Three Wishes

Thirty-four years earlier, the girls’ mother, Maxine, is having sex with her boyfriend, Frank Kettle, in the back seat of his car. Shortly after her 19th birthday, Maxine realizes she is pregnant and that she and Frank must wed. The narrator says, “In their wedding photos, they both have the blank-eyed, sedated look of recent trauma victims. Seven months later, their triplet daughters came kicking and howling into the world” (10). The girls are named Gemma, Cat, and Lyn. Cat and Lyn are identical blonds, while red-haired Gemma doesn’t look like the other two.

The story shifts forward to the present as Cat is having dinner with her husband, Dan. He casually confesses to a one-night stand with a woman he met in a bar. Cat is furious and kicks him out. She debates whether to tell her sisters what happened. Cat thinks to herself, “They would inundate her with advice. They would argue passionately with each other over what she should and shouldn’t do. They would care too much and that would make it real” (21-22). When the three sisters meet later at a restaurant, Cat hesitantly says that she has something to tell them.

The chapter concludes with an observer’s anecdote from a nurse’s aide shortly after the triplets were delivered. Their mother was having trouble producing breast milk. With the babies all screaming for food, the mother started crying, too. The nurse’s aide says, “And I remember thinking, But my goodness, who wouldn’t cry?” (27-28).

The story shifts to Lyn’s life in the present. She is the mother of toddler, Maddie, and 14-year-old stepdaughter, Kara. Lyn has taken over the job of raising Kara from her birth mother, Georgina. Because Kara’s father left Georgina for Lyn, the latter feels vaguely guilty and tolerates snide remarks from both the ex-wife and stepdaughter. Lyn is the successful owner of a gourmet brunch service called Gourmet Brekkie Bus. She is hyper-organized and constantly busy with her work-from-home business. Two days out of the week, Maxine babysits Maddie. Lyn is irritated by her mother’s no-nonsense manner. Maxine has made a career out of being the mother of triplets and heads an organization devoted to multiple birth mothers. Lyn secretly doubts that her mother has the vaguest clue about how to successfully raise triplets despite the copious advice she dispenses.

While Cat and Lyn are successful businesswomen, their sister Gemma floats through life. Maxine passes her third child off as a teacher because she doesn’t want to acknowledge that Gemma is a professional house sitter who has no home of her own. While Lyn is ruminating on her mother’s shortcomings, she gets a call from Gemma, announcing that Cat has begun stalking Dan’s lover. The two sisters decide to intervene.

The story now shifts to Gemma’s life. She is currently house-sitting for a couple of retired doctors who are touring Europe for a year. Because Gemma is vague and disorganized, she’s managed to lock herself out of the house. She calls a locksmith named Charlie to let her in. The two become attracted to one another and start a romance. Gemma is always starting romances but rarely finishes them. She doesn’t like the idea of commitment and isn’t exactly sure what she wants out of life. Gemma’s thoughts drifts back to the previous Friday when she and Lyn went to find Cat parked in front of the house of Dan’s lover, Angela. The two sisters pull up behind Cat and try to reason with her. Instead, their impulsive sister climbs out of the car and engages Angela in a conversation. Cat pretends to ask for directions to get a closer look at her competition. She’s annoyed to discover that Angela is a nice person.

Gemma admires Cat’s decisiveness and believes she could benefit from some of that same quality when applied to her own tentative romances. Gemma thinks wistfully to herself:

Cat knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted Dan and she wanted a baby. She also wanted a Ferrari, a house by the beach, Lyn’s Italian leather jacket, and for some man at Hollingdale Chocolates to get run over by a bus. And that was it. No doubts. No confusion” (60).

The chapter ends with an observer’s anecdote from two young women in the 1960s who are on their way to the hairdresser’s. They see Maxine trying to manage the triplets. At first, the observers think the scene is cute until one of the girls bites her sibling, and all three run away screaming in different directions. The two observers immediately go to a nearby Family Planning clinic for birth control pills.

Dan and Cat have begun attending marriage counseling with a therapist named Annie, who is so chirpy and cheerful that Cat wants to punch her. That evening, Cat and Dan take a cab to attend Dan’s office Christmas party. During the ride, Cat starts on a new tirade about Angela. Dan completely loses patience and tells Cat that she’s become boring. Cat storms out of the cab, buys a bottle of champagne, and sits in the Botanical Gardens to drink and calm down, leaving Dan to attend the party alone.

Cat contemplates the homework assignment Annie has given the couple for their next session. They are supposed to describe an episode from their childhoods about how their parents dealt with conflict. Cat remembers what she calls Kettle Cracker Night 1976. While carelessly lighting a fireworks display, her father manages to blow off his ring finger while her mother berates him for stupidity. Their marriage ends shortly afterward. Cat thinks grimly, “Now that should keep Annie satisfied. And how pleasingly symbolic! It was their father’s ring finger that got blown off! A symbol of their parents’ explosive marriage” (73).

During the next day’s session, Annie completely forgets about the assignment. She has just discovered that Cat is a triplet and is keen to talk about the tight bond among such siblings. Dan asserts that he likes Cat’s sisters even though they are intrusive. He casually mentions that he dated Lyn before Cat. Cat is floored by the news because Lyn never told her about this relationship.