Page 141
"Hurry and get well," I told him.
Roy remained behind with him. and Daddy and Mommy and I returned home.
It had never been so wonderful to set foot in my own house, my own room, to breathe the air, to see the flowers and the lake and hear Mrs. Geary's lecture about being foolish. I even enjoyed her pressure to make me eat everything, every single drop. Of course. I couldn't. It took a while for my appetite to return. but I had no doubts that it would.
Mommy hovered around me even more than usual. It was funny. I thought, how now she was the one nervous about my health, my illnesses, my every cough and sneeze. Roles had been reversed, at least for a while.
My grandparents came to visit. Even Aunt Alison showed up and looked genuinely impressed. When everyone left us, however. she told me she was impressed for different reasons.
"I never thought you had the guts to do something like that. I always thought you were a Daddy's littlegirl."
"It doesn't take guts to do something stu
pid. Aunt Alison." "Just think of it as an adventure." she said. "That's what I do."
"Are you happier because of that?" I shot back at her.
She glared at me for a moment.
"You know, you're just like your mother," she said.
"Thank you."
"Oh forget it," she cried, throwing her hands up and changing the subject to tell me about this young doctor she had met and begun to date.
When I asked her if she loved him, she thought a moment and said. "I wouldn't know if I did.'
She looked very sad and for the first time. I think I truly felt sorry for her. It was almost like never being able to taste anything or hear beautiful music Or smell the flowers in spring. She was incapable of being truly, deeply happy. She was being honest. She wouldn't recognize love. Something was missing and she knew it and mourned it and was bitter because of it.
Mommy had lost the use of her legs, but she wasn't nearly as bitter or unhappy, I thought.
Yes, thank you. Thank you for comparing me to her. I concluded.
When Harley returned, he was supposed to take it easy, but he was restless and didn't sit still or relax.
"I did enough of that in the hospital,'" he complained when everyone chastised him.
Uncle Roy tried to be gruff again, but his confessions and his revelation of love seemed to have taken the hardness out of him and Harley knew it. All he would do is smile at him.
"The boy's stubborn through and through." Uncle Roy told Mommy. "Headstrong, even after all this. He didn't learn a thing."
"He's more like you than you care to admit. Roy Arnold," Mommy told him. "There is something stronger than blood."
He looked at her.
"And what's that. Rain?"
"Love," she said. "Love."
Their eyes locked. How many, many memories flowed between them-- good ones as well as all the bad, all the straggles, all the tears and vet all the smiles, for there had to be happy times.
The way they spoke about Momma Arnold clearly made me think that was so.
The last days of summer were upon us quickly. Harley had been granted admittance to another college, one in Rhode Island. It was a four-year school and it had the program in architecture he wanted. He and Uncle Roy asked Daddy's advice and together they all agreed Harley would attend.
My heart was asked to be so many things the day Harley left for school. It was asked to be full of pride for him, to be happy for him and his
opportunity, but it couldn't help thumping with sadness. We wouldn't see each other for a long time.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141 (Reading here)
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144