And then, just as she was sure she was going to be able to throw Beth off her and give her the thrashing she deserved, her father suddenly appeared, his hands sliding under Beth’s shoulders, lifting her up.
“Get her away from me,” Tracy wailed, her hands immediately falling away from Beth to cover her face. “Get her off me, Daddy! She’s hurting me!”
With a quick tug Phillip pulled Beth to her feet, then let her go. Sobbing, she ran to her mother, who was now standing just inside the door, and threw her arms around her. Carolyn knelt down, pulling her daughter close.
“Beth! Honey, what happened?”
But before she could reply, Tracy’s voice filled the room. “She’s crazy!” Tracy yelled. “I was just lying on my bed, and all of a sudden she came in and jumped on me! I didn’t do anything, Daddy!”
Carolyn, bewildered, looked from Tracy to Beth. “Beth? Is that true?”
Beth, tears streaming from her eyes, shook her head. “She came into my room,” she replied. “She came in and started telling me I was crazy, and that everyone hates me. And … and—” She broke off, choking back her sobs.
“That’s not true,” Tracy said hotly. “I didn’t go anywhere near her room!”
“That’s enough!” Phillip declared. “It doesn’t matter who started it. You’re both quite grown up enough not to be fighting like this. Now I want you both to apologize to each other.”
“I won’t!” Tracy shouted. “I didn’t do anything, and I don’t have to apologize to anyone! Why don’t you make Beth apologize? She started it!”
Phillip took a deep breath, and silently counted to ten. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, but there was an edge to it that cut through his daughter’s fury. “I don’t care who started it, Tracy. All I’m interested in is ending it. Now, apologize to Beth.”
Tracy’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered in a voice that was barely audible.
Phillip turned to the other girl. “Beth?”
Beth hesitated, then sniffled. “I’m sorry,” she said at last. “I shouldn’t have jumped on you.”
“See?” Tracy crowed. “She admitted it!”
“She apologized, Tracy,” her father replied. “That’s all. Now get into bed, and I’ll be back in a little while to say good night.”
Tracy glanced at the clock, then decided not to press her luck by protesting that it wasn’t even ten yet. Instead, she looked up at her father appealingly. “Is it all right if I watch television?”
“For an hour,” Phillip agreed. “Say good night to Carolyn and Beth.”
Tracy hesitated, then spoke the words while she looked at the floor.
“Good night, Tracy,” Carolyn said quietly, then led Beth out of the room and back to her own. Neither mother nor daughter said anything while Beth undressed, put on her pajamas, then slipped under the covers. Finally Carolyn leaned over, and kissed her daughter’s forehead.
“I’m sorry, honey,” she said.
Beth looked up at her mother. “Do you believe me, Mommy?” she said so quietly that Carolyn could barely hear the words.
“Of course I do,” Carolyn assured her. “Why would I ever think that you’d pick a fight with Tracy?” She forced herself to grin. “After all, she’s bigger than you.”
“But why does she hate me?” Beth asked.
“I don’t know,” Carolyn replied, the smile fading from her lips. “And I don’t know what we can do about it, either. But we’ll think of something. I promise.” She kissed Beth once more, then went to the door. Then, as she let herself out, she heard Beth speak once more, almost as if she were talking to herself.
“Sometimes I wish Amy would just kill her.”
Chilled, Carolyn said nothing, but pulled Beth’s door closed behind her.
Phillip glanced up as Carolyn came into their bedroom. “You look white as a sheet,” he said. Taking her hand, he led her to the bed, but she pulled away from him and went to sit at her vanity instead.
In the mirror, she could see that he was right. Her skin looked ashen, and there seemed to be dark circles under her eyes. Helplessly, she shook her head.
“I just don’t know how much more of it I can stand,” she said, her voice trembling with the tears that were suddenly threatening to overwhelm her. “It’s not getting any better, Phillip. And I don’t think it’s going to!”
Phillip came to stand beside her, his strong hands resting gently on her shoulders. “But what can we do?” he asked. “They’re our children.” Then he smiled tightly. “Maybe I was wrong,” he suggested. “Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped the fight. In the end, they may just have to fight it out.”
“That’s boys,” Carolyn said. She reached for a Kleenex, and blew her nose, then threw the tissue into the white wicker basket at her feet. “Girls don’t do that sort of thing.”
“Ours do,” Phillip said quietly.
Carolyn shook her head hopelessly. “And what’s it going to be like when the baby comes? Phillip, I just don’t think I can cope with it all.”
“Of course you can,” Phillip began, but Carolyn shook her head again.
The last words Beth had spoken before Carolyn had left her room echoed in her mind. Should she repeat them to Phillip? But she couldn’t. It would be almost like betraying Beth. Besides, the words hadn’t meant anything — they’d been nothing more than the venting of childish anger.
“I … I’ve been thinking maybe I ought to let Beth go live with Alan for a while,” she finally said. “At least until the baby is born.” In the mirror she could see her husband’s worried frown. “And she’d like to go — I know she would.”
“What about Alan?” Phillip asked. “Don’t you think you ought to ask him about it?”
“I don’t have to,” Carolyn sighed. “You know as well as I do that he’d take her in a minute. He’d rearrange his whole life for her.”
There was a melancholy note in her voice that made Phillip wonder if Carolyn was having more second thoughts about their marriage. “And I wouldn’t?” he asked quietly, hoping he didn’t sound defensive.
Carolyn patted one of his hands gently. “You’d do anything for anybody, if you could,” she told him. “In that way, you and Alan are very much alike. And I know how much you’ve tried to do for Beth. But you have Tracy and Abigail to worry about, too.”
“And you,” Phillip added.
“And me, and in a few months, a new baby as well. And I just keep thinking maybe I’m being unfair to Beth. She’s so unhappy here, and it doesn’t seem to matter what you or I do. Sometimes I feel as though we’re both caught in the middle.”
“I know,” Phillip agreed. Giving her shoulders one more squeeze, he wandered over to the window, and looked out into the night. From here, at the front of the house, he could barely make out the upper ring of the mausoleum, glowing softly in the moonlight. Up there, at least, it looked peaceful. If only they could make the house peaceful, too.
“Let’s not make any decisions now,” he said. “Let’s give it a little more time, and see what happens. I hate giving up. Another few days, all right? And then we’ll talk to Alan.”
Carolyn nodded, and looked at herself in the mirror once more.
She not only looked tired now, she thought. She looked defeated as well.
In the corridor outside, Tracy padded silently away from the door to her father’s bedroom.
She hadn’t heard every word — the wood was too thick for that — but she’d heard enough.
They were thinking about sending Beth away. That was exactly what Tracy wanted. But it wouldn’t be forever.
When the baby came, they’d bring her back, and then it would be worse than ever.
She had to figure out how to convince them that Beth was crazy so they’d send her away and never let her come back again.
She went back to her room, and got into bed. The television was on, and though she was looking at it, she wasn’t really seeing it. She was thinking.
By the time her father came in to say good night twenty minutes later, she had figured it out. When he leaned over to kiss her, she slipped her hands around his neck, and hugged him tightly. “I love you, Daddy,” she
