“Only I suggested we don’t simply have people fill out a coupon. We automatically include everyone who buys anything at a Heavenstone store that day.”
“Oh … Teddy?”
“I thought it was a good suggestion, Perry. Helps the bottom line.”
“Fine.”
“Now, then,” Daddy said, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s go to lunch.”
“Where we can talk more about the opening and get my father’s mind off this situation,” Cassie added, leaning toward Uncle Perry.
Uncle Perry looked at me. It didn’t take a genius to see the difference between Cassie’s emotional state and mine. I was still hovering close to tears. He smiled at me. “C’mon, Sam. You can ride with me,” he said and put his arm around my shoulders.
I looked at Cassie. She shrugged, and as we walked to the elevator, she whispered, “Better you than me.”
“Your sister is one tough cookie,” Uncle Perry said when we got into his car. “Your father and I had a great-aunt like her, Great-aunt Agnes Loomis, who was married to your grandmother’s brother. He died while they were on vacation in Florida, and she kept him in storage until she finished the holiday. She didn’t want to lose the money they had spent. I hated the way she looked at me whenever we saw her. I used to have nightmares about her. I still do, matter of fact.”
We saw Daddy pull out of his parking spot, and Uncle Perry started his car and followed.
“If you’re in a crisis, however, Aunt Agnes and, I suppose, Cassie are the types of people you want.” He glanced at me. “How do you two get along? You’re pretty different.”
It wasn’t the first time I had been asked about Cassie’s and my relationship. Another one of Cassie’s Commandments was that Heavenstones never say anything about each other that they wouldn’t say to each other, especially to someone outside our immediate family.
“Okay,” I said.
“Just okay?” he followed quickly.
“Cassie is my older sister,” I said. “She looks after me, and she is much smarter than I am.”
“There’s two kinds of smart,” Uncle Perry said.
“What are they?”
“There’s book smart, and there’s people smart. My guess is you’re people smart, which means you’ll get along better out there, meeting people, working with people, socializing. Cassie doesn’t have many friends, does she?”
“I don’t like saying bad things about Cassie, Uncle Perry.”
He nodded. “I understand. That’s admirable. Loyalty is admirable, but,” he said, looking at me again and smiling, “don’t forget to be loyal to yourself, too.”
I said nothing.
His words hung in the air between us as we drove on, staying close enough to Daddy’s car for me to see Cassie talking to him continuously.
Cassie was never at a loss for words when it came to talking to Daddy, whereas she could sit in a room for hours with Mother and not say a single thing.
“You guys will be all right,” Uncle Perry said, believing my silence was all worry about Mother. “I’m sure.”
It was only the two of us in the car, but strangely, all I could hear was what I was sure Cassie would say: How would he know?
Hospital Visit
CASSIE KEPT OUR conversation at lunch focused solely on the gala opening of the new Heavenstone store. Uncle Perry looked amused at her determination to control the discussion. Every once in a while, he threw me a smile, but I looked away or down, afraid that Cassie would realize he was including me in his amusement with her. I sensed that Daddy wanted to talk more about Mother and the loss of Asa, but Cassie had probably persuaded him in the car to hold off on any discussion about all that until we were alone. She never recognized Uncle Perry as part of our immediate family.
Afterward, we all returned to the hospital. Mother was more alert now and had eaten some lunch herself. I was so happy to see her sitting up in bed that I could feel the smile bursting on my face. It brought a smile to hers, too, finally that motherly smile that was as important to me every morning as the rising of the sun was to the earth itself.
But almost as soon as her smile came, it disappeared when she set eyes on Daddy, and once again, her lips began to tremble. I could hear Cassie’s groan of disapproval.
“Dr. Moffet doesn’t think it would be wise for us to try again, Teddy,” she said when Daddy took her hand.