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It wasn’t an attack, exactly. It was more an act of blind frustration. But De
“Oh,” Stem said. “Gosh.”
Red stood up, slack-mouthed, with his magazine dangling from one hand. Hugh was hovering in front of the fridge and saying, “Guys. Hey, guys,” and gripping his washrag in a useless sort of way.
De
All at once the kitchen was full of fluttering women and shocked, wide-eyed children. There seemed to be a multitude of them, way more than could be accounted for. Abby was saying, “What is this? What’s happened?” and Nora was leaning over Stem, trying to help him up. “Keep him sitting,” Jea
De
“Look at you,” Jea
“I don’t need an emergency room,” De
“They both have to go,” Abby said. “De
“I’m fine,” Stem and De
“Let’s at least put you on the couch,” Nora told Stem. She didn’t seem all that perturbed. She helped him to his feet, this time without Jea
“Out,” Jea
Red had sunk back onto his chair at some point, but Abby touched his shoulder and said, “Let’s go to the living room.”
“I don’t understand what happened,” he told her.
“Me neither, but let’s leave Jea
She helped him up, and they moved toward the door. Only Susan remained. She handed Jea
“I do not need stitches,” he said. He lowered himself to a chair. She leaned over him and pressed the wad of damp towels to his temple. Susan, meanwhile, sat down in the chair next to his and picked up one of his hands. “Hmm,” Jea
“Ouch,” he said.
“Hugh? Where’s that first-aid kit?”
“Coming right up,” Jea
Jea
Hugh left. As soon as he was gone, De
“Really,” Jea
“Honest. You’ve got to believe me.”
“Susan, find me the Neosporin.”
Susan raised her eyes to Jea
“Ointment. In the first-aid kit,” Jea
“We were just doing the dishes,” De
“Yes, I can just imagine,” Jea
“What is that supposed to mean?”
She tossed the paper towels into the garbage bin and accepted the Neosporin from Susan. “Hold still,” she told De
“Give what up? He was the one who started it!”
“Don’t you think everyone’s got some kind of … injury? Stem himself, for instance! Couldn’t I feel jealous too, if I put my mind to it? Dad favors Stem way over me, even though I’m a really good worker. He’s always talking about Stem taking charge of the business someday, as if I didn’t exist, as if I couldn’t do every single thing a man can do once somebody shows me how. But guess what, De
De
Susan rooted through the first-aid kit, which didn’t seem well organized. She tossed aside scissors, tweezers, rolls of gauze, a bottle of vinegar for jellyfish stings, and came up with a box of butterfly bandages.
“Great,” Jea
“It’s not his being in charge I mind,” De
“He didn’t go hunting,” Jea
“All my life, Dad has made me feel I didn’t quite measure up,” De
“And then what?” Jea
“What do you mean, what?”
“What happened with the furniture making?”
“Oh, well … I forget. I think we moved on to the boring part, then. Baseboards or something. So I quit, by and by.”
Jea
But just as De