Cat (Wildflowers 4)

clouds had reached Brentwood and had drawn a dark

gray veil over the trees, the grass and flowers. The

wind was picking up and the tree branches were

swaying. They looked like they were all saying, "No,

no, no."

Why did they adopt me? If I had asked myself

this question once, I had asked it a thousand times.

My mother wouldn't reveal any answers, but I had my

own deep suspicions, suspicions I had never

expressed before, even to Doctor Marlowe. When I

glanced at her, I thought she was hoping I would now

and I thought maybe this was one reason she wanted

me in this group therapy.

"I can't imagine, could never imagine my

mother having a baby the normal way," I began. "I

have seen my father kiss her on the forehead and

occasionally on the cheek, but I have never seen them

kiss like people in love, never on the lips. Mother

probably would be thinking of some contagious

disease if he did. Even when he kissed her on the

forehead, she would turn away and wipe it off with

the back of her hand. Sometimes, he saw her do it;

sometimes he didn't."

"Don't they sleep together?" Star asked. "Not in the same bed," I said. "They always had

twin beds separated by a nightstand. He's not there

anymore, of course."

"But even people who don't spend the night in

the same bed can get together long enough to make a

baby," Jade said. "I have friends whose parents even

have separate bedrooms."