Chapter 26

Edited by JCov

Mrs. Townsend, my mother and I drove over to the hospital in Mrs. Townsend's car. My mother left my father at home, just in case Kate wasn't at the hospital, and needed to call home or something. It took Mrs. Townsend five minutes to be allowed in to see Clara, and when she got in Clara's room, Clara said she hadn't seen Kate. Mrs. Townsend came out and told my mother that Kate wasn't there. My mother asked where the pay phones were located, and then ran off to tell my father that Kate wasn't at the hospital.

"Larry, do you want to go in and see Clara? I didn't tell her that you were here. She doesn't look her best right now, but maybe you can help her feel better. I don't know if I have the right to ask this of you, but I hope you'll go in there now and try to cheer her up." I walked back to the door I'd seen Clara's mother come out of. I opened it, and saw Clara lying in a hospital bed. I was surprised at how sick she looked. She seemed really surprised to see me. Then her surprise turned to upset over how she looked. She tried to speak, but her voice sounded creaky, like she had laryngitis or a sore throat. Clara told me that they had stuck something down her throat to suck out all of the pills that she'd taken. She said her throat hurt her quite a bit.

"Clara, you really scared us, especially Kate and your mom. Me too."

"It was pretty dumb, I guess."

"It was worse than dumb, it was giving up. That's what surprised me the most. I can see that Kate might try something like this, if she got mad enough, but I didn't think you ever would."

"You didn't hear them. First they were yelling at me, and then they were yelling at each other. Screaming that it was the other one's fault. They were just using me as an excuse for them to fight some more. The only thing they agreed on was that I couldn't ever see you or Kate again. I just got so tired of all of us fighting all the time. It seemed easier to shut off the noise by taking mom's pills."

"When you do something like that, you shut off all the happy noise too. It isn't always easier to run away from the bad stuff. I'm just starting to find that out now. Kate was the first one of us to start fighting back. You should see what she did last night when my mom told her that she couldn't see you anymore."

"What did she do?"

"I'll let her tell you. Listen, Clara, they aren't going to keep you away from Kate, or keep Kate away from you. It just can't be done, and it wouldn't help anything if they could do it. Keeping you away from me is almost the same thing. I already told your mom I was going to marry you someday, if she didn't make you kill yourself before I got the chance."

"I don't believe you told her that."

"I did too. She really hits hard, and she called me a bastard. She put my cheek right on one of her boobs afterwards though. Are you sure you're going to get nice big ones like she has? I'm not marrying you if you don't get some big ones just like she has."

"I wouldn't marry you either. You'd probably want to move to Utah, so you could have four or five wives at once, like those Mormons do."

"If I did, you'd have three or four co-wives. I wonder what you'd all be doing while I was at work?"

"Don't make me laugh, Larry. It hurts too bad."

I had pulled out a chair and put it right next to her bed. We had been speaking quietly to each other. I had started out just holding her hand, then rubbing my nails real lightly, up and down her arm. She liked it, I could tell. I put my hand under her sheet and found one of her nipples which I gave a little casual attention to. We had stopped talking. While I played with her nipple, she stroked my arm.

"Clara, Kate isn't the only one who loves you. Your mom and dad love you, and so do I".

"Do you really love me? Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"No, I really do. I wasn't sure about it until my mom told me what you had done. Then, after I started crying, I knew."

"I knew you were going to, someday. I thought it would be later, when I grew my chest."

"I don't love you that much, at least not yet. Not enough to ask you to go steady or anything. I'm mad at you too. Suppose you had died? Kate would have gone crazy. I would have missed you a lot too."

"You know what I was thinking before I went to sleep? I was thinking that I should have let you put it in me that time. I don't know why I thought of that right then."

"I thought almost the same thing. When I thought that though was when your mother put my head up to her chest."

"Don't say things like that, Larry. I told you it hurts me when I laugh."

"You think we have time to do it now, before your mom or the doctor comes in? I brought a rubber."

"Liar, you never brought a rubber. Let me see it."

"I would, except I already put it on, just in case you said yes. You want to see if I'm lying or not?"

"I wonder if you're that crazy. I sure hope you aren't. Leave it on until I get out of here, and then show me."

"I'm going to have to take it off when I pee or take a shower. It will probably get all messed up, from taking it off, and putting it back on again."

"Do you think my mom and your mom will let me see Kate if she comes here?"

"Sure. I already got your mom convinced that it would be better for you to see Kate. My mom will let her come in too, I bet. We all thought she'd be here in your room when we got here. She snuck out of her bedroom window while I was over at your house."

Just after I said that, Kate stuck her head in the door. She told me that I needed to come out, so she had a chance to visit with Clara. I stood up and leaned over and kissed her lips. My hand was still on her chest, and hers was still on my arm. I smiled at her, and told her I'd see her soon.

Kate shot into the room, moving right past me, as soon as I opened the door to Clara's room. It was all I could do to prevent her from running me over. I shut the door as quick as I could, but we could all still hear as Kate was crying and bawling Clara out for what she had almost done to herself. I knew that Kate was probably already on top of Clara, kissing her repeatedly, as she was bawling her out, all at one and the same time.

"Anyu, Kate and Clara are like the things in your curio cabinet, matched sets. If one should get broken, the other one wouldn't be much good. You don't want to break up a matched set."

"Laurant, we will have to wait and see. I need to speak with your papa, and pray for the right answers. It is wrong by everything I've ever been taught. They are both so innocent in so many other ways. How can this be? How did it happen to them?"

She was looking at me, like she thought I should confess that it was me that had gotten them into doing what they did.

"Sleepovers. The older girls teach the younger girls, as soon as they start getting curious. Some like it and continue doing it, others stop before they get too involved with it. Kate and Clara both liked how it felt, and they got into it more than most of the other girls. Believe me, they are just as interested in boys though. Kate and Clara won't get each other pregnant, and now that they know what feels good, they aren't going to stop doing it. They'll just find someone else to do it with."

"How do you know so much about this, Laurant?"

"Because I love them both. I was worried, so I asked them, and they told me. They knew I wouldn't try to take advantage or hurt them."

"Were they right? Did you not take advantage?"

"I never hurt either one. Clara and I experimented, like Kate and Clara did. Maybe not quite as far, but enough to see whether we both liked it. I never did anything that Clara didn't want me to do."

"And Katinka? What did you do with her?"