There was a look on Daddy’s face that I hadn’t seen before, a dramatic look of disgust, as if he had put something very bitter or spoiled in his mouth. He looked at me, and then he turned to Mother.
“Test? What do you mean, test?”
“It’s part of their education,” she said.
I was still just standing there, listening, waiting, and hoping that Daddy would disagree and put a stop to it.
“Sounds like entrapment,” he said, softening a bit the way he would when he was trying to make a joke. I wouldn’t say it was a complete smile, just an expression on its way to becoming one. To me, that was disappointing.
“Hardly the same thing,” Mother said firmly. “Entrapment is a practice whereby a law-enforcement agent induces a person to commit a criminal offense that he would not likely otherwise do. The key word is induces.”
“My wife the would-be lawyer,” Daddy said, but she wouldn’t even tolerate the shadow of a smile. There was no doubt that she didn’t see anything amusing about it. He grew serious quickly. “She was probably just frightened,” he offered.
“She would never be if she defended her sister and her sister always defended her. It’s a very important point, Mason. I won’t let them enroll in an outside school until I’m confident that they will behave correctly in relation to each other and other students. I never believed in that sink-or-swim philosophy that my parents, especially my mother, imposed on me. A mother’s duty is to provide her child with as much preparation for the nasty outside world as possible before turning that child loose in it. Those problems and issues are doubly important here because of what and who they are. Besides, I showed you that study done on orphans compared with children from a solid family. Everything is twice as intense for identical twins.”
He nodded, but he didn’t look as convinced or accepting of Mother’s technique as he did about most other things. In fact, he still looked quite upset. “Setting her up to lie. I don’t know,” he said. “That still seems to fit your definition for entrapment, counselor.”
“It most certainly does not,” she countered firmly. “If you want an analogy, think of it as a fire drill.”
“It’s not the same thing,” he insisted, despite the look she was giving him. I thought something was changing a little. The wall Mother had built around her methods for bringing us up had suffered a small crack. “You have her in that pantry doing detention?”
“That’s right.” She looked at her watch “One more hour.”
“One more hour? How long has she been in there, Keri?”
“Almost four hours,” she replied.
“Four hours!”
“Don’t act so shocked. They’ve both been there that long before, Mason.”
“Have they?” He looked a little stunned, not as much because of what was happening to Haylee as because he never realized what punishment Mother had imposed on us previously. “That seems a little too much,” he said. “What if she has to go to the bathroom?”
“This is exactly what psychologists warn about!” Mother cried, practically leaping off the settee and waving her upturned palms at him. “Parents abdicating their responsibilities because those responsibilities are too difficult for them to carry out, especially enforcement of rules. If we’re not strong, they won’t be. It’s
as simple as that.”
“Nothing is as simple as that,” he said. “What if she’s claustrophobic?”
“Kaylee isn’t, so Haylee isn’t. I think I would know, Mason. I’m not surprised, however, that you don’t. Besides, you don’t give in to weaknesses, you attack them, confront them. It’s called building backbone. I know what I’m doing, Mason. I don’t appreciate being criticized.”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “I’m going up to shower and change. I thought we were going to take them out to dinner tonight.”
“We were, but that’s been postponed.”
“So we’re all being punished for what Haylee did?” he asked calmly.
“We must think of ourselves as one, Mason. Like any chain, a weak link can bring it all down.” She sat back. “You, a company president, should know all this without me explaining.”
“I know how important morale is, too,” he said.
She stared at him. Whenever Mother focused her eyes with a steely glare on anyone, including Daddy, it was as if an earthquake were about to happen. In fact, she looked like she could start a fire with her eyes and burn him up, like Joan of Arc being burned at the stake. Mother had been practically in tears when we read that story with her. “Strong women always suffer somehow,” she had told us, “ever since Eve.”
“Okay, okay,” Daddy said quickly, like someone putting out a fire. “I’m still going up to shower and change. Whatever.” I saw him shake his head and heard him mumble to himself as he left the room and headed for the stairway.
Mother watched him leave and then looked at me, her eyes suddenly as suspicious and angry as Haylee’s could be.
“Did you go into the kitchen and whisper through the pantry door, Kaylee?”