The Flowers in the Attic Series: The Dollangangers: Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and a New Excerpt! (177 page)

“Bart and Joel hide the keys to the cars so I can’t drive off. And that’s exactly what I would do, permission or not. I want to slip out a window, but they’re all so high above the ground, and I’m afraid to jump and fall and hurt myself. But I think about boys all the time, that’s what. I miss being with them, having dates and going to dances. I know what you’re thinking, because Joel is always muttering about me being without morals . . . I’m trying hard to hang on to them, really I am. Yet I don’t know how long I can keep myself a virgin. I tell
myself that I’m going to be old-fashioned and hold out until I’m married, but I plan not to marry until I’m at least thirty. Then, when I’m out with a boy I really like, and he begins to apply pressure, I want to surrender. I like the sensations I feel leaping up and making my heart beat faster. My body wants it to happen. Momma, why can’t I find the kind of strength you have? How do I find the real me? I’m caught in a world that doesn’t really know what it wants, you tell me that all the time. So if the world doesn’t know, how can I? I want to be what you want me to be, sweet and pure, while
I
want to be sexy. The two contradict each other. I want you and Daddy to always love me, so I try to be as sweet as you think I am—but I’m not that innocent, Momma. I want all the good-looking boys to be in love with me—but someday I’m not going to be able to hold back.”

I smiled to see her troubled expression, her fearful glance to see if I’d be shocked. I guessed, too, that she was afraid she’d just ruined her chances to escape this house. My arms went around her. “Hang on to morality, Cindy. You’re much too talented and too beautiful to give yourself away like a bit of worthless trash. Think highly of yourself, and others will as well.”

“But Momma—how do I say no, and still keep the boys liking me?”

“There are a lot of boys who won’t expect you to ‘give out,’ Cindy, and that’s the kind you want. Those who demand sex for one reason or another are more than likely to dump you quickly after they get what they want. There’s something about men that makes them want to conquer every woman, especially an exceptional beauty like you. Remember, too, they talk amongst themselves and report on the most intimate details when they don’t really love you.”

“Momma! You make me feel that being a woman is a trap! I don’t want them to trap
me
—I want to trap them! But I have to confess, I’m not good about resisting. Bart’s made me feel
so insecure about myself that I keep wanting the boys to convince me differently. But every time from this day forward, when some jerk gets me on the backseat and says he’ll fall ill if I don’t satisfy his lust, I won’t feel sorry for him. I’ll just think of you and Daddy and bash in his head—or give him the knee where it hurts worse.”

She made me laugh, when I hadn’t laughed in weeks. “All right, darling, I know in the end you’ll do the right thing. So let’s talk more about that summer camp so I can give your father all the details.”

“You mean I haven’t spoiled my chances?” she asked in a delighted way.

“Of course not. I think Chris will agree that you need a break from all this tragedy here.”

Chris did agree, thinking as I did that a sixteen-year-old girl needed this special summer for fun. The moment Cindy knew, she had to visit Jory and spill it all out to him. “Now, just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean I don’t care, but I’m so damned bored, Jory. I’m going to write often and send you little gifts.” She embraced him, kissed him, her tears falling to put beads on his clean-shaven face. “Nothing can take away what you are, Jory—that wonderful thing that makes you so special, and it doesn’t live in your legs. I’d want you for my own if you weren’t my brother.”

“Sure you would,” he said with some irony. “But thanks anyway.”

Chris and I left Jory alone with his nurse long enough to drive Cindy to the nearest airport, where we kissed her goodbye and he handed her some “pin” money. She was delighted with the amount and had to kiss him again and again before she backed off, waving vigorously. “I’ll write real letters,” she promised, “not just postcards, and I’ll send pictures. Thanks for everything, and don’t forget to write often and tell me what’s going on. In a way, living in Foxworth Hall is like being caught up in some deep, dark, mysterious novel, only
it’s too frightening when you’re actually living the story.”

On the way to the hospital to stay with Jory again, Chris told me of his plans. We couldn’t move to Hawaii now and abandon Jory to the frail mercies of Bart and Joel, and Melodie wasn’t able to care for herself, much less a husband in a back cast, even if she did hire a nurse. And neither Jory nor Melodie would be in any condition to make the long plane trip to Hawaii for many months.

