Mrs. Stanton started to rise, but Bess seized her arm.
"Tell Rosemary to come in now. Grandma. Tell her it's getting to be time for her bath. She's been outside long enough."
"I will. dear."
"Tell her I'll brush her hair afterward, just like always. Don't forget."
"I won't, darlin'. You just rest and everything will be all right."
"Yes. Everything will be all right." she parroted and turned away.
Mrs. Stanton fixed her blanket for her, brushed back her hair a little, kissed her on the forehead just as she would kiss a little girl, and then turned and walked out.
"It was all a bit too much for her. I'm afraid. I thought it might be. I'm sorry." She smiled at Uncle Linden. "You were very nice, though, a fresh drink of water, a cool breeze that came through the heat of all this sorrow. I'm grateful to the both of you.
"Charles says your vehicle is ready to roll. too. I guess you'll be on your way. then."
"No," I said quickly, too quickly. It raised her eyebrows, "No? What do you mean. darlin'?"
"Heyden has run off." I told her. "He was the one who could drive that thing."
"Oh, dear, why would he run off?" she asked, pulling us farther away from Bess's bedroom door.
I glanced at Uncle Linden. He was looking back at the doorway, seemingly not hearing a word I was saving.
"I have to talk to you. Mrs. Stanton. We haven't told you the whole truth, I'm afraid." I said.
She held her smile, but her eyes darkened a bit.
"Oh. I see. We'll let's go downstairs. I do want to prepare some more iced tea and bring a glass of it up to Bess," she said and started away.
I reached out and gently grasped Uncle Linden's ann. "Come on. Uncle Linden. We have to let her rest."
&nbs
p; "Yes," he said. "She should rest."
He followed along and we descended the stairway, Mrs. Stanton was already down and turning to the kitchen. To me she looked as if she was running off, fleeing from me, fleeing from any more deception, any more lies. I got Uncle Linden to sit and wait in the living room. He promised he wouldn't go anywhere until I had returned. I thought he was beginning to look very tired and confused again himself, and that made my heart pound even faster and harder before I turned to go to speak to Mrs. Stanton.
She was at the stove in the kitchen heating water in which to steep her tea leaves. She glanced my way when I entered, but she turned back to the stove quickly as if she had to keep an eye on the pot.
"I'm sorry. Mrs. Stanton. I thought we would just leave right after the repair of the motor home, but with Heyden running off like this. I don't know what to do."
I thought she wasn't listening to me. She turned off the fire under the pot and began to pour the water into her teapot.
"Linden is not my father." I began.
She raised her shoulders as if to ward off an impending blow to the back of her neck. Then she turned slowly and looked at me, some anger seeping into her face.
"Not your father? I don't understand. Who is he. then?"
"He's my uncle. Heyden isn't my cousin. He is my boyfriend. We were all running away," I confessed quickly. I didn't think I could say it all if I didn't say it fast.
Curiosity replaced the small red patches of raze that had blossomed in her cheeks.
"Running away? Why? From whom?"
"We each had different reasons, different things we were fleeing. Heyden had come up with the idea of the motor home. and Uncle Linden had money he had earned from the sale of some of his pictures over the years. He was in what they call a residency, an intermediate home between the mental clinic he had been in for years and living in what I guess is described as the outside world. I hate to call it the normal world," I added.