The Real Aunt Molli by Frank Brennan (2)
Molly said she understood.
'Now, Molly,' said Maxwell. 'Open your eyes...' But as he said this he suddenly gave a loud cry and fell at Aunt Molly's feet while holding on to his tie. His face had turned grey. Maxwell Marvel had a heart attack just as Aunt Molly was opening her eyes.
The first thing she saw was Maxwell Marvel lying at her feet. She turned to the nearest person in the audience and said, 'Well, don't just sit there, man! This man has obviously had a heart attack - call for a doctor and an ambulance at once. He needs immediate attention.'
The man did as he was told while Aunt Molly undid Maxwell's tie and put him in a comfortable position. She acted as if she knew exactly what to do. Help soon arrived and the unconscious Maxwell was taken away in an ambulance.
A man from the television company spoke to the audience and explained that, because of Maxwell Marvel's sudden and unfortunate accident, the show was at an end. He said he was very sorry that things had been cut short in this way.
Somebody behind us called out that it had been the best part of the show.
Grandpa went up to the man who had spoken to us. He asked him what they could do to get Aunt Molly back to normal now that Maxwell Marvel wasn't here.
'You heard Maxwell,' the man told him. 'Only his voice can undo the orders. I'm sorry - you'll have to wait until Maxwell can speak to her himself.'
'But what if...' asked Grandpa, '... what if he doesn't get better?'
'Let's all hope that he does,' the man said. 'It's a popular show. Anyway, the order he gave her wasn't so bad was it?
It's not as if he told her to start acting like a monkey or something! Don't worry - we'll get in touch.'
In the car on the way back home we talked about what had happened that evening. We had all been surprised, to say the least, at the way Aunt Molly had behaved when Maxwell Marvel had had his heart attack; she had been more in control than anybody. It was as if she had known exactly what to do.
'Nonsense,' said Aunt Molly when we put this to her. 'just a little common sense. Besides, everything about his condition showed that his attack was not a serious one. He should get better soon if he rests for a while and looks after himself
Was this Aunt Molly talking? We could hardly believe what we were hearing. She sounded like a doctor.
'How do you know that, Mum?' asked Winston.
'I heard a radio programme all about looking after your heart - it described everything about heart conditions very clearly,' she answered.
'And when, exactly, did you hear this?' asked Grandpa.
'Oh, ten years ago while I was cleaning the carpet. When Dally was alive. Bless him,' said Molly with a smile.
The week that followed Aunt Molly's return home was full of surprises for all of us. She was not the Molly we all knew. For a start, she soon discovered that she could read, after all. After years of hardly looking at even a newspaper, she began to read anything she could get her hands on. At first it was cheap magazines and love stories. Then she started on serious newspapers and Russian novels.
During the following weeks she took up painting and found that she was able to paint beautiful pictures. Soon she could paint as well as a professional. Then her beloved cooking changed. No longer did she cook simple but delicious meals. Now she tried Indian, Chinese and Italian meals which were also, it must be said, delicious.
She started to go out to all kinds of places - museums, art shows, scientific talks given by experts, political meetings - and she took the twins, too!
'You were complaining that we never went out - we're going out!' she said to them.
Nobody dared to advise her anymore.
'I'm a grown woman - I can do things for myself, thank you very much!' she would tell us.
Then she came home with Horace, the Professor of Classics at the university. He was an expert on ancient Greek and Roman history.
'Horace has asked me to spend a week in Greece with him. We're going to explore the ancient buildings,' she said.
'But Mum...' began the twins.
'No buts...' Molly said. 'I'd rather explore an ancient building than look like one. Besides, Horace is a good-looking man - with brains, too. He likes me. And I'm still an attractive woman; I could marry again. It's about time I started to live life to the full. I've stayed at home for too long.'
We were all amazed by this new Aunt Molly. She could, it seemed, do anything she put her mind to. And although we loved the old Aunt Molly, we soon liked this new person who had come into our lives.
In fact, she was now a lively, funny and thoughtful woman. She scared us a little, too, with her burning wish for improvement.
But we all found her very, very easy to like.It was twelve weeks after Maxwell Marvel hkd had his heart attack. We had heard nothing from him but we saw on the television that he had been let out of hospital.
Two days after he left hospital he was found dead in the bed of his latest twenty-year-old girlfriend. He had died of another heart attack. He was forty-nine.
A week after Maxwell Marvel's death, Grandpa received a letter from the man he had spoken to at the television studio. There was a taped message with the letter. On the tape was a recording of Maxwell giving the order for Aunt Molly to return to what she had been before. He had recorded the message just before he left hospital, just before he hurried off to meet his new lover.It has now been a week since Grandpa got the letter.
We still haven't played the tape to Aunt Molly. We can't decide what we should do.
We have discovered another person in Aunt Molly and we love her, too. She's a new Aunt Molly who has rediscovered life. Yet we also love and miss the sweet, kind lady who The truth is, we don't know which Aunt Molly is now the real one. What would happen if we played her the tape? Would a part of her die once again, as it had seemed to do when Uncle Dalton died? Would it be right for us to take this new life away from her? Then, again, perhaps nothing would happen and she would remain as she is - full of the love of life.
And which Aunt Molly has the most right to be here -the old or the new?
Who is the real Aunt Molly?
She and Horace are going off to Greece next week. That will give us all time to think things over. Then we will decide.
The old or the new?
Well, what would you do?
- THE END -
