The Things We Keep(68)

Clara makes a gesture with her hand, dismissing the idea, and I catch a waft of her scent: lavender and talcum powder. “Do you have any sisters, Eve?” she asks.

“Me?” I say, surprised. “No. No brothers or sisters.”

“You’re lucky.”

“Lucky?” I laugh. “Do you know what it’s like eating your dinner every night for twenty years under the watchful eye of two parents who have nothing they’d rather do than talk—at length—about your day? With no one to interrupt, no one who’s failed a math quiz to steal their attention. Just you. And them. What I would have done for a sister!”

From the way Clara smiles, I think I’ve got her. But then she says, “Sisters aren’t always the way they look on TV, Eve, with all the hugging and the sharing secrets and the swapping clothes. Sometimes sisters can be treacherous.”

I think back to the day in the parlor when Laurie said Clara’s sister was coming to visit. Clearly things aren’t particularly harmonious between the two of them.

“Have you ever wondered if your whole life was a lie?” Clara asks.

“Yes,” I say.

She looks at me, nods. “Yes, I s’pose you have.”

My cell phone rings in my pocket and I snatch it and glance at the screen, ready to silence it. Then I notice the call is coming from Clem’s school. “Sorry, Clara, I have to take this.”

“Yes, of course. Go ahead, honey.”

I punch the button. “Hello?”

“Mrs. Bennett, this is Kathy Donnelly from Clementine’s school. I’m afraid we have a little problem.”





34

Clementine

“Clementine, it’s Miss Weber. Can you open the door, sweetheart?”

I put down the toilet seat and sit. I’ll wait here until everyone has gone home, and then I’ll come out. By that time, Mom will be here, and she’ll take me home and I’ll tell her I never want to come back to school again.

“It’s just me,” Miss Weber says. “All the other kids have gone back to class. Why don’t you come out and tell me what happened?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Clementine, something must have happened for you to lock yourself in here. I want to help you, but you have to talk to me. Did someone say something to upset you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Can you tell me what they said?”

Your daddy was a bad man. Everyone hated your daddy.

“They told lies.”

“What kind of lies?”

There’s writing on the toilet door:




I suddenly want to write something. Miranda stinks. Or maybe, Miranda is a liar. But I don’t have a pen.

“Clem?” It’s another voice; not Miss Weber. Immediately I feel a rush of tears.

“Mom?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

Everyone hates your mom, too.

I throw open the door and run headlong into Mom’s belly. “What is it?” she says, cradling my head. “What happened?”

“I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it yet,” Miss Weber tells her. “Something happened at lunchtime. Clem didn’t come back to class, and I found her in here. I’ve tried to get her to talk, but she hasn’t said anything except that someone said something to upset her.”

Mom stands back and looks at me. There is a wet patch on her shirt from my tears. “Who said something to you?” she asks. “Was it Miranda?”

I’m crying too much now to get any words out, so I just nod. Mom kneels down in front of me and makes her voice all quiet. “What did she say, hon?”

I know how he died. He wasn’t old or sick.

“I want to go home,” I say. “Can we go home?”

“I’d really rather know what happened,” Miss Weber says. “Then we can deal with it. If Miranda did say something to Clem, I’ll talk to her, talk to her mother—”

I squeeze Mom’s hand. “Please can we go?”

“Actually, Ms. Donnelly wanted to speak to you, Mrs. Bennett,” Miss Weber says to Mom. “She said it’s important.”

Mom’s face goes white.

“Please!” I cry.

Mom looks at Miss Weber. Finally Miss Weber nods.

“Tell Ms. Donnelly I’ll call her,” Mom says.

Miss Weber gets my bag and then walks with us to the parking lot. At Mom’s car, she squats down and gives me a hug. “We’ll work this out, Clementine. It makes me very sad to think that someone has upset you. I’m going right back to class now and I’m going to talk to everyone about how we shouldn’t say things to upset our friends.”

“Even if they’re true?” Mom says quietly.

Miss Weber and I look up, but I don’t think Mom is talking to me. Not to Miss Weber either. She’s just kind of talking to the air.

*

On the way home, Mom calls Eric to say she’s not coming back to Rosalind House. She says she’s sorry, but it’s a family emergency. I want to tell her that I don’t mind, that I like being at Rosalind House, but then she says, “I’m taking my daughter home, and that’s that,” and hangs up the phone.