Promises to Keep - Ann Tatlock [45]
“You should have been a nurse, Tillie,” I told her.
“I was,” she said. “I had three boys, remember?”
My only outside visitor was Grandpa, who came by every day to read to me and help me pass the time.
“I have to have my tonsils out, Grandpa,” I told him.
“So I heard. And do you know what that means?”
I shook my head.
“It means you’ll get all the ice cream you want.” He winked at me and smiled. I took his hand and pressed it against my cheek. How I loved Gramps. And how I wanted to tell him that Daddy was in town, right here in Mills River. I wanted to tell Gramps that I’d seen and talked with him, and that Daddy wanted me and Mom and Valerie back. Grandpa would know what to do.
“Gramps?”
“Yes, honey?”
But Daddy had said not to tell anyone, and surely that included Grandpa too. If I told, it would ruin everything.
“Grandpa, do you hate my father?” The words were a whisper.
A tiny muscle in Grandpa’s jaw tightened. His brows moved lower over his eyes, and a deep line formed between them. “No, Roz,” he said. “I don’t hate him. I . . .” He paused and shook his head. “Listen, let’s not talk about your father. You just need to rest.”
“But, Gramps, there’s something good about everyone, isn’t there?”
Grandpa took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alan Anthony did one good thing,” he said.
“What?”
“He gave me you.” Grandpa leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I have to go home now. You close those pretty eyes and get some sleep.”
In an odd sort of way, Grandpa’s words comforted me. Maybe I could think of myself, and Valerie too, as something good Daddy had done. After Grandpa left, I slept, and it was a dreamless sleep. When I awoke, my fever had broken and I was on my way to getting better.
chapter
18
“Of course, Hester. It’s no trouble at all,” Tillie said into the phone. “We’ll be happy to have her stay as long as you need. Now, don’t you worry about a thing.”
When Tillie hung up the phone in the kitchen, I looked up from my bowl of oatmeal and caught her eye. “What was that about?” I asked.
“That was Hester Nightingale wanting to know if your little friend Mara could stay with us for a few days.”
“Really?”
“Hester and Willie are going to Detroit to help out with their new grandbaby, and instead of staying with relatives here, Mara said she’d rather stay with you.”
“Really! And it’s all right?”
“Of course it is. You’re all over the strep, and it’ll be nice for you to have a friend here for a while. Willie and Hester will drop her off tomorrow afternoon on their way out of town. I figure she can sleep in your extra bed, can’t she?”
“Sure she can!” I cried. “This is going to be fun!”
When the doorbell rang on Sunday afternoon, I flew down the stairs to get it. But by the time I reached the bottom step, Mom was already opening the door to Mara and her parents.
“Hello, Mrs. Nightingale, Mr. Nightingale. Won’t you come in and have some coffee before you head out?”
Mr. Nightingale, carrying two suitcases, stepped sideways on his long legs into the front hall. He set down the suitcases and took off his fedora as Mrs. Nightingale and Mara stepped inside. “Thank you, Mrs. Anthony,” he said, “but we’ve got a long drive ahead of us, so we best be on our way.”
Mrs. Nightingale nodded and added, “But we’re grateful, Mrs. Anthony, for your willingness to look after Mara while we’re gone.”
“Well, we’re very happy to have her,” Mom said.
Mara and I exchanged a smile as she pulled off her knit cap and unbuttoned her coat. “Hi, Roz,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m better. But I have to have my tonsils out.”
Mara grimaced and nodded. “I’ve had mine out – ”
“There’s nothing to it, honey,” Mrs. Nightingale said, smiling at me. “Snip, snip, and they’re gone.”
It was the snip-snipping that worried me, but I tried to shrug nonchalantly. “I guess so,” I said.
Tillie came out of the kitchen,