The Seven Rules of Elvira Carr

by Frances Maynard

  Akira and I joined Sylvia on her morning fitness walks. Sometimes she used a pair of sticks, Norwegian poles, to propel herself along as if she was skiing, and then even Akira struggled to keep up. She could get into sparkly low-necked tops now, like the ones she’d wanted me to wear.

  Sylvia and Josh looked after Roxanna every Saturday. She stayed overnight while Shelbie went out with Lewis, the photographer and ladies’ man. “She’ll have trouble keeping hold of him,” panted Sylvia, striding forward, “you mark my words.” Afterward I wrote down her words and underlined them. I did wonder, though, if it had been an expression.

  If she wasn’t shopping with Sylvia, Roxanna came over to play with Akira. They sat on the floor together watching Nature Documentaries. Roxanna knew quite a lot of Facts about animals now. Sometimes I tested her to check how much she’d remembered.

  • • •

  I took Akira to Asda with me on my twice-weekly shopping trips. He wasn’t allowed in, even on a leash, so I had to tie him to a railing at the shopping cart collection point. He whimpered and wouldn’t sit down, and people stared. I had a brief hot flashback to Mother at Bay View Lodge before the iPod. Clive parked a row of shopping carts and scratched his head. Then Hang on, he said, returning with four sausages from the cooked foods case, one day before their sell-by date. While I was inside with the list, Clive rounded up stray shopping carts and gave Akira a piece of sausage each time he returned. This was when I realized Clive was a true friend even though we did not see each other socially.

  • • •

  Karen invited Akira and I over for Sunday dinner. She’d cooked my regular Sunday meal of Stuffed Baked Potatoes with Leeks. Karen was a kind person, although she did not smile much. She’d told me her flat was a tip, but actually there was very little rubbish on the floor. I offered to draw her up a schedule for housework, but she said she’d take a rain check on that. A rainy day was quite a good day for doing housework, though.

  After we’d washed up, Karen made a cup of tea and opened a Family Assortment Tin. We talked about Charlie and watched a Documentary about blue whales (who weren’t really blue). Akira and I left at eight o’clock, but I didn’t mind going home in the dark because Akira was with me.

  • • •

  I pressed Send and went into the kitchen to keep busy. Akira, who’d been asleep under the computer, padded after me, his claws clicking on the linoleum. I emptied out the cutlery drawer and cleaned inside it. Yesterday, I’d Googled Poppy, my friend from school—who liked alphabetical order and red things, and who I hadn’t seen for nine years—and found her email address. I’d just sent her a message. Heart thumping in my chest, I’d asked her if she would like to go to the cinema, or for a walk with me and the dog I shared. I’d signed off, Tah-rah, chuck, an expression from Coronation Street, because we both liked it.

  I moved on to the fridge, taking all the food out, removing each shelf, and wiping it with a soapy cloth. I put everything back and shut the door. That had been an extra household task, not actually on the weekly schedule. I looked at the Seven Rules spreadsheet, a little faded and dog-eared, its explanatory notes smudged from my finger running down them. I only needed to consult them now when I was completely baffled and there was no friend or relation handy to ask or email.

  I’d learned all the Rules, some (for example, Not Everyone who is Nice to me is my Friend) painfully. And had begun to understand them. Understand that they were imperfect, just a beginning, a framework, and that learning to fit in was going to be a lifelong process. Humans, and situations, were complicated; it was not believing they were absolute and unchanging that helped you to grow and change and make friends.

  I took the soapy cloth into the living room, removed Mother’s jar of ashes from the mantel, dusted its bronze plastic surface, and replaced it carefully in front of the large white envelope that had been there since Charlie left for India.

  • • •

  “This is an advance thank you,” he’d said, handing me the envelope. “For looking after Akira.”

  I’d turned it over in my hands. “I don’t want you to pay me.” I’d looked, briefly, into his eyes.

