Disappointment
Disclaimer: I do not own the Lorax.
Going back to being poor after several years of being rich was a difficult and unwanted adjustment. It wasn't like rags to riches didn't have its complications, too, but that was a far more welcome challenge.
At one point in her life, May had expected to be poor forever. Then, for one brief shining moment (or, to be more precise, six years of them), she had thought that she would be well-taken care of for the rest of her life. She'd been wrong on both counts. She'd been poor once, had a fling with riches, and was now poor again.
She didn't know how she could forgive certain people for getting her hopes up and abruptly sending them crashing to the ground. Not that she'd have to face that or him since he'd presumably chosen to stay behind in that desolate little wasteland.
May didn't understand why in the world he'd have stayed there. There was nothing left but ghosts and ruination. He had always been a strange one, though, and far beyond her understanding even at the height of his success. He was probably drowning in regrets or something. That was utterly pointless, of course. All the regret in the world wasn't going to change anything so why bother being miserable?
That wasn't to say that May didn't blame him because she did. He had a good thing going. They had a good thing going and for the first time ever she was really looking forward to the future. And he had ruined it.
That horrible Lorax would have said – did in fact say, loudly and frequently – that it was their fault for cutting down the trees. He was wrong, of course. Cutting down a few trees wasn't a problem. Cutting down them all so that there could be no more thneeds, on the other hand…yeah, that was stupid. Why couldn't he have planted some damn trees so that that didn't happen? It couldn't possibly take that long to grow! Sure she had never suggested it but she wasn't the CEO of the company and so it wasn't her job!
Still, for all that this was all certain people's fault, the fact that he was choosing to dwell on it instead of doing the practical thing and moving on was even more disappointing. And just when she'd thought he'd stop breaking her heart, too. That was the problem with believing in people, especially children. They always let you down eventually.
With Brett and Chet it was easier because there had never been particularly high expectations for them. That was why one of them (damned if she could remember which) was her favorite son, after all. He had always been so very certain of himself despite inconvenient little details like reality and so many times she had come close to believing as well. And then the one time that she thought it was safe to start believing and…
The only thing that kept certain people from being a complete failure was the fact that he'd given them money before they'd left. It wasn't anything like the money that they'd had before when they knew that each day would just replenish their finances and it wouldn't fund their lavish lifestyle for long.
Just the same, it was something and May had never been stupid. She wouldn't throw that money away living for the moment and trying to recapture their previous life. If they played it smart – which they would – then they could live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Still, they deserved more and having to make do with this pittance was painful when contrasted with all of that earlier promise.
They hadn't returned to the farmer or their old town after the thneed went bust. It would be too humiliating to return in disgrace. They were better off, certainly, but no wild success thanks to someone's short-sightedness.
When they'd left, she wasn't quite sure where they'd go and just kept driving until she'd found a nice spot to settled down far enough away that no one recognized them. That was the best part, really, the fact that no one knew of their connection to the disaster over at Thneedville.
Everyone had heard of what had become of that land and jealousy quickly turned to pity. Some Schadenfreude-laced pity, perhaps, but pity all the same. No one was sending help. No one knew how to help and it wasn't like Thneedville was asking for assistance. Maybe it was pride. Well, if things got too bad then they'd probably cave and ask for help. They might even get it.
There were trees in this new land that they lived in. Nothing like the Truffula trees of Thneedville but she'd never seen anything like that before arriving, either. Perhaps they were truly unique and now gone forever.
May was glad that there were no Truffula trees here. They would only remind her of things best left unremembered. She had never really liked trees. She hadn't particularly disliked them, either. In fact, she'd never had an opinion about them one way or the other. They had always just been a part of life, not important but ever-present and in the background.
Certain people had always loved tees and drove her crazy climbing them like a monkey (or trying to) before he was even steady on his feet. He'd wake them at the crack of dawn or keep them up at night or just pester them during the day playing that damn guitar at all hours while sitting in a tree. And to think that she'd gotten him that guitar so that maybe he'd keep his feet on the ground for more than five minutes at a time!
Sill her. He'd always had to be so difficult. She still remembered listening to him compose that first thneed jingle. He didn't even know what a thneed would be yet but he had wanted something to rhyme with 'need.'
No one here knew about any of that or about their connection to that disaster. May had made sure that her family knew that people weren't going to know. It wasn't shame, exactly, (though certain people had given her plenty to be ashamed of) and it certainly wasn't guilt. She'd done nothing wrong and would never accept otherwise. So things hadn't worked out. It happened and those decisions had not been left up to her.
It was just that it was all in the past and that was only as real as you let it be.
May had always been more future-oriented anyway and her future was now.
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