Into the Woods (DeBeers 4)

"And another thing." Penny said, moving closer to put her face into mine. "if you go around telling people Autumn did what she did because of what we said, we'll make you sorrier than Autumn.

"You know." she added, stepping back with her hands on her hips and wagging her head. "families that can't get along with other families in the naval community usually get transferred to another base and one not as nice. My father has a lot to say about that."

I felt the blood rush to my face. The last thing I wanted to do was to make trouble for Daddy,

"Just watch yourself," Wendi warned, and they both turned and left me trembling in the girls' room.

I avoided them for the rest of that day and most of the week that followed. I made some other friends, none of whom was in the naval community. Some wondered what was wrong with Autumn and why she wasn't attending school, but I pretended I was too new to know who she was. By the end of the week, however, Mommy told me she was doing better, and her mother had said that if I wanted to visit her. I could, Her parents had decided to keep her home until her wrists had mended and she had undergone some therapy. However, a visit by me was fine.

I wasn't all that anxious to do it. I wasn't sure what I would say to her. Daddy sensed it and told me that if I didn't want to go. I didn't have to.

"I do feel sorry for her, though. Daddy," I told him.

He nodded. "I'm glad you're a compassionate person. Grace. It's a nice quality to have. Your grandmother Houston was like that," he said, and told me mare about her, her involvement with charities, her volunteer work helping the homeless. She had even been written up in newspapers. and I had seen the articles with the picture of this kindly-looking, elderly but elegant lady serving food in a makeshift kitchen an some city street, but I had never met her. She had died before I was born. My grandfather had also been in the Navy. He was a chief warrant officer. He had served during the Korean War and just recently had passed away, too.

Like me, my daddy had been an only child, but I knew he and Mommy often talked about having another child. The moving around had made Mommy neryous, and from the little I had garnered from their conversations. I understood that she had been unable to get pregnant and they had stopped trying for a while. What made it difficult for one woman to get pregnant while another got pregnant the first time she and her husband tried was still a bit of a mystery to me. I also thought it was ironic that someone like Autumn, who shouldn't have been pregnant, was, and someone like Mommy, who should have been and had wanted to be pregnant. wasn't.

Daddy made me feel less neryous about visiting Autumn, assuring me that she was probably hungry for some company her own age, so after dinner. I walked over to her home. Her sister greeted me at the door,

"Oh, you." she said. "I thought we'd never see you again after the last time," she said. "Not that I would blame you." she added.

"I didn't want to come until your mother said it was all right," I said.

"Right. Like it will ever be all right. Come in. She's in her room staring at the ceiling and feeling stupid, I'm sure," she said. "I don't mean to sound hard and unfeeling," she added when she saw the expression on my face. "but when you do something like this, you should think about the people you are hurting beside yourself. I mean, like, this sort of thing doesn't help my father's career and doesn't make things easier for my mother or for me!"

All I could do was nod, thinking this was a home in which sympathy was a rare guest,

"You know where the room is. There's a new door-jamb," she made sure to tell me as I headed for it.

Then she returned to her own room.

I knocked on Autumn's door. Who is it?" I heard.

"It's me. Grace," I said. I held my breath when there was a long pause. Would she refuse to see me? A part of me hoped so. I looked back to see if Caitlin was watching, but there was no one in the hallway, and the house was quiet. I wondered where her mother was and how she was able to take all this sadness.

"Come in," Autumn finally said.

Just as Caitlin had described, she was in her bed. I saw the television remote by her side, but the television was not turned on.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Fine," she replied, as if she had suffered nothing more than a bad cold. She sat forward quickly. "What do you think of the school? Who did you make friends with? Did you see Trent Ralston? Don't you think he's good-looking? Who's your favorite teacher? I like Madeo. He is so dramatic in English class, right? Oh, and don't you just hate Mrs. Couter, the principal? Everyone calls her Mrs. Cooties. right?

"Well?" she concluded, finally taking a breath.

"I don't know what to answer first." I said. laughing.

She scrunched her nose and pulled in her lips. "Are they talking about me? I bet Wendi is. and Penny, right?"

"No, not really." I said. She looked skeptical. Then she looked down at the bed and turned her hands palms up. Her wrists were still bandaged. "It's more my mother's fault anyway," she said.

Your mother's fault? Why?"

"She had to go and tell Claudia Spencer, the base big mouth. She just had to confide in someone: she just had to. It was festering inside her like a big boil in her heart. That's what she told me. Would your mother do that? Well, would she?"

I shook my head,

"I don't know." I said.