It dawned on her that others could make her happier, but only she could make herself happy.

There isn’t much that can be said about Edith, that hasn’t been said already. Throughout the annals of history, Edith whether she knew it or not or in fact approved of it or not, had been the one person who everyone who knew her thought was bonkers.

She had her entire universe upside down. She thought North was South, left was right and anything one said she always took the opposite position, whether it warranted an opposite position or not was superfluous.

“Why, but why?” her mother, Robin, would ask her, and before she could continue, Edith would interrupt with a, “why not?” This was done to throw the other person off their train of thought because now Edith’s mother would have to counter her reply of why not, instead of finishing her original sentence.

Robin’s husband John, tried to explain to his wife, “why don’t you put on some noise cancelling headphones when you’re talking to Edith? In this way you won’t hear what she has to say until you’ve finished your sentence. And another thing you might want to consider, is writing down what you want to say.”

Robin thought that was a marvellous idea. So, the next time she wanted to ask for an explanation from her daughter, as to why she thought it was a great idea to allow the bathtub to overflow thereby bursting through the ceiling and flooding the living room, once she had turned off the water, was to grab her husband’s headphones and then write out the question for her daughter. Then with that in hand and the headphones on she knocked on her daughter’s bedroom door and walked in.

“Mum,” began Edith, “I didn’t give you permission to walk in. I might have been getting dressed.”

Immediately Edith began, Robin turned on the headphones, took out her piece of paper and began to read from it. As soon as she started, Edith rolled over on her bed reached for the paper and took it away from her mother. She began to read it. “What’s this mummy?” she asked

Robin replied, “I can’t hear you.”
“Well, take off your silly headphones and you will.”
“What?” asked Robin and then to make matters worse, Edith bounced off her bed and pulled the headphones off her mother’s ears. “That’s better,” replied Robin, “now I can hear you.” And then she immediately regretted what she had said because the idea of the headphones was defeated.

Edith was about to tell her mother why she allowed the bath water to flow over and damage the bathroom floor and the living room ceiling, but Robin knew she was defeated and left the room to get the mop and call the handyman who she had on speed dial.

Later that night when her parents were in bed, they had a serious conversation as to what they needed to do going forward in life without Edith. They had concluded that a future which included Edith was now completely out of the question. Now that Edith had turned 21, a birthday party was thrown for her, but nobody showed up. It was time for Edith to find her way in life, wherever it took her.

So, the next morning, once they locked Edith in her chair at the dining room table, where all she could do was eat her food with one hand while the other was bolted to the chair to prevent her from throwing food against the wall while screaming with delight as the dog Butch tried to catch the toast before it landed on the floor, her father addressed her. “Edith,” he began between bites of hard boiled eggs and toast with tons of butter and marmite. “Edith, we, your mother and I, have decided it’s time for you to make it on your own in life.” As soon as he finished his sentence, Edith began to sob uncontrollably but couldn’t rub her eyes and eat her eggs at the same time, so needless to say her entire face was covered with egg yolk, butter and spots of strawberry jam. Her parents immediately felt guilty.

Robin was determined not to allow what she felt was Edith’s ability to control the conversation, to derail what her husband was going to say. “Now Edith,” she began rather sternly looking around for the headphones but noting that they were covered with something unmentionable and so instead put her hands over her ears and continued. “When you are living on your own, you will be so much happier than when your living here don’t you think?”
Just at that moment Edith stopped crying, the dog went back into her corner quite full and Edith’s parents held hands and their breath, not knowing what their daughter was going to say next. “You’re right mummy and daddy,” she began which immediately caused her parents to panic because she had never begun a sentence ever in that manner. Edith then smiled the biggest smile she has smiled since she was 1 year old, and then it dawned on Edith why she was smiling. Her parents were still holding hands and panicking, while Butch was cowering in her corner not able to understand the change in Edith’s personality. She suddenly realised that others could make her happier, but only she could make herself happy. So why would she want to be happier, when being happy was all she ever wanted to be in life?

“Mom, dad,” she said, “thank you, thank you, thank you. You have given me the greatest gift in the world. Why would I want to be around people who could make me happier than I am, when all I ever wanted to be is happy? So, I will move out tomorrow morning, get a place at the local Motel 6, pull the curtains together to shut out the world and lay on my bed watching TV until the cows come home and I’ll will be happy. Now, please do me a favour, unlock the chair so I can go to my room and pack.”
By this time Edith’s parents were shaking. The panic was gone, but they were shaking with fear not knowing what would come next and Butch had peed in her corner. But Edith, well Edith jumped out of her chair as soon as she was set free and went into her room to pack. Once she had left the dining room and Robin had cleaned up Butch’s pee, her husband looked at her and smiled, “see, I told you the headphones would work!”