CHAPTER 14: Mary Anne
Logan and I went to Burger King for lunch on Friday afternoon. All through lunch and on the way home, we hardly said a word, unless we were talking about the good news we'd gotten about Karen's condition. The rest of the time, I was worrying about whether or not Dawn had told Dad and Sharon about her and Sunny.
You see, a few days ago, Dawn told me that ever since she'd moved back to California for good, she and Sunny had become more than just friends, and that she was bi. I still remember the look on her face when she told me. It was the same look I'd had when Dad showed up at the first-grade Mother's Day tea party, after I'd already invited Mimi. The only difference was, the look on her face was a hundred times worse.
I told her that she'd eventually have to tell Dad and Sharon. If she did tell them, I wondered how they'd taken it.
When we got home, the first thing we saw was Sharon sitting on the couch with her arms folded and her head hanging down. Dad was beside her with his arms around her. "Hi," I said, a touch of uneasiness in my voice.
Sharon looked up. I could tell by her red eyes that she'd been crying. "Hi, Mary Anne; hi, Logan," she said calmly. However, I knew that she was seconds away from starting up again. "How's your friend? Karen, right?"
"Mm-hm."
"We got a call from Kristy this morning," Logan said. "Karen can see again, and best of all, she only needs her reading glasses from now on."
"That's wonderful," Sharon said.
Dad nodded in agreement. "I guess you could say that the accident was a blessing in disguise, huh?"
Logan and I nodded. Dad really hit the nail on the head with that one.
"Listen, is Dawn still here?" I asked, changing the subject.
"She's asleep," Sharon answered. "She and Sunny are going back to New York early tomorrow morning."
Logan and I sat down on the loveseat, which was on the right side of the couch at a 90-degree angle. "So, uh—did she tell you?" I whispered. Part of it was so that Dawn wouldn't hear us, but most of it was because I was bracing myself for what was coming next.
"Yes," Sharon answered. She was pretty calm, but I could see the tears in her eyes, and when she closed them, they cascaded down her face.
"Are—are you all right?" I wanted to know. I really did want to know, and as Dawn's stepsister, I felt that I had a right to know.
"Yes, I'm all right, honey," Sharon answered. "We both are. It's just that...well, you know..."
"No, I'm afraid I don't," I admitted. If they were all right with Dawn's bisexuality and her relationship with Sunny, then why was Sharon crying?
"We're just concerned with Dawn's welfare, that's all," Dad explained. "You see, both of us have friends who are either gay, trans, or bisexual, and they've told us how they've been treated by other people. Some had even been avoided or discriminated against by members of their own families. And believe me, Sharon and I love Dawn just the same, but the thought of her and Sunny enduring this sort of treatment from others really scares us."
"I know what you mean," Logan said. "I felt the same way when I found out my brother had come out. Even now, I still worry about his safety, and how the other kids at school treat him. The one thing that scares me more than anything else is the thought of him getting beaten up, or worse, because of it."
I looked away, fighting the sobs that were gnawing at my throat. The thought of that sweet, gentle kid being the victim of a mugging, a beating, or God knows what else, really scared me. I could only imagine how awful it must be for Logan.
"Are you sure you're all right?" I asked, somehow managing to keep my voice steady.
Dad nodded. "Even though we're concerned about Dawn and Sunny, we won't treat them any differently," he said.
I was glad to hear this. Yes, it was something that we'd have to deal with, and yes, it was going to be hard. Dawn was still family, though. We loved her, and she loved us, and that should hopefully lighten the burden a little.
