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Show 31. "Mom, wait, I can't talk." The water made rivers to her mouth and eyes both. She wished JD would hurry. She wasn't very good at holding back from her mother who always liked to hear everything. Back in her denim shirt once again, wearing the towel like a turban, Stephanie sat down at the table and watched her mother cut up potatoes for hash browns. Stephanie was glad to be home. Here she felt 1007. safe. The hot chops frying and the coffee perking spelled pure comfort after three days of camping. "Where's dad?" Stephanie asked, thinking to steer the conversation another way. "He'll be along. Mrs. Carlin was still folding a load." "What did you guys do while we were gone?" Her mother looked surprised that she would ask. "We worked. I went to church this morning. Dad fooled around with the pick-up and finally got it running. He thinks we need a new fuel pump." She walked to the stove and dumped the potatoes in the hot skillet. Stephanie wished her mother had an easier life-or maybe a more glamorous life, she wasn't sure which. When she got to be fifty, she hoped she'd still have a waistline that showed, anyhow, and a hair-do that looked modern. Kay Eagleton was only ten years younger than her mother, but they looked a generation apart. Ranch life was hard on a woman, Stephanie supposed. "You haven't told me a thing," Addie Anderson came back to the table with a stack of plates. "I suppose Garth gets to hear about your trip before I do." Her blue eyes turned snappy. "Some big deal being the mother, huh?" "Mom . . . " Stephanie looked down at her hands. "JD made me promise to save the . . . exciting part for after he got home." She felt her cheeks flush. Her mother stopped what she was doing, a plate still in her hand. "What happened? Is JD hurt? Did you wreck the car?" "No, nothing like that," Stephanie walked to the window and opened the curtains to look out. It had started to rain. "Stephanie, something did happen. Why can't you tell me?" |
