I hurried down the hallway. Daddy was standing by his bay windows with his back to the door, his hands clasped behind him. He turned slowly and shook his head.
“Of course, you shouldn’t have been so violent, Semantha. I’m actually quite shocked you were, but Cassie explained what happened. I can understand what you did, but I can’t defend it. However, Cassie is right. The principal should be taking our situation into consideration, and what that girl was doing to you was aggressive and violent, too, in its way. This punishment is a bit too much. A week is a long time to miss classes. Cassie has already scheduled an appointment for me with him tomorrow. Fortunately, I’m here tomorrow, so it’s no problem.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“I know. Cassie is also right to say we should keep this from your mother for now. I agree with her that, for now, the two of you should not come to the hospital.”
He smiled.
“I know what you did you did because of how badly you feel for us. Sometimes I want to explode, just start shouting at anyone for anything. We were so close, so close, but we have to swallow and absorb our defeats and disappointments and go on. Next time something like this happens, you’ll have to count to ten before you react.”
“I will, Daddy.”
“I’m sure you will,” he said, coming around the desk to embrace me. He kissed my forehead and brushed back my hair the way Mother always did. “Well, I’m starving, and I did smell the aroma of the meal Cassie’s prepared. Let’s go eat.”
I nodded. His embrace restored me. We started out.
“And I must say,” he continued as we walked down the hall to the dining room, “your suggestion about the nursery was quite smart and thoughtful.”
I stopped. “My suggestion?”
“About the lock. I was thinking about that, about your mother going in there constantly and crying. It never occurred to me to do something that simple. You girls are definitely Heavenstones through and through.”
Later, after he left for the hospital, I asked Cassie why she had told him the changing of the lock on the nursery was my idea. She smiled and shook her head.
“My dear little sister, don’t you ever get it? What better time to give you credit for a good idea than when you are at fault for something? It helped bring him to see the goodness in you and therefore want to defend you and forgive you even more.”
“Oh. I never would have thought such a thing,” I said, more to myself than to her, because I was thinking that it was dishonest, a manipulation. It actually made me feel even dirtier, like some sly, conniving child.
“Of course, you wouldn’t. That’s why you have me,” she said. “Someday, you’ll do something for me in my time of need. Won’t you? Well?”
“Sure, Cassie.”
“Good,” she said.
We heard the phone ringing and knew from the number of rings that it was my line.
“So it begins … the gossip. Go on, have fun with your little friends. Tell them you don’t regret anything and that you’d do it again. They’ll be shocked at your courage and respect and fear you more. Go on,” she urged.
As usual, Cassie was right. Everyone in my class wanted to know what had happened to me and what was going to happen now. The first call came from Rachel David, who sat in the row across from mine in homeroom and had witnessed the whole episode. She told me that I was the big topic of discussion at lunch and that even Kent was impressed.
“He said you have more guts and grit than he thought. It sounded like he regretted dumping you,” she added.
“Dumping me? Boys always try to get you to believe they did the dumping, but I dumped him at the party,” I said, and she laughed. To my surprise, she told me she would call me tomorrow night, too, and report what was said.
“No one really likes Roxanne Peters. She’s a real backstabber. Too bad you only bruised her arm and didn’t break it.”
I laughed to myself. Cassie was so perceptive. She had predicted just how my classmates would think and act. In their minds, I was suddenly someone heroic. I liked Cassie’s idea about finding something good in the bad things that happened. I went to sleep that night actually feeling a bit proud of myself and wondering why I had ever shed a tear.
And it was all because of Cassie. If she had ever loomed tall and impressive to me before, she was even greater in my eyes now. And suddenly, maybe for the first time, really, I began to see myself as a true Heavenstone.
She stopped by to say good night. For a moment, when I saw her in the doorway, I thought I was looking at Mother. When she came in, I realized why. She was wearing one of Mother’s nightgowns. I recognized it immediately.
And she spoke in Mother’s soft, loving tone of voice. “How are you, Semantha?”
“All right,” I said, puzzled and even a bit frightened by this sudden change in her.
She came to my bedside and sat with her back to me but turning slightly, just the way Mother always did. Then she reached out and brushed back my hair, and she smiled, not a Cassie smile mask or a smile of skepticism and distrust but a Mother smile, loving, concerned.
I was still holding my breath. This was more like a dream.
“You’ve had one terrible, terrible day. I’m sure you felt alone and frightened for much of it. You wondered how the people who loved you would react. You worried about being hated, about their anger, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“Just remember, you’re always safe here and always loved here and always part of this great family. We might not approve of everything each of us does, but we’ll never betray or desert each other, never. Go to sleep knowing I’m here for you and I will protect you as I would myself.” She leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. Then she brought her lips to my ear and whispered, “We’re the Heavenstones.”
I said nothing. I watched her rise slowly and practically float out of the room, turning in the doorway to smile at me and flip off my light the way Mother would before she closed the door softly and left me, only feeling not safe and secure but confused in the darkness.
The following morning, Cassie made a startling declaration to Daddy and me. It rang like that of someone who was putting herself on a hunger strike.
