“I’m not hungry,” I replied without looking at her.
“Now, you know this is not the way to behave, love.”
I didn’t answer or move.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. You and your granddad are two peas in a pod. I don’t know who can be more stubborn. You know he’s not happy punishing you.”
I turned to her. I could feel the heat in my eyes spreading through my face. “I don’t know what makes my grandfather happy or unhappy anymore. And I don’t care.” Before she could reply, I turned over on my bed and looked at the wall.
“No one is terribly happy in this house right now, Clara Sue.”
“He is,” I muttered, loudly enough for her to hear.
“Who?”
“That boy my grandfather wants us all to call William.”
“I don’t know how happy he is. For him, a smile is like a drop of rain in a drought right now,” she said. “I think he has some time to go before we can say he’s happy. He’s at the table tonight,” she added.
I spun around again. “In whose seat?”
“Well, he’s in the wheelchair, Clara Sue.”
“At whose place, then?”
“He’s beside Mrs. Camden,” she said.
“That’s where Willie would sit.”
“She needs to be beside him for now. Did you want him beside you?”
I turned around again, giving her my back instead of a reply. I knew she was standing there, staring at me and trying to come up with something that would please me, but I was even angrier now.
“I’ll send something up if you don’t come down,” she said, and left.
When the phone rang, I debated answering it, but then I thought it was probably Aaron. Unfortunately for me, it was Lila. I was definitely not in the mood for what she wanted to talk about.
“I’ve been calling you all day. I kept getting your answering machine, so I didn’t leave any more messages. Didn’t you see I called? Where were you all day?”
“I was with Aaron,” I said. “I haven’t bothered looking at my answering machine.”
“All day?”
“Most of my waking hours, yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I went to the cemetery in the morning, and then we drove up to Three Wrens Lake to row and have a picnic. Now you know it all.”
“Not all, I’m sure.” She giggled. “You had lots of fun last night.”
“When I left, you
looked like you had too much,” I said.
“I had a headache until an hour ago, but I didn’t throw up,” she added quickly, “and my mother didn’t realize a thing. She waited up for me. My father never does.”
“Good for you.”