Who's Irish?

“Just Wait” opens at Addie and her husband Rex’s baby shower, where she has just been gifted a video camera by her three brothers: Billy, Mark, and Ned. Addie pans the camera over the shower, and the narrator describes those in attendance (as well as those who are absent—Ned, whom we learn has spent time in a psychiatric hospital, and her stepfather, Reynolds) and the gifts that they have brought. Addie’s mother, Regina, is a grim presence; she is described as “ambivalent at best about pitching in American-style at events like these. She took offense at the idea that anyone would expect her to help like a servant” (96). She is set in opposition to Rex’s mother, who is delighted to be cleaning up wrapping paper and taking notes of the gifts for thank you cards.

When Regina, or “Madame Lee'' as Rex calls her, presents her gift of a stuffed sailfish, she also proclaims that Addie’s stepfather is leaving her and she has nowhere to go. Addie tries to comfort her mother while everyone at the baby shower decides that Regina can move in with Addie and Rex.

Addie and Rex concede that Regina should move in with them and begin discussing renovations to their small condo to ensure that Addie can still have an office space for her garden design work.