“An interior decorator for a baby’s nursery!” Cassie cried when she heard about it. She came rushing into my bedroom one Saturday morning to tell me.
I was seated at my vanity table, brushing my hair and thinking about Kent Pearson, who was in all of my ninth-grade classes except home economics. We had been classmates since the seventh grade, but suddenly, one day, when I looked at him, I saw him differently. He seemed to have become this handsome young man behind my back. He caught me looking at him with interest and blushed, but since that day, he had begun to pay more attention to me, finding every opportunity he could to talk or walk with me.
This caused me to wonder more deeply what it was that actually happened between a boy and a girl. Was it something magical, mysterious, or was it, as Cassie would probably say, simply the burst of hormones? If that were true, however, I’d have feelings like this for almost any boy, but I didn’t. I thought only of Kent, dreamed only of Kent, and was excited to be only with Kent. Were we too young to have experienced love at first sight, even though it wasn’t really our first sighting of each other?
“Did you hear what I said?” Cassie continued. She stood beside me with her arms folded under her breasts, her shoulders back.
Although Cassie was only two years older than I, she was nearly five inches taller and had what I had heard referred to as a full figure. She wasn’t at all matronly-looking, even though she often acted as if there was not even a foot left in her journey to maturity. However, no one simply seeing her would think of her as anything but a pretty teenage girl. She didn’t spend as much time on her hair and makeup, nor did she care as much for what was in fashion, as I did, but she never looked unkempt, and she did have our mother’s perfect facial features, with the same exotic speckled green-blue eyes and light brown hair that glistened golden in the sunlight. She kept her hair shorter than mine and Mother’s and wasn’t fond of wearing earrings. She didn’t want to pierce her ears, but when she heard Daddy compliment Mother on a pair of pierced earrings, she went ahead and had hers pierced and now always wore earrings.
“What?”
“What? What? How can you sit there for hours and look at yourself? The way you brush your hair makes me think you’re in some kind of a trance.”
“I’m not sitting here for hours. Mother brushes hers this way and this much every day.”
“Whatever. That’s hardly important. Didn’t you hear me? I said they’ve hired an interior decorator for the nursery. All they really have to do is put a crib and some other things in the bedroom, but now they’re going to change the wallpaper, the floor, maybe even the ceiling, and definitely all the lighting fixtures. I heard them say that they may even replace the windows to make the room brighter! That means busting out walls!”
I nodded. I didn’t know what to say. It all sounded fine with me.
“You know how much all that will cost? They’ll spend more money on this nursery than most people spend redoing a whole house. Before our brother is even born, they’re doting on him, spoiling him. You can just imagine what’s going to happen when he is born.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the sibling rivalry Mother had told me Cassie had had when I was born. If it was that, why didn’t I have it, too?
“They’re both so happy about it,” I said.
She stared at me and then shook her head. “Listen to me, Semantha. Read my lips if you have to, but listen. Sure, they’re happy now,” she said, “but wait until they have to go through all that parents go through with infants, waking up all hours of the night, changing diapers, fighting baby rashes, worrying over every possible infant illness, doctor visits, on and on and on.”
“They went through it with us,” I reminded her.
“Are you a total zero, Semantha? They were both sixteen years younger then. They’re so used to their own time and interests now, especially Mother. She, especially, will be overwhelmed. What it means is I’m going to have to do more, and so will you.
“Don’t you realize what the age difference between Asa and us will be?” she continued so intensely that I could see the veins in her temples. “By the time he’s ten, we’ll both be well into our twenties, maybe going to graduate school or married. Why, people might even think he’s my son and not my brother. They could even think it of you!”
“Oh, yes. I never thought of that,” I said, and she calmed a little.
“In any case, who will be here to help raise him?” she added, nodding.
“They won’t need us for that by then, will they?”
“Of course, they will. It’s harder when children get older. You know what Daddy says: little children, little problems, big children … understand?”
I nodded, again not looking sufficiently upset for her.
“Okay. Just wait,” she said. “You’ll see.”
She paused and looked at me in the mirror and squinted as if it was a window and not a mirror and she was looking at someone else some distance away.
“There’s something different about you these days. What is it?” she demanded.
I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. “What?”
“I don’t know. You’re acting flighty, like you’re always thinking about something else. I see the way you float through the halls and up and down the stairs like you’re in some kind of a movie hearing your own theme music.” She paused and narrowed her eyes again. “Are you interested in some boy? Is that it? Do you think you’re in love? Well?”
“No,” I said weakly. She smirked.
“Who is it? C’mon, out with it,” she said. “Who is this love of your life?”
“I’m not in love.”
“Semantha Heavenstone. This is your sister, Cassie, who’s talking and to whom you’re talking. You know we’re too close for you to hide any secrets very long from me. Your forehead’s like a neon sign flashing your thoughts. Well? Who?”
“Kent Pearson has been paying a lot of attention to me lately,” I confessed. Just as she said, it was impossible for me to hide things from her.
