But Terri couldn’t even
“What grade are you in?” Patricia asked, the sun shining brightly in her long blond hair.
“Seventh—well, I’ll be in the eighth when school starts up after the summer.”
“But you’re only twelve!”
“I know. I got moved up a grade.”
“You must be real smart,” Patricia offered, along with a hint of jealousy.
“I just study hard,” Terri admitted. “My Mom and Dad always taught me to study hard…”
And then the thoughts returned.
Suddenly, Terri felt really depressed, like there was a big hole where her heart should be.
««—»»
“Ooo, that’s good!” Patricia remarked.
Cool, clear, fresh water gushed from the garden hose as Terri and Patricia leaned over and took turns drinking. They laughed, frolicking, as they sprayed each other. The cool water felt wonderful in the hot sun.
Then: “Look!” Patricia exclaimed.
A big, bumpy toad looked up at them, sitting in a small corner of shade cast by the back porch steps. It had big black eyes with gold irises.
“That’s the biggest toad I’ve ever seen!” Patricia observed.
“Oh, there’re bigger ones,” Terri said.
“You’re kidding!”
“Yep. I’ve seen toads three times as big as that one, and bullfrogs even bigger. They’re all over the place.”
Patricia suddenly looked flustered. “I wonder why we don’t have any toads and frogs in our yard.”
“That’s because we have a lake.” Terri pointed to the tall trees at the back of the house, where a little path formed. “See that trail?”
Squinting, Patricia nodded.
“It leads down to the lake,” Terri went on. “It’s not a very big lake, but it’s neat. That’s where all the toads and frogs come from. There’re fish in it too, and big salamanders.”
Suddenly, excitement lit up Patricia’s face. “Let’s go! I’ve never even
Terri hesitated. “No, we better not. I’m not allowed.”
“Why not?” Patricia objected. “You’ve got a lake behind your house but you’re not allowed to go see it?”
“Well, I’m allowed but only if my Mom’s with me, or my Uncle Chuck. We’ll go soon though, I promise.”
Of course, that might be a hard promise to keep since, these days, both her mother and Uncle Chuck frequently worked late into the night.
“I can’t wait,” Patricia enthused. “I can’t wait to see it!”
“You will.” Then Terri leaned over, and—
“No, don’t!” Patricia shrilled.
—and picked up the big toad by the porch steps.
“You’re not supposed to touch toads, Terri,” Patricia warned. “They’ll give you warts.”
Terri scoffed. “No they don’t. I’ve picked up lots of toads and I’ve never gotten a wart. Toads can’t give you warts; that’s just an old wive’s tale.”
“How do you know?”
“My Dad told me. He’s a zoologist.”
“A
“It’s someone who studies animals. There’s a zoology lab not too far from here, where scientists do research. That’s where my Dad worked, until…”
“Until what?”
Terri’s suntanned shoulders slumped in despair. Here was that bad subject again. “Until he and my Mom got divorced, and he moved away.”
“Oh,” Patricia said.
And this was something Terri didn’t quite understand. She knew what divorce was, but she didn’t see why a divorced person would stop working at the place they usually worked. One day, a couple of weeks after the divorce, Terri asked her Mom if she could call her father at the zoology lab. “He doesn’t work there anymore, honey,” Mrs. Bennet sadly told her. “He moved away.” And Uncle Chuck later told her the same thing. “Sometimes when people get divorced, Terri, they move far away.”
Just one more thing that made her feel sad.
“But that must’ve been neat, having a Dad who studied animals,” Patricia said, not realizing Terri’s constant sadness over the topic.
“Yeah,” Terri agreed. “It was. I guess it runs in the family. My mother has a zoology degree, and she works at the same lab that my Dad used to work at. And my Uncle Chuck teaches biology at Devonsville Junior High. I’m going to be a zoologist too, when I’m an adult.”
“Sounds like a neat job.” Then Patricia leaned forward, looking at the big toad that Terri gently grasped behind by its legs. Its big eyes, like black marbles, never blinked. Loose white skin under its throat fluttered back and forth. Then—
Terri squealed and quickly put the toad back down on the ground.
“What happened?” Patricia asked.
Terri laughed, then turned the garden hose back on to wash her hands.
“It peed in my hand!” she said.
««—»»
Terri washed her hands off again, with water
“What a great house,” Patricia noticed, her eyes glancing around.
“Yeah, it is nice,” Terri replied half-heartedly. It was a nice house, with big spacious rooms, but…
More bad feelings.
It seemed that anytime she looked at anything—anywhere in the house—she was again grimly reminded of her father. Right now, for instance, here in the kitchen. It reminded her of all the times she and her father and mother had had breakfast together in the mornings, before the school bus came and picked her up at the bus stop down the street. She looked at the microwave oven and remembered the time her father had taught her how to use it, how to set the digital timer that beeped, how to adjust the heat setting. Next, she looked at the big four-burner range and recalled how her father liked to make bacon and cheese omelets for the whole family every Saturday morning. And they were great omelets.
“It seems so empty all the time now,” Terri said without really thinking.
“Well, maybe your Dad will come back someday,” Patricia offered. “Maybe he and your Mom will get back together.”
“I hope so…”
By now, Patricia could probably guess that this was not Terri’s favorite thing to talk about. “But your Uncle Chuck lives here too, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, he has since my Dad left. He drives my Mom to work every morning, and picks her up—that’s where he is now. And he looks after me during the day, when school’s out for vacation.”
