Friday, April 19, 2013

Workin' Progress: Doctor Hannah

Hannah had not grown up wanting to be a doctor.  That was Mick; he constantly told her from her earliest years that she had to accomplish something with her life and being a doctor was a pretty good bet.  Mick had also had hopes that Hannah would have been exceptional.  Exceptional at something.  Even music.  Or sports.  Even that.  It would have made Mick's life so much easier.  He would not have had to worry and wonder.  But she wasn't.  She was average, smart but not out of the ordinary, and certainly not as good in school as Mick had been.  She did the sports that Mick put her in.  She took Spanish lessons and piano lessons as a child because Mick wanted her to.  She never showed any spectacular talent, but she worked at things because Mick made sure she did.  The summer when she was three, Mick put Hannah into a daycare preschool.  This disturbed his parents because they didn't understand his reasons; this also set a pattern for the next decade.  Mick made sure that Hannah was exposed to all the things he wasn't.  It was true that he did volunteer her grandparents to do things they would not have come up with on their own, but because they were in some ways so happy with the daughter they never had, they put up with it.  They lived in fear that Mick would take Hannah from them.  Every time they balked at something Mick was doing for Hannah, like preschool or piano or soccer or swim team, Mick wanted to throttle them.  It was disgusting to him that they could have their own sons right in front of them and not understand what Mick was doing without needing to have every fucking thing explained again and again. 

So Hannah grew up with books and music and sports and activities.  She and her father may not have been unusually close, but Mick continued to show her and teach her what he knew and guide her to a future better than he had been.  That was his mission.  He really didn't care so much about her being a doctor, but he constantly reminded her that she would have to make her own way as best she could, and if she lost focus on that goal, she could end up a very unhappy person.  Mick would never have admitted it, but he used his obligation to Hannah as his personal justification for his own life; whatever happened he wanted her to be different.

As she grew older, school was not as easy for Hannah as it had been for her father, but she learned to work hard and grew into the challenge and was trying to prove herself as a student by the time she was 10.  Mick had always told her that she had no excuse for not being the top of the class, and Hannah had learned how to succeed.  Mick was gladdened by her maturity when she started to actually work at shit. 

She was getting taller, too, though she never showed superior talent, you can't teach height, and Hannah dedicated herself to athletics.  As she grew able to push herself and work hard on her own, she depended less on Mick and spent even less time with him, which was fine with both of them.  They seemed to understand each other at least.

The scholarship to Hotchkiss was a surprise to Mick.  He had not prevented her from applying to all those prep schools, partly because that was what you did if you were serious about to a prep school as opposed to going to a certain prep school, and partly because he didn't think she would necessarily get in anywhere.  He had thought that maybe, just maybe she would follow him, but he had been convinced she would not get accepted.  Her grandparents were appalled and confused, but Hannah never wavered.  She wanted to go, and Mick was supportive.  She packed up when she was 13.  Mick took the money he'd stashed away and bought a house.

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