"Yes," Mama said, smiling. "She'll cross into no-man's-land. Ian, I'll be depending on you to see that all this occurs and you look after her, okay?"
"Yes,," he said. "We'd better get started packing anything we want for those days:" he said to me.
Mama smiled at him, at how efficient and businesslike he could be.
"I love you both very much and want only what's good for you," she said, hugging me and then him.
Ian fixed his eves on her. "If it's not good for you. Mother, it won't be for us," he said.
She pressed her lips together and nodded. "I know, Ian, my little wise man. I know."
She kissed him again. He looked very content. Then she told me to follow her into my room to get what I would need together. When we stepped into the room, however, she closed the door and took my hands into hers.
"Jordan. I know how unfair it is to you to ask you to be grown-up at a time when you should have nothing in your head but bubbles and lollipops. It's not the way I wanted it to be for you, but I have to ask you to be as mature and as grown-up as you can be until this storm we're in passes over us.
"But I'd be a liar to tell you life isn't full of little storms. You have to make the most of them, get stronger because of them, and never let them defeat you. Look at you," she added, and knelt to brush back my hair. "You look so much older to me already. Those eyes are still full of wonder, but I can see a young lady's wisdom beginning to show its first blossoming. You call me anytime if anything isn't right back in Bethlehem and I'll come get you immediately, okay?"
"Yes, Mama."
"Okay. Let's get the show on the road. This show anyway. The next one is coming soon after," she said, and started to sort out what she wanted me to take.
Grandmother Emma was waiting in the rear of her limousine for us and her chauffeur was standing by the open door as Ian. Mama, and I came out. Mama kissed us both again and we stepped into the limousine. Ian and I hadn't been in it that often, and never with just Grandmother Emma. The chauffeur put our bags into the trunk and th
en closed the door.
"Did you both go to the bathroom?"
Grandmother Emma asked.
"Of course," Ian said.
"Yes," I said.
"Good. I'd like to get close to Bethlehem before stopping for dinner. What sort of food would you two like tonight?'"
I waited for Ian to answer. He took a while. The chauffeur got behind the wheel and started the engine. Ian glanced at him and then at her.
"I think I'd like a hamburger.'"
"Well., well. And you, Jordan?"
"Me, too," I said.
"Well, that will be easy. I'm sure. Felix," she called to the driver, "take us to a good hamburger joint outside of Bethlehem, please."
Joint? I never heard Grandmother Emma use such a word.
Ian looked like he was smiling. His eves said he was, but he kept his lips tight.
We both looked back at the cabin. Mama was standing on the porch with her arms folded watching us turn onto the road. She looked so small to me.
She looked like someone who was slowly disappearing.
It made my heart stop and start as though it had a mind of its own and knew things I did not.
16 Filthy and Disgusting
. Grandmother Emma tried her best to make conversation with Ian and me. She asked us what we had done so far at the cabin and Ian went into a long lecture on carnivorous plants. He left out the black bear and the butterflies. Even so, he had so much to say. He looked like he was trying to teach her not to ask any questions or this is what would happen, a lengthy lecture full of hard to pronounce things.