“Kent Pearson,” she repeated, chewing over her knowledge of him. “Yes, I know who he is. He has an older brother a year ahead of me, Brody. He’s a very poor student. I heard he might not even graduate. As I recall, the Pearsons aren’t very well off, either, so there’s no money for tutors.”
“Kent’s very smart,” I said. “He won’t need a tutor.”
“Um … be careful,” she said. “Don’t give him the impression that you like him too much.”
“Why not?”
“You might as well get used to the idea, Semantha. There will be many boys after you, hoping to get into this family and this wealth. That means you have to be extra, extra cautious.”
“Is that why you don’t have a boyfriend?” I asked, maybe too quickly.
“I haven’t seen or heard anyone worthy of my interest yet,” she replied without skipping a beat.
I wanted to ask her more about the boys in her class and the classes above hers. How could there be absolutely no one worth her interest? There were many boys from well-to-do families, families as respectable as ours, but before we could continue the discussion, we heard Mother calling on the intercom to tell us Uncle Perry had arrived.
“Great,” Cassie said, dropping the corners of her lips. “He’s here.”
She was not nearly as fond of Uncle Perry as I was, and he knew it. I knew he was flamboyant and quite different from Daddy, but I enjoyed him, enjoyed what Mother called his joie de vivre. I couldn’t remember a time when he had been unhappy or depressed. He always dressed in bright colors and wore glittering gold rings, bracelets, and necklaces. He often teased Daddy about his stuffy clothing, calling him too conservative, boring. Daddy merely shook his head, as if any comments Uncle Perry made were simply full of air.
I had to agree that he took after their mother more in his looks than he did their father. He was good-looking but in a pretty-boy sort of way, concerned about his complexion (he went to tan
ning salons), his hair (never out of style), and his nails (always manicured). He had eyelashes any woman would envy, a nose a little too small and dainty for a man, and thinner lips than Daddy’s. Cassie and I had visited him in his townhouse in Lexington only twice, but both times, we were impressed with how neat and organized everything was. He paid great attention to the slightest detail. When Cassie looked at something such as a vase or a small statue and put it down just a few inches from where it had been, he immediately returned it to that place.
The second visit had occurred only a little more than a year ago, but when we left, Cassie leaned over in the limousine hired to take us and whispered, “I don’t think he lives alone.”
“What does that mean?”
“When I was in his bathroom, I looked in the cabinet and saw two different toothbrushes and different men’s colognes. There were other clues,” she added.
“Men’s colognes? Don’t you mean perfume if it’s someone else?”
She smirked. “Hardly. Uncle Perry is gay, Semantha.”
My face was surely awash in astonishment. That had never occurred to me, and I had never heard either Daddy or Mother say such a thing, even suggest it.
“But …”
“Why do you think he has never brought a girlfriend to our house or even mentioned someone? Why is he still unmarried?”
“I thought he was simply a bachelor.”
“Christmas trees, Semantha, you’re so naive for your age, especially nowadays. Sometimes I wonder if Mother faked your birth and you were left on the doorstep. I suppose you’ve never noticed his pierced ear.”
“What? No.”
“He doesn’t always wear it when he comes to our house, but next time we see him somewhere else, look at his right ear. The left is not pierced. Duh.”
I shook my head, still amazed. “Wouldn’t Daddy be upset?”
“Who says he isn’t? He has simply chosen to ignore it, and Uncle Perry has the sense not to flaunt his homosexuality in Daddy’s presence. It’s a forbidden topic in our house, so don’t dare mention it. You’d only upset Daddy.”
“No, I would never …”
I remember thinking how slow I really was in comparison to Cassie. Was it simply her two additional years of age? Maybe I really had been left on the doorstep.
Regardless of what she had told me, I couldn’t be any less warm to Uncle Perry. I thought he was truly a very creative man. He was in charge of the Heavenstone Department Stores’ publicity and promotion as well as designing an entire line of Heavenstone fashions for both men and women and, lately, even children. The line was very successful.
We both went downstairs to join him, Daddy, and Mother. He had come for lunch but had also brought a portfolio of new fashion ideas for teenage girls and wanted our opinions. The three of them were in the living room, and Uncle Perry had his portfolio opened on the large glass coffee table. Mother was looking down at it, and Daddy was sitting in his favorite easy chair, puffing on his meerschaum pipe, which had been his father’s.
Uncle Perry was wearing a bright blue blazer and light blue slacks with blue boat shoes. He wore a cravat and looked as if he had just stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine himself. The moment we entered, he brightened, but I felt he was looking mainly at me.
“Ah, the infamous Heavenstone sisters,” he declared. Mother laughed. “Just in time, girls. I’d love for you to peruse my new creations. Your father has yet to groan or moan, which usually means I’m right on track or, as he would say, still in the black.”
“Lucky is all you are,” Daddy said.
“What difference does it make if the bottom line is where you want it, Teddy?”
Now Daddy grunted.
We both looked at the portfolio. Uncle Perry stepped back, and Cassie began to turn the pages. I thought everything looked terrific and couldn’t wait for some of it.
“They look sloppy to me,” Cassie said coldly.
