Very rarely did I see her smile, especially at something I had done or said, but she smiled that time. “You’re very intelligent for your age, Lorelei,” she continued. “Obviously more intelligent than your older sister, maybe both older sisters.”
That took my breath away. A compliment from Mrs. Fennel? And now, when it seemed I had done something terrible? I wasn’t sure how to react or what to say.
“I expect you will be able to understand a little more at an age younger than your sisters were able to understand, so I’ll tell you more.” She then did something she never had done. She sat on my bed and took my hand into hers. “You’re all very special, because you and your sisters can keep your daddy strong, healthy, and alive. You want to do that very much, don’t you?”
I nodded, still afraid to speak, to utter a sound that might stop her.
“From time to time, your Daddy needs something young men have. For him, it’s only young men, virile young men. What that means exactly is something I’ll explain to you when you are a little bit older, but for now, you must understand that your sisters will bring him what he needs, and someday you will, too. Your daddy will love you even more than he loves you now. That would make you very happy, wouldn’t it?”
I nodded.
“When you go to school, you must never tell anyone about this. You must never talk about us at all, in fact. Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll remind you.”
“I wouldn’t tell,” I said.
“Good. That will be enough for now. Let’s get you back to sleep.”
She rose, and I crawled back under my blanket. She leaned over to tuck me in, which, again, was something she rarely had done.
“Is Daddy angry at me?” I asked. Despite what she had told me, whether Daddy was angry at me now was still the most important thing to know as far as I was concerned.
“No, not you,” she said. “Tomorrow, he will be sleeping most of the day, so don’t disturb him.”
“Why does he have to sleep so much tomorrow?” I asked, and that was when she told me, “Digestion.”
I wondered if the commotion had awakened Ava and if she would be asking me questions tomorrow. I also wondered why Mrs. Fennel and apparently Daddy would be so angry with Brianna. What had she done? It wasn’t her fault that I fell out of the window. It would be a while before I would learn and understand all of it, of course, but I was able to pick up something more when I heard Brianna talking to Mrs. Fennel about it the following day.
They didn’t know I was listening. It was morning, and I was working on the math problems that Brianna had given me to do. Mrs. Fennel came in, and the two of them looked at me and then stepped into the hallway just outside the living room. I moved closer to the door. I knew they were going to talk about something very important. Whenever they looked at me first and then moved farther away from me, I knew some secret was possible to pluck from the tree of secrets that grew at the center of our lives.
“How could you bring someone like that to your father, Brianna? A married man?”
“He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, and he came on to me so fast and furious that I thought he was an easy catch. I don’t see why Daddy’s blaming me for not knowing he was married.”
“If he was married, he must have had a wedding ring.”
“I guess he took it off when he went whoring. The creep. Now I’m glad he was the one I brought here last night.”
“Sometimes, when they take off their rings, they still have that white band on their skin,” Mrs. Fennel said. “You should know that.”
“The Underground doesn’t have what you would call a well-lit bar.”
“You don’t need a well-lit bar to see what you have to see,” Mrs. Fennel retorted.
Brianna was quiet for a moment. “So what if I saw it? That didn’t necessarily mean he was married. He could have been recently divorced,” she said. “Daddy will realize that, too, right?” She sounded so afraid.
“That doesn’t matter. You should have found that out first. You know as well as I do, better even, that it makes everything more complicated when you take a married man.”
“I know that,” Brianna said.
“Apparently, you didn’t last night,” Mrs. Fennel said.
Brianna was quiet again.
“Anyway, you shouldn’t have had him pull up so close and argue where you could be heard and wake Lorelei.”
I knew now that they would be talking about me, so I listened even harder.
“I didn’t think she would be awake and hear enough to get out of bed. Who could imagine she would fall out of a window?”