Broken Flower (Early Spring 1)

Mr. Pitts smiled at him. "Thank you. Appreciate it. It's the finest cabin on the lake as far as I'm concerned."

"That it is," Daddy said, looking up at the cabin. It had a small porch with a swing seat on it and two hickory wood rockers. He glanced at Mama, who was just staring at him now, and then hurried to the bags. Ian had his two out. Mr. Pitts dug out the others and we all headed for the short, wooden stairway.

Mama stood in the doorway for a moment looking over the living room. The wooden floor had a large red and black checker wool area rug.

Grandmother Emma had at least been the one to decorate and furnish the cabin in rich, rustic furnishings, including quilts on the walls, cast-iron lamps, a split log mantel, and a stairway with the steps built out of split logs, too. She included rustic leather furnishings like the grizzly bear leather chair and ottoman. The small bar had western iron bar stools with tooled leather seats. Above the family room was a large chandelier made of elk antlers, which Daddy said cost as much as all the furnishings. Apparently, Grandmother Emma agreed to the cabin only if she could decorate it her way.

Ian and I both had queen-size beds in our rooms upstairs. We had warm bedding, reversible

comforters, and pillow shams.

His was in hunter green and mine was light khaki with maroon. There were nightstand lamps also made of antlers and both our bedrooms had centered chandeliers that were shaped like pine cones. My windows looked out on the rear of the property and Ian's more to the north side. From the porch we could see the lake.

Somehow, this time it all looked more promising to me. Maybe it would be good for us here. Maybe we would become the family I knew Mama wanted us to be.

Was it possible?

Or was it just another dream to lose in the morning?

9 At the Cabin

. It took two trips to get everything we brought into the house. Mama checked the refrigerator and the kitchen panty and told Daddy we had to go shopping for food immediately. He wanted to go after we had gone to dinner, but she thought we'd be tired and not very enthusiastic about going to a supermarket.

"You're right about that, Carol. The one thing I'm not looking forward to seeing is another supermarket," he said, and groaned.

"Then I'll just go myself," she said. I offered to go with her. Ian was already outside exploring. I imagined he was hoping to find a hive of wasps or bees. Last year he had and spent all his time studying their movement and activity, writing about it in his journal and even making little drawings. He won a science project award for it in school.

Daddy quickly agreed to Mama and me going alone. He decided he would go to the dock to check on the boat with Mr. Pitts. Minutes later, my mother and I were off to shop. When we returned. Daddy was still not back and Ian was nowhere in sight either.

"Figures, neither male would be here to carry in the groceries," Mama remarked. That took us two trips, too.

I helped her put things away and then she went up to unpack her and Daddy's things and put them in closets and drawers. She said she would help me with mine, but I should get some air and look for Ian to tell him to unpack his things. I went out front and called for him a few times and then I wandered around to the rear of the cabin. Finally. I saw him coming out of the woods. He looked very excited.

"Where were you?" I asked as he walked toward me.

"I was looking for a carnivorous pitcher plant. They live on insects. I read about Sarracenia purpurea being found up here and went looking for some bogs. I kept walking and walking until I was on the other side of the woods and found myself in the state park. They've opened up more of it for camping and I met this girl who knows more about plants than I do. She's sixteen." He paused. "She thinks I'm sixteen, too, so don't tell her I'm only thirteen. Her name's Flora and that's no accident. Her parents have a nursery in Albany, New York. She's not very pretty," he added, "but she knows a lot about flowers. But here's the best thing," he added, "she and her brother Addison saw a black bear yesterday. We're going to go look for it tomorrow. Addison's fifteen, but he's already six feet two. Very skinny. Flora says he grew like a weed."

I stood there with my mouth slightly open. I had never heard Ian go on and on about anyone like this.

"They're here for another few weeks," he said.

"Oh," he added,

"I didn't find the Sarracenia purpurea, but Flora says she thinks she knows where to look. She also claims to have a great butterfly collection. I didn't see it yet, but she seems to know what she's talking about."

"Mama wanted me to find you and tell you to go unpack." "What's the rush? We're here for a while, aren't we?"

Again. I was surprised. Ian was always so concerned about being organized and set up.

"Ah, it's too late to do much more today anyway and Flora had to go with her parents to visit someone." He started for the cabin, stopped, and then turned back to me. "By the way, Jordan, plants can be precocious, too."

"They can?"

"And there's sweet corn that's known as precocious,'" he added, and continued toward the house.

I ran after him.

"How come you never told me that before?" I asked him. He kept walking. "Ian?"