she’s…. emotionally abusive.”
    Daniel snapped to attention. The idea of someone hurting Marienne made his nostrils flare. He rubbed the side of his face. “Abusive?”
    “My mother’s one of those people who shouldn’t have had more than one kid.” She looked down. “My older sister, Susanna, has always been the ‘golden child’. She could do no wrong in my mother’s eyes, whereas me? Everything I did was wrong.”
    Daniel gripped the Coke can so tightly it buckled. He forced himself to take a sip in an attempt to calm down.
    “My mother thinks everyone should be, or should at least want to be, like her. She hated that I was more like my dad. That’s how I rationalize it at least.” Marienne shrugged.
    “Susanna is more like your mum?” Daniel wondered how any mother could not like her own child. The concept was mindboggling.
    “Two peas in a pod. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they fight sometimes, but Susanna has always known how to stand up to our mother, and they always come to some sort of an understanding.” Marienne gave a rueful smile, then took a deep breath and let it out. “I used to try so hard to make a relationship with my mother work. I spent my whole life doing it, up until about a year ago, when my father died.”
    Marienne’s voice got very quiet. Daniel’s throat tightened. Her sadness pained him, but he wanted to hear her story.
    “You were close with your dad?” Daniel started, unsure that was the right path to take, and trying desperately to keep too much emotion from spilling into his voice.
    Marienne sighed. “Very. Especially when I was younger. I was a Daddy’s Girl. I mean, he loved me and Susanna equally, but he and I had the same sense of humor, the same quirky habits. My mother and Susanna were jealous, I guess. At the time I thought they hated me.”
    The last crew members were heading out, and Daniel raised a hand to wave goodnight. The door banged shut, leaving him and Marienne alone in the empty theater.
    He noticed she still hadn’t touched her Coke so he opened it and handed it to her. “I’m sure they didn’t hate you,” he said.
    “Don’t be. Susanna was so mean to me. She was constantly putting me down and my mother would jump in and justify whatever Susanna said. The few times my Dad punished Susanna