Chapter: Chapter 15: Cracks and Breaks
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TRANSCRIPT
Panel 1-2 (Alex looks up the stairs in trepidation, then struggles up them)
Alex: Shit.
Panel 3 (Imogen leans in from off-panel)
Imogen: Try going backwards on your bum!
Alex: I know how to get up stairs!
Panel 4 (Imogen watches from the foyer as Alex gingerly makes her way upstairs by scooting backwards)
Panel 5 (Imogen settles Alex in bed)
Imogen: There! Everything you need. Just text me if you need me. I have alarms for your pills and appointments, so don’t even worry about it.
Alex: This is too much- you have school, and your kids…
Panel 6-7 (Imogen looks down at Alex)
Imogen: You’ve done so much for me! Just let me help you. It’ll only be for a few weeks.
geez poor Alex needs to chill. Imogen’s not going to leave if you can’t do All The Things for a month or so!
To be fair, Alex should have her own alarms for her pills.
On a different note, I like to imagine the sequence of events after the third panel: Alex turns her head around making an angry face. Turns her body around and thumps her but down self-assuredly. Avoids eye contact as she scoots up the stairs and Imogen watches with an amused but caring smile.
I feel so bad for everyone Alex is going to be an asshole to while she’s dealing with both physical pain, and her emotional reaction to having to depend on people.
Honestly, Alex, you could just sleep on the couch for a couple weeks, you’ve probably got a very nice couch, and it’d keep you on the first floor. Buuuuut that does necessitate giving up most of your privacy, so. Upstairs it is.
Imogen is ideally equipped to handle Alex’s grumpy, snappish behavior, being Super Mom. I just worry to what extent Alex will displace her resentment of care itself onto the carer. But maybe this is the first domino to fall in the chain of events that’ll lead both of them to dealing with their issues: Alex with her hyper-independence and fear of commitment, and Imogen’s tendency to over-care for others while undervaluing herself.
If she tosses and turns, it’s also a big risk she may roll off the couch in her sleep and make things worse.
Oh, yeesh. Poor Alex.
I remember going up and down stairs on my butt when I had a broken ankle. I lived in a second-floor walk-up apartment at the time, and I was already recovering from a torn ACL and meniscus in the opposite knee, so crutches weren’t even an option for anything. Good times. (Not.)