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Show 16-2 I told Emily that things were strange at my house. She just laughed. She had been at our house enough to have seen several of my parents* "discussions", when they both became very angry, yelled for a little while and then forgot the whole thing. But this seemed different. I had no idea what was pulling them apart. I didn't find out for several days. Then one evening, Ruth came for dinner. Since Father had come home, she had not been with us as much as she had before, a fact Mother credited to her "sensitivity." She brought a bouquet of daisies that brightened the dining room. Dinner was more relaxed than it had been for several days although Father was still quieter than usual. I noticed Ruth look at him several times. Mother seemed a bit nervous but I was delighted to have someone to break up the heavy mood that had invaded our home. After dinner, Mother played while Ruth and Father had coffee in the living room. Then Father left, something he seldom did in the evening unless he was called back to the hospital. Tonight he said he was going for a walk. I went upstairs to my room to read. But I didn't read for long. Just as I finished the first page, I heard Mother and Ruth come out on the porch and then I heard the swing creak. One of them must be sitting in it. I heard footsteps back and forth on the porch and Mother's voice louder and then softer so she must have been walking, pacing as she so often did. I tiptoed to the window and knelt by it to listen. "I've wanted to go back and see him, Ruth. To talk to him. But Larry has been so difficult." "Well, Katie, really ..." "I know. But first he wouldn't tell me what was wrong with Eric, if he even could have visitors. And then he's been putting me off about going out there." The footsteps stopped. "Annie goes out almost every day." |
