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I bent over, clutching my side. I thought I was going to start to vomit.

"Stop it!" she ordered. "Okay, okay," she said when I didn't stop. "I'll keep your stupid secret. Relax. I said I'll keep your secret." She pulled at my shoulder.

I fell back on the pillow. My breathing improved and my lungs stopped aching.

"You're a basket case." She stood there thinking. "Look," she said, stepping up to the bed again. "I don't really care what you and your crazy mother do to yourselves and even to that special child. You can swim in this madness all you want, but you're going to help me from now on. understand? You're going to get her off my back. You're going to take me to see my friends, and you're going to help me get my money, because if you don't, have you committed as well as your mother.

"Now, when you get up in the morning, you find out where she put my clothes and you get them back to me immediately. And from now on, whenever she gives me a stupid chore to do, you do it. Also, were going to town tomorrow night, so get that into your thick skull. You're driving me there. That's what you'll tell her and don't let her say no.

"Don't let her say no to anything I want ever again. Make her understand what will happen if she does. Is that clear? I want to hear you say yes or I'll just start screaming my head off in here. Well?"

"Yes. That's good." She smiled, "This might turn out better than I thought, even better than you thought. For one thing, you don't have to wrap up your boobs for me anymore." She laughed. "Now that we have more in common, I might be a better friend to you than ever." She walked to the door. "Good night. Noble. Or should I say. Celeste?"

She laughed again and slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her. "I told you this would happen," Elliot said.

He crossed the room, and to my utter shack he got into my bed and lay beside me. "Now we can be together again." he said.

He was gone in the morning, but all night long, I was sure I felt his breath on my cheek and my neck.

And his hand holding mine.

18

Betsy Turns the Tables

.

Betsy was already dressed and waiting for me

outside her door by the time I rose in the morning. She had Panther in her arms. His eyes were wide open, and in the morning light flowing through my bedroom windows and out my bedroom door, they looked like two shiny ebony stones glittering under the surface of the clear creek water. Unlike Celeste. Panther didn't usually smile at everyone he saw. Instead, he looked anxious. Most of the time I thought he stared with distrust and anger. I had to wonder how often he had been left alone, left crying his eyes out, hungry and uncomfortable.

"Remember. I want you to find my clothes and return them to me this morning so I can get out of this stupid costume," Betsy said, and started down the stairs. Mama was already downstairs with Baby Celeste.

Panic froze me. How could I do what Betsy wanted? How could I not do it?

I wasn't sure Mama had hidden her clothes in the turret room. but I couldn't think of anywhere else. When I went up to look. I discovered the door was locked. I felt certain of it now because locking the turret door was something. Mama did only when I was in there with Baby Celeste and she didn't want us coming out before the workers doing the rugs and curtains had left. My mind was in turmoil. I was hoping to give Betsy the clothes and then tell Mama she must have found them herself. How was I going to get the key away from Mama or talk her into returning Betsy's clothes without getting Mama angry?

When I went downstairs. I found they were all already at the dining room table. "What took you so long. Noble?" Mama asked. I glanced at Betsy.

"Yes, Noble., why are you so late?" she teased.

"I just didn't realize the time, Mama." She held her gaze on me, then turned back to fixing Baby Celeste's cereal and fruit.

"So tell me." Betsy asked with her eyes mainly on me as soon as Mama took her seat, "how long did you try to find out what happened to Noble's twin sister. Celeste?"

Mama looked up quickly from her mixed-grain cereal. She gave me just a slight glance and then turned to Betsy. "'We've never stopped trying to find out what happened to her."

"Well. I don't understand it. Why don't I ever see her picture on a milk carton or something? You should be calling the police every week and asking what they've been doing."

"What makes you think I didn't and don't still do?" Mania countered.

Betsy shrugged. "You never talk about her. and Noble here never says anything either."

"I think I told you once that it is very painful to relive it all," Mama said.

"What was she doing that day? Weren't you with her all the time. Noble?" Betsy continued as if she was leading the investigation. Her impish smile wasn't lost on me, and the moment I shifted my eyes away from her. I could feel Mama pull herself up.

"That's enough. This isn't a topic I care to discuss with you or have you discuss at my dining table."