Regarding the bedbound saga finally beginning. I know AL takes care of a lot of the bills and that Eric and the Thumb are both craven and lazy enough to decide to take that Faustian bargain because they're too dumb to realize that AL in bed all day is going to be a full-time job worse than any they could work for an actual wage. Rickie's tenure at the chicken plant will seem like an oasis in a very fat desert compared to watching over Amber. Here are their new job descriptions and perks:
--Leaving the house several times a day to fetch whatever it is Amber wants to eat, obtain the food, bring it to her with proper utensils, and clean up after she is finished eating.
--Dealing with her bathroom needs. Helping her into the bathroom and wiping for her if she is still ambulatory to a limited degree, putting down urine and fecal matter pads on the bed if she isn't. Those pads will need to be changed at least twice a day. They may be able to get a bariatric potty chair to keep next to the bed but even then she will need help getting to it and her body will need to be cleaned up afterward.
--Washing her body in the bed is going to be a nightmare, especially if she maintains her "dainty gorl" routine. Her folds will need cleaning, as well as the rest of her body, and the folds will get rashes because there is no way dainty Amber will let them use Gold Bond Medicated Powder, the best line of defense against fold rashes. It smells too medicinal. Only talcum powder with lavender scent for this princess, and it will do very little to keep her folds dry and infection free.
--Spending time in the room with her because she will get lonely if she hears people in the house and she's not part of things. A few hours spent in her presence painting her nails, watching TV or similar will be necessary to prevent meltdowns.
--Meltdowns will happen daily, if not hourly. Amber wants the blue journal - no, not THAT blue journal, the other one, doesn't anyone listen to her? She didn't get enough rice with her orange chicken? Holy shit the tantrums bedbound assholes throw over minor deviations from their desired menu... All fucking day long she will be whining and calling for someone and lashing out if her will is not done how and when she says. And no one will tell her no or demand she STFU because the resulting meltdown that would cause would be near thermonuclear and it's easier in the long run to do as she says when she says or their entire day will be ruined dealing with her sulks and bullshit.
--In between all of this someone will be dealing with the smell. All those wax melts, candles and air fresheners will help to a point but eternal vigilance will be needed to prevent the house from smelling like a Medicaid-funded nursing home. The urine and fecal matter pads will need to be taken immediately to the trash, for instance, because nothing covers that odor. Laundry will have to be kept up with - no sheets lingering in the laundry room to be washed later. The reek of a week's worth of Amber in that bed will be intolerable even to the laziest asshole in Kentucky. If they don't stay on top of things, the entire house will have the odor and charm of a superfund site.
If I were Rickie I would never forgive Becky for bringing this abomination into his home and for not getting rid of her when the writing was on the shower wall she can't fit into. As a gay man in a conservative part of a conservative state who is estranged from his family, he's got few options that won't cost him emotionally. He is in the very unenviable position of either having to break up with Eric, demanding Eric choose between him Becky (an easy choice but not one most people want to demand from a significant other), or living this way.
