it overheats and breaks

My step-mother-in-law called me last night. When I saw their number on the call display I picked up assuming it was Shawn, but fortunately didn't say anything naughty by way of greeting, which I sometimes do. She was calling to let me know that if things fell apart with the mortgage on the new house that we could live in their basement indefinitely.

As much as this was a very sweet thing for her to think, and to even make the effort to tell me so herself rather than through Shawn, the idea of that struck a note of horror in my heart. I don't even want to live in their basement for the necessary six days that we have arranged for.

Shawn spoke with our broker again last night and apparently he assured Shawn that there was nothing to worry about, that he would definitely be able to get it sorted out. That made me feel better, but really I need to put my signature on a piece of paper to feel totally relaxed about this. It's been scary. Scary like living in my in-laws'-basement for all eternity.

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My step-mother-in-law and my mother-in-law don't get along. This isn't unusual, I'm sure, but the reasons behind it might be. Shawn's father remarried loooong after he and Shawn's mother split, so it's not like the stepmother interfered in their marriage or anything. And Shawn didn't live with his father then, either, so the stepmother never had any hand in raising him or anything that trod on his mother's sense of motherhood.

It all has something to do with another marriage in their respective families, because Shawn's parents aren't the only two people from those two separate families that married. One of Shawn's father's sisters also married one Shawn's mother's uncles. I think that's how it goes. These two, apparently, are still together after many many years, so I'm not sure why there's this angst, but my understanding is that somehow there has been infighting between the two families surrounding this marriage. It results in the two mother-in-laws not particularly caring for each other.

I am determined not to be involved in it.

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