“Really, Semantha, I strongly doubt your father noticed or knew.” She thought a moment. “Unless you told him. Did you?”
“No.”
“Good, because I don’t think he would be comfortable hearing about it, or any female problems, as far as that goes. You just talk to me if you have any, okay?”
I nodded.
“I’ll bring you the drink, and then you should take a shower and move around to get your blood circulating.”
“Thank you, Cassie. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head and left. I lay there struggling with my memory. Why didn’t I remember drinking so many glasses of wine? Was what I saw and felt in my dream really my own sexual fantasies, as she had said? My legs ached a little, and when I peeled away my blanket to look at myself, I saw what looked like a thin scratch on my right thigh. There was something else that confused me. The bedsheet was different from the one I had put on the bed. I felt pretty sure about this, because the one I had put on had some frills at the edges.
The first thing I asked Cassie when she returned with the hangover drink was, “Did I throw up?”
“Yes,” she said. “Don’t get me started. I had to wash you down and change your bedsheet. Fortunately, not the blanket. You don’t remember any of that?”
“No,” I said.
“Just drink this and forget about it for now. Take that shower and get dressed. Go outside and get some fresh air. Put some color back in your cheeks.”
“What about Porter?”
“What about him?”
“Is he … are you going to see him again?”
“We’ll see,” she said. “I don’t throw myself at men, Semantha. It takes a while to see what someone is really like. That’s why I was always trying to get you to go slowly, especially with that Kent. Now that you’ve seen a man like Porter, you can understand the difference, at least, can’t you? Well?”
“Kent’s only a high-school boy. He’s not as old as Porter Andrew Hall.”
“Makes no difference. You either have something of quality in you or you don’t. Never mind all of this for now. We’ll talk about it again when it’s time. Finish the drink.”
I did, and she took the empty glass. She stared at me a moment.
“What?”
“I want you to start taking some vitamins, Semantha. Mother never believed in them, because we always ate so well, but there are nutrients you can’t get from the food we buy and eat. There’s too much processing. I’ll get some for you tomorrow.”
“You don’t take vitamins.”
“I’m going to start. We’ll start together,” she said. She smiled. “Like sisters should, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
She left again, and I went to take a shower, dress, and go outside as she had prescribed. Although it made me feel better, I was still very confused and disappointed in how little I could remember. I tried so hard that it hurt my head again, so I stopped and went in to complete the homework Mrs. Underwood had assigned for the weekend. That wasn’t easy. It was hard to read with a dull, pounding pain above my eyes, but I managed to get most of it done by the time Daddy came home.
I was nervous when he saw me, but he was so interested in Cassie’s dinner for Porter Andrew Hall that he didn’t pay all that much attention to me. I suppose I should have been happy about that, but I was also jealous of the interest he took in whatever Cassie did as compared with whatever I did, even if it wasn’t something of which I should be proud. Was this the sibling rivalry Mother described, only in me instead of Cassie?
To keep him from asking too many more questions, she began to fire questions at him about his trip, and before long, they were into a detailed discussion about the Heavenstone Stores. I didn’t have much of an appetite at dinner, but I was afraid that might attract Daddy’s attention, so I forced myself to eat as much as I always did. As soon as I could, I pretended I still had lots of homework to do and excused myself.
“Semantha,” Daddy called as I started toward the stairway.
“Yes, Daddy?”
“You didn’t tell me your opinion of our Porter Andrew Hall.”