“Sloppy is in, Cassie. You should know that better than I,” Uncle Perry said, turning his attention to me. “Besides, it’s not really sloppy. It looks like it’s sloppy, but everything is coordinated, all the layered clothing, the shoes, the hats.”
I nodded. “The girls in my class would love it all,” I said. He beamed.
“She’s right. The girls in her class would,” Cassie said.
“Well, they are the ones with the discretionary income, according to our marketing analysis, Cassie,” Uncle Perry said softly.
“I wouldn’t buy them.”
Uncle Perry held his smile, but I could see the pain in his eyes.
Cassie looked at Daddy and added, “But I don’t follow the flock, so I’m not really a good judge when it comes to what will and won’t sell. I’m sure all this will do fine.”
“Thank you, Cassie. That’s almost a compliment,” Uncle Perry said, and Mother laughed.
Cassie was not one to blush or redden, but she did this time. It made my heart thump. Would she say something nasty? Uncle Perry turned back to me.
“In two months, you can start wearing some of this, Sam.”
Sam was the nickname Uncle Perry had given me from the very first day he learned my name was Semantha. Mother thought it was cute. Daddy never told him not to call me that. In fact, I sometimes felt he wished he had come up with it first. Cassie hated it. Now that she had exposed Uncle Perry’s sexual preferences, she would whisper later on, “He likes to turn everything into his way of seeing the world. Sam is more of a man’s name. Get it?”
I shook my head.
“You will,” she promised, and left it at that.
Later, at lunch, Uncle Perry talked about his upcoming vacation. He was going on a Caribbean cruise. He loved traveling and had gone to far more places than Daddy and Mother. Mother had many questions about his trip, but Daddy seemed reluctant to ask or hear any answers.
Cassie leaned over to whisper, “It’s probably a gay men’s cruise.”
I nearly choked on my salmon.
“So,” Uncle Perry said after Mother and Cassie had brought out coffee and some Danish for dessert, “how do you girls feel about having a new little brother?”
“How should we feel?” Cassie replied. The way she looked at him made it seem she really wanted to hear his answer. I could see it threw him off. He looked at Daddy and then smiled.
“I would imagine excited,” he said.
“Well, of course,” Cassie said. “And we’re happy for our parents, too.”
Uncle Perry nodded. He drank his coffee, glanced at me, and looked now as if he couldn’t wait to be on his way. After lunch, however, Daddy took him to his office to discuss some business. Later, after we helped Mother clean up, Cassie told me to follow her up to her bedroom. Even though she closed the door behind us and we were far from anyone who could hear us, she still whispered.
“Now you should have no trouble understanding why Daddy wanted Mother to get pregnant so much.”
“What do you mean?”
“Christmas trees, Semantha. Figure it out. Who will take over the Heavenstone Corporation in years to come? Not me, and certainly not you.”
When I didn’t respond, she raised her voice. “Uncle Perry will never have a son, much less a daughter, unless he adopts one, and that child won’t have any Heavenstone blood in him!”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oooooh.” She flopped on her bed. “Every generation of Heavenstones has always had a male to take control of what had been built by his father and his father’s father. Daddy must have nightmares about it. He’s not happy with the prospect of some other, bigger corporation taking us over, but without a son, what else could happen? You see what Uncle Perry is like. Even if he outlived Daddy by years and years, he couldn’t handle the responsibilities. He knows nothing about real business.”
“But why couldn’t you run the company someday, Cassie? You’re the smartest girl I know.”
“I don’t want to,” she replied sharply and slowly. “I’m mo
re like … like a wife. Goodness knows, I do half of Mother’s work here, don’t I? Well? Don’t I?”
“Yes, but I thought …”
“Don’t think.”
She sighed and then looked at me harder. She nodded to herself.
“What?” I asked.
“I suppose you could, with great care and guidance, someday find the right man to marry, a man who might be able to be work in our corporation. But,” she added, shaking her head, “I have grave doubts about your taste when it comes to the opposite sex. I see how infatuated you are with Kent Pearson. Don’t deny it. He’ll be lucky to attend a state university and probably won’t have a head for business anyway, if he’s anything like his brother. Therefore, even if you have a boy, he might not have the wherewithal to inherit control of our empire.”
“Empire?”
“Don’t you see?” she cried. She actually pounded her own leg for emphasis, so hard it made me wince. “You can’t just go flouting about with anyone who pees standing up.”
“What?” I started to smile.
“Any boy, Semantha. You have to realize your responsibility to our heritage.”
“What about you, Cassie? You might find the right man if I don’t.”
She looked away for a long moment. I thought she might have nothing else to say.
And then she whispered as if she were talking to herself, “I can’t possibly leave Daddy, especially now.”
Before I could ask her what she meant, we heard Mother calling us in the hallway. I went to the door.
“What, Mother?”
“Your uncle Perry’s leaving, girls. I just showed him Asa’s nursery and some of the renovations.”
I looked back at Cassie. “Uncle Perry’s leaving.”
“I’m devastated. Go say good-bye for me,” she told me. Then she rose and went into her bathroom.
Her whispered words seemed stuck in my ears: “I can’t possibly leave Daddy, especially now.”