Samuel agreed and we looked into a trip for her, perhaps visiting some of our relatives in Charleston. She had been there years and years ago.
Work became demanding again. Our business went into a dramatic upswing and I had less and less time to spend at home and worry about Belinda anyway. Then, one afternoon, Effie called to tell me Belinda had left the house.
"Did someone come for her?"
"No, Mrs. Logan."
"Well, did she say where she was going?" I chastised myself for not hiding her car keys.
"Yes," she replied with some hesitation.
"Well?"
"She said she was going home, Mrs. Logan."
"Home? Did you see her drive away?" I asked quickly.
"She didn't take the car, Mrs. Logan. She just started walking."
"Walking? All right, thank you, Effie," I said and went to tell Samuel.
When we found her less than an hour later, she was strolling on the main highway. Cars were whizzing by, sometimes dangerously close, but she didn't seem to notice or care. Samuel pulled up in front of her and I got out quickly.
"Belinda, where are you going? What are you doing?"
"Oh, hi Olivia. I was just . . ." She looked about as if first realizing where she was. -I was just going somewhere." She laughed. "I forgot exactly where," she said. "Silly, I know, but it's such a beautiful day it seemed a crime to stay inside."
"Get in the car, Belinda," I ordered and opened the door. "Come on, get in," I said.
"Are we all going somewhere?" she asked and got into the car.
"Yes," I said. "We're all going crazy."
She thought that was funny. We brought her home and I saw that she went up to her room.
"She's in no condition to go on a holiday yet, Olivia,"
Samuel said. "Let's just do what we can to get her healthy."
"I just don't have the time for this now, Samuel," I told him. "She's got to snap out of it herself and she's got to do it immediately."
He shook his head as if I were talking gibberish. After dinner that night however, I went up to Belinda's room. She was sitting at her vanity table, mindlessly running, a brush through her hair and smiling dreamily at her image in the mirror as if she saw a much younger, thinner face again.
"Belinda, I want to talk to you and I want you to look at me and listen," I told her. She turned slowly.
"I always listen to you, Olivia," she said
"Yes, but do you hear me?"
She giggled.
"If I listen, I have to hear you, don't I?"
"You've got to get a hold of yourself now. I want you to stop behaving like a. . . a crazy woman. I want you to eat right, dress right, be judicious about your makeup and start thinking about what you want to do with the rest of your life. We can't have you continue as a burden on everyone. Do you
understand?"
"Yes," she said.