Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

need you to be strong. Now you sound like a real Heaven-stone.”
    I nearly laughed. “Of course. That’s who I’ve been and always will be, Ethan. And Ethan?”
    “Yes?”
    “I didn’t take any birth control pills, and I won’t anymore,” I said.
    He was silent so long that I thought he might have hung up. “That’s good,” he finally said.
    I arrived at Heaven-stone before they did andwaited nervously for Daddy. I paced and stood by one of the windows in the living room that faced the front and finally saw the limousine coming up the driveway. I rushed to the front door and out onto the portico as Ethan helped Daddy out. I noticed the nurse wasn’t with them. Daddy looked up at me. I hurried down to him and embraced him.
    While I had been waiting for him, I thought about Mother and how she would greet him and behave. Something she either had said or surely would say kept repeating itself in my mind: “Your happiness should never depend on someone else’s unhappiness, Semantha. Daddy is truly in pain.”
    “I’m so sorry, Daddy,” I said. “I know how happy you were.”
    “Thank you, honey,” he said, and kissed me.
    Along with Ethan, I helped him up the stairs.
    “Where’s your nurse?”
    “I don’t need someone hovering over me. I’ll be all right. People get around with broken arms and slight concussions.”
    “Especially Heaven-stones,” I said, and he nodded.
    He looked at me. “Glad you had your hair fixed,” he said, “and you’re wearing your own clothes.”
    “I’m sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
    He nodded. When we entered the house, he insisted on going to his office instead of up to his bedroom.
    “I can rest there as well, and there are things we just have to get done,” he told Ethan.
    We accompanied him to the office. He sat behind his desk and for a moment just stared ahead. He reminded me of the African American lady in the emergency room, stunned by her sadness and fear.
    “You’re sure you don’t want to lie down for a while, Daddy?”
    “I’m okay. I’ll lie down in a little while.” He picked up the phone and began to make his calls.
    Ethan looked at me and gestured for us to leave.
    “I’ll look in on him in a moment or so,” he told me as we left the office. “It’s better for him to keep busy.” He paused. “You’re right. I like this new hairstyle on you.”
    “Thank you.”
    “Let’s get some lunch,” he suggested.
    Again, Gerad was more than happy to accommodate us, as were both De Stagens. Ethan told them to bring my father something to eat.
    “This funeral is going to seem as big as their wedding,” Ethan told me.
    He had to give Lucille one last compliment, one that I might very well have sincerely given her myself.
    “Fortunately for your father, we discovered she had thought out and planned for everything,” he told me. “I guess it’s logical that someone who was so in control of her life would be sure to be in control of her death. It’s like some road map all laid out to follow. There’s nothing for us to do but bear witness and comfort your father.”
    I didn’t need Cassie beside me to whisper the right thing to say.
    “I’ve done that before,” I said.
    He nodded and reached for my hand.
    We sat there listening to the sound of silence that had seized Heaven-stone and held us hypnotized.

Epilogue
    E THAN WAS RIGHT about Lucille’s funeral. It ran like a Swiss clock, and the number of people who wanted to attend was so great that he, with Daddy overseeing him, had to create a preferred guest list. There were actually people at the church door checking off names. They set up speakers for the crowd that gathered outside the church, and of course, anyone who wanted to could attend at the cemetery.
    It was the cemetery decision more than anything else Lucille had done that won my respect. She had not changed her desire to be buried alongside her first husband. Daddy would lie next to Mother. I was sure that set some tongues wagging, but I could just imagine Lucille staring them down with that condescending expression that said, “How dare you question one of my decisions?”
    There was a seemingly endless parade of sympathetic mourners at Heaven-stone during the days that followed. Gerad and the De Stagens worked harder than ever. Ethan was right alongside Daddy and Uncle Perry, greeting people and thanking them for their condolences. I wasn’t as out front as they were,but there was no hiding. In an