“I won’t know what to do with myself when Jory goes back to the Hall and has his own attendants, any more than Cindy knew how to keep herself occupied and happy. Jory won’t need me every hour. I’m going to feel useless unless I do something meaningful, Cathy. I’m not an old man. I still have many good years ahead of me.”

Sadly I turned my head to watch him as he kept his eyes on the traffic. He went on without turning to meet my eyes. “Medicine has always played a very important part in my life. That doesn’t mean I’m breaking my promise to share more time with you and my family than I do professionally. Just remember what losing a career means to Jory . . .”

Sliding closer on the seat, I lowered my head to his shoulder, telling him in a choked voice to go ahead and do what he felt was right. “. . . but keep in mind a physician has to have an impeccable record, and someday there may be gossip about us.”

He nodded, saying he’d already considered that fact. This time he was going into the research side of medicine. He wouldn’t be meeting the public, who might recognize him as a Foxworth. He’d already thought enough on the subject. Already he was bored with staying home and contributing nothing. He had to do something important or lose the identity he felt he needed. I put on a bright smile even if my heart was sinking, for his dream of living in Hawaii had also been my dream.

With arms about each other, we entered the huge house that waited with its gaping jaws wide.

Melodie had sequestered herself in her room, Joel was in that little room without furniture, down on his knees praying while a single candle burned in the gloom. “Where is Bart?” asked Chris, looking around as if astonished that anyone would want to spend so many hours in such a dismal place.

Joel frowned, then faintly smiled, as if he had to remember to appear friendly. “Bart is off in some bar drinking himself under the table, as he put it.”

I’d never known Bart to do such a thing. Regret for setting up the performance that ruined his brother’s legs, and cost him his career? Regret for driving Cindy away? Did Bart know how to feel regret? I didn’t know. I stared blankly at Joel as he paced the floor, seeming terribly upset, when what difference did Bart’s behavior make to him?

The old man followed us as usually he followed Bart. “He should know better,” muttered Joel. “Whores and harlots hang out in bars, though I’ve warned him about them.”

His words intrigued me. “What’s the difference between a whore and a harlot, Joel?”

His smeary eyes turned my way. As if light blinded him, he shaded those eyes with his gnarled hand.

“Are you mocking me, niece? The Bible mentions both nouns, so there must be some difference.”

“Perhaps a whore is worse than a harlot, or vice versa? Is that what you mean?”

He glared at me, telling me with his glittering, faded eyes that I was tormenting him with my silly questions.

“Then’s there’s a strumpet, Joel, and today we have hookers, call girls, and prostitutes—do they come between harlots and whores, or are they the same?”

His eyes hardened to rivet on me with the piercing glare of a virgin saint. “You don’t like me, Catherine. Why don’t you like me? What have I done to make you distrust me? I stay to save Bart from the worst in himself, or I’d leave today because of your attitude, and I am more Foxworth than you are.” Then
his expression changed, and his lips quirked. “No, I take that back. You are
twice
the Foxworth I am.”

How I hated him for reminding me! Still, he did manage to make me feel ashamed, as if I’d misconstrued the silent messages he sent out. I didn’t defend myself, or protest to convince him otherwise. Nor did Chris say a word to prevent this confrontation he’d already sensed would come sooner or later.

“I don’t know why I distrust you, Joel,” I said in a kinder voice than I customarily used with him. “Perhaps you protest too much about your father, making me doubt you are one whit better or different.”

Without another word, but with a sad look that I think he feigned, he turned and shuffled off, his hands again tucked up those invisible brown monk sleeves.

That very evening, when Melodie insisted on dining in her room alone again, I made up my mind. Even if she didn’t want to go, and fought against me, I was driving Melodie to see Jory!

I stalked into her room and removed her almost untouched dinner tray without saying a word. She wore the same shabby robe that she’d worn for days. I pulled her best-looking summer outfit from her closet and tossed it on the bed. “Shower, Melodie, and shampoo your hair. Then get dressed—you are going to visit Jory tonight, whether or not you want to.”

Instantly she jumped up and protested, acting hysterical as she said she couldn’t go yet, wasn’t ready yet, and I couldn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to do. I overrode everything she said, shouting back it seemed she’d never be ready, and I didn’t care what excuses she offered, she was going.

