“And look at how beautifully dressed your sister is, Semantha. Isn’t that the dress you wore to my birthday dinner?”
“Yes, it is, Daddy,” she said, nodding at me.
“I don’t deserve such a daughter. Thank you, Cassie. Your mother will be quite happy to know you’re filling in so well for her.”
Cassie looked as if she was simply too happy to speak. Finally, she managed, “It’s not anything, Daddy.”
“It is to me,” he said. “Well, let’s begin.”
Cassie served him his pot roast and the vegetables. She poured him his glass of red wine, standing at his side and looking like a professional waitress. She even waited while he smelled it and sipped it, pretending he was in a restaurant.
“Perfect,” he told her.
“Very good, Mr. Heavenstone,” she said, and Daddy laughed the way I remembered him laughing when he and Mother were much younger and still behaved like newlyweds.
Cassie sat in Mother’s place. Daddy didn’t seem to notice or care. He said a prayer that included wishes for Mother’s and the new baby’s health. Finally, we began to eat.
“So,” Daddy said, nodding at me. “Your sister has been invited to her first party.”
“What?” Cassie looked at me. “When?”
“After the big ball game. I know the people well. Very respectable,” Daddy said, as if he thought she had to be the one to grant me permission.
“You’re going to a party after the game?”
I nodded, almost too slightly to notice.
“How come you never told me?”
“It just happened.”
She looked annoyed but then turned to Daddy and smiled. “Well, if you and Mother approve, I’ll be happy to take her and pick her up.”
“Apparently, all the transportation has been arranged to and from the party. You need only take her to the game, Cassie,” Daddy said.
“It has?” She looked at me again. This time, the smile on her face was one of her masks. It was a smile that gave me the feeling there was no one under it. “Who’s taking you?”
“Kent Pearson’s father,” I said.
She held the smile, but her eyes darkened.
“My two grown-up daughters,” Daddy said. He lifted his wine glass. “Here’s to you both.”
Cassie continued to smile and look pleased, but that didn’t stop me from trembling inside. Afterward, I expected she would say something to me in the kitchen when we cleaned up, but she worked silently.
“You can go up,” she told me. “Spend some time with Mother, but not too much. We aren’t supposed to make her tired. Then go to your room and finish whatever you have to do for school.” She looked down at the sink and not at me.
“Okay.” I started to turn away.
“And then,” she said, “I’ll come talk to you.”
“About what?” I asked.
“Sex,” she said.
“Sex?”
“Apparently, I have to do it. It is something a mother is supposed to have done by the time a girl reaches your age.”