"Finally you pick up!" she said in an exasperated tone. "I need you to come back and be here for the Vasquez party tomorrow night."
"Why on earth would I want to do that?" I asked only slightly stunned that my mother would think that my short absence would erase the way she and my father had treated me.
"Because I'm asking you to," she said without an apology.
"You're a piece of work, you know that, don't you?"
"Adam, look, I don't have time for your hurt feelings or your childish temper tantrums," she continued. I could hear her fingernails clicking as she tapped on something impatiently. "I know your feelings are hurt and you're mad, but this is business, son. You need to hightail it home and be here for the reception tomorrow night."
"Or what?" I asked my voice dripping with contempt.
"Or I will hunt you down and make you pay for your insolence, you ungrateful boy," she hissed. Something about her tone made me shiver. Unlike my father, my mother didn't often issue threats, but when she did, she meant it. "I don't know what little game you're playing down in the hinterland, but I suggest you get yourself back on the road toward home ASAP, son."
"I don't have anywhere to stay," I said adding, "And I don't have anything to wear."
"I've booked you a room at the London House where the event is taking place, and your tux will be pressed and waiting when you arrive," she said without pausing.
"What makes you think I'll show up?" I asked.
"Because I asked you to," she said before disconnecting.
"Bitch," I muttered into the phone knowing she couldn't hear me.
"You don't like your mother, do you?" Honor said making me jump.
"Don't sneak up on me like that!" I shouted as the phone slipped out of my hand and hit the ground. Honor picked it up and handed it to me without saying anything. I took it saying, "It's rude to sneak around."
"Why don't you like your mother?" she asked as she squinted up at me. Her face was streaked with dirt and sweat, and her hair was flying out from under her white cap.
"It's complicated," I said trying to think of a way to explain the situation to her, but the more I thought about it the worse it all sounded. How could I explain my estrangement from my parents to a kid who'd just lost her parents?
"You didn't get along with them," she said.
"Yeah, something like that," I nodded as I wiped the phone off and tucked it in my pants pocket.
"Did they do something mean to you?" she asked. "I used to get really angry at my parents when they'd punish me for something I didn't think was wrong, so I know that feeling."
"It's more complicated than that," I admitted. Honor stared up at me awaiting a real answer, and when I didn't immediately provide one, she sighed heavily and walked toward the front porch.
"You know," she said turning around and shielding her eyes with her hand. "Everyone thinks I'm too young to understand things, but I do understand them. I understand them a lot better than anyone thinks."
"Look, Honor, I'm not trying to avoid your question," I said as I followed her to the porch and sat down on the step next to her. "It's just that I don't know how to explain what happened in my family, and I don't like the way it makes me feel."
"Kind of like how I feel about Mamm and Dat dying?" she asked with a sad, but hopeful look on her face. I debated what to say next and then finally decided that being honest was my best bet.
"I know you're not stupid, but there's stuff about my family that even I don't understand," I said as I tried to explain. "My parents want me to do what they want me to do, not what I want to do. They're angry at me because I'm taking a different path than they planned and it doesn't match the one that they'd already made for me. I think they're partly mad at me, and partly mad at themselves."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," she nodded as she bent forward and brushed some dirt off her foot. "Mamm and Dat wanted me to stay here and be part of the community, but I told them I wanted out. I want to do what Grace did. I don't want to live here my whole life and never see anything or go anywhere."
She looked up at me and when I simply nodded, she continued speaking, "It was hard to convince them that I should be allowed to make my own choices, you know? As Amish, we're taught to do everything for the good of the community, not for ourselves, but I told them that if I was forced to stay and I ended up miserable, that wouldn't help the community, would it?"
"That's a very logical argument," I chuckled. "Maybe I need to take you with me when I go see my parents."
"Maybe you do," Honor said seriously. "English, Grace loves you. I can tell."
"Wait, what?" I said trying not to sound too surprised. "How can you say that, we've only known each other a short time? You can't fall in love with someone you just met."
"Wanna bet?" Honor said. "Verity did it. And Hope and Faith did, too. And Mamm once told me that she fell in love with Dat the day she met him, but that they couldn't get married in second grade, so she waited."