“I couldn’t live like that,” I tell her. I think about prison meals and the serious lack of palatable vegetables. “Even if I didn’t live here, I couldn’t be a vegetarian.”
“I would tend to agree,” she says, “but I’m not sure I could eat a bunny. I was pretty hungry the week or so before I met you, but I don’t think I was that desperate.”
“Just desperate enough to steal donuts,” I mutter, then immediately regret saying it.
“I wasn’t stealing them,” she says with a shake of her head. “I don’t know how they got in my pocket.”
Considering Seri’s obviously faulty memory, I figure it’s best to change the subject.
“So what made your sister think eating fish was still vegetarian?”
“Heck if I know.” Seri lets out a huff. “It never made much sense to me, and she never did explain it well. Maybe it was just teenage rebellion. It did get under Mom’s skin when she had to make special meals just for one person.”
“Yeah, I can see where that would be a problem.”
“Dad would get all riled up about it and have a tantrum.” Seri snickers before she impersonates a male voice. “‘Don’t you think your mother does enough around here?’”
She laughs again, but her words bring goosebumps out on my arms. I rub at them briskly for a moment to get them to go away.
“I’m sorry,” she says quietly. “I didn’t mean to make light of it.”
“I know,” I say. “It’s all right.”
“My dad was a good guy. He yelled a bit, but that’s it.”
“Good.” I don’t know what else to say. I’m exerting every effort I can to keep memories from flooding my head.
“I think my sister enjoyed arguing with him, but it always made me a little nervous. I wanted everyone to get along, and when she acted up, there was turmoil. I think she just liked the attention.”
“Probably.” I take a deep breath and debate having a cigarette to calm me down a bit. I’ve already smoked half a pack though, and they have to last me all winter.
“We were so different, you know? We were sisters, and we got along great, but we were polar opposites in a lot of ways. Iris was always in trouble, and I was a straight A student. She had a lot of boyfriends, and I never went out at all. She played on the school soccer team, and I stayed home on the weekends, reading. She barely made it into a state college, and I was on track for a full scholarship. But we could talk about anything when we were together.”
“Sounds like you are pretty smart,” I say. “Straight A’s? I was lucky if I came home with C’s. I can’t do math at all.”
“But you like reading.” Seri points at the books stacked up nearby.
“Yeah, I always liked reading, especially mysteries, but those were never the books my teachers chose for an assignment. I like stories about other people and even some non-fiction now, but at school when it came time to do a book report, I never knew what to write.”
“That’s a whole different skill—taking what you’ve read and analyzing it. I wasn’t very good at that, either. I’d like the book, but trying to interpret it wasn’t my strong point. Always loved math though.”
“Yeah, not for me.” I watch Solo as he sticks his head out from under the bed and eyes us. As soon as he sees me looking at him, he ducks away again.
“I always liked mysteries, too,” Seri says. “Clue was my favorite game as a kid.”
“Yeah, I remember that one. The kid next door had it, and we played it a few times.”
“Iris liked it, too,” Seri says with a sad smile.
“So, you didn’t date, but she did?”
“Yes.” Seri laughs. “Iris would sneak boys into her room all the time. I think she lost her virginity when she was fifteen or something like that. I didn’t have a serious boyfriend until I was twenty.”
“Oh yeah? Who was he?”
“Just a guy from one of my classes,” she says with a shrug. “His name was Will, and we dated for about eight months. He was my first, and at that point, I think I was the only one I knew who was still a virgin.”
She blushes and looks away from me.