The Bishop - Chapter Fourteen: Judy Jumblejump Goes to War
Chapter Fourteen: Judy Jumblejump Goes to War
In normal circumstance, if Judy knocked at his door and stared him down, he would have given in immediately, but this time he met her silence with of his own. Maddie had coached because she knew such a moment would surely come. Reg and Maddie had done a little role-play, with him taking the part of Judy and she taking on his part. He demonstrated to her how Judy would first go silent, then act all vulnerable and hurt, and when that didn’t work fly into a fit of rage. That was her pattern of persuasion, or rather, manipulation. Yet, Maddie had an idea to counter it. She had watched how Bishop Perkins had handled Judy, and although that would not have been her own approach, for Maddie was a fighter, she thought that the “Perkins approach”might just work for a gentle soul like Reg Canon. She had therefore advised Reg to meet Judy’s death stare with an innocent quizzical gaze in return. She told him, to meet her silence with his own, and under no circumstances was he to speak first, or the game would be lost. Maddie knew this would require a herculean act of self-confidence on Reg’s part, but she built him up and told him he could do it, and if he could, it would surprise Judy that her that her tactic was not working and it would knock her off her footing.
Did it work? Well, surprisingly, Reg was having some success. Maddie’s encouragement had emboldened the nervous man to give it a shot. So, when Judy stood at his door with her gaze of fear, Reg was prepared to withstand it. To his surprise, the more he withstood it, the more he gazed back at this belligerent bull whose face was crunched and wrinkled with such disgust and disdain, the more confident - even compassionate - he felt. Don’t meet anger with anger. That’s not what Mr. Perkins would do, Maddie had coached him, but rather look at her with interest, with empathy, with sympathy. For the first few minutes, the compassion was feigned, but then he began to truly feel sorry for her and how awful her heart must feel to live with such anger all the time. He felt pity for her, but for the first time ever, he felt strong in front of her. Where once he would have averted his eyes to avoid her hate-filled visage, now he studied the contours of her pain-chiseled face and imagined the hurt that lay behind every line and ugly wrinkle.
How much time went by? Who can say? However, Judy was indeed the one to break first: “How could you, Reg?” Judy was a skilled manipulator and had picked up on his sympathetic vibe. “How could you?” She continued in a plaintiff tone, filled with sorrow, and then raised her voice slightly, “How could you?”, and then she dropped her volume one for one final, sad, “How could you?”
“She knows you are a kind man, Reg”, Maddie had told him, “and if she can’t break you with that stare, she will get you to feel sorry for her.” Maddie was right. This was her tactic and knowing that this was exactly what Judy was doing now, gave Reg a further confidence to withstand the appeal to his kind old heart. His gentle spirit was his most admirable trait, but it was also his Achilles’ heel. Although Judy tried strenuously to leverage his weakness, today was not the day that Reg would fall.
“Reg,” she continued to plead, “I thought we were a team…this parish needs us…as a team…neither of us can do this alone…we need each other…” her pleading became stronger, more emphatic.
“Give her a fact,” Maddie had told him, knowing that she would attempt to pull on his heart strings with her well-worn “we’re a team” trope.
“Yes,” he said, again feeling surprised by his new-found self-confidence, “We were a team, but now we will have a new team…we have a new priest, and we need a new team. The parish has changed and we must change with it.”
She just stared at him again, this time coldly, incredulously. How had she failed in this second line of attack? How had he dared to stand up to her in this way? Who did he think he was?
The next volley would be the worst, and it was time for her to pull out her wagging finger and turn up the volume. Maddie knew that if it came to this, Reg would be at his most vulnerable, for he was conflict averse and hated shouting. He would do anything to avoid it. If he had made it this far, he would be in danger of caving in and giving in to just to avoid the display of wrath. Then, Judy would have her victory. Maddie had told him, “Just think of Mr. Perkins, when she starts yelling and pointing. Think of Mr. Perkins and how he handled that, and hold on tight to that image…don’t let go!”
Now, Bishop Perkins, or Mr Perkins, as he was back then had a tried, tested and true strategy with Judy when it came to this, and Reg had seen him do it a hundred times, but never thought he could do it himself. Mr. Perkins would just let her rage and rant and point and wave until she ran out steam, no matter how long it took. He would utter not a word, and sooner or later, she could no longer keep up the momentum and then she would just slink away. To be fair, Mr Perkins became expert in this strategy with twenty years of practice. He had his Judy Jumblejump wounds to show, but he eventually mastered this subtle art and that is how he managed her. Could Reg emulate his former rector with so little practice or experience? He was given the opportunity presently. And how did it go?
When Reg told Judy that they were no longer a team, after that momentary stare, she exploded into a storm that blew for a full twenty minutes. True to form, she ranted, she raved, she wagged, she pointed, she yelled, she stomped, and yes, she threatened. More than once she thrust her finger into his chest and spewed pure vitriol. It was like the forces of darkness had been unleashed. “Think of Mr. Perkins,” he kept telling himself through it all. Surprisingly, his fear gave way to a certain astonishment, even amusement as to what was unfolding before him. He did not feel like running away or acquiescing. After some time, though, after she began poking him in the chest repeatedly, he started to feel a certain, unfamiliar feeling well up within him. It was rage. Perhaps it was all the years of Judy’s bullying and abuse landing in one moment. His blood began to boil, and for a moment, he actually thought he might be capable of pushing her down the steps. “Think of Mr. Perkins,” he heard Maddie’s voice in his head, “Do you think he never got angry? Do you think he never wanted to yell back? Of course, he did, but she will fizzle out. It’s happened a hundred times before and it will happen again.” So, he fixed his mind again on kindly Mr Perkins and imagined him standing there deflecting her rage with gentleness and kindness and not letting it penetrate his soul, and he found the strength to stand silently in the midst of the present attack, even as she stabbed away at his fragile spirit. “She will try to get you to lash out, Reg,” Maddie had said, “If you do that, she wins. You can do this Reg. I can’t, I don’t have it in me, I would drop her in a second, but you do, you’re like Mr. Perkins.” And so he was, and so he did, for as he was thinking this very thought, she stopped, took a deep breath, exhausted, and took a step back down off the stoop. Maddie had been right. After twenty minutes, Judy had worn herself out.
“Come and see me when it’s all over,” Maddie had told him, “Come and see me, and rant and rave and yell and scream. I can take it. If you need to swear, come and swear at me, swear at a priest, but not her. Don’t let her win. Come and let it all out and say every mean thing in your heart to me. It’s okay, because she will not have won.”
As it turns out Reg did not need to go and swear at a priest. He felt no need. When Judy fizzled out he was overcome by an unexpected sense of peace, relief, and a certain sense of accomplishment. All of Judy’s energy had gone, and as she took one more step back she looked up at him one final time and said in a whisper, “Reg?”
“I’ll see you in church, Judy,” he replied with a smile and closed the door gently.
..."the Bishop" will return tomorrow.
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