“I’ve decided that as long as Semantha is prohibited from attending school, I will not attend, either,” she announced.
It took Daddy by complete surprise. He looked up from his coffee and his newspaper, and for a moment seemed at a loss for words. “Do you think that’s wise, Cassie? I mean, you could fall behind in your work. No sense in both of you having so much to make up, is there?”
“First, I’m so far ahead of everyone else in all of my classes, I could stay home for the remainder of the year and go in to take my finals. Second, we’re the Heavenstone sisters, Daddy. We support each other always.”
“Well, loyalty is admirable. I can’t deny that.” He thought a moment and then smiled. “I guess I have my work cut out for me this morning when I meet with your principal.”
“He’s no match for you, Daddy,” Cassie said. “His biggest accomplishment has been getting a new bulletin board for the building.”
Daddy laughed. “Okay, girls. You sit tight. I’ll call you when my meeting is finished.”
I didn’t know what to say. If I told Cassie she shouldn’t stay home, she would get angry. I was sure of that. It was better simply to show her appreciation. I thanked her.
“You don’t have to thank me, Semantha. I am sure you’ll be as loyal to me when the time comes, if it should come,” she said.
“Oh, yes,” I told her, even though it gave me the feeling I had just signed my name in blood. I was still thinking about how she had behaved in my room the night before.
When Daddy left, we went right to work on the house. She said she would do his office, wash the floors and windows, dust and polish. She wouldn’t permit me to do anything in there, and when she did do the office, that took most of the day. She pulled every volume off the shelves and
dusted each one as well as the shelves. Daddy always complimented her on how she had turned his office from a mess into a picture-perfect workplace.
Maybe because I was so nervous, I worked even harder than Cassie and lost track of time. I was doing the inside windows in the living room when Daddy returned. Cassie had heard him before I did and was there to greet him. They were both standing in the living-room doorway.
“Okay,” Daddy said. “You’re returning to school tomorrow, Semantha. You are on probation, which means you can’t do anything like you did to that girl. If anyone bothers you, you are to go right to the principal, understand?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“I’ve got to get to the office and then to the hospital. Maybe you two can go with me tonight,” he said.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
“I know you’re a good girl, Semantha, and this was just an unfortunate incident. Carry on, you two,” he said, and left.
I sat on the sofa, a little dazed and feeling just how hard and intensely I had been working. Cassie returned from seeing Daddy off. She stood smiling at me.
“Well, now, didn’t I tell you Daddy would do it? Hastings probably wilted like a flower in his presence. Daddy could have been a great lawyer, a great anything. I have no doubt in my mind that one of these days, they’ll come around to ask him to run for governor.”
“Really?”
“Of course, really.” She stopped smiling. “We can’t go with him to the hospital, however.”
“Even now?”
“Especially now. Have you forgotten what I told you? She’ll just dwell on our sympathy and languish in that place for weeks.”
“But what will we say to Daddy?”
“We’ll both be too exhausted from the work and the emotional roller coaster. In fact, neither of us will have much of an appetite at dinner. Eat something before so you really aren’t hungry. I’ll do the same. He won’t insist or be disappointed, and he’ll have to say something to Mother. She’ll see he’s not telling her the whole truth, and she’ll get herself together to get out of there and home.”
I nodded, but Cassie could see I wasn’t happy about it. “I do miss her and want to see her, Cassie,” I said.
“Of course you do. We do, but if we don’t use tough love and be strong, we’ll only do her more harm. You want her back on her feet quickly, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s settled. You might as well go back to work here and really get yourself tired. Then you won’t have to pretend so much. In fact, when you’re finished here, wash all the floors downstairs and upstairs. I’m returning to the office.”
Wash all the floors in this great house? That will take me all day, I thought, and just sat there anticipating how exhausted I would be. I went ahead and began the work, however, breaking only for lunch and then, when Cassie called me down from washing the upstairs floors, to have what she called a snack to kill our dinner appetites. Her plan certainly worked. Daddy only had to take one look at both of us at dinner for him to suggest that we should stay home and get to bed early.
To my surprise, Cassie started to protest, but then she looked at me and said, “Semantha is exhausted. She’s had a terrible emotional ride. I couldn’t see leaving her alone.”
Daddy agreed and was pleased. He left right after dinner and promised to give Mother our love and tell her we’d be there tomorrow.
“Of course, we won’t be.”
“How will we avoid it tomorrow, Cassie?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll think of something. She won’t be there much longer, anyway, I’m sure.”
Still, I went to bed feeling very guilty and twice almost went to the phone to call the hospital and at least speak to Mother, but Cassie had specifically forbidden that, too.
“Mother will see he’s making up some excuse,” she told me before I went to sleep. “She’ll realize she should come home. She’ll be worried about us instead of herself, finally.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t help remembering how Uncle Perry had called her another Aunt Agnes. If the world really needed people like that, I thought, it must not be a very nice place.
I was so tired that despite my wish to wait up for Daddy to see how Mother was, I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow and didn’t open my eyes until the sunlight struck my face in the morning. Realizing I had missed him, I leaped out of bed and washed and dressed as quickly as I could. Cassie was already downstairs, and Daddy was at the table. He had to go to Lexington this morning.
