I slept fitfully, dreaming of a cliff of some sort, and Crane behind me somewhere calling to me to not fall over it. Weird. At breakfast, I answered the
'good mornings' tossed my way, and, instead of eating from the platter of eggs, I poured myself a bowl of cereal. Cheerios. Which they are not the most sugary
of cereals, but still-
Hannah gave my bowl a quick glance, but said nothing. Crane, though, he did.
"Eggs on the stove, peanut," he told me, as I sat down with my bowl of Cheerios in my chair at the table.
"I feel like cereal today," I said, briefly.
I concentrated on my eating, and drinking my coffee, and finished without having any much conversation with anybody else. At one point, Hannah
reached over and covered my hand with hers, and sort of gave it a pat. I met her eyes over the top of my coffee cup and she smiled at me. I knew
it was her way of showing support. Or sympathy. Or whatever. Sort of like Adam had the night before in the kitchen. And, I appreciated it. I did.
It was nice and all that. Still-what good did it do me? I knew that wasn't the right attitude to have, but I just couldn't help it right then.
I put my bowl and cup in the sink, and pushed in my chair, and went towards the living room to gather up my backpack and stuff.
I was checking to make sure I had work clothes in there for Ivy's, and my snacks from Hannah, when Adam came thru, on his way
out to the front porch, coffee cup in hand.
"Better get a move on," he told me.
"I am," I said, as Adam went on out to the porch, the screen flapping closed behind him.
I had my back to the kitchen entryway, so I didn't hear him behind me until he said something, and I turned to see him, sitting there,
on the arm of the sofa.
"Harlie."
Like I said, I hadn't heard him come up behind me, and I turned, and he was sitting on the arm of the couch, just a couple of feet from me. Brian.
I looked at him, quiet, in surprise for a moment. Wondering what he wanted.
"I've been thinkin'," he said. "And-I don't wanna be unfair to you. So-you can go to the dance Saturday with Kenny."
I was so shocked that I held my backpack against my chest, and stared at him. "Really?" I asked, hardly believing it.
He nodded. "Yeah."
"Thank you," I managed. "Dinner, too? With Guthrie and Kristen, and Kenny?"
"Yeah. Dinner, too."
"Thank you," I said, again. I clutched my backpack tighter against me. I was curious, really curious, about why he'd changed his mind. But, I didn't
want to ask.
"It's been planned, like you said, and I know it's important to you. I figure as how I was bein' too harsh," Brian said.
I was still staring at him, wide-eyed. Shocked.
"That doesn't mean that you're totally off the hook," he said. "You can give up your Sunday afternoon with Kenny, and I'll likely have
some extra chores for you to do."
That was it? I still couldn't believe my good fortune. Or his change-around.
"I appreciate it, Bri," I said, sincerely. "I really do."
He nodded in acceptance of what I said.
"Don't make me sorry for doin' this," he said.
"I won't ever say anything like what I said again," I promised.
"You need to take better care of yourself with your diabetes, too," he said. "And-work harder on your grades. Don't make me
regret being too soft."
"I won't," I said, with fervor. He raised an eyebrow at me in question, and I amended my answer to, "I mean-I won't make you regret
doing this. And, I will work harder and watch out for my diabetes stuff."
"Okay. Fair enough," Brian said, and stood up.
I thought about giving him a hug, but before I could, he patted my cheek and turned back towards the kitchen. "Have a good one," he said, as
he walked away.
"You, too," I told him.
7
I told Kenny about it before first hour, when we met up at my locker. Kenny, not surprisingly, looked stunned. Both-at Brian's
declaration of me missing the dance, and also at his then withdrawal of said penalty.
"Wow," he said, taking it all in.
"Yeah." I leaned down to retrieve my anatomy book. "He did say you couldn't come over on Sunday, though."
"Yeah, okay," Kenny said. "I mean-that's better than losin' Saturday night, right?"
"Right," I said, in agreement. "I don't know why he changed his mind. Maybe Clare said something."
"Maybe. Whatever it was, I'm glad," Kenny said, and gave my hand a squeeze. "See ya at lunch time," he said.
"See you," I echoed.
7
That moment with Kenny was the brightest moment of my entire school morning. Trigonometry class was a bust. It reminded me of
last school year when I'd been almost failing algebra with Miss George, and not understanding one word of her droning instruction. Maybe Mrs.
