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"Aunt Bet thinks he did the right thing," I declared. Again, Uncle Philip nodded.
"I know this has been extra-hard for you, for everyone. So many different personalities thrown together abruptly. It's overwhelming at times," he said, shaking his head sympathetically.
"Not for Aunt Bet and Richard and Melanie," I replied.
"Sure it has," he said. "B
ut that doesn't excuse something like this. I'll straighten it all out tonight," he promised and smiled. "I want you to be as happy as you can be, Christie," he said, putting his hand on my cheek. "You're too lovely to be made upset and far too fragile, I know."
"I'm not fragile, Uncle Philip. And it's my brother who is being terrorized right now, not me. I can take care of myself, but he's only nine and . . ."
"Of course. Calm down. I promise, I'll straighten everything out. I'll make it up to you," he said. "In the meantime tell Julius to take you and Jefferson into the village to buy him another pair of shoes, okay?"
"It's not just the shoes," I insisted.
"I know, but there's no point in turning this into World War Three now, is there? We're all too fresh with sorrow from the tragedy. Do whatever you can, whatever you want to calm things down, Christie. You're smarter and older than Richard and Melanie," he said. For a minute, I thought he was going to add Aunt Bet, too. "I know I can depend on you."
My anger subsided. The men were waiting for him and there wasn't much else I could have him do anyway. As long as he understood and promised to do something, I thought.
"All right."
"That's a good girl," he said and drew me to him to embrace me and kiss me on the cheek, his lips grazing mine as he pulled back. I stared at him a moment and then turned and ran all the way home to get Jefferson and go shopping for his new shoes.
Despite Uncle Philip's promises, one crisis ended only to be followed by another. There were arguments between Jefferson and Richard over use of the bathroom, over toys and games, and over what television programs to watch. It was easy to see they were like two feuding cats put into the same cage. Peace could be broken at a moment's notice.
Fortunately, most of the time, Richard wanted to be with Melanie. At first I was happy about it, but as I watched them together, I became curious and then revolted by what I saw. They spent nearly all their waking hours side by side. Besides brushing each other's hair, they would cut each other's toenails and check with each other to see what each wanted to wear before either would get dressed. They never seemed to argue like other siblings their age, and I noticed that Richard never teased Melanie. In fact, neither said a negative or critical thing to the other, ever.
Whenever Jefferson and I were in the same room with them, they would inevitably revert to whispering.
"Your mother's so worried about everyone being polite and following the proper etiquette and behavior," I snapped at them, "you should know that whispering is impolite."
They both smirked. Whenever one was chastised or criticized, the other reacted as if it had been done to him or to her.
"You and Jefferson have secrets," Melanie moaned. "Why can't we?"
"We have no secrets."
"Of course you do," Richard said. "Every family has its secrets. You have another father, your real father, but you keep everything about him secret, don't you?" he accused.
"I do not. I don't know all that much about him," I explained.
"Mother says he raped Dawn and that's how you were born," Melanie revealed.
"That's not true! That's a horrible lie!"
"My mother doesn't lie," Richard said coldly. "She doesn't have to."
"She has nothing to hide," Melanie concluded.
My heart was pounding. I wanted to walk across the room and slap the expressions of self-satisfaction off both their faces.
"My father, my real father, was a famous opera star. He was even in Broadway musicals and he was a teacher at the Sarah Bernhardt school in New York," I said slowly. "That was where my mother met him and fell in love with him. He did not rape her."
"Then why did he run away?" Richard demanded.
"He didn't want to be married and take care of children, but he didn't rape her," I said.
"That's still horrible," Melanie said. Richard nodded and then went back to the game of Chinese checkers, leaving me steaming.
