“What the hell are you doing over here?” Dad said.
“I—I—” She couldn’t answer. Stupidstupidstupid. She shouldn’t have come here.
“I thought I told you to stay away from my Lenora,” Dad said. He grabbed Leni by the bicep, yanked her to his side.
Leni bit down hard, so she wouldn’t make a sound. She didn’t want Matthew to know her dad had hurt her.
“Leni,” Matthew said, frowning.
“Stay back,” she said. “Please.”
“Come on, Leni,” Dad said, pulling her away.
Leni stumbled along beside her father, crashing into him and pulling away on the uneven ground. If she got too far, he wrenched her back to his side. Mama hurried along beside, walking with Leni’s bicycle.
Back in their yard, Leni yanked free and almost fell, scrambled across the muddy grass, faced him. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” she cried.
“Ernt,” Mama said, trying to sound reasonable. “They’re just friends—”
Dad turned to Mama. “So you knew about them?”
“You’re overreacting,” Mama said evenly. “He’s in Leni’s class. That’s all.”
“You knew,” Dad said to her again.
“No,” Leni said, suddenly afraid.
“I saw her leave,” Dad said. “But you saw her go, too, didn’t you, Cora? And you knew where she was going.”
Mama shook her head. “N-no. I thought she was going to work, maybe. Or to pick some balm-of-Gilead.”
“You’re lying to me,” he said.
“Dad, please, it’s my fault,” Leni said.
He wasn’t listening. His eyes had that wild, desperate look. “You know better than to hide things from me.” He grabbed Mama and dragged her toward the cabin.
Leni followed them, tried to pull Mama away.
Dad shoved Mama inside and Leni out of the way.
The door slammed shut. The bolt came down hard, with a clank, and locked them inside.
Then, from behind the door, a loud crash, a bitten-off scream.
Leni hurled herself at the door, banged on it, screaming to be let in.
SEVENTEEN
The next morning, the left side of Mama’s face was swollen and purple; one eye was blackening. She sat alone at the table, a cup of coffee in front of her. “What were you thinking? He saw you leave and followed your tire tracks in the mud.”
Leni sat down at the table, ashamed of herself. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Hormones. I told you they were wicked dangerous.” Mama leaned forward. “Here’s the thing, baby girl. You are on thin ice. You know it. I know it. You need to stay away from this boy or something bad is going to happen.”
“He kissed me.” He wants me to sneak out to meet him tonight.
Mama sat there a long time. Quiet. “Well. One kiss can change a girl’s world. Don’t I know that? But you’re not an ordinary girl in the suburbs with a Mr. Cleaver dad. Choices have consequences, Leni. Not just for you, either. For your boy. For me.” She touched her bruised cheekbone, wincing. “You need to stay away from him.”
*
MEET ME. Midnight.
All day, Leni thought about it. At school, every time she looked at Matthew, she knew what he was thinking.
“Please” was the last thing he said to her.
She’d said no and meant it, but when she got home and started on her long list of chores, she found herself waiting impatiently for the sun to set.
Time was not something she usually paid much attention to. On the homestead, the bigger picture mattered—the darkening of the sky, the ebbing of the tide, the snow hares changing color, the birds returning or flying south. That was how they marked the passage of time, in growing seasons and salmon runs, and the first snowfall. On school days, she took notice of the clock, but in a lackadaisical way. No one much cared if you got to school on time, not in the winter when some days it was so cold the trucks wouldn’t start, and not in the spring and fall when there were so many chores to do.
But now time commanded her attention. Down in the living room, Mama and Dad were cuddled together on the couch, talking quietly. Dad kept touching Mama’s bruised face and murmuring apologies, telling her how much he loved her.
At just past ten P.M., she heard Dad say, “Well, Cora, I am about to drop,” and Mama answered, “Me, too.”
Her parents turned off the generator and fed the fire one last time. Then Leni heard the rattle of the beaded curtain being pushed aside as they went into their room.