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"I've got to go. They've already removed me from school here.'

"But--"

"He even suggested he might send me to a military school if I don't cooperate."

"Oh, Clarence."

"Maybe you can come up to Brooks once in a while. It's only about two and a half-hours' drive. I'll call you whenever I can, too. I can take my computer. Maybe we can e-mail each other every day."

"My grandmother did this," I groaned.

"I never saw my father as angry or afraid of anything or anyone,"

I was quiet. I didn't know what to say. Who could I turn to for help and sympathy? My father? Hardly. I couldn't tell Mommy about this yet. I had to give her a chance to fully recover. Never did I feel as trapped and alone. I held the receiver to my ear. but Clarence was becoming fainter and fainter, a voice drifting away, a face diminishing, a memory thinning until it was nearly impossible to revive. He was on a boat floating into the darkness.

"I'm sorry," was all I could offer.

"I'll call as soon as I can," was his weak and despondent reply.

When I hung up. I felt as if I had closed my last window and was shut up in a room with no door.

"Cinnamon!" I heard Grandmother shout up the stairs. "Set the table. It's getting late."

You have no idea how late it is. Grandmother. I thought. No idea.

I decided to say nothing about Clarence at dinner. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing she had succeeded in getting exactly what she intended. Daddy was buoyant when he returned. He knew about Mommy's recovery, of course, and talked about how we were going to make things pleasant for her when she came home.

"When she's stronger, we can think about a nice little holiday, perhaps. In the spring. She's always wanted to go to Disney World. What do you think?"

"Ridiculous," Grandmother Beverly said. "Adults wanting to go to a children's playland.'

"It's not only for children. Besides, the child in you never should die," Daddy countered.

I raised my eyebrows. It was rare to see or hear him disagree with her.

"You'll like it too. Mom." he said.

"Me? You want me to go to Disney World?"

"Why not? You'd be surprised at how you would enjoy it."

"Surprised for sure," she said.

He turned to me. smiling. "I spoke with Mommy late today and she told me you said you were going out for the school play."

"Maybe," I said.

"It would

make her happy," he told me.

I glared at him.

"I know what makes her happy and what doesn't. Daddy. I know better than anyone."

His smile held, but lost its glow.

"Sure you do. Cinnamon. I know that." He glanced at Grandmother Beverly.