“You can’t make me do one damned thing!” she yelled, very pale as she backed away. Then, sobbing, she pleaded for me to give her more time to become adjusted to the idea of Jory being crippled. I said she’d had enough time. I’d adjusted, Chris had, Cindy had . . . and she could pretend; after all, she was supposed to be a professional used to playing roles.

I had to literally drag Melodie to the shower and shove her inside when she wanted the tub. But I knew about Melodie in a bathtub. There she’d sit until her skin puckered, and visiting hours would be over. Waiting outside the shower door, I urged her to hurry. She stepped out, swathed in a towel, still sobbing as her blue eyes pleaded for mercy.

“Stop crying!” I ordered, shoving her down on the dressing room stool. “I’m going to blow-dry your hair while you put on your makeup—and do a good job of concealing that red puffiness around your eyes, for Jory will be very perceptive. You’ve got to convince him that your love for him hasn’t changed.”

On and on I talked to convince her that she would find the right words to say, the right expressions to wear, as I dried her pretty honey-blond hair.

Her hair had marvelous sheen, more depth to the color than mine had. No red in mine at all. The texture was stronger, than my frail, fine hair of flaxen color. When I had Melodie dressed, I sprayed her lightly with the perfume Jory loved most, as she stood as if in a trance of not knowing what to do next. I hugged her before I pulled her to the door.

“Come now, Melodie, it’s not going to be that bad. He loves and needs you. Once you’re there and he looks at you, you’ll forget his legs are paralyzed. You’ll instinctively do and say the right things. I know you will because you love him.”

Pale beneath the makeup, her large eyes stared at me bleakly, as if she had her doubts and knew better than to bring them up again.

By this time Bart had come home from whatever bar had served him enough to make his legs limp and his eyes unfocused. He slouched in a deep chair, legs sprawled forward, and behind him in the shadows, Joel sagged limp as a dying palm. “Where yuh goin’?” Bart asked in a slurred voice, as I tried to slip Melodie down the hall to the garage without him noticing us.

“To the hospital,” I said, pulling Melodie toward the huge garage. “And I think it’s time you went to visit your brother again, Bart. Not tonight, but tomorrow. Buy him a gift that will entertain him . . . he’s going mad in there from doing nothing.”

“Melodie, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Bart said, rising unsteadily to his feet. “Don’t let my dominating mother push you around.”

She was trembling, hanging back to plead mutely with him. Ruthlessly I pulled her on and forced her into the car.

Bart came staggering into the garage, calling out to Melodie that he would save her . . . and then he lost his drunken balance and fell to the floor. I pushed the electric button to open one of the huge garage doors and backed out of the garage.

All the way into Charlottesville, until I was parking in the hospital lot, Melodie trembled, sobbed, and tried to convince me she’d harm Jory more than she’d help him. And all the way, I’d tried to give her confidence that she could handle the situation.

“Please, Melodie, walk into that room with a smile. Put on your nobility, that regal princess air that you used to wear all the time. Then when you’re near his bed, take him in your arms and kiss him.”

Numbly she nodded, as a terrified child would.

I shoved the roses I’d purchased into her arms, and other gifts I’d wrapped prettily, one she’d chosen to give him after Bart’s party. “Now, tell him you haven’t been before because you’ve been feeling weak, sleepy and sick. Tell him all your other concerns if you want to. But don’t you dare even hint that you can’t feel toward him like a wife anymore.”

Like a blind, automated robot she nodded stiffly, forcing herself to keep pace with me.

We ran into Chris coming down the hall as we left the elevator on the sixth floor. He beamed happily to see Melodie with me. “How wonderful, Melodie,” he said, giving her a
quick hug before he turned to me. “I went out and bought Jory his dinner, and enough for me as well. He’s in a fairly good mood. He drank all his milk and ate two bites of the pecan pie. And usually he adores pecan pie. Melodie, if you can, try to see that he eats more of that pie. He’s losing weight rapidly, and I’d like to see him gain some back.”

Still speechless, her eyes wide and blank, Melodie nodded, looking toward the door numbered 606 as if she faced the electric chair. Chris gave her a friendly, understanding pat on her back, kissed me, then strode off. “I’m going to talk to his doctors. I will join you later on and follow you home in my car.”