"Hell no!" Ian said when she took out what looked like a toy rocket.
Flora shrugged. "She gave it to me. I left that out of the story about Gwen and me. You sure?"
"Of course I'm sure."
She put it back into the bag and tightened the cord again. "Whatever," she said, and looked at me. "Whether your brother likes it or not. Jordan, one way or another you're going to be a butterfly. And the medicine you take won't stop you from knowing what it's like."
11 The Caterpillar and the Butterfly
. Ian was strangely quiet all the way home. In fact, he looked angry, angrier than I had ever seen him. At one point, he stopped walking but he didn't speak. He just stood there staring at the ground.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Mama was surely home by now and waiting for us.
"Forget about them," he said, waving in the direction of the campers.
"Who?"
"Flora and Addison. Forget about them. Promise never, never to talk about what she showed you in her room or what she told you in the woods. It would be worse than sneaking a peek at the bear," he said. "You hear me, Jordan?"
"Yes," I said. He was frightening me with his furious eyes firing up like hot coals.
"Okay, good."
"You're not going to be friends with her anymore?" I asked him as we continued.
"I wasn't friends with her before," he said. "She was a curiosity. That's all."
What did that mean? I was back in his dictionary, swimming aimlessly. "But you wanted her to talk to me, Ian. You told me."
"I know what I told you. I thought she was going to help you understand your condition, explain the physiological aspects, what things to expect emotionally and psychologically, and not tell some lurid story instead. Imagine her keeping that thing in her dresser drawer, bringing it along on their trip. She's probably done using it and she wanted to give it to you," he muttered, more to himself than to me.
He walked faster, so fast in fact. I had to run to keep up.
"Why did she say I would become a butterfly and the medicine wouldn't stop me from knowing it?"
He kept walking.
"What did she mean, Ian?"
"I told you to forget about her," he said, stopping. "I made a mistake about her. Forget about everything she said."
It was easy for him to forget. I thought, but not for me.
We walked on in silence.
Mama was home when we arrived. She was getting ready to make us toasted cheese sandwiches. "Where were you two?" she demanded as soon as we entered the cabin. "I went back there and called for you as soon as I returned from the lake. I nearly got hoarse shouting at the woods."
Ian glanced at me and then stepped forward
quickly, "We must have been just out of hearing range, Mother. I discovered some Sarrarenia purpurea" he told her.
"What? Oh, never mind," she said, waving at us. "Just go wash up for lunch."
"Where's Daddy?" I asked.
"He's off with his boat buddies. I'm so glad he's come up here to spend some quality time with his family," she added dryly.
Ian nudged me to follow him to the bathroom. "She's in a pretty bad mood," he said. "'Don't even suggest where we were or what we saw.."