An Eye For An Eye. Arthur Klepfisz
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– they are very rare.’
The day ended with Karen’s client being cleared of the assault charge due to the evidence presented by Dr Wright describing the taunting and provocation his patient had endured before the attack. The court referred him to the care of his psychiatrist, with the magistrate's advice that he avoid going to pubs in the future.
Karen knew that she would like to see more of this young psychiatrist, but wasn't sure how to go about it. She had friends who were seeking the perfect man to marry, which she felt could only be a fruitless exercise; she didn't believe there was only one partner for each person, but rather there were probably many potentially suitable partners, provided each of them brought goodwill and a willingness to compromise into the partnership, and she felt Andrew was definitely suitable. She quickly converted this thought into a fervent hope that he would prove suitable.
As they left the court, she quietly asked Andrew if she could see him again. His mind raced as he answered, ‘Yes’, not yet able to fully interpret the rush of emotions and thoughts that invaded his body.
Walking back towards her office, Karen noticed a svelte young woman on the far side of the busy street, her arms flung around the neck of her beau. The woman perched on her toes as if in some personal and intimate ballet, her body straining upwards and her blonde shoulder length hair caressing her lover’s face. Karen smiled, hoping that it proved to be a mirror image of the happiness that would follow in her own life.
Just ten months later she and Andrew were married – Karen believed that she had found a lifelong partner. She continued working with her father until Jed was born in 1973. At the time, she felt no regrets at all about stopping work, as motherhood was time-consuming and fulfilling; the regrets came later when the boys began to separate from their mother, as part of becoming more independent, and she had the time to reflect on her life, and wondered if she should have continued with her career.
Every fortnight, Karen, Andrew and their children would set off to visit Karen's parents. Over the years it had become far more an obligation than a pleasure, so they had discussed the possibility of winding back the visits, to say, once a month, but they got no further than discussing the possibility.
Andrew enjoyed talking to Karen's father Tony. He was a warm man who enjoyed laughter. In stark contrast, Karen’s mother, Violet, appeared to regard laughter as undignified and only suitable for the lower classes. She was inextricably trapped in the straightjacket of how she perceived her social standing – a prisoner with no wish to escape. Andrew felt her name Violet was incongruous, as she appeared to him to be completely and wilfully colourless. Tony and Violet had probably never been compatible and Tony maintained a totally separate life, socialising with his own circle of friends leaving Violet to pursue her own lack of interests.
Karen herself confided in Andrew that Violet seemed to live life by the sayings of a desk calendar, and added that Violet’s most original thoughts were the ones she had read the day before, when turning to the date on her calendar; Karen then felt uncomfortable at how harsh this sounded. Over the years, Andrew had been able to silently observe Violet and had noted that Violet was not only prone to clichés but had used them to underpin her rules for life, even when it was clear that she didn’t fully understand the sayings.
She certainly showed little or no interest in other people's thoughts or feelings – the moment another speaker drew breath to continue their story, Violet would jump in and kidnap the proceedings for herself. Whatever issue the other person was discussing, Violet would trump it and bring the discussion back to her own account, where she would describe the most boring and trivial incidents in minute detail, squeezing every last millilitre of air from her lungs until her voice died and she was forced to draw another breath. Andrew raised his eyes and gave silent praise to the God he didn't believe in that Karen was more like her father.
Karen was the youngest of Tony and Violet’s four children; her two brothers and one sister all seemed so different to her in both nature and appearance that she had long wondered if they really had the same parents. Even after so many years, she had to admit that she still harboured some lingering doubts.
Karen’s eldest brother Ralph was six years older than her and had worked as a postman, but was now retired on medical grounds.
He suffered from a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, which presented in his work as a difficulty in letting go of the mail when trying to deliver it to the various households. He was too ashamed to discuss it with Karen, but his wife Connie had confided that by the end of Ralph's working life his postal round was taking three hours longer than the required time, because he would insert a letter into the letterbox and feeling unable to let go of it, he would withdraw the letter and then repeat the process over and over again. This made his round painfully slow and distressed him greatly.
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