“Yes, I …”
“I’ll handle this,” Cassie said firmly. “Go on.”
Suddenly, Daddy looked like a little boy eager to obey his mother. He nodded and went to his bedroom door. He paused there and looked back.
“Go on, take care of Mother. That’s more important,” Cassie insisted.
He nodded again and went into the bedroom, closing the door behind him.
“I thought you said you were in her bedroom checking that she had everything she needed, Cassie.”
She looked at me a moment. In the dim hall light, her slight smile looked like a devil’s grin. “I must have overlooked things. You can go to sleep, too, Semantha. Unless Daddy takes you to school, you’ll have to go on the bus again,” she said, and went to Mrs. Bledsoe’s bedroom door. She squeezed her nose and smiled at me and then went inside, closing the door behind her.
I stood there, amazed. I could never do what she was about to do.
However, Cassie was going to get what she wanted. Mrs. Bledsoe would be gone. I started back to my room, worrying, of course, that Mother might not have the medical attention she needed. Maybe Daddy would hire a new private-duty nurse tomorrow, I thought, and that gave me some comfort. But when I stepped into my bedroom, I also thought Cassie would persuade him not to bother. She was usually very successful when it came to persuading him to do one thing or another.
I started to get back into bed but stopped.
How convenient it was that Mrs. Bledsoe, of all people, had contracted a stomach flu. Cassie was somehow to blame for this, I thought. But even if Cassie had deliberately taken all of the toilet paper and tissues out of the bathroom before, how did she know Mrs. Bledsoe would have such a nasty flu?
The answer exploded in my head. I froze with my blanket in my hand.
Then I quietly left my room and tiptoed through the hallway and down the stairs. When I flipped on the kitchen light, I really didn’t know what to look for or where to look, but I went to the garbage compactor and rifled through some of the refuse. I saw the first one and plucked it out. It was an emptied laxative capsule. I knew what they were. I had once been given one. I opened the cabinet we used for our medicines and saw the bottle. It was nearly empty.
Staring at it, I recalled how Cassie had doled out everyone’s meal and then had gone back to get Mrs. Bledsoe more meat loaf.
It stunned me.
“What are you doing?” I heard Cassie ask.
My heart jumped in my chest when I turned and saw her standing in the kitchen doorway.
“Why aren’t you in bed?”
She stepped into the kitchen, her eyelids narrowing and her shoulders rising.
Without accusing Cassie of anything, I said, “She’ll find out she doesn’t have the flu, Cassie.”
“Of course, she has the flu, Semantha. It can’t be food poisoning. You and I ate the same things, and we’re fine. She agrees. She’s just about packed. The taxi is arriving any minute to take her away.”
She moved closer to me, seeming to grow taller, wider.
“It’s best for all of us, Semantha. You agree, don’t you? Don’t you?”
I looked at the medicine cabinet and then at her. Her eyes followed my moves, but then she stuck her gaze on my face. I nodded.
“Good. Then go to sleep. Everything’s okay. I’ll see that everything is just fine. I’ll have your breakfast ready, too. Good night,” she said, closing the medicine-cabinet door. She folded her arms across her breasts and stared at me until I turned and hurried out of the kitchen.
I hurried up, taking two steps at a time and gasping at the top. I didn’t stay there long. All I wanted to do was get back into my bedroom before Mrs. Bledsoe appeared. I knew I couldn’t look into her face without crying.
And if there was one thing I was afraid to do right now, it was cry.
Cassie wouldn’t like it.
Sedated
DESPITE THE LITTLE sleep Cassie had, she was up ahead of me and very bright and energetic in the morning. I had heard Mrs. Bledsoe leave her room and go