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He put his arm around me.

"You all right?"

"Yes," I said.

"Hungry, too?"

I wasn't. but I nodded.

He kissed me on the cheek and we entered the house together.

Mommy was waiting in the hallway. She and I looked at each other.

"Summer?" she said.

"I'm okay," I said. "And hungry. too."

"Everything's ready," Mrs. Geary called from the dining room doorway.

Daddy kept his arm around my shoulders as we followed Mommy down the hallway.

The air was so thick with our troubled thoughts, it was hard to breathe, much less sit at the table and have a normal dinner. Daddy tried to get some conversation going by talking about the clubs and some personnel problems. Mommy listened but her eyes swung to me often as she searched my face for some hint about my feelings. I tried to avoid her gaze, which was enough to confirm her fears.

Afterward. I excused myself as quickly as I could and went upstairs to sleep. When I slipped under my blanket, I closed my eyes and in seconds, fell asleep.

I never heard anyone come up the stairs. Later. Daddy told me he had come up to look in on me a number of times. I awoke suddenly at nearly four in the morning. For a while I was very confused. There was a split second or two when I hoped and thought everything that had happened was just a nightmare. I hadn't even gone to music camp yet.

The illusion was short-lived, of course. I sat up, wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. I was very tired. but I didn't feel like falling back to sleep. Even though I had forced myself to eat Mrs. Geary's wonderful dinner. I was still hungry. I decided to go down and get a glass of milk and maybe have some bread and jelly.

The upstairs hall light was dim as was the downstairs hall light. The house itself was sleepy quiet, my parents' bedroom door closed. The carpeted steps kept my descent a secret. I made my way to the kitchen quickly and began to fix my snack. I was almost finished eating when I heard the distinct sound of Mommy's elevator chair. I sat there listening to the click of metal and then the soft sound of her wheelchair moving down the hallway.

She was in her nightgown, her hair dawn,

"I thought you might have gone down for something," she said smiling. "I haven't been able to sleep much. On and off all night." she continued. "Daddy took a sleeping pill and he's snoring away. Are you all right?""

"Yes."

"Would you pour me a glass of milk, too?"

I rose and quickly did it. She came to the breakfast table and I handed her the glass of milk. She sipped some and peered at me over the glass.

"Why did you run away from us like that earlier. honey?"

"I don't know," I said quickly.

"How long were you standing there?"

"A while."

She nodded, paused, drank some more of her milk and looked at me.

"Uncle Roy didn't want to live here so close to us, you know."

"Yes."

"I was so used to having him nearby, watching over me when I was younger. After he and Glenda married. I thought it was fine, everything would be fine. Sometimes. I think life is like a stream of water making its way over land and it runs into one obstacle and starts to flow in another direction. Once it gets moving again. it doesn't think about where it had been going.

"I guess that's just wishful thinking." She shook her head at my look of confusion. What did all that mean? "I'm babbling. I'm tired." she said. "Sorry."