Cater

cater
verb, transitive. To provide food and drink, typically at social events and in a professional capacity. To provide what is needed or required. To try to satisfy a particular need or demand.

Ed cradled his head in both hands and stared at the surface of his desk. He could hear Mary talking to their daughter, Ellen, in the kitchen. As happened more and more often these days, the girl had had another crisis at school. Instead of calming and recovering after she arrived home, she was spiraling into a pattern of regret and self-recrimination. Ed feared that Mary’s probing and suggestions were making it worse, rather than helping. Sometimes, he felt that his wife catered to their daughter’s problems, rather than trying to help her to rise above them.

His thoughts turned to his sister Jennifer. He could remember her going through similar spells when she was in school, and she never seemed to find a way to solve her problems. Jenny had grown into a troubled woman, alone except for her mother and siblings. Last winter, she had tried to take her own life. They knew that she wanted help because she had done so in the parking lot of her workplace, where someone was sure to find her. One of her co-workers had done so, and had called an ambulance. Jenny had gone into a rehabilitation facility after her initial hospital stay, but had left after she began to feel better--a matter of days rather than the weeks Ed felt that she had needed. She hadn’t lost any weight. She hadn’t pursued psychotherapy any longer after leaving. She had moved in with their mother, who was doing her best to take care of Jenny and maintain both their households, despite her own troublesome health.

That situation was not going to end well, Ed thought. Mom had such diminished reserves of strength these days. He wished, for the hundredth or thousandth time, that his father was still alive. With his passing, Ed knew, his family now considered him to be the patriarch, to whom they could turn when they were at a loss as to how to solve their problems. He knew that in time, Ellen woulld do the same, but for now, he let Mary do the heavy lifting.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Bandy

bandy
verb, transitive. To bat to and fro, as a tennis ball; to toss from side to side or pass about from one to another; to exchange words argumentatively; to discuss lightly or banteringly; to use in a glib or offhand manner.
Also a noun and an adjective.

Trish gazed at her niece--her namesake--and pressed her lips together. She hated seeing the young woman so unhappy.

“Want to take a walk with me?” she asked her.

Patricia nodded and got to her feet listlessly. The two descended the porch steps and headed toward the street.

As they negotiated the damp pavement with its mosaic of fallen leaves, Trish mentally rehearsed what she wanted to say for several minutes before she spoke: “You know that your dad is upset that you dropped out of school. He’s trying hard to avoid unloading his frustration on you. He knows that he needs to let you find your way through this.”

Patricia shook her head, watching the pavement in front of them. “I feel so bad, even though I know it’s the right thing for me to do right now. There was just so much--so much reading, so much homework, so many papers. Every day, more and more. I knew I would never be able to get on top of it all!”

Trish nodded. “David had a similar problem his freshman year. He got used to it by the end of his first semester, but it was a struggle. He waited until nearly the end of his first sophomore semester to drop out. His reasons were different from yours.

“A friend and I talked about the problems people have when they start college. He told me that colleges and universities use freshman year as a way to cull students who may not belong there. They use the required classes and make them extra-demanding; pile on the work until students reach a breaking point.”

“Well, they broke me,” Patricia admitted.

“Strained you,” Trish corrected her. “I don’t want to bandy words with you, hon. I think you just need time to figure out what you want out of life and how to achieve that. I think you should stick with your job for a year or two, and maybe take a class or two in subjects unrelated to what you thought you wanted to major in. Take things that might be fun, like--I don’t know--horticulture.”

“Horticulture!” At last, Trish saw the grin on the girl’s face that she had wanted to see.

“Okay, basket-weaving. Something you never thought you’d want to learn. Just give it a shot. And read. Read a lot. Read books that never appealed to you before, but keep reading the stuff you love, as well. Mix it up. Life is long. You can’t know what information and ideas may come in handy later.”

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.