Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

smiling anymore.
    She pushed the toast on the tray to remind Mother it was there. Mother ate but didn’t look atus or say anything. Suddenly, she stopped. Her face looked as if it was shattering.
    “Look at me,” she said. “Look what’s happened to me.”
    “Oh Mother, you’ll get better,” I said quickly. “You’ll get stronger and better very soon.”
    “Of course, she will,” Cassie said, looking at her. “She wouldn’t want to live if she would be like this forever.”
    Mother looked up at her and nodded.
    I knew Cassie was saying that to make Mother eat and try, but the way she said it made me shudder inside. It was as if the two of them had made some hellish bargain, some pact. Cassie smiled at me and winked.
    Later, after Mother had eaten and I was carrying the tray out, Cassie walked beside me.
    “That’s tough love,” she said. “See? She ate it all. You just don’t stand moaning and crying and making a pool of pity around her bed. You let her know that she can’t wallow in this ‘Oh, woe is me’ attitude too long. Understand?”
    “Yes,” I said. I really didn’t, but I knew she wanted to hear that.
    “Good. At dinner, we’ll ask Daddy about your Friday night date. I wouldn’t want you to get too serious with that boy, but you need to get out of here for a while and have some normal fun with people your age. It will help you deal with all of this more easily, and that will help me.”
    I nodded, happy about that but also feeling as if I, too, had made some sort of hellish bargain.

The Accident
    M OTHER MADE ONLY small improvements by Friday. She was up and about but apparently, from what Cassie told us, got tired quickly. Her disposition didn’t seem to improve much, either. It wasn’t that she was wallowing in self-pity so much as she looked lost, confused. Even when she looked at me, I had the creepy feeling she didn’t know who I was. I wanted to say something to Daddy. Perhaps her medicine was too strong. When I suggested that to Cassie, she got very angry.
    “That’s all you have to do now is worry him. Did you see him yesterday? He wasn’t even able to eat dinner with all that’s happening. People are calling him constantly. We’re three days away from the gala opening. Besides, she’s only taking what the doctor prescribed.”
    “I’m worried, that’s all,” I said.
    “And what am I, some moron?”
    “No, but …”
    “Go get ready for your hot movie date, Semantha.”
    “You really think I should go?”

    “You should go, but don’t come home pregnant.”
    “What?”
    “You heard me, Semantha. Keep your legs crossed, and if I hear you were doing any drinking or any drugs, I’ll turn you in to the police myself.”
    “I don’t do that,” I said.
    “Like you’ve had so many opportunities to demonstrate your self-control. Remember, you are very vulnerable. Boys can tell. Be alert. Make sure no one slips anything into anything you drink, and if your boyfriend gets too aggressive, get out and call me. I’ll come get you. Okay?”
    I didn’t answer.
    “Okay?”
    “Okay, Cassie, but you make me feel like I’m going into a war and not on a date.”
    “Believe me, it’s a war,” she said.
    During the day in school, Bobbi, Susie, and I decided to pressure the boys to take us for pizza before the movie. When I told Cassie that I wouldn’t be there for dinner, she did not have the reaction I was anticipating. She actually looked pleased.
    “But I can still help set the table and —”
    “No. It will be only Daddy and me. Uncle Perry isn’t making his duty call until tomorrow, thank heavens,” she said.
    “I don’t think it’s a duty call for him, Cassie. He really likes Mother.”
    “I’m not saying he doesn’t or didn’t, but no one would enjoy seeing someone in the condition she is in right now, least of all a dandy like Uncle Perry. He gets hysterical if a pimple breaks out on his face.”

    “He doesn’t get pimples anymore.”
    “Never mind. Just mind what I tell you,” she said, and walked off.
    Despite the things Cassie had said, I could barely contain the excitement of going on a real date now, which meant no adults driving us to and from the mall, because Eddie had a car and a license. He had an SUV that would hold all six of us. I was the last one to be picked up and ran out to the car as soon as I saw them coming up the driveway. Aside from Kent, none of them had been this close to the Heavenstone house. Their awe at