Nan, it's really good to have you back here. The new part was alternatively cosy and feel-good - Lois and Jimmy's conversation - and incredibly creepy - the ending.
(But please give Jimmy a raise. Those in charge of the power supply cut Jimmy's power so that everything in his fridge turned bad - that's horrible! Hey, you need to
eat, and being able to do that is the least anyone can ask for!)
It was really, really interesting to hear that conversation between Perry and Alice's niece. (Thanks for listening in for us, Lois!) This part, of course, was especially interesting:
"Mary," Perry said, "your dad was a bully and a freeloader. Nobody was happier than Alice and I were when your mom threw him out, but you aren't your dad. No one in the family ever thought you were. You're hard-working and honest."
"But my marriage came apart, just like Mom's," Mary said. "I tried to hold it together -- I really did. But I couldn't stay any longer."
"That's because Robert was a jerk," Perry said with unaccustomed venom. "No woman deserves to be beaten, no matter how angry a man is. You were smart to leave him. Now, are you going to take the job, or not?"
Please note how Mary seems to apologize for failing to make her marriage work. She seems to feel that it's
her fault that it came apart, even though it was
her husband who made their togetherness impossible. Just yesterday, my friend and I talked about abused wives who stay in their relationships, so that the abuse can go on. Clearly these women feel, just like Mary, that a woman's first (social) duty is to salvage her marriage. Personally, I would even speculate that some women find it harder to leave when their marriage is horrible, when they are being beaten, than when their problems are less severe. I think most women would be terribly, terribly ashamed to admit that they had been abused. Therefore, rather than owning up to the fact that they couldn't stay because their husband was beating them, they stay and get beaten up more, just so they can try to pretend that everything is all right.
(Of course there is more to these mechanisms. First, many women fear - rightly - that if they leave their husband may look them up later and beat them into a pulp for leaving, and society won't be able to help them. Also, I think it's true that most of us would rather pretend that this kind of wife battery simply doesn't happen, and we often frown slightly on those women who walk out on their husbands, so the battered women aren't too wrong in their assumption that society would rather protect the marriages than the wives.)
Anyway, Nan, you sure made me wonder about this "Robert". Could he be the serial rapist? You have already told us that the rapist's wife finally left him because he was beating her up, and Mary just told us that she left Robert because he was violent. What if the rapist is Perry's ex-in-law? Though I can't help thinking that if Alice's niece had been as terribly abused as the rapist's wife was, then Perry (and Alice) would have done more already to save Mary and put a stop to her husband's activities.
Anyway, Nan, another thing I much appreciate about your portrayal of Mary is how you show us how nervous and uncertain she seems to be. For example, when we first see her, she is shredding a copy of the Daily Planet, probably out of sheer nervousness. This is typical of victims of abuse. Their abusers break them down mentally, making them feel that they are not worth anything. Their awful lack of faith in themselves obviously makes it even harder for them to leave and believe that they can make it on their own.
Finally, though, I'm a bit disappointed in Norma. She is a cop, after all. She knows that there is a serial rapist around, and that an unknown person may already have broken into her home. Now Henderson informs her that the Black Knight saw a man spying on her last night. Instead of telling Henderson about the break-in in her house, she keeps that piece of information to herself. And instead of keeping her eyes open and look out for attackers, she speculates about the private lives of the superheroes of Metropolis. I wish she could have been a little smarter. However, you know: many people have a sort of knee-jerk reaction when they hear about women who were raped or beaten up or killed after being insufficiently careful. People tend to say, automatically, "How could she be so stupid! It's her own fault for being so stupid!"
I hope, and trust, that you'll show us that whatever happens to Norma here - and please, please don't let it be too bad - it was
not her fault. It was the attacker's fault, because he was the one who attacked her.
I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this, and I hope RL will leave you with enough down time to make it possible for you to write the next chapter in the moderately near future.
Ann
