Olive, Again

Fergus and Ethel MacPherson have been married for forty-two years. Because of an affair Fergus had early in their marriage, they have spent the past thirty-five years living together without speaking directly to each other. Their house is divided into their separate spaces by lines of tape. They even have two televisions in their living room.

Fergus is getting ready for the Civil War reenactment which he and other men do every year. The reenactments have changed—they don’t have Confederate soldiers anymore, and as of this year, will no longer be staying overnight in tents in the park because it is too dangerous. Fergus reflects that it may be the last year of Civil War Days. Fergus wears a kilt sometimes during the summer. He enjoys it when people stop him to talk about their Scottish ancestry. People used to make fun of him, but they seem to have become more tolerant over the years.

Fergus and Ethel’s daughter, Lisa, comes from New York to tell them that there is a documentary being made about her. She has stopped on the way home to tell her sister, Laurie, as well. She tells them that she is a dominatrix, and that the documentary is to educate people. The next day, Lisa and her mother are talking in the kitchen. Fergus sits on Ethel’s side of the living room so that he can eavesdrop, but they are talking about dish towels. Fergus goes to Civil War Days, but there are less people participating this year, and the park seems sadder. He sees a woman with whom he had an affair at a previous event. Fergus leaves his tent in the park and drives home.

When he arrives, he sees that his other daughter, Laurie, and her son Teddy have come. Teddy is waiting in the car. Laurie, Lisa, and Ethel are inside arguing. Laurie is upset by Lisa’s profession. Lisa continues to try to help Fergus and Ethel understand, but the more she talks, the more upset Fergus gets. She calls him ignorant.

Driving back to the park, Fergus sees a friend, Anita, by the side of the road, her car broken down. He calls her a tow truck and they wait together. Fergus says the world is getting crazier, and Anita says that maybe it has always been so. When the tow truck shows up, Fergus gives her cash to pay. He returns home and sees that Laurie is back, this time without her son. Inside, Laurie, Lisa, and Ethel are watching the documentary on his television. Laurie and Lisa have talked, and Laurie is beginning to come around.

Fergus passes out. When he wakes up, the three women are taking him to the hospital. When Fergus wakes up in the hospital, Ethel is stroking his arm.

Olive wakes up in the hospital. They tell her that she had a heart attack and died. She goes to sleep, and when she wakes up again, her son, Christopher, is there. He tells her that the staff told him she had been swearing. He had thought it meant she was crazy, and that she would rather be dead than crazy. She says that she was someplace “gorgeous;” they brought her back and she was mad. She finds it interesting that she was dead, and tells the doctor that she is not sure they should have brought her back to life. Olive remains in the ICU and catches pneumonia. She realizes that she probably won’t die, but her life will change. Christopher visits often.

Olive is moved to a regular hospital room. Her cardiologist, who she has fallen in love with, tells her she can go home. Christopher arranges home health care, which she pretends to not want; she is actually scared to be alone. The home care nurse, Betty, has a Trump bumper sticker. Olive is horrified and dislikes her even though, as it turns out, Betty was her student years ago. One day, when the next shift nurse comes, it is a woman named Halima. Betty is rude to her. Olive and Halima talk about Halima’s mother, who was in a camp in Kenya, though Halima was born in Nashville. The next day, Olive tells Betty to be nice to Halima.

Betty drives Olive to the cardiologist. Olive tells him she feels badly and cries. He tells her depression is common after a heart attack. Both the doctor and Betty tell her that she is doing well. For her next doctor’s appointment, Olive drives herself. The doctor tells her that she must be a good mother, because her son has visited and called so much.

Olive can live alone again now, but she does not feel safe at home. One day, she falls and can’t get up. She is outside, in the rain, and no one will be looking for her. She manages to get up and go inside. She becomes terrified, and lonely. One day, Halima visits her. Soon after, Olive decides to move to assisted living. She visits her friend Edith at the assisted living apartments and sees them differently now that she will be living there.

One day, Betty visits Olive. Betty is upset that the school principal, who they both know, had died. Betty was in love with him when she was in school and for years after. Olive and Betty talk about her life. Olive realizes that Betty needs her love for the principal.

Olive is now living at the assisted living apartments. She takes a trip to the grocery store in the facility’s van because Edith has told her she needs to be more gregarious. A woman tries to be friendly, but Olive rejects her. On the way home, Olive sits alone while everyone else seems to have friends. She feels as if her world has shrunk. Her apartment gets no direct sunlight. She tries to make friends again, but is snubbed. She worries about the state of the country and Christopher and his children. Finally Olive finds a couple to eat dinner with, Democrats, who she finds dull.

One day, she meets Isabelle Daignault, and invites her to eat with her and the couple. Olive decides to write her memories down, and asks Christopher to bring her a typewriter and a rosebush for her yard. He comes the next day with the typewriter and plants two rosebushes. Olive writes her memories daily. She remembers things that she does not want to about her childhood, and does not type them up. She remembers her mother’s behavior before they found her brain tumor.

She visits Isabelle one night after dinner and hears her history. Isabel’s father died when she was young, and his best friend impregnated and then abandoned Isabel. She and her baby lived with her mother. When her mother died, Isabel and her baby moved from New Hampshire to Shirley Falls. Olive discovers that Isabel is very honest. Isabel tells her that when her daughter was sixteen, she had sex with her math teacher. When Isabel found out, she cut off her daughter’s hair, an act that she still doesn’t understand. Isabel and Olive bond over not being very good mothers.

Olive loses control of her bowels. She drives to the Walmart outside of town and buys adult diapers so that no one will know. At Isabel’s apartment, later, she discovers that Isabel wears them too. Olive says she will buy Isabel’s diapers as well, so that she won’t be embarrassed. That night, Olive returns to her apartment and doesn’t delve into her memories. She finds herself “not unhappy.”

One day, she sees Suzanne Larkin. Suzanne tells her that her mother Louise has died. Isabel and Olive’s friendship develops, and they talk about separating from their children. One day Isabel falls, and she worries that she will be moved from independent to assisted living. After that, she and Olive check on each other every morning and evening. One day, Olive overhears Isabel talking to herself and worries that she might be losing her mind. Isabel confides that sometimes she has conversations with her mother, and uses her mother’s voice to comfort her. After Isabel leaves, Olive tries to talk to her own mother. It doesn’t work, and she is upset.

Olive goes to the memorial for a woman who had died, with no warning, after having a stroke. She tells the woman’s husband that the woman had tried to be nice to Olive one day on the bus, and Olive had rejected her. The husband is very kind to her, and she feels sad. She also realizes, for the first time, that she is going to die, that her life is almost over. She looks at her rosebushes, already blooming. She reflects that she still does not know herself, or understand life. Then she goes to fetch Isabel for supper.