The Green Rising

Chapter Five

I paced in front of the bus stop waiting for Rosabel to arrive. Of course, on the one day I needed the bus to be on time, it was running late. I closed my eyes and shook my head as the crisp October wind pecked at my face.

I should have been at home, readying it for our supper with Luc’s supervising officer, Colonel Bradley Hemlock, but Jessa hadn’t been cooperative when I suggested she pick up Rosy in my stead.

“I have too much homework,” she’d said as she took in my shirt dusted with sprinkles of flour, the splashes of dirty water on my pants, and my hands, red from scrubbing some of the more stubborn buildup on the ceramic tile lining the entrance to our townhouse. “Really you should change your clothes before you pick up Rosabel.”

I jerked windbreakers for Maggy and me out of the closet and slid into a pair of flip-flops, unconcerned about my appearance when I still had a fair amount of cleaning before the house would be fit to entertain the boss.

I looked down at my cell phone. Ten minutes late. What the hell? Visions of crazy drivers swerving at a school bus full of children flooded me, and my blood pressure rose at the thought of something horrific happening to my Rosy. I pulled Maggy closer as an accented voice said the bus had broken down; the children were on their way home.

A few minutes later, Rosy, weighted down by a backpack half her size, followed the other kindergarteners off the bus. She cinched her jacket closed as the wind whipped her blond hair about her face. I pulled her into a hug, brushed my lips across her forehead, took the backpack off her shoulders, and slung it over mine. “How was school today?”

“It was fun, Mommy. We’re learning about animals. We got a field trip to the zoo on Friday.”

“That’s right. Thank you for reminding me. Maggy and I are going to meet you there,” I said, making a mental note to write it down so I wouldn’t forget. “I’m glad you had fun today.”

Back inside the house, we climbed to the second story where Rosy promptly sat at the kitchen island and began her homework. Jessa was curled up reading on the couch in the den adjacent to the kitchen. I read the title and saw a half-dressed man on the cover.

“What are you doing, Jessa?” I asked, fuming that I’d lost half an hour of time while she’d been reading for pleasure.

“I’m reading.” She didn’t make eye contact with me.

“I thought you had homework,” I said. Eyeing a spot of dust that remained atop the entertainment center, I grabbed a rag and wiped the dust away, as I awaited her reply.

“Oh, I do, but I wanted to read first. You’re always harping at me at how important it is to read. And this book is so good.”

“Jessa, I have things that I need to do, and you couldn’t help me out by going to the bus stop?” I shook my head in disgust and resisted the urge to rip the book from her hands.

“You’re home all day. You shouldn’t have trouble getting things done, Aunt Lily.”

“First of all, I don’t move as easily as I did thirty-two weeks ago and I’m still getting sick. Second, your uncle remembered this morning that he’d forgotten to tell me that his boss was coming over for dinner tonight. I had to make a special trip to the grocery store because the meal I’d planned for us tonight was going to be too complicated to attempt with the time constraints of giving this place the deep cleaning that it needs to have company here tonight. And there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to help me out a little bit around here. I’m not your maid.”

"You're not my mom, either." Jessa slammed the novel onto the end table, grabbed her bookbag, and stormed upstairs to the third level of the townhouse. The door to her room right above us slammed and knocked the pictures on the wall askew.