"Yes," Ian said quickly. He glanced at me again. "Jordan went looking for plants with me and slipped and fell in mud. I have her dress washed and in the drier. I cleaned her shoes, too," he said.
She nodded. "I know you'll always take care of your sister," she said, and then shook her head. "Look at you. Why did you get into a fight, Ian? You've never gotten into a fight before, have you?"
"The boy was a jerk. Be hit me first. That's the only way he knows how to settle an argument. Forget about it. I'll be fine," he told her.
"I know," she said. "We'll all be fine. We will," she said, but her fact was beginning to fracture like a piece of fragile china. Her lips quivered. Her eyes grew glassy, "I'm going to take a rest now," she said. 'Don't wander away from the cabin. We'll be going out to dinner. I don't feel like cooking tonight,"
"Okay, Mother," Ian said.
She started out, stopped, and returned to hug us both. Then she hurried back to the stairs and up to her room. Ian looked at me because I was already crying, tears streaking down my fact.
"If there's one thing she doesn't need now. Jordan, it's you being a baby. We have to be strong for her. Don't let her see you cry," he warned. He closed his eyes because he had a shot of pain in his lips.
"What did she mean about Daddy seeing someone else?"
"Probably that old girlfriend he employed. Apparently, he was seeing her here. No wonder he was so nice to Mr. Pitts. He didn't want him blabbing about it."
"I don't understand what you mean."
"Forget about it for now." He grimaced from another shot of pain in his lip.
"I'm sorry you got into a fight because of me, Ian."
"I'm sorry, too. I'm sorry you went over there. I can set I have to take even more interest and responsibility for you, especially now. When you have questions about yourself, don't bother Mother and certainly don't go ask any strangers anything. Do you understand, Jordan?"
"Yes."
"Good. I have some things to do," he said, rose, and went to his room.
I stopped crying and went to my room, where I sat and stared out the windows. I wanted to keep crying. I knew enough about divorce to know it would turn our world topsy-turvy. Our parents were no longer going to be husband and wife. There were kids in my class whose parents had gotten divorces. The other kids called them ping-pang balls, bouncing back and forth from one house to another, one side of the family to the other side, each time pretending they liked the side they were with better. Some of the pingFong balls took advantage and asked one parent for things the other one wouldn't give them or couldn't afford. I heard their stories. They tried to make it sound as if they were happier, but I knew in my heart that they weren't.
One of the ping-pong balls was a girl named Denise Potter. She lived with her father, not her mother, because her mother had run off with someone. I didn't know that. Ian told me because he knew her older sister, Janet. Be said Janet was forced to grow up quickly and take on some of her mother's responsibilities in the house. She had to go home right after school and couldn't join any teams or activities. Be told me she hated her mother now.
Would we hate Daddy? I wondered. Did this mean Mama hated him already? Would Grandmother Emma hate us and never talk to us again? If Daddy wasn't with us all the time anymore, would Ian have to become the daddy just like Janet Potter had to become the mother? There were so many new questions raining down upon me that I thought I would drown in a downpour of question marks.
I fell asleep on the rug, probably because of all the aches in my body and in my heart. When I opened my eyes again. I could see that some clouds had come rolling in over each other, thickening and promising a thunderstorm. I sat up. The scratch on my leg thumped. I didn't do all that good a job of bandaging it. I realized Mama still didn't know about it either. She came into my room just as I removed the bandage to look at it.
"How did you do that?" she asked.
"When I fell," I said quickly.
She stared at inc. "Why did you fall, Jordan? Were you running after Ian? Did he not want you to be with him?"
"I just wasn't watching, where I was going," I said.
She knelt down and looked at it. "This is a bad scratch. You put something on it?"
I nodded. "Ian told me to."
"Good. Let me fix you a better bandage," she said, and we went into the bathroom.
I looked closely at her face as she worked on me. her eyes were filled with such pain, it made my heart ache again.
&
nbsp; "Are you going to marry someone else?" I asked.
"What?" She smiled. "At this point, Jordan. I wouldn't be the one to recommend marriage for anyone."