MOM MANAGED TO calm the twins down. She called Curtis, who came back to pick us up, and we all headed to Eva’s house.
All of us except Violet.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Mom in a low voice. The twins were on the couch, watching cartoons, and I was helping Mom make a late lunch for everyone: peanut butter on toast and sliced bananas. Curtis had driven back downtown to look for Violet.
Mom stuck more bread in the toaster. “Hopefully, Curtis will be back with her soon. And we’ll head toward Hope. Stop overnight in Chilliwack, do a presentation there tomorrow afternoon…”
“And what if Curtis doesn’t find her? What if she’s taken off with Ty?”
She shook her head. “We can’t stay here with Eva indefinitely. If she’s not back by tonight…”
“We can’t just leave without her,” I said. “Can we?”
“I don’t see what choice we have.” She pulled a stack of plates out of the cupboard and started placing the banana slices on them, arranging them like two eyes, a nose and a smiling mouth.
“Well, maybe we should wait a few days?” I liked the thought of staying longer—spending the evenings with Tess and Hazel, playing Monopoly, eating Eva’s good cooked dinners and the kind of junky breakfast cereal my mom never bought.
“We’ll see.” She spread peanut butter on a slice of bread, cut it into thin strips and arranged them like sticking-up hair above the banana faces.
“Mom.” I hesitated. “Um, do you think Whisper is okay?”
She looked across at the twins on the couch. “She’s fine. Can you take these two plates to them? I’ll make you a sandwich, okay? D’you want banana in yours?”
“Sure.” I picked up the plates and stood there for a second longer. “You know, she isn’t really talking.”
“She’s always been a shy one,” Mom said. “Don’t worry so much.”
“Yeah. But I haven’t heard her say anything for days. I mean, not a word.”
Mom laughed. “Her sister talks enough for both of them.”
I looked over at the two of them, snuggled together on the couch. “She gets really upset sometimes though. Whisper, I mean. Like, those meltdowns she has…Saffy doesn’t do that.”
“Kids are all different,” Mom said. “Besides, you had your share of meltdowns when you were little. Lots of kids do.”
“At least I talked,” I said.
Mom shook her head. “She’s only five, Wolf. Let her be who she is. She’ll be okay.”
“What if she’s not okay though? I mean, don’t kids sometimes need help?”
“Kids need love,” she said. “And time and space to grow in their own way. At their own pace. Whisper doesn’t have to follow anyone else’s schedule.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”
“And you don’t either,” she said, ruffling my hair.
I didn’t say anything, but it seemed to me that I had to follow my mom’s schedule. Otherwise I’d be back at school, drawing comics and writing reports about animals and watching Duncan make computer games.
Though, of course, we were following Mom’s plan for good reasons. Watching Duncan muck about on the school computer wasn’t going to stop the bees from dying.
Mom gave me a little push. “Now, go take those plates to your sisters, okay?”
At three o’clock, Eva came home with Tess and Hazel and a carload of groceries. I closed my notebook—I was drawing a monster, but its wings were kind of lopsided and I couldn’t get the mouth right—and got up to help.
“How did it go?” Eva asked me as we unpacked groceries on the kitchen counter.
“Fine,” I said. “But cold. Mom’s upstairs having a bath to warm up. And Violet’s taken off.”
She stared at me. “Taken off?”
“With her boyfriend. Ty.”
Hazel was wide-eyed, clutching a bag of dog food to her chest. “Your sister took off with her boyfriend? Do you know where she is?”
“Nope.” I took can after can of chickpeas out of a shopping bag. “Curtis went back downtown to look for her.”
“What’s her boyfriend like?” Tess asked. “Is he cute?”
I made a face. “No. I don’t know