“How was Mother last night?” I asked the moment I saw him.
Cassie poured him some more coffee.
“It was amazing. When I first arrived, she was almost the way she was when you girls were there, but when I told her why you two couldn’t come, she seemed to rally. Before I left, she told me she has to get home and get back to taking care of all of us. I was very encouraged.”
“That’s wonderful, Daddy.”
“Yes. Now,” he said, looking at me with his chin lowered and his eyes raised, “remember, you’re on probation. No funny business.”
“I’ll remember.”
“Good.”
Almost as soon as he left, Cassie pounced. “Well? Do you see how right I was now? Do you?”
“Yes, Cassie.”
She smiled. “As long as you listen to me, Semantha, you’ll be fine. We’ll all be fine.”
What could I do but agree, yet I wondered if she ever felt arrogant. Mother always said she was the most self-confident young woman around, but when does self-confidence move into the realm of arrogance? When do you become your own worst enemy?
And for Cassie, Cassie as a worst enemy would be devastating, I was sure.
It wouldn’t be all that much longer before I would be the one proving that true.
Mrs. Bledsoe
CASSIE DIDN’T HAVE to come up with a new reason for us staying home and not visiting Mother at the hospital. When we arrived home from school the next day, we found Daddy in the hallway speaking with a private-duty nurse. Even without the sight of the nurse being there, one look at his face told me anyway that Mother had been brought home. His smile and robust energy had returned.
It had been a most interesting day for me at school. Again, Cassie’s predictions proved to be true. Before I had violently attacked Roxanne Peters, most of my classmates and other students saw me as aloof, rich, spoiled, and snobby, someone who thought she was lowering herself to be in their company. The fact that I could behave more the way one of them would behave won me many new converts and solidified whatever small relationships I had built with some. Even Kent, as Rachel had said, saw me in a new light and was very friendly, to the point of suggesting we go to a movie together soon.
Furthermore, I was granted some sympathy as well. Whether they were afraid to or not, most of my classmates didn’t laugh or think of Mother’s miscarriage as something funny or deserved. They all wished her a speedy recovery and pounded on Roxanne Peters for being an insensitive bitch. I was wallowing in my newfound popularity. Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought my teachers looked at me differently, too, looked at me with a little more respect. Whatever, it turned out to be one of my more enjoyable days at school, now topped off with Mother’s return home.
I was surprised, however, at Cassie’s reaction. The moment she saw Daddy and the nurse, she became angry. She recoiled. Her body tightened like a guitar string, and her lips whitened at the corners. I could almost feel the rage in the air between us, but Daddy, maybe because of his happiness, didn’t see it or feel it.
“Great surprise for you, girls. Your mother is home. Dr. Moffet decided she had recovered enough to go home, but for a week or so, we’ll need the assistance of Mrs. Bledsoe. For now, she’ll see to Mother’s medications and nutrition and make sure she rests and is doing well. You can go up to see her.”
“Give her another hour or so first,” Mrs. Bledsoe said firmly. “I just got her to sleep.”
“Why would you get her to sleep minutes before we came home?” Cassie asked. “Anyone would realize we’d want to see her immediately, and she would want to see us.”
She came at Mrs. Bledsoe so sharply that the nurse was speechless for a moment. Even Daddy looked shocked. He gave Mrs. Bledsoe a small smile that said, Please excuse my daughter. She’s a little overwhelmed. Mrs. Bledsoe didn’t show any anger, but I felt certain she felt some.
I estimated Mrs. Bledsoe to be in her fifties, maybe sixty, but later would learn she was only in her mid-forties. Her hair had turned gray prematurely, and she had done little or nothing to hide the grayness. It wasn’t a bright, healthy-looking gray, either. It looked more like dull pewter. She was about five foot six, slim, with rather long, thin arms and hands with long, thin fingers. In fact, thin seemed to be her dominating characteristic. Her nose, although not pointed or too long, was thin. Her lips were pencilthin. Only her untrimmed eyebrows were thick, but her face was long and looked as if when it was forming, two strong hands had pressed on both sides to keep it narrow and her cheeks flat, extending her chin just an inch or so too much. The starch-white uniform washed out what little color there was in her complexion.
“When someone is in the hospital for a while, they are bed-tired,” Mrs. Bledsoe explained. “It will take a little time to get her back on her feet. You can’t rush it, especially with someone who’s been through all your mother has been through. Actually, Dr. Moffet wanted to keep her a few more days, but she insisted on coming home today. I hope you’ll both be very cooperative,” she concluded.
“Oh, I’m confident they will, Mrs. Bledsoe,” Daddy said. “Mrs. Bledsoe will be in the guest room right across the hall from our bedroom. I’ve already told her what a great cook you are, Cassie.”
“Of course, your mother will be following a diet plan Dr. Moffet has arranged,” Mrs. Bledsoe quickly interjected. “I’ll take care of that.”
“Fine,” Cassie said. “Do let us know when it’s all right to see our mother,” she added, and headed for the stairway.