Phantoms

concerned about boys, boys above all else. “No, Hank isn’t my boyfriend. I’ve known him for two years, ever since I came to Snowfield, but we’re just good friends.”
    They passed a green sign with white lettering: SNOWFIELD—3 MILES.
    “I’ll bet there’ll be lots of really neat guys my age.”
    “Snowfield’s not a very big town,” Jenny cautioned. “But I suppose you’ll find a couple of guys who’re neat enough.”
    “Oh, but during the ski season, there’ll be dozens!”
    “Whoa, kid! You won’t be dating out-of-towners—at least not for a few years.”
    “Why won’t I?”
    “Because I said so.”
    “But why not?”
    “Before you date a boy, you should know where he comes from, what he’s like, what his family is like.”
    “Oh, I’m a terrific judge of character,” Lisa said. “My first impressions are completely reliable. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m not going to hook up with an ax murderer or a mad rapist.”
    “I’m sure you won’t,” Jenny said, slowing the Trans Am as the road curved sharply, “because you’re only going to date local boys.”
    Lisa sighed and shook her head in a theatrical display of frustration. “In case you haven’t noticed, Jenny, I passed through puberty while you’ve been gone.”
    “Oh, that hasn’t escaped my attention.”
    They rounded the curve. Another straightaway lay ahead, and Jenny accelerated again.
    Lisa said, “I’ve even got boobs now.”
    “I’ve noticed that, too,” Jenny said, refusing to be rattled by the girl’s blunt approach.
    “I’m not a child any more.”
    “But you’re not an adult, either. You’re an adolescent.”
    “I’m a young woman.”
    “Young? Yes. Woman? Not yet.”
    “Jeez.”
    “Listen, I’m your legal guardian. I’m responsible for you. Besides, I’m your sister, and I love you. I’m going to do what I think—what I know —is best for you.”
    Lisa sighed noisily.
    “Because I love you,” Jenny stressed.
    Scowling, Lisa said, “You’re going to be just as strict as Mom was.”
    Jenny nodded. “Maybe worse.”
    “Jeez.”
    Jenny glanced at Lisa. The girl was staring out the passenger-side window. Her face was only partly visible, but she didn’t appear to be angry; she wasn’t pouting. In fact, her lips seemed to be gently curved in a vague smile.
    Whether they realize it or not, Jenny thought, all kids want to have rules put down for them. Discipline is an expression of concern and love. The trick is not to be too heavy-handed about it.
    Looking at the road again, flexing her hands on the steering wheel, Jenny said, “I’ll tell you what I will let you do.”
    “What?”
    “I’ll let you tie your own shoes.”
    Lisa blinked. “Huh?”
    “And I’ll let you go to the bathroom whenever you want.”
    Unable to maintain a pose of injured dignity any longer, Lisa giggled. “Will you let me eat when I’m hungry?”
    “Oh, absolutely.” Jenny grinned. “I’ll even let you make your own bed every morning.”
    “Positively permissive!” Lisa said.
    At that moment the girl seemed even younger than she was. In tennis shoes, jeans, and a Western-style blouse, unable to stifle her giggles, Lisa looked sweet, tender, and terribly vulnerable.
    “Friends?” Jenny asked.
    “Friends.”
    Jenny was surprised and pleased by the ease with which she and Lisa had been relating to each other during the long drive north from Newport Beach. After all, in spite of their blood tie, they were virtually strangers. At thirty-one, Jenny was seventeen years older than Lisa. She had left home before Lisa’s second birthday, six months before their father had died. Throughout her years in medical school and during her internship at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, Jenny had been too over-worked and too far from home to see either her mother or Lisa with any regularity. Then, after completing her residency, she returned to California to open an office in Snowfield. For the past two years, she had worked extremely hard to establish a viable medical practice that served Snowfield and a few other small towns in the mountains. Recently, her mother had died, and only then had Jenny begun to miss not having had a closer relationship with Lisa. Perhaps they could begin to make up for all the lost years—now that there were only the two of them left.
    The county lane rose steadily, and the twilight temporarily grew brighter as the Trans Am ascended out of the shadowed