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Before I could reply, there was a knock on the door and then Agnes poked her head in.

"There's a phone call for Dawn," she said.

"A phone call?" I looked at Trisha.

"I forgot to tell you that we don't permit phone calls after seven o'clock at night, unless it's a dire emergency or it has something to do with the school. Since this call is long distance, I made an exception and said I would get you," Agnes said. "You can take it in the sitting room."

"Is it my mother?" I asked getting out my bathrobe slowly.

"No. It's someone called Jimmy," she said.

"Jimmy!" I hurried past her and bounced down the steps to the sitting room to scoop up the receiver. "Jimmy!"

"Hi, Dawn. How are you? I hope I didn't get you in trouble by calling this late. The lady who answered sounded upset."

"No, it's all right. How are you?"

"I'm great. I've got some big news to tell you and since I've got

to leave tomorrow, I thought I'd better try to phone."

"Leave tomorrow? Where are you going?"

"I've enlisted in the army, Dawn. I'm going to boot camp tomorrow," he said firmly.

"The army! But what about school?"

"The recruiting officer explained how I can get my high school diploma while I'm in the army, and I'll learn a skill I can use when I get out."

"But Jimmy . . . the army . . ." I paused, my heart racing as I recalled that helpful soldier at the airport, the one who had reminded me of Jimmy. Had that been an omen, a prophecy?

"It's all right, Dawn. It will be good for me. I want to be on my own and not passed from one foster home to another." Jimmy's voice rang with determination.

"But Jimmy, when will I see you?" I cried.

"Right after boot camp, I'll get a leave and come to New York to see you. I promise. There's no one else for me to see anyway, no one else I care about but you, Dawn," he said softly. The image of his sweet face flashed before me, his dark eyes shimmering, crying out for the love we both had thought was forbidden between us. Now that we knew it wasn't, we were like infants learning how to walk, tottering and stumbling along, searching for the right words, the right way to act toward each other. After years and years of living as a brother and sister, it was so difficult to cast off those identities and put on new ones.

"I miss you, Jimmy," I said. "More than ever now that I'm in New York. It's so big and scary."

"Don't worry, Dawn. I'll be there before you know it and I know you're going to do well."

"I've already made a friend, my roommate, Trisha Kramer. She's very nice. You're going to like her."

"See? I knew it."

"But Jimmy, you should try to find Daddy, especially now that you're going into the army. He needs you, Jimmy. I hate to think of him coming out of that horrible prison and being all alone. He doesn't have Momma; he doesn't have Fern; and he doesn't have you."

There was a silence between us.

"Jimmy?"

"I've written him a letter," Jimmy confessed.

"Oh Jimmy, I'm so glad."

"I did it mostly because you wanted me to," he said, putting a manly gruffness into his voice.

"That makes me happy, Jimmy, to know you did something nice because of me," I said softly.