  “No, it’s not money. I’m only a poor student, remember. Open it!”

  I drew out two big pieces of card and held them up. “Tickets! Boat tickets!”

  “Yes,” Charlie said, his gaze on me. “It’s only for a day trip to Cherbourg, I’m afraid, not exactly a cruise. I thought we could lay your mum to rest and get you abroad at the same time. We could go to a hypermarché, like Asda, only French and twice as big, and you could buy some French cookies. Kill two seagulls with one stone. FOS.” Charlie leaned toward me, his eyebrows sloping downward. “What do you think?”

  I sat down suddenly. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I could manage it.”

  “I’d be with you, remember. Although I’d go below deck for the actual ceremony. I don’t think your mum would want me there at the end.”

  I chewed my lip. “I’m not sure Mother would want me there either. She wouldn’t have expected it to be me doing the scattering.”

  “But who better?” Charlie asked gently. “You’re her daughter. I think she would be pleased. Surprised, maybe, but pleased.”

  I looked at the tickets again. “The fourth of August. Mother’s birthday.”

  “Yeah! That seemed rather fitting, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know what to think. Not yet. I’ll need a passport. And there’s got to be that special music she said. ‘Remember Me.’”

  “You’ve got her two iPods. I’ll fix up the speakers.”

  I looked up at Mother’s jar, waiting on the mantel, still flanked by her African tribal figures. It gleamed in the spring sunlight, like Mother’s eyes behind her glasses. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I put down the tickets. “Once we’ve done the scattering, Mother will be completely gone.”

  “Yes,” said Charlie, as gently as before. “It’s not for months, though. That way you’ve got time to get used to it.” He bent to squeeze my shoulder. “Remember, she’s only dust and memories now.”

  I returned the tickets to their envelope and went over to the mantel. I reached up and lifted down Mother’s jar and held it against my chest for a moment, and then I put it back in exactly the same position. I pushed the envelope behind it, her, and turned to look at Charlie.

  “Not Mother’s way of doing things, mine.”

  THE SEVEN RULES

  Rule 1: Being Polite and Respectful is always a Good Idea.

  Rule 2: If you Look or Sound Different, you won’t Fit In.

  Rule 3: Conversation doesn’t just Exchange Facts—it Conveys how you’re Feeling.

  Rule 4: You learn by making Mistakes.

  Rule 5: Not Everyone who is Nice to me is my Friend.

  Rule 6: It’s better to be too Diplomatic than too Honest.

  Rule 7: Rules change depending on the Situation and the Person you are speaking to.

  And, Rule 8: Use the Rules to help with difficulties, to make life easier, to understand what’s acceptable, to enhance your strengths, but after that,

  … do things your way.

  Reading Group Guide

  1. Discuss Elvira’s relationship with her mother. Do you think Elvira’s mother cared for Elvira in the best possible way? What are the differences between the two characters?

  2. Why do you think Elvira likes to stick to a routine? Describe your own daily routine. What are the benefits of having it? What are the drawbacks?

  3. How does Sylvia help Elvira cope after Agnes’s stroke? Discuss Sylvia and Elvira’s relationship. Have you ever had a mentor in life? How did they help you?

  4. Why does Elvira call Social Services? How do Sylvia and Elvira move on after the incident? What do you make of Sylvia’s reaction? Of Josh’s?

  5. Elvira grew up believing that her f
ather was a businessman who traveled “Away” often. However, she soon finds that that is not the case. Have you ever discovered something about a family member or friend that took you by surprise? How did that make you feel?

  6. What are some of the challenges Elvira faces throughout the story? How does she overcome them? What skills does she use?

  7. If you had to live life by seven rules, what would they be?

  8. Imagine seeing the world from Elvira’s perspective. What differences would you find? What would be the challenges? The strengths?

  9. Elvira discovers some independence when she begins to learn how to access and use computers at the local library. When did you discover your own independence? What event triggered this?

