“Things. When I got my first period, she spoke to me about what was changing in my body and what I had to think about and what not to worry about.”
She relaxed again. “I’m sure. That’s Mother. Always looking for things not to worry about, instead of facing the things that we should worry about. Did she tell you what not to do with boys? Well? Did she? Because, as I said, she never did with me.”
“Not exactly,” I said. She had suggested some of it, but I didn’t want to tell her that or say anything that might make her jealous. “Not the way you just told me.”
Her face softened even more, and she smiled.
“Of course not. Anyway, I want you to come right to see me when you return from the party Friday night. You come to my room, no matter how late it is, understand? And you tell me exactly what you did, what he did, what happened between you. You’ve got to trust me, trust and believe that I will help you. Okay? Will you do that?”
I nodded, but I couldn’t help the way my forehead folded as I imagined telling her every nitty-gritty detail of what went on with Kent.
“I don’t want you to be unhappy, Semantha, and I don’t want to stop you from having fun. I care about you, about us, about our family, that’s all. All right?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Good.”
She stood up and looked at me for a long moment, so long that it made me nervous.
“You’re prettier than I am, Semantha, so all of this is more important for you than it is for me.”
I started to shake my head. I had always believed I was, but I never wanted to say it or have anyone else say it in front of us.
She smiled. “I’m not jealous or unhappy about that. We’re two different people. You have your good qualities, and I have mine. Some girls, pretty girls like you, have to depend more on their looks than anything else. That’s fine for them. The only problem with depending on your looks is the problem of age. Looks degenerate, change, like a lightbulb dimming and dimming and dimming, until it goes out completely.
“But don’t worry. You’ll always have me beside you, helping you, caring for you. I’ll be even more loyal to you than the man you eventually marry,” she added, and then she did something she rarely did.
She hugged me and kissed me on the forehead, just the way Mother always did.
“Good night,” she whispered, and left, closing the door softly behind her.
I didn’t know why, but I was trembling. She had left me with words that should have made me happy, but they didn’t. And even worse, whenever I had a thought about Kent, about the things she described, I immediately felt terribly guilty. I would have gone to sleep dreaming of sitting next to Kent at the game and then going to the party with him. I would have imagined us dancing, everything, but the moment one of those thoughts came into my mind, I did everything I could to chase it away. I even imagined Cassie next to me as I slept, just waiting for a fantasy to com
e into my brain. As soon as it did, she would nudge me to make it leave.
I would have been nervous when Friday came, anyway, but after Cassie’s little mother-daughter-like talk, I was practically trembling all day. She made sure to put reminders in my head, too. On our way to school, she said, “I hope everything I told you is still fresh in your mind. I know how easy it is to forget when you get excited.”
“I won’t forget,” I said.
“Good.” She smiled at me. “We’ll be perfect, as perfect as I planned for us to be. Remember, we are the Heavenstone sisters. That means a lot around here. I can almost hear people thinking it whenever they see us together. ‘There they go, the Heavenstone sisters.’”
She laughed. She seemed to be in one of the best moods I had seen her in since the night Daddy announced Mother’s pregnancy. Mother had gotten strong enough to look after herself. She didn’t want Cassie to miss any more school. Daddy said he would hire a nurse if we had to, but Mother insisted she was fine, and Cassie agreed.
“I’ll be coming right home from school, anyway, Daddy,” she told him. “No need to bring a stranger into the house. I can do whatever has to be done.”
“Well, I don’t doubt that,” Daddy said. “I can’t think of too many women who are as reliable as you, Cassie.”
Cassie beamed. That helped put her in the good mood, I thought.
We entered the school building together. Because she was two grades higher than I was, Cassie and I rarely saw each other in the building, even at lunch, because there were two lunch rooms, one for students in grades seven through nine and one for tenth through twelfth. I don’t know if it had been designed to be that way or just turned out that way. Rarely did she come looking for me, but this particular lunch period, I looked up from my tray of food and saw her in the doorway, obviously searching for me. I was sitting with Kent, two other boys, and two other girls. The moment I saw Cassie, I felt my face flush, as if I had been caught doing just the things she had warned me against.
“What’s wrong?” Kent asked, seeing how I had stopped eating and listening to everyone.
“My sister’s looking for me. I’d better see what she wants,” I said.
I rose because I saw she had spotted me and was heading in my direction. I didn’t want anyone else to hear what she might say. She paused when she saw me heading for her.
“Something wrong with Mother?” I asked quickly.