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Show CHAPTER NINE I lay in bed for a long time that night, thinking. Words and pictures tumbled and chased each other across my mind. I had never before disobeyed my parents in an important way. I had not been a perfect child but my parents had always been so reasonable that I had never felt the need to disobey them. But now, I knew my mother was not being reasonable. She was listening to her own fear, which I couldn't understand, instead of to me. And someone else needed me. Andrew had asked me to come again. He had waited for me yesterday, sitting on the bench where I would be sure to find him. I had always had friends. But never had someone needed me so much. Never before had I been the only friend someone had. I had to disappoint Mother so that I would not disappoint Andrew. The choice lay before me and was not hard to make. Perhaps Mother would not even need to know. I could tell Ruth I was going to visit Father. She didn't know about Andrew and Mother's order not to see him; By the time I drifted to sleep, I had worked out my reasons, my plan, in my head and each step was marked out in front of me. The next morning, when the sun slashing across the bed woke me early, I knew immediately where I was and as my decision of the night before rushed in on me, I was miserable with uncertainty. Maybe I should try to call Father, ask him to explain to Andrew why I couldn't come. Maybe I could wait until Sunday and go to the hospital then. The sun which had only reached my chest and arms before, now crept up across |
