Covet (Clann)

Anne warned us with a grin as she hopped onto her own four-wheeler. “These fields are filled with cow patties.”
    I drove slowly in the beginning, getting used to the sensation of driving across bumpy terrain on a machine with no protective windshield, seat belt or doors. The property was larger than I’d thought at first, giving us plenty of room to chase each other and make huge donuts in the fields. Then we found the field with the terraces, now grass covered to form long horizontal mini-hills.
    And then the fun really began.
    Anne started it, daring us to take the terraces a little faster each time. Before I knew it, my four-wheeler and I were airborne, the wind whipping wildly through my hair as a crazy shrieking sound mixed with laughter erupted out of me.
    The faster I went, the more fun it was as the rush of the wind around me in the fading light filled up my lungs, cool and clean, my adrenaline-laced blood rushing through my body. This was what I’d needed—to let loose, to get away, to go where no one was sneaking looks at me to see if I was okay, like Dad did at home when he thought I wasn’t watching. No phone calls or texts “just to see how I’m feeling” like I got twice a day from Mom. No more keeping secrets, at least not from Anne.
    I never wanted it to end.
    Unfortunately, Anne’s parents had made her promise that we wouldn’t ride the four-wheelers in the dark. So once the sun finished setting, the fun was over for the day. I was the last to follow her back to the lodge and park.
    “Sav, you coming?” Anne called from the top of the steps. Carrie and Michelle were already inside.
    Reluctantly I turned away from the four-wheeler and joined everyone in the lodge.
    Mrs. Albright was just lighting the last candle on the cake. She glanced at me with a quick frown then pasted on a smile while we all sang “Happy Birthday” and Anne blew out the candles.
    Then Mrs. Albright handed me a paper plate full of cake.
    “Feeling better now?” Her tone made it more of a challenge than a sympathetic question.
    “Uh, Mom, Sav’s…on a special diet,” Anne said. “Sorry, I totally forgot to tell you. She can’t eat the cake or it might make her sick.”
    I flashed her a look of pure gratitude.
    Mrs. Albright gasped and took a step back like I was Typhoid Mary. “You’re sick, Savannah?”
    “No, Mom,” Anne quickly answered. “Not like with the flu or anything contagious. I said the cake will make her sick. She’s on a healthy foods only diet.”
    The alarm slowly faded from the air around Mrs. Albright. “Oh. Well, that’s certainly understandable. I keep trying to get Tom and Anne on a diet like that. But all Anne wants to eat is junk food.” She waved at the now empty pizza pan in the sink as if to prove her point, though the pizza had been so nongreasy I could almost swear she must have wiped the cheesy surface dry after baking it.
    “How about I break out the strawberries early?” Mr. Albright suggested, his voice low and kind, and I understood then why Anne never hesitated to proudly call herself a daddy’s girl.
    Mrs. Albright brought out a bowl of sliced strawberries from the fridge. Feeling everyone’s eyes on me again, I quickly grabbed a strawberry slice and popped it into my mouth, thinking maybe my body could handle the plain fruit at least.
    I nearly choked. They must have coated the strawberries in sugar or something. The darn thing was so sweet it literally made my jaw ache.
    “It’s…good,” I managed to say as my jaw muscles did their best to lock up in protest. I chewed once, twice then gulped the bite down and arranged my face in a smile. “They’re great. Thanks.”
    Mrs. Albright smiled and relaxed in the chair I’d vacated earlier. “You go right ahead and eat as many of them as you want.”
    Carrie shook her head and dug into her cake, one eyebrow raised as she watched me trying to find a way out of having to choke down more of the too-sweet fruit.
    After Anne opened all of her gifts, her parents went to the lodge’s only bedroom while the rest of us settled in for a movie fest on top of sleeping bags laid out in front of a small TV set. Watching the birthday girl’s favorite movies was a tradition at all of our b-day sleepovers. In the DVD stack for tonight was an eclectic mix of Johnny Depp’s movies, including all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and a really old one called Cry Baby .
    She started with the first Pirates movie, but I