In the fourth chapter of The Wizard’s Dilemma, Kit and Nita reflect on their fractured relationship. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.Â
LET’S TALK ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS OF ALL KINDS TODAY BECAUSE FUCK YEAH.
Kit
I’ll expand more on the idea of perception and mental narratives when I get to Nita’s part of the review, since that’s the part of the chapter that gave me a fuller picture of what Diane Duane was trying to pull off. (AND TOTALLY SUCCEEDED AT, BY THE WAY.) Initially, this chapter excited me because I got to see more of the Rodriguez family, specifically Carmela. I love the idea that Kit is pleased with how his sister took the whole wizardry reveal, but is also terrified that she’ll turn out like Dairine. WHICH I’M IN SUPPORT OF, LET THE RECORD STATE THIS.
But Kit’s POV section of chapter four is all set-up. He considers his fight with Nita again and is (adorably) disappointed when he sees that she has not replied to his last message. AH, THEY ARE BOTH CONCERNED FOR EACH OTHER YET AREN’T TRULY COMMUNICATING THAT, I LOVE IT. There’s also a bit of a mystery in Kit’s manual:
There it was: RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTOPER R. Address, phone number, power rating, status, last assignment, blah, blah, blah… But there was something else after his listing.
Notes: adjunct talent in training.
So! This was not there until after the wizardry he completed with S’reee. That must be significant, right? Maybe the Powers were impressed by what Kit did! That’s not a terribly theory, of course. Yet this is easily swamped by the mystery that Ponch reveals. Kit, curious about the bizarre experience he had earlier, questions where exactly Ponch took him. Fair enough; I would also like to know where the hell that dog went and why it was wet and pitch black and y’all. I just realized something. WAS IT THE UPSIDE-DOWN. I just finished watching Stranger Things a few days before writing this review. OH MY GOD, IT’S THE UPSIDE-DOWN. GET AWAY, KIT.
Okay, let me be serious here, because I keep racking my brain, and I don’t understand what this could mean:
“So where did you go?”
“It was dark.”
“You’re right there,” Kit said. “The same place we were together?”
“We weren’t there together all the time,” Ponch said. “You’re not there until you do something.”
Okay, WHAT. So, I was certainly surprised to learn that Ponch had been there many times before, and that he never found Kit until Kit “did” something. A wizardry? Is that what he means? That seems to be the exact moment when Ponch arrived in that Dark World, so… yes? It’s the only thing I have to go on, so there’s that, too.
Nita
Even though I’m about to turn 33 this month (HOW DID THAT CREEP UP ON ME), I’m still learning how to communicate. After my previous relationship failed last year, I vowed that I wouldn’t make the same mistake in the next one: I was going to be really good at communication. It’s not that I had a problem with it before; I have generally been a pretty open and patient person in all my relationships, romantic or platonic or otherwise, nor was I really responsible for why the relationship went sour. Still, I didn’t want to even foster an environment where a partner of mine didn’t feel like they could communicate with me.
I’m here to report that even as a REAL LIVE ADULT, communicating is so hard. That’s why Nita’s POV in this chapter felt so real to me. One of the hardest things to deal with in interpersonal relationships is internal narratives. It is so easy for us as humans to devise explanations for the world around us, and it often even easier to do that with people. This fight between Kit and Nita is complicated, and both of them have valid issues with one another. But in Nita’s mind, she struggles with the narratives that are already forming. There’s a reason that this is all preceded by the scene in the mall. Duane firmly establishes the loving but honest relationship that Nita has with her mother, one where Nita’s mom is concerned but not cruel. Then, when Nita feels restless about her fight with Kit, it makes sense to the reader that she’d turn to her mother. Her mother has given her no reason not to trust her, and I really like that.
It’s a mutual relationship. Her mom trusts her decision regarding the skirt, so Nita trusts her mother with a very personal situation. There’s also another aspect to this situation that’s important to acknowledge:
Half the kids in school seemed to be worrying that their parents were about to divorce, but Nita had no such fears. She knew her folks fought – they would vanish into their bedroom, sometimes, when things got tense – but there was no yelling or screaming. That suited Nita entirely. It was possibly also the reason her present fight with Kit was making her so twitchy.
So she doesn’t have the emotional memory of how fights are resolved because her parents resolve them out of sight! Yet she knows that her mother and father fare pretty well when it comes to disagreements. It’s why she asks her mom what to do, and her mother’s advice is stunning only because it’s so good. I say that because it’s hard to avoid the impulse to want to be right instead of resolving conflict or friction in a relationship. ISN’T IT. You want to be heard, you want your thoughts to be validated, and you want to be right. It’s obviously no fun to be wrong, but Nita’s mother’s advice gets to the heart of how you can de-escalate situations like this. It’s kind of amazing to see how the tension can drop when you don’t fight and bicker and just apologize straight off the bat.
Is that something Nita’s going to do? I don’t know. The advice is great, but Kit and Nita do need to have a long talk about what happened, not just to resolve it, but to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKeSpyEEWDU
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