Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

complain about the coffee, too.
    “Is the coffee all right?
    “It’s a little weak, but he won’t know the difference this morning,” she replied.
    “But I measured it just the way you do.”
    “You didn’t put enough in one or two of the spoonfuls, Semantha. Forget about that for now,” she said.
    I noticed she had prepared enough toast and enough omelette for herself as well. She started for the stairway.
    “You’re going to eat up there, too?”
    “Of course. Would you have him eat alone this morning of all mornings? Start on the house when you’re finished in here,” she ordered.
    “Start on the house?”
    “The dusting, vacuuming, polishing furniture. I want to take the curtains down in the living room today and clean them as well. The piano looked dusty to me yesterday, but I didn’t have time to get to it,” she added. “It will bring happiness to Daddy when he sees how well we can look after everything, with or without Mother.” She continued up the stairway. She had a soft, pleasing smile on her face. Was that for Daddy’s benefit, or did she really enjoy all of this?
    I moved quickly to the foot of the stairs and called up to her before she reached the top.
    “What?”
    “What about Mother? Aren’t we going to the hospital?”

    “We’ll see. If she’s still in a state of shock or something, there might not be any point to our going. Daddy will be calling the doctor this morning. Just get on to your work. It’s not a holiday from school. We’re home because we have to be.”
    “I know.”
    “Good. I’m glad you know.”
    I looked up after her for a moment. Why wouldn’t we go to the hospital if Mother was still in a state of shock? Maybe our presence, our talking to her, would help bring her out of it faster. I don’t care what Cassie thinks, I thought. I’m going to the hospital, with or without her.
    For the time being, however, there was nothing for me to do but what Cassie had told me to do. I returned to the kitchen and cleaned up what I could and then got the vacuum cleaner, the polishing cloths, and polish and started on the living room, keeping one eye and one ear toward the stairway, anticipating Daddy’s coming down. I couldn’t understand his sleeping in this late. I concluded it was because of the sleeping pill, or pills, he had taken.
    I had finished with the vacuuming and started on the furniture when Cassie appeared. She had come downstairs so quietly I hadn’t heard her.
    “How is he?” I asked.
    “He’s a little groggy, but he’s okay now. He ate most of his breakfast, but only because I was there insisting. I told him it won’t do any of us any good if he gets himself sick, too.”
    “That’s what Mother always tells me when I’m sick and I don’t want to eat.”

    “Well, of course. That’s what a mother should say. He’s getting dressed.” She started to turn away.
    “Has he called the doctor?”
    “He has a call in to him. We’re waiting for the doctor to call back.”
    “Did he say we might go to the hospital?”
    “We’ll see. Just keep working,” she said, and left before I could ask any more questions.
    I kept working, but I was on pins and needles waiting for Daddy. Finally, I heard him coming down the stairway. I rushed out of the living room. He still looked a little tired, but he was dressed as handsomely as ever. He smiled when he saw me standing there with a polishing cloth. Cassie came out of the kitchen quickly.
    “How wonderful to see how you two pitch in to help. Thank you, girls.”
    “Are we going to see Mother now, Daddy?”
    He nodded.
    “Maybe we shouldn’t go just yet,” Cassie said.
    “I want to go,” I said firmly.
    “So do I, but we also want to do what is best,” she told me.
    “I’m afraid she’s not much better than she was when I left her last night. It’s understandable that she would be in a depressed state.”
    “We can cheer her up, Daddy.”
    “If she can see or hear us,” Cassie said.
    “It can’t do any harm, and Semantha is right. It might help bring her around. I have a few calls to make,” he said, looking at his watch. “We’ll leave in twenty minutes or so.”

    He went to his den office.
    “Go wash up,” Cassie snapped at me. It wasn’t hard to see how irritated she was at my contradicting her. “You probably stink of polish and have dust all over you.”
    I nodded and hurried to the stairway, avoiding her gaze. Close to a half-hour later, we got into Daddy’s