O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [94]
Glen traced her open back with his lips. Amanda gasped and grasped the blanket, not out of passion, but to conceal the fact that she felt nothing. She had never felt anything for him, from him. Could this ever change?
“Happy?” Glen asked.
“Ummm.”
Dixie Jane gave a shriek of joy and horror as she pulled a huge crab up to the pier on her line.
The two girls lay on Dixie’s bed cattycorner so their feet met in the middle of the mattress and pumped as though they were pedaling a bike. Dixie Jane rendered a nasal imitation of her math tutor. They pumped feet some more. “We are going sailing on the Lochinvar tomorrow with my father and uncles.”
“Oh dear.”
“What?”
“I promised Emily I’d have tea with her,” Dixie Jane said.
“She’ll understand,” Amanda said. “You are very kind to her.”
“We have some nice talks, mostly pretending. Amanda, how did she get that way?”
“Fell out of a swing when she was a little girl. At least that’s what’s been passed down. I’m not certain. She’s just disturbed.”
They pumped their legs clockwise then counterclockwise then clockwise again while they covered a number of subjects.
“Amanda.”
“Yes.”
“Am I going to start having a period soon?”
“Not yet. You’re going to have to show some boobies first.”
“I hope they’re beautiful like yours. My mom’s boobies are beautiful, too, but she ties them all up. I hope Scratchy-beard leaves marks on her.”
“You want to get whacked?”
“And Mother would never talk to me about periods.”
“Your mom’s got to live, Dixie. She’s been hurting for a long time. If you’re not happy about Mr. Dorfman, then your mother can’t be happy, either.”
They stopped pedaling, and as great girlfriends are wont to do, lay on their backs, side by side, staring at the ceiling.
“I would have never learned about periods until it was too late if you hadn’t explained to me why you couldn’t go horseback riding that day at Grandpa’s. Is it a secret you try to keep from your husband?”
“No, but men don’t usually like it and they can make a woman feel guilty.”
“That’s disgusting. When you open your college, are you going to teach girls about periods?”
“They’ll already have them, but perhaps we can teach them why.”
“Excellent,” Dixie said.
In the long silence that followed, Amanda had come to learn that her pal was steaming up to ask a heady question and would probably approach it diagonally.
“If you could make one wish, what would it be?” Dixie asked.
“Well, I have another good girlfriend, Willow, who you haven’t met. We used to lie like this. I would make Willow the first American Negro woman to become a professor.”
“What would she teach?”
“She could teach white girls how to beat their daddies at checkers.”
“I can already do that.”
“She’d teach law. Willow Fancy, doctor of law.”
“Do black women have periods?”
“Yep, but Willow won’t be having one for a while, she’s expecting a baby anytime.”
“Do you miss Willow?”
“Yes.”
“She can’t come up to Newport, can she?”
Amanda propped up on an elbow and gave Dixie a tickle. “Miss Dixie, you started all this because if I told you my wish, then I would have to ask you what your wish would be.”
Caught. Amanda always knows what I’m thinking.
“So, what is your wish?”
“I wish you loved my daddy more.”
“We have not been seeing each other for all that long. It can take two people time to feel strongly enough to make a lifetime decision,” Amanda answered, knowing that the girl’s keen mind was interpreting her tone of voice. “I care for your father very much and I want it to grow. What makes you think I don’t love him?”
“It’s easy to see when you come into a room.”
“I don’t understand you.”
“If you see me in a room, you always break into a big smile and we always hug. You never smile more than a blink when you see Daddy and you scarcely touch him, maybe let him peck your cheek while you sort of turn your face away and say ‘ummm.’”
Amanda floundered for an answer. “Well, Miss Dixie,