Page 68 of Second Start: Family
“Vicky?” Kenzie called from the doorway, having tapped with no answer.
From the lights in the trailer she was sure Vicky wasn’t in bed yet, but half of her wanted to turn around and leave anyway.
Except none of her wanted to be alone in her trailer, thinking.
“Uh-huh … c’mon in.”
She came out of the tiny bathroom in a robe, creamy white lotion combed through her wet, slicked back hair.
“Deep conditioner,” she explained. “You’ll need it before long, too — the dry and the wind really take it out of your hair. And skin, but I’m still looking for something that I can put on for half an hour every couple of weeks and make the wrinkles go away like this stuff does for hair. If I were smart, I’d have invested every penny I have in a moisturizer maker. But I bet you didn’t come here to talk about wrinkles and hair conditioner, huh?”
“No. I…”
That was as far as she got.
Vicky waved her to the couch. “What do you want to know about Hall?”
“I didn’t…”
She let it die. Why waste the time?
“When you were telling me Hall’s history after going to Cheyenne on that scholarship, you said he was picking up classes after Dan was born, but then you saidBut… and turned it to about Hall’s father’s failing health. That wasn’t what you thought of first, though, was it.”
“No.” She gave Kenzie a you-sure-you-want-to-hear-this? look.
She wasn’t. She jerked her head into a nod anyway.
“When I said Annie got pregnant, it was deliberate. With the twins, then with Bobby, despite Hall not wanting more kids yet.”
“How could you possibly know—”
“Because Annie bragged about it. Told him she was on the pill, but didn’t take them. Even flushed them down the toilet day by day to make him think she was.”
“Why would she—?”
“Some people might tell you it was because she was so good with babies — and she was — and she had all this love to give so naturally she wanted more babies.”
“But, still, to lie to her husband—”
“To lie to him and trick him and ignore everything he said and wanted and needed because what she wanted was what mattered to her. And it wasn’t just Hall. Part of the reason she wanted another baby was because the others weren’t babies anymore. She’d pretty much lost interest in Dan and the girls were feeling it, too.
“Difference was, Dan blamed Hall, while the girls didn’t. Course they had each other, too.”
She patted her hair.
“There’s more to talk about,” Vicky said, “but I better get this stuff off. I don’t know if there’s such a thing as over-conditioned, but if there is my hair’s about to reach it.”
“Of course. I didn’t mean to—”
“Don’t go. Let me rinse this off in the sink. It’s nice to have somebody to talk to.”
“But you’ve always had another teacher here, haven’t you? So you’ve had someone to talk to.”
Vicky didn’t miss that unsubtle steering away from Hall’s history, but she didn’t fight it, either.
“Most times, at least at the start of the school year. A lot of ’em leave before the year’s up.”
“Why?”
