Oh no, I thought, he heard what we were talking about and Ian had warned me not to let him hear anything.
Then he leaned down to whisper in my ear. "But I'm sure I just hit one."
We walked on, my heart feeling like it was flapping as quickly as the birds that fled Addison's rocks.
10 A Flood of Hormones
. We reached the wild berry patch about ten minutes later. I thought we had gone much farther from our cabin than Mama would have wanted us to go, but Ian seemed completely unconcerned. He and Flora decided on a place to hide behind a very big, old maple tree where there was a carpet of thick moss. We were to wait to see if the black bear would appear to feast on the berries. Addison stood behind us, obviously deciding if it was worth it to remain. He looked very bored. He held another rock in his hand and juggled it as he eyed some birds flitting from branch to branch.
Flora frightened him and me, too, for that matter, when she told him if he threw rocks or made too much noise or moved around too much, it might rile the bear.
"It could be right around here. Addison, and it will come after you. Bears, even though they are big and heavy, move very quickly. They can climb trees, too, so you can't escape that way."
Addison said nothing, but when I looked back a few moments later, he was gone. Ian laughed. "Good work, Flora, although black bears are nowhere as dangerous as you made them sound. They're not like grizzly bears."
"I know," she said, "but I really wanted to get rid of him. He would just be annoying and," she added, looking at me, "Jordan and I couldn't talk in front of him.'
"Right," Ian said, and turned to look at the berry patch.
Flora slid herself back to sit beside me. "Tell me how it all happened to you first," she said.
"I don't know how," I said. I wasn't sure what she meant. Ian turned around and looked annoyed at my answer.
"You noticed your breasts developing," she prompted. "You saw hair appear. What did you do about it?"
"Nothing."
"Did you tell your mother right away or what?"
I described how Mama found out. Flora was amused at Mama's reaction. I didn't think she should be laughing at her.
"She was very worried," I said.
"Sure she was and that was good. She should have been. When it began to happen to me. I told my mother right away," she said. "And you know what she said?"
I shook my head. How would I know?
"She said, 'So?' Then she went back to making her meat loaf. When I had stomach cramps and got my period. I was in school and my teacher rushed me to the school nurse. I told her what had been happening to me and she then called my mother.
"Who then," she added, raising her voice a bit, "was annoyed at me for not telling her first. I reminded her that I had told her, but she didn't remember. Addison is more like my mother than I am," she added.
Ian looked back at her and smiled. "I agree," he said.
"Ian's met my mother. The first thing she did was offer him a peanut butter sandwich. Sometimes, she has that for breakfast, along with a ton of other food. When you see her, you'll understand why I am not exactly Paris Hilton."
"Who?"
"Thin," she said.. "I inherited a proclivity toward fat cells."
I stared at her. What was she talking about? Why did she think I knew that word? What was a fat cell? She was just like Ian, always assuming I lived in a dictionary, too.
He saw the confusion on my face. "She means a tendency toward gaining weight. She has a slow metabolism."
"It's so slow I'm still catching up with my baby food," Flora said, and she and Ian laughed, but quietly, always worried about the bear.
What did metabolism mean? It was like being in quicksand. The more they explained, the deeper I sank. Sitting between them. I felt like a foreigner who barely spoke English and wasn't sure what she should do or say next. I decided not to ask any questions.
"Actually, precocious puberty can lead to obesity." Ian nodded.