Ordinary People Notes | Chapter 17

Conrad's birthday. Con and Cal clean the garage; Con complains good-naturedly about having to do this on his birthday. Cal heard Con playing the guitar last night. They remember a time when Co and Buck were working on the rec room and ended up writing dirty words all over the wall--Conrad says the words are still there, and they go to the basement to see. Cal remembers another time, when Con and Buck were building a sand sculpture that from far away looked maybe like a car, but from close up was a naked woman.

At lunch, Cal asks Con if he would mind if he went in and talked to Berger; not about Con, but about himself. Con says he doesn't mind if he goes, but doesn't think he's messed up. Cal thinks about this: does he need to go? Beth and Con have been very cool and polite to each other recently; she will open up to Cal only after they make love, when she tells him she needs him to love her.

Cal remembers a time when Jordan had broken his arm playing football with Con and some other boys when he was thirteen. Cal had reprimanded him for playing tackle football when there was no equipment, and Con had said they wouldn't do it again, but "Buck had never worried about anything." Chapter 17, pg. 144

Sitting in Berger's office, Cal feels uncomfortable. Berger tries to be light-hearted, but his eyes make Cal very nervous. He reveals that he thought Con's problems would work themselves out; Berger asks if he's feeling guilty about missing the signals, which is right-on. He thought that he was lucky, until the accident; now, he says, "Hell, all life is accident, every bit of it--who you fall in love with, what grabs you, and what you do with it." Chapter 17, pp. 146-7 He feels like Con and Beth are drifting apart, and that he's a bad father. Cal finally tells Berger that he'd like to talk about himself.