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Show Peppermint Monday her own thoughts. I couldn't though. She had a right to know what kind of "comfort" Jake was giving Russ. She had a right to be angry at the ornery, old man too. "Somebody should be talking to Russ about it. He is dying,Carly." Ma's voice was quiet, without even a quiver of emotion in it. The emotion was in her face though. She couldn't hide that from me. "But you should hear what Jake's saying. He's telling Russ to promise him he won't die. Russ is promising him too." I was crying now, real salty tears that ran down my cheeks and trickled to my mouth and chin. I swabbed the back of my hand across my mouth and again across my eyes. It didn't stop them though. Russ was my brother. I wanted him to live as much as the rest of my family,^but I wasn't making him say things he couldn't control. I wasn't telling him he could live if he just didn't give up. I would be honest with him. Ma had a few tears of her own to take care of. She didn't say anything about mine but she knew they were there. She took a long, probing look at me and shook her loose curls. "Oh, Carly. Don't you understand what Jake's doing? He's giving Russ a reason to hang on. He's making Russ want to live." "Russ wants to live already. He doesn't need Jake telling him to." "Jake loves Russ, just like we all do. He's doing this for Russ." I couldn't believe she thought that. Jake was being selfish and cruel in my opinion. He had finally found a friend and he couldn't bear the thought of losing him. He was putting Russ through a lot of unnecessary pain. I paid a lot of attention to Russ that night. I watched him closely to see how upset he was. He acted fine, no different than usual. He acted |