  10. How does Elvira’s life change after volunteering at Animal Arcadia? Think back to your first job. What was it? What did you learn there?

  11. How are Paul and Elvira similar? How are they different? What do you think of their friendship?

  12. Describe how the different characters relate to Elvira and her “condition.” How do they treat her? Who do you think understands Elvira the best? The worst?

  13. Have you ever misread or misinterpreted a social situation before? How did it make you feel? How did you overcome this?

  14. Why do you think Elvira decided to contact Charlie? If you were in Elvira’s situation, would you do the same? Why or why not? Do you think having family around is beneficial to Elvira?

  15. What is the significance of Rule Eight at the end of the book? What does this say about Elvira?

  A Conversation with the Author

  What inspired you to write The Seven Rules of Elvira Carr?

  It’s hard to pin these things down! I work with adults with learning difficulties, my husband used to work in a monkey sanctuary, and my mother had a stroke. I think experiences mingle in your subconscious mind and emerge in a new form. And I wanted to give a voice to a marginalized character.

  What do you think is Elvira’s most admirable quality?

  Her acceptance of others without criticizing or judging them (very much). Especially as she has often not been accepted herself.

  If you had to choose seven rules to live by what would they be?

  Be kind.

  Don’t blame—find the reason for the error/conflict and work to stop it happening again.

  Don’t let the past or the future color the present.

  Don’t let other people’s expectations of you define your life. (Elvira has to learn this.)

  Don’t let your life be defined by your job. Life outside work is just as important.

  Have the courage to tell people how much they mean to you before it’s too late.

  Don’t look like prey—meaning, if you appear vulnerable, unfortunately, you may be taken advantage of.

  Were there any challenges to writing from Elvira’s unique perspective?

  Yes, I had to keep reminding myself that Elvira wouldn’t pick up on that comment or facial expression or body language. I had to remember that she wouldn’t understand the nuances of a joke and would be likely to take things literally.

  What would you like readers to take away from your novel?

  I’d like to have shown that adults with learning difficulties face the same human trials as those without them. And that people with Asperger’s are not cold and unfeeling but, often, eager to help and upset by the pain of others. They just need guidance and explanation of how best to express it and to show support. I hope that readers might be prompted to think that people with Asperger’s have a lot to offer—a lack of guile, a childlike trustfulness, a creatively different attitude to solving problems—to those who don’t have their difficulties.

  What advice would you give to someone who doesn’t feel like they fit in?

  Your time will come. You haven’t found the right place or the right social circle yet. And remember, outsiders are best placed for illuminating the inside of everything.

  Acknowledgments

  For information and inspiration: Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Simon Baron-Cohen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism by Dawn Prince-Hughes, PhD (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004); Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism by Dr. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron and edited by Veronica Zysk (Arlington, Texas: Future Horizons, 2005); Planet Ape by Desmond Morris with Steve Parker (London: Mitchell Beazley, 2009); and the National Autistic Society (www.autism.org.uk).

  For indefatigability and wit: my agent, Juliet Mushens. For eagle eyes and encouragement: my editors, Sam Humphreys (Mantle) and Shana Drehs (Sourcebooks), and my copy editor, Silvia Crompton. All four helped this to be a much better book.

  For opportunities: the first novel competitions run by Good Housekeeping/Orion, Mslexia, and Lucy Cavendish College.

  For “cheerleading,” support, facilitation, and kindness: Ed, Tam, Celia, Eileen, and Monique.

  And, for opening the door: Jenny E.

  To all, my heartfelt thanks.

  About the Author

  Frances Maynard is a part-time teacher of adults with learning difficulties, including Asperger’s and dyslexia. The Seven Rules of Elvira Carr was short-listed for the Lucy Cavendish Prize, and it was runner-up in both the 2014 Good Housekeeping First Novel Award and the 2015 Mslexia First Novel Award. Maynard is married with a grown daughter and lives in the UK. This is her first novel.

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