Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

blending?” Cassie asked.
    “I have this nutritional supplement I give all my patients who need to be built up. Anemia can be so devastating. Your mother told me she’s fond of apple juice, so I’ll blend it with that. I’d like her to have the supplements between meals. Perhaps in a day or so, we’ll get her moving about. I’m sure she’ll be fine in a week’s time.”
    “Perhaps sooner,” Cassie said.
    “We’ll see.”
    “I’m going to prepare one of Daddy’s favorite meals,” Cassie continued. “It’s a meat loaf. I’m sure you would agree that Mother could use some meat.”
    “Maybe in a day or so. I’d prefer she eats a lighter meal for her first day back,” Mrs. Bledsoe said. “I’m just going to give her some eggs and toast tonight.”
    “Eggs. Okay. She likes the way I scramble them. I use just the right amount of milk and cheese and …”

    “We’ll see,” Mrs. Bledsoe interrupted, and began to blend her supplement with the apple juice.
    Cassie went over to look at the canister of powder. She read the ingredients. “It does have many good things in it. Maybe we should all take this. Do you, Mrs. Bledsoe?”
    “Not regularly now. I do take vitamin supplements, however. Don’t you girls?”
    “Oh, we eat really well here, Mrs. Bledsoe.”
    “Nutrition is a science,” she replied, “and is especially important when someone is run-down, someone like your mother.”
    “Then we’re lucky we have you,” Cassie said. If a smile could poison someone, Cassie’s could, I thought. Mrs. Bledsoe just nodded and continued preparing her nutritional drink.
    Cassie turned to me. “Help me prepare dinner,” she said, and started to gather the ingredients for her meat loaf. She kept an eye on Mrs. Bledsoe as she worked and assigned different tasks to me.
    As soon as Mrs. Bledsoe left with the drink for Mother, Cassie pounced. “You see? You see how bad this woman will be for Mother? Here I tell her I can make the eggs the way Mother likes them and she hesitates. She wants to be in complete control. ‘Nutrition is a science,’” she said bitterly. “I know the type. She lords it over poor, unfortunate sick people who can’t put up any resistance and whose loved ones are terrified of disagreeing with her. Mother won’t improve at all under her care.”
    “Maybe she’ll change her mind about your preparing the eggs,” I suggested.

    “The eggs? It’s not just the eggs! It’s the whole situation, Semantha. Christmas trees,” she muttered, and returned to her preparations for dinner, working in silence.
    “You girls can go up to see your mother any time you’d like now. She’s awake,” Mrs. Bledsoe told us on her return.
    “Thank you,” Cassie said, not in any way revealing that she had already seen Mother. She nodded at me, and we left the kitchen and went up to Mother and Daddy’s bedroom.
    I hurried ahead to Mother’s bedside. She smiled up at me, and I quickly kissed her. Cassie did the same.
    “How are you girls?” she asked.
    “We’re fine,” I said. “But we missed you.”
    “I know, dear. I’m sorry.”
    “It wasn’t your fault,” I quickly told her.
    She looked at Cassie. “Were you here before, Cassie?”
    “Yes, but you were asleep.”
    “I thought it was a dream.”
    Cassie looked at me, raised her eyebrows, and then sat on the bed. “Do you think that maybe you came home too soon, Mother?”
    “I don’t know. I couldn’t stay there anymore. I could see what the nurses and the nurses’ aides were thinking every time they looked at me. To go so long toward term and then lose your baby … I was drowning in their pity.”
    “Daddy didn’t have to hire this nurse. I can take care of you quite well, Mother,” Cassie said.

    “I’m sure you can, but I don’t want you missing any more school on account of me.”
    “I’m wasting my time there, anyway. I should be taking college courses, and you know it.”
    “Yes,” Mother said. “My brilliant daughter. I’m proud of both of you. You’ve been taking good care of your father and the house.”
    “You’ll be up and around in no time, Mother,” I told her.
    Cassie nodded at the drink Mrs. Bledsoe had brought. There was still quite a bit left. “You don’t really like that stuff she prepared for you, do you?”
    “It’s okay. I’m just … just still a little tired and have little appetite.”
    “Well, even though she’s here, I’ll be nearby if you need me, Mother,” Cassie