Heart's Desire by Laura Pedersen Read Free Book Online

but she wouldn’t listen to him.”
    “I don’t know anything about cheerleading or traveling on buses to football games.”
    “No, but you went
through a phase
and now you’re fine.” She looks up to the shelf with the Greek vases featuring naked people in strange positions, and obviously these make her think twice. “I mean, you managed to graduate and you’re in college now. You never got into drugs or alcohol. And those girlfriends, Gwen and Jane, they were always polite when they called or came over to the house. But Louise’s friends honk their horns in the driveway until she comes out or else they phone and don’t even say
hello,
or
please
when they ask to speak with her. And the
outfits
they wear, if you can even call them that! I mean, where
are
their mothers? Can’t the families afford full-length mirrors?”
    It appears that Mom is going to start sobbing again just at the thought of young ladies not saying please and hello. Let’s not even consider wearing inappropriate clothing.
    “Okay, okay. I’ll talk to her,” I give in.
    “Oh, thank you!” Mom gives me her brightest smile, the one normally reserved for toilet training. “Your father grounded Louise for staying out until five o’clock in the morning this past Saturday and so she’s home right now.”
    I think back to when I was grounded, more or less for life, and ended up running away. Dad really needs to add some new stuff to his punishment repertoire. Although in order to take away our allowance I guess he’d first have to start
giving
us one. Dad has this old-fashioned notion that working around the house is your contribution to the family and we should all just be thankful we’re not doing chores on a farm like when he was a boy.
    “Louise, of all people, is probably going to have to attend summer school,” moans my mother, as if this is like hanging a big scarlet letter S on the front door. “Why, in middle school she practically had straight A’s.” Mom may have a lot of kids, but she can always give you a grade-point average.
    “So do you want to ride home with me or take your car?” she asks.
    “Oh gosh, Mom. I’ve been up for, like, two days.” I rub my eyes with weariness. “Forget about driving, I don’t think I can even stand. How about tomorrow?”
    “But Hallie, she won’t even
speak
to us. What if something terrible happens?”
    I assume that “something terrible” is a reference to running away. Or perhaps tackling the rubbing alcohol in the bathroom medicine chest.
    The tears begin to flow again and there’s no chance of winning an argument with a pregnant woman. “I’ll take my own car,” I say, and drag myself off the nice comfortable daybed while realizing she didn’t once ask me how
I
am. Come to think of it, nobody has. The downside of not being constantly followed around by the police seems to be that people assume you no longer have any problems of your own, and are therefore ready and willing to tackle all of theirs.

Chapter Nine
    MY OLD HOUSE HASN’T CHANGED EXCEPT FOR THE EIGHT OR TEN square feet that it appears to shrink every year as all the kids inside grow bigger and bigger. There’s a Playskool lawn mower in the middle of the living room where someone has obviously been giving the stained carpet a good cutting. Though what it appears to need more is vacuuming, especially where the Oreo cookies have been crushed into it. My mom is actually a conscientious housekeeper, but how can one human being keep up with a baby, a toddler, three kids between eight and twelve, and one angry teenager? I move a sippy cup that sits precariously on the edge of an end table while the unmistakable yelling of the twins suddenly rises from the play area in the basement and fills the air like a factory whistle.
    Louise is upstairs in our old bedroom, which she now shares with eight-year-old Darlene. The last time I was sentenced to spend a night in here I ended up climbing out the window once and for all.