It is said you don’t just marry the per-

son; you get everybody back to Adam

and Eve. And that’s not bypassing

Cain. The only time his mother enters

 

the conversation is when she can

turn it into a fight which was al-

ways her forte in life. She lurks,

up and out of the casket next to

 

his father in a little cemetery

along a railroad track in Lans-

ing, Illinois. He imagines that

his father, from the grave, app-

 

reciates his wife’s absences in

death as he did in life. They

were like little reprieves from

purgatory. His mother, on the

 

other hand, on a mission from

hell, plays with her son’s mind

when he hears what he imagines

to be an unwarranted, fabricated

 

criticism, actually an attack, made

by his wife at the urging of her

dead dad who whispers in her

ear, “See, he’s exactly like I was;

 

in fact, he is Your Father,” which

translates for her as “Tyrant.” The

man’s mother says, “See, I always

knew you couldn’t measure up.

 

She’s right. In fact, she’s me.”

So his mother and her father go

at it tooth and nail, metaphorically

speaking, through the minds and

 

mouths of their children, over

and over again thus confirming

the definition of insanity known

to all readers of the Big Book.