William's voice didn't have the same annoying whine to it as Miss George's did-but the feeling was the same. I just didn't understand what she was talking about.
It might as well have been Greek she was speaking. We were in the second nine weeks of first semester, so of course there was
new material to learn. I cursed whoever first thought up all these stupid equations or whatever, and pretended to listen while
thinking instead about Saturday night.
7
When I was driving to the veterinary office for work, my mind was on other things, still. Not so much the dance right now, as
the offensive quiz paper laying in the truck seat beside me. The one from anatomy class. The one from the day before. The one
with the big red D- on it.
7
Once I got to the office, I went in and found Ivy, and then changed my clothes, like always. We got busy cleaning out the stalls
from the boarded horses, and then I helped while she gave some shots to the two puppies that Mrs. Croan brought in.
I was snuggling with one of the puppies, and Mrs. Croan was telling me about where she'd gotten them at. From a breeder a couple
of hours away. Pure bred collie pups. They were truly beautiful, and I kept my mouth shut. But, I couldn't help thinking of all the
dogs in all the overflowing shelters. I only murmured appropriately how beautiful the pups were, and when she encouraged me to
go and see the litter mates that were left, I said, "Adam and Brian wouldn't be happy. We have four dogs already."
"Four dogs is certainly a lot," that lady agreed.
Ivy sent me on my way promptly at four again. I hated it that it felt she was watching the clock now, making sure I didn't stay
one minute past four. I tried to tell her that it didn't mean I had to leave on the very dot of four-a couple of minutes wouldn't matter,
but she shook her head, and said, for her, very firmly, "I don't want to do anything to make Adam or Crane or anyone else upset with me. Four is
when you're supposed to head out, so I want to stick to that."
I guess I looked as though I felt bad about her words, because she said, quickly, "Harlie, you're too important to me around here. I
just want to follow the way things are set up. Okay?"
I told her okay, and then I asked her about what classes she'd found most difficult in school. That was the topic of conversation for
the rest of the afternoon, while I helped her clean up and put away supplies. Once I was on the drive home, my eyes kept landing on
that stupid anatomy quiz paper. I reached out with one hand and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it to the floor of the truck.
"Bat shit," I said. "Damn, damn, damn." That felt so good that I shouted out loud, "Damn! Damn! Damn!" as loud as I could.
7
I did my chores at home, and then went into the house. I deposited my bag on the couch, and said hello to Hannah in the
kitchen, getting a big glass of water and downing it quickly.
Hannah was asking me about work, and I told her about the collie pups while I set the table for supper. I played with Isaac for
a while, trying to study psychology terms at the same time as I handed him toy after toy while we sat on the living room floor
together.
That's where me and Isaac still were, when family began coming in the door. Clare, home from the doctor's office, talking to Brian, and
Adam and Crane, followed by Guthrie. Evan, too, was coming in, with the whole noisy bunch, and Adam was asking him if he
was staying for supper.
Evan said something about Nancy making spaghetti, and Adam was still encouraging him to call Nancy at the feed store and ask
if she wanted to join us, and Adam was picking Isaac up, making the baby laugh-all the typical, ordinary things that happened at this time of day.
Hannah was calling out that supper was ready to be dished up, and, in the midst of everybody talking, Crane paused beside where I
was still sitting on the floor, closing up my book.
"How are things?" he asked me, in a general sort of a way.
"Okay," I said, vaguely.
"How was the quiz in anatomy? That was today, right?" he asked.
What a memory he had. He remembered from several days ago when I'd said that the quiz was going to be today. So he assumed it had
been today-and not yesterday-and I thought of the crumpled up paper that was still on the dirty floorboard of my truck.
I settled for a sort of a half-truth. Well, it was a whole truth. Just a day late.
"It was hard," I said.
"Was it?"
"Yeah," I said, still not looking directly at him as I got to my feet.
"How do you think you did?" he asked me, then.
Ah. No way could I do a half-truth here. Well, maybe so.
"Not so good, I don't think," I said, and risked a look at him.
"No?" Crane asked, looking, at least for the moment, somewhat sympathetic.
"No."
"Well-" he paused. "Maybe you did better than you think you did," he said. And, then, he smiled at me.
7
McFadden readers: Short chapter, but I hope this redeems Brian somewhat, and he's back in the lineup of favorite McFadden brothers. LOL.