Part 11 (1/2)
Nathan nodded. ”Yes. She's always very nice. Don't you like her?”
”Oh, I like her very much. She makes my sister very happy. But she doesn't live around here. She won't stay forever. She may not stay much longer at all.”
”That would be sad for Mary.”
”No, not for Mary.”
”What do you mean?”
Penny just shook her head. ”So what are you going to dress up as for Halloween?”
”I don't know.”
Mary did come home, by herself, and she and Nathan put together part of a puzzle they'd almost completed. She tucked him in bed and kissed him on the forehead and left.
Nathan opened his eyes, and Penny was sitting at the foot of his bed.
The room was mostly dark. Penny held a half-full gla.s.s of wine and stared silently out the window. It was sort of creepy, and Nathan tried not to move or make a sound.
”I'm sorry, did I wake you up?” she asked, a few moments later.
”No.”
”Of course I did. It's okay, you can tell me when I did something wrong.” She took a sip from her gla.s.s and swished the liquid around in her mouth before she swallowed. ”The moon is beautiful, isn't it?”
Nathan looked out the window. The moon, a quarter-moon, didn't look any different from any other night. ”Yes.”
”I shouldn't have woken you. You have school tomorrow. I bet you have a test. Do you have a test?”
”Just a quiz.”
”Well, quizzes are important, too. You need your sleep.”
She drank up the rest of the wine but made no move to leave.
”Penny...?”
”It's odd that you call me Penny, isn't it? From now on you should call me Aunt Penny. Would you like that?”
”Yes.”
”Or mother. Would it really be so wrong to call me mother?”
”No.”
”You won't leave me, will you, Nathan?”
”I won't leave you.”
”Not ever, right?”
Nathan didn't know what to say. He was torn between wanting to give her a great big hug and wanting to pull the blanket up over his head.
”I should adopt you. Properly adopt you. I don't know why I haven't.”
She looked out at the moon for a few more moments, then patted his leg.
”I'm going to let you get back to sleep,” said Penny. ”You need your sleep.”
And then she was gone.
Nathan thought about this all day at school, which meant that he had trouble concentrating on what Mrs. Calmon was saying, which meant that he was sent to the corner twice. He had trouble concentrating there, too. Jamison tried to talk to him about the Halloween party, but Nathan wasn't interested in discussing it.
It was Mary's turn to pick him up from school, and when she did, he decided to be blunt. ”Are you leaving us?”
”Nathan,” said Mary, ”it is considered polite to ask somebody how their day was before jumping into a question like that.”
”How was your day?”
”It was tiring but otherwise not too bad. How was yours?”
”Awful. Are you moving away?”
”This may be difficult for a boy your age to understand, but sometimes people feel a certain way about each other and they want to spend the rest of their lives together. Loving one person that way doesn't mean you love other people any less. Sharon's perfect, don't you think?”
”I wouldn't say that she's perfect.”
”Don't be a rascal. I think she's perfect. Just like I think you're perfect.”
”But are you moving away?”
”Yes.”
”Penny doesn't want you to leave.”
”I know that.”
”I don't want you to leave, either.”
”You should. You'll have a bigger room.”
”Will I ever see you again?”