Bridging by Max Apple
"Bridging" by Max Apple explores the emotional landscape of a father navigating life after the loss of his wife, particularly in relation to his young daughter, Jessica. Set against the backdrop of their shared passion for baseball and the Houston Astros, the story unfolds on the first day the father leaves Jessica alone with their housekeeper, Juana. This event is significant as it marks a pivotal moment in their grieving process. The father, seeking to encourage Jessica’s social engagement, has volunteered to assist at a Girl Scout event, despite her resistance to joining.
Throughout the day, he reflects on their conversations about baseball and the impact of his wife's absence on Jessica, who grapples with separation anxiety as diagnosed by her psychiatrist. The narrative weaves in memories from the father's own childhood, providing insight into his past experiences with community and loss. As he engages with other adults during the field trip, including the Girl Scout leader, he begins to recognize the complexity of moving forward in life while still honoring their shared grief. The story culminates in an emotional reunion between father and daughter, underscoring the ongoing journey of coping with loss and the challenges of fostering independence.
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Bridging by Max Apple
First published: 1984
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: 1973
Locale: Houston, Texas
Principal Characters:
Daddy , the narratorJessica , his nine-year-old daughterKay Randall , a thirty-three-year-old Girl Scout leaderSharon , Jessica's psychiatristMrs. Clark , the narrator's den mother when he was a Cub ScoutJohn Clark , her son
The Story
Today is the first whole day that the narrator has left his daughter, Jessica, alone since his wife died from a complicated neurologic disease eight months earlier. His housekeeper, Juana, is taking care of Jessica while he attends a Girl Scout meeting. Jessica is an avid baseball fan, and she and her father have season tickets to the Houston Astros. Her conversations with her father are often about famous players, their batting averages, and their relative greatness. Tonight Jessica must watch the Astros game on television, a fact that upsets the family routine greatly.
The narrator has volunteered to assist the Girl Scout leader, Kay Randall, because he wants to encourage Jessica to reach out to others her age. So far, however, she has resisted joining the scouts. To demonstrate to her the importance of sticking to one's commitments, the narrator is leaving her home tonight as he takes twenty-two young girls on a field trip to east Texas to collect wildflowers.
During this trip his mind wanders and he recalls various events—from earlier today, from a week or so earlier, and from his own childhood. He remembers his conversations with Jessica over the past two months; he encouraged her to give scouting a try, but her response was that Kay Randall and the scouts can never replace her lost mother. He recalls, as well, his own Cub Scout experience, when he was Jessica's age. His den mother, Mrs. Clark, was so large that she could not sit in normal chairs—she had to use couches. When she walked upstairs she filled them completely. Her son, John, was stocky. Although ten-year-olds generally find such people humorous, the scouts looked on Mrs. Clark and her son with a certain respect because they carried themselves with a certain dignity. Also, they had a difficult life because Mr. Clark had been killed in the Korean War.
The narrator also thinks about his recent conversations with Jessica's psychiatrist, whom she sees twice weekly. The doctor diagnoses the girl as suffering from separation anxiety and congratulates the father for being able to express his anger. However, she hopes that both Jessica and her father will be able to trust the world again, despite their recent loss. The father recalls an interview with his daughter's school principal a few weeks earlier, when Jessica was reprimanded for listening to a baseball game in class instead of participating in the lesson.
During the scout field trip, the narrator is surprised to realize that he is actually enjoying himself. He learns from Kay Randall that she has separated from her husband because he only had time for his work; she adds that although she is lonely, her life is all right. When he returns home from the field trip, his daughter tearfully greets him. He hugs her, but in his heart recognizes that this is only the first of many times that he will have to leave her on her own.