Page 27 of Through the Dark Night
Katie put a hand over her mouth and gasped. “I was so excited to have visitors, and I totally forgot to even set you a plate!”
“We can pretend it was my plate that you forgot,” Lance suggested.
“But you sit at the head of the table, and your plate’s there. I want to put Shannon right beside you, so I’m going to put her across the table from me. That way, she’s close to you.” Katie giggled.
Shannon knew her cheeks were bright red, because she could feel the heat.
As she looked at Lance, his cheeks were flushed under his tan as well.
Katie was so joyful, so full of life and fun and happiness that Shannon was charmed by her. She totally accepted Shannon and gave several uninhibited statements about how she would like for her brother to get married and that Shannon was the perfect girl for him. At least from what Lance had said.
By the time the meal was over, Shannon absolutely loved Katie, and Lance was absolutely embarrassed beyond words.
Still, his patience and love for his sister was obvious.
“It’s your turn for the dishes, but since you also helped to make the meal, I think I should help you.”
“I can help dry,” Shannon offered, after Lance spoke.
“I think it’s a good idea to have help sometimes,” Katie said, giggling again. “And do I get to stay up later tonight too?”
“Absolutely not. You have a big day tomorrow, because you’re going to Sierra’s house. It’s always a lot of fun there, and you come back exhausted. So you need to get a good night’s rest.”
“Oh. I forgot. Sierra lives just outside of town on a farm. Three days a week, I get to go to her house and help. She has goats and rabbits and a bunch of kids too. And she lets me come and play with the kids and help her with the animals. I do some cleaning too,” Katie said, rattling off what she did while ticking the things off on her fingers.
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” Shannon said. “I can see why you’d be tired at the end of the day.”
“I am not tired. Lance just worries.”
“I see. Big brothers are like that, aren’t they?”
“They are. Sometimes they’re a real pain in the butt.” The way Katie said it was so endearing that Shannon had to laugh.
The dishes were soon done, and they played a couple of games at the table before it was time for Katie to go get ready for bed.
“If you don’t mind, we could have some dessert out on the porch as soon as Katie is settled for the night,” Lance said.
“I don’t mind at all.”
It wasn’t long after that that Lance came down the stairs, stepping softly.
“She always falls asleep right as soon as her head hits the pillow. Sometimes I wish that I could be that innocent and totally carefree. Because I’ll lay awake thinking about things for hours some nights.”
“Same,” she said, thinking that it would be nice in some ways to be like Katie, joyful, happy, giggling over everything with not a care in the world, but… “Not everyone is blessed enough to have a big brother who will put their life on hold or completely derail it in order to take care of them.” She wanted to tell him how much she admired that. How impressed she was at how selfless he was. But the words just wouldn’t come.
“I guess I didn’t have a choice.”
“You sure did. She could have gone to an institution. You could have given her over to the state or something.”
“I suppose I could have. But I just couldn’t have done that. Even now, I worry sometimes about what’s going to happen to her when something happens to me.”
“Do you have things set up for her?”
“I do. And I have some money put back that will hopefully pay for it all.”
“Is Sierra a babysitter?” she asked carefully. Lance didn’t seem like he was easily offended, but especially when a person was talking about family, one never knew.
“Yes. She is. She keeps her three days a week, and then I have another neighbor who keeps her too. We don’t really say that she’s being babysat, but that’s what it is. Not that she couldn’t stay home by herself, and if I have to work on the weekend, she does. She’s old enough to—she just… I don’t want her to be home by herself all day long every day. And friends for someone like her are kind of few and far between. It’s weird seeing a grown woman act like a ten-year-old.”
