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"Of course," she said. "I'd only be too happy to help you with your future. It's never too late to think about it or too soon."

Betsy looked as if she had taken a step in a direction she didn't really want to go, but later. overhearing Betsy talk on the phone to some girl she had met. I learned the real reason for her considering community college. She had met another guy, Roy Fuller, who was attending the community college, was a star on their basketball team, and according to Betsy, was good-looking and sexy. Apparently, she had already dumped Dirk and was in serious pursuit of Roy Fuller.

Two days later she did enroll in the community college. Her father was more than willing to pay every expense, including buying her a late-model used car. After all, she told him, she had to go back and forth to the college and she couldn't put the burden on "poor Sarah, who has an infant to care for and an herbal farm to operate."

Whenever she was being nice or, in my eyes, conniving, she called Mama Sarah; otherwise, she reverted to addressing her as Mrs. Atwell, especially when her father wasn't present.

"I'm no longer Mrs. Atwell," Mama would calmly tell her. "Your father and I were married."

"Whatever," Betsy would say.

The following week, her father and she went looking for an appropriate car, and they returned with a sporty-looking model in red.

"If you're nice to me. Noble man. IT take you for a ride," she told me after they had brought the car home. It looked spankingly brand-new and had chrome everywhere and real leather seats. "I might even let you take it for a ride. How would you like that?"

"Thanks, but no thanks."

She narrowed her eyes at me, then asked. "Do you have a driver's license?" I looked away.

"You don't, do you? How can you not want to have a driver's license? Its the first thing anyone your age wants, especially boys. You are weird," she charged, as if I were doing her some sort of injury by not wanting a driver's license.

"I want it. I just haven't gotten around to it," I muttered to get her off my back.

"Not gotten around to it! You're too old to be depending on your mommy to drive you around. What is she going to do, pick up your girlfriend for you whenever you decide to have one? That'll be a scene." She laughed at me. "You'll go parking and fool around in the backseat while Mammy sits up front and waits and maybe peeks at you in the rearview mirror."

"Shut up." I finally. said. I had held back any sign of temper until then. "Excuse me? Shut up?"

"Just leave me alone," I begged, and hurried away from her. "Freak!" she screamed after me.

Happily, she was so occupied with herself and her love interests and her new car those first few weeks of our new life together that she rarely paid any attention to me or to Baby Celeste, She wasn't around all that much, rarely ate dinner with us, and always slept too late for breakfast with us, so I didn't have to confront her often. but I could see that she was getting increasingly impatient and annoyed with my deliberate avoidance and disinterest in her and her affairs.

I was really surprised she actually went through with registration for the community college courses and bought the required books and notebooks. She had made promises to her father before and broken them. Why should this be any different? However, she went through with it and made a big show of it all, mostly to please her father.

I noticed Mama was noncommittal about Betsy's new college career. She said nothing positive or negative about it to any of us. When Mr, Fletcher praised Betsy for making an intelligent, albeit longdelayed, good step in her life. Mama sat with a soft smile on her face and occasionally shifted her eyes toward me. Her look gave me the eerie feeling things were still falling in place the way she wanted and the way a higher power had designed. I did not

understand where it was all headed. I was happy about Betsy's decision because I thought it would mean I would have even less contact with her, but other than that. I didn't know what to expect.

Then, one night Betsy surprised us all at dinner, me especially, by suggesting I might follow in her footsteps.

"You could enroll just like I did. You have a high school diploma. You could be in the same classes as I am and I'd take you back and forth until you get your own driver's license. Well?" she demanded. "What do you think of the idea? Its a good one, isn't it?" She pushed me to say yes right then and there.

It threw me into a small panic. I looked at Mama, who sat like Buddha expecting me to come up with a good response and showing me no indication of what she wanted to hear.

"That really isn't such a bad idea." Mr. Fletcher said. "What do you think. Sarah?"

"When Noble is ready for it, he'll tell us,," she finally said.

"Why isn't he ready for it?" Betsy challenged. She turned back to me. "You can't just hang around here for the rest of your life nursing plants and being a babysitter."

I didn't respond, which frustrated her. She shook her head and looked to Mama. "He's not retarded, is he?" she asked.

Mama smiled, "Hardly. In fact, Im sure you'll be asking him to help you with your homework,"

Betsy reddened. "Well, if he's that smart, why isn't he interested in doing something with himself?"

Mama looked lovingly at me. "Noble is a very special young man. He has more than just some book knowledge. He achieved very high grades on all of his exams and he knows he can do whatever he wants when he wants to do it, but he has something else, too."

"What's that?" Betsy inquired with a smirk.