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Show in my father's house/ 259 mother will love it." After school we checked out the yellow brick surrounded with old trees and the odor of lilac. "Wouldn't it be wonderful? We could see each other all the time." My chest weighed heavily with foreboding and a tense, terrible hope. "I'll ask my father tonight." "Do you think he'll do it?" she asked. I drew a breath, trying to shift the heaviness. "I don't know." "But he loves you. He wants you to be happy, doesn't he?" I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, but her face was earnest, as always. "Of course," I muttered. "Of course he does." But I was only trying to reassure myself. We went to the white house for home evening. Afterward, my father treated one of my older sisters who suffered from morning sickness. Then he gave a blessing to someone else who was ill. At last he joined us at Aunt Helga's grey house apartment where we waited. "Daddy," I. began timidly. Words stuck in my throat and I coughed. "There's a house in our neighborhood - a duplex and not very expensive. If you bought it, I could go to the same school and keep my friends." For the time being I pushed away the worry of explaining Aunt Helga to my friends. The immediate thing to do was to secure a space in my neighborhood. My father stared at his hands for a long moment. Aunt Helga left the room. When my father looked up, his eyes were beady, |
