Page 42 of Persephone's Curse
“We had a fight,” I said.
“Okay, and?”
“And I asked him to… Or, I insisted he…” I took a breath. I closed my eyes, I opened them. My sisters were staring at me, waiting. “I sent him away. I made him go away.”
“Made him?” Bernie repeated.
“I think… yes. I made him. I think I didn’t know it, but I can… Maybe I can control them. The ghosts. Henry. I made him go away.”
“Youbanishedhim?” Clara hissed. “Oh, Evelyn’s going to kill you.”
“Well obviously I’m not planning on her finding out,” I replied.
“I don’t know,” Clara said, shaking her head. “It’s hard to lie to her for too long. She really wears you down.”
“Where did you send him, exactly?” Bernadette said, her voice calm and even, planning.
“Oh. I don’t really know…”
“And for how long?”
“I don’t really know that, either,” I admitted. “It all just happened really quickly. I didn’t reallymeanto… We had a fight, and I told him… I told him…”
I sat down on the cool tile floor, my legs suddenly shaky.
“What did you tell him?” Bernie pressed.
I covered my hands with my face and said through my closed fingers, “I told him we didn’t want him here anymore.”
“Oh, no,” Clara said. “Winnie, that’sawful.”
“When was this? I wish you had talked to us first.”
“The night we got back from Vermont.” I lifted my head. “I think I just… I don’t know. It all just came out of me. And he can’t do this to her, Bernadette. He can’tdothis to her. And I was talking to Aunt Esme and… I don’t know. I thought I was doing the right thing…”
“You took advice from our six-year-old dead aunt?” Bernie said.
“Well, you’ll just call him back,” Clara said. “And you’ll apologize, and it will all be fine. She loves him, Winnie, you can’t just send him away.”
“No,” Bernadette said firmly. “No, you can’t call him back. And you can’t tell Evelyn. She can’t know.”
“What?” Clara asked, at the same time I said,“What?”
“She can’t know, and you can’t call him back, because you’re right,” Bernie continued. “It was the right thing to do.”
“It was?” I said, at the same time Clara said, “Itwas?”
“What does she think is going to happen? Henry’s aghost. It’s not like they can get married. It’s not like they can have a long, happy life together. It’s not like they can have kids.”
“Evelyn doesn’t want kids,” Clara said.
“You get my drift,” Bernadette said. “It’s a road to nowhere.”
“But it’sHenry,” Clara whispered.
“I know, Cece, and we all love Henry, but what’s done is done,” Bernadette said, getting that I’m-the-eldest-child-and-my-word-is-final tone of voice that I was sure all eldest children were born instinctually knowing.
“So what do we do now?” Clara asked.
