"He's ashamed of what he's done, I'm sure. That's why he's not back. too. I know. I shouldn't be able to forgive him for taking you away from me. but I will. We'll all forgive each other for everything and be a happy family again, won't we?"
I glanced back and saw Mrs. Stanton looking up at us with great concern.
"Yes," I said. "We will."
This is so wonderful. so wonderful." she said and clapped her hands. "Come along. No, wait." she said, stopping me. "Close your eyes. I want this to be a really big surprise. Go on. Close your eyes."
I did so and she took my hand again. I opened my eyes enough to see that we were moving down the corridor toward a door on our right. She stopped before it and turned back to me. so I closed my eyes tightly.
"On the count of three, you can open your eyes. Rosemary. Ready?"
"Yes," I said.
"Good. One..."
I heard her open the door.
"Two. And three!" she screamed.
I opened my eyes and looked into the room.
To my surprise it was a beautiful room and a room obviously well kept. There was a four-poster canopied bed with a pink-and-white bedspread and large, fluffy pillows, at the center of which was the most beautiful stuffed black panther. It had absolutely luminous eyes and looked as if it was made with a rich velvet. On both sides of the bed were nightstands of the same eggshell white. One had a beautiful carousel on it. and the other had a Wizard of Oz clock with a replica of Dorothy with Toto at her feet.
Everything in the room was coordinated. from the white curtains with pink trim to the milk-white area rug with its apricot-tinted spirals. To the right was a long vanity table with an oval mirror framed in a pinkish white wood at the center. Everything on the table was neatly organized. Just to my left inside the door was a real old-fashioned school desk, the kind that had the desk attached to the seat. Books were stacked on it, the top one being a textbook for an American literature class. Next to the books was a notebook with a pen beside it. In the armoire on the right was a television set. On the walls to my left were shelves of books, dolls, framed art prints, and on the wall to my right was a poster from the Wizard of Or film with Judy Garland.
Whereas the rest of the house I had seen looked stuck in time with its tired vintage furnishings, this room could be featured in a modern-day House Beautiful magazine. I thought. From the lamps to the fixtures. door handles and dresser drawer handles. it all glittered like new. The windows glistened. the colors were vibrant. It was like watching a black-andwhite movie suddenly turn to Technicolor.
Bess moved quickly to the closet and opened it. "Look!" she cried, standing back.
I walked in slowly and gazed in at the rows of what looked like brand-new clothing, some with tags still hanging from sleeves.
"Every time I go into Anderson. I find something you would Eke, Rosemary. I've. even bought you new shoes to go with some of these outfits." she said, kneeling down to open a shoe box and show me its contents.
She stood up. "I knew you were coming back. my darlin'. my sweet. darlin'. I knew it." She held my hands and smiled.
"The room is beautiful," I said.
"Yes. As it should be. as it should always be. Now come. Sit with me." she said, pulling me to the bed with her. "And tell me everything you've been doing.
"No, wait." she added quickly, putting her finger to my lips. "Don't tell me anything. I don't want to know anything about all that. It doesn't matter. What matters is you are here now, and we'll be a family again."
She pouted. "You should never have believed him. How could you believe him? He was just angry at me for other things, and that was his way at getting back at me. Rosemary," she said and turned away to look down at the floor.
"Sometimes," she continued. "sometimes a woman needs to be left alone. She has other problems, woman's problems, and men just don't understand. Rosemary. They can't understand.. They're selfish that way. They want to please themselves, satisfy their own needs,
"I thought you were too young for all this. but I was wrong. I was wrong, so wrong.
But don't blame me for that. A mother doesn't want to admit that her little girl is grown up. Grownup little girls don't want to be with Mommy all the time, now, do they? When you're a mother, you have to give up your baby, cut the umbilical cord, and let him or her go off, and no mother wants to do that, no real mother, no mother like me. "Can you understand that? Can you?" she asked, pleading for the answer she wanted.
I stared at her. Yes. I could understand that, but it all made me think of Mommy and how little Claude's birth and death served to cut that umbilical cord abruptly. Part of us wants our mothers to let us go. and part of us resents it. I thought. Everything is so complicated. Yes. I could understand. I could even understand this woman's turmoil. although I knew nothing of the details.
"He poisoned you." she said suddenly.
"Poisoned me?" Is that what happened here? I wondered with terror.
"Poisoned you against me. turned me into some sort of ogre. He was angry at me. Rosemary, so angry at ine. That's why he made up that story and filled you with all that poison just so you would follow him and leave me,
"But," she said, bouncing on the bed. "you realized all that was a lie, a great lie. didn't you? And that's why you came back to