Act 3, Scene 1: “Real Estate Envy”

TRL and S go off to the big city with the boys to see the INLAWS. The INLAWS get capitals because they have the gravity of real people. They have had real important jobs, they have owned real fancy homes, and they now live in a real fancy apartment. They are real in the way that TRL and S feel like they are unreal: struggling along in their careers, unsure of where they want to live and taking the child rearing thing day by day (the fact that they have children is sur-real). C&E practically squeal when they see Mother-in-Law, and in fact E charges off towards her and promptly falls onto his hands and stomach on the sidewalk. Lesson number one: beware of smiling women; they can cause pain. But Granny does not cause pain. Granny brings books and smiles.

So TRL and S deposit C&E with the INLAWS and go off to meet J, a high-school buddy of S’s, and his live-in girlfriend. TRL is along for the sentimental ride, knowing he will hear recycled stories that may or may not have been interesting the first or second or third time around, so he votes heartily for the Mexican restaurant: margaritas.

It’s a night out with free people, for TRL and S are in parent prison. Additionally, S’s friend and girlfriend have the freedom granted to the got-in-early-on-the-real-estate boom set. It drives TRL nuts. Because he rarely gets anywhere early, and definitely not real estate. At the end of the night S’s friend and his girlfriend are on their way out for more drinks and TRL and S head back to the INLAWS’ to change little bodies into shark and truck pajamas and cross fingers that they’ll sleep on the car ride home to their snug little house in the suburbs, spring with its chirping birds too early in the morning, hatching mosquitoes, growing blades of grass screaming for the lawnmower, and days of warmth and sun descending. Not an unpleasant way to spend the Sunday.