"Calla." I knocked on the door to my daughter's room.
"Enter!" she shouted.
I opened the door and entered the very small room that used to be a kitchen. (Our house was built originally so two families could live in it. Calla's room had a sink in it, which Dad had offered to take out but she refused. Why, no one knows.)
Calla set down her hairbrush. "Do you know that Lorraine Billingsly said that you weren't supposed to brush your hair every day?" she asked. "She said it ruins the follicle. Not that I believe her. She uses peroxide to get her hair disgustingly blonde."
Oh boy, I thought. She's in rant mode.
"And then today she annoyed me about working with her for the science competition," Calla continued. "I told her I'd tell her tomorrow. Mom, I won't work with her. She's-"
"I want to talk to you about your father."
She turned pale and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, they were blazing. "There is nothing to talk about. He's estranged," she said coldly. "I have no desire to know about him."
I rubbed my temples.
"He LEFT us," Calla said. "You were pregnant, and poof! Gone. Forever."
I looked at her in disbelief. "Where did you come up with THAT?"
"Grandma," said Calla. "When you were gone, she decided to tell me about how I came to be."
"What did she tell you?" I demanded.
"That after the war, my father sent you a letter saying that he wanted a divorce. You refused, but he insisted. He said that he never wanted to see me." Calla's voice broke. "Do you know how awful that made me feel? At least YOU could have told me, instead of waiting for Grandma to!"
I stood up. "Your grandmother is WRONG. I'll be right back."
As I stormed down the stairs, my hands shook with anger. My mother, picky as she is, had gone too far.
WAY too far.
"Mother!" I shouted.
"Jaclyn, you don't have to holler," said Mother as she walked out of the study.
"I just got done talking with Calla." I crossed my arms. "Tell me exactly what you told her about Hawkeye."
Mother gave me an innocent look. "I didn't tell her anything."
"YES YOU DID!" I took a step forward. "You told her that her father left us, when you know damn well he didn't. I told you about what had happened, and I thought you could comprehend what had happened!"
Mother looked truly stunned. Before she could say anything, Iwent over to the phone and picked it up.
"I've had it," I said.
My dilemnahad suddenly disappeared, and I knew exactly what I had to do.
XXX
"So...he's...you...Korea...aigh. That's the last time I think that Mr. Troey's lecturing on the KoreanWar is boring."
It was ten-thirty at night, and I had finished telling Calla about the Korean War "experience".
"And once again, I apologize for your grandmother," I said."I had a...discussion with her."
"I heard your 'discussion'," Calla said. "Who'd you call on the phone?"
"Joan Aesoph," I told her.
"Isn't she the broker for the Erickson's house?" asked Calla.
I nodded. "Tell me...how would you feel about moving?"
"MOVING?" she shrieked, jumping off her bed and almost catapaulting into the sink. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"I'm glad you like the idea..."My face broke out into a grin. "because we are."
She let out a scream of joy so loud that I swear that Hawkeye heard her in Maine.
A/N: The ME from MD shows up in the next chapter! I promise!