“You’ve had one terrible, terrible day. I’m sure you felt alone and frightened for much of it. You wondered how the people who loved you would react. You worried about being hated, about their anger, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“Just remember, you’re always safe here and always loved here and always part of this great family. We might not approve of everything each of us does, but we’ll never betray or desert each other, never. Go to sleep knowing I’m here for you and I will protect you as I would myself.” She leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. Then she brought her lips to my ear and whispered, “We’re the Heavenstones.”
I said nothing. I watched her rise slowly and practically float out of the room, turning in the doorway to smile at me and flip off my light the way Mother would before she closed the door softly and left me, only feeling not safe and secure but confused in the darkness.
The following morning, Cassie made a startling declaration to Daddy and me. It rang like that of someone who was putting herself on a hunger strike.
“I’ve decided that as long as Semantha is prohibited from attending school, I will not attend, either,” she announced.
It took Daddy by complete surprise. He looked up from his coffee and his newspaper, and for a moment seemed at a loss for words. “Do you think that’s wise, Cassie? I mean, you could fall behind in your work. No sense in both of you having so much to make up, is there?”
“First, I’m so far ahead of everyone else in all of my classes, I could stay home for the remainder of the year and go in to take my finals. Second, we’re the Heavenstone sisters, Daddy. We support each other always.”
“Well, loyalty is admirable. I can’t deny that.” He thought a moment and then smiled. “I guess I have my work cut out for me this morning when I meet with your principal.”
“He’s no match for you, Daddy,” Cassie said. “His biggest accomplishment has been getting a new bulletin board for the building.”
Daddy laughed. “Okay, girls. You sit tight. I’ll call you when my meeting is finished.”
I didn’t know what to say. If I told Cassie she shouldn’t stay home, she would get angry. I was sure of that. It was better simply to show her appreciation. I thanked her.
“You don’t have to thank me, Semantha. I am sure you’ll be as loyal to me when the time comes, if it should come,” she said.
“Oh, yes,” I told her, even though it gave me the feeling I had just signed my name in blood. I was still thinking about how she had behaved in my room the night before.
When Daddy left, we went right to work on the house. She said she would do his office, wash the floors and windows, dust and polish. She wouldn’t permit me to do anything in there, and when she did do the office, that took most of the day. She pulled every volume off the shelves and
dusted each one as well as the shelves. Daddy always complimented her on how she had turned his office from a mess into a picture-perfect workplace.
Maybe because I was so nervous, I worked even harder than Cassie and lost track of time. I was doing the inside windows in the living room when Daddy returned. Cassie had heard him before I did and was there to greet him. They were both standing in the living-room doorway.
“Okay,” Daddy said. “You’re returning to school tomorrow, Semantha. You are on probation, which means you can’t do anything like you did to that girl. If anyone bothers you, you are to go right to the principal, understand?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“I’ve got to get to the office and then to the hospital. Maybe you two can go with me tonight,” he said.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
“I know you’re a good girl, Semantha, and this was just an unfortunate incident. Carry on, you two,” he said, and left.
I sat on the sofa, a little dazed and feeling just how hard and intensely I had been working. Cassie returned from seeing Daddy off. She stood smiling at me.
“Well, now, didn’t I tell you Daddy would do it? Hastings probably wilted like a flower in his presence. Daddy could have been a great lawyer, a great anything. I have no doubt in my mind that one of these days, they’ll come around to ask him to run for governor.”
“Really?”
“Of course, really.” She stopped smiling. “We can’t go with him to the hospital, however.”
“Even now?”
“Especially now. Have you forgotten what I told you? She’ll just dwell on our sympathy and languish in that place for weeks.”
“But what will we say to Daddy?”
“We’ll both be too exhausted from the work and the emotional roller coaster. In fact, neither of us will have much of an appetite at dinner. Eat something before so you really aren’t hungry. I’ll do the same. He won’t insist or be disappointed, and he’ll have to say something to Mother. She’ll see he’s not telling her the whole truth, and she’ll get herself together to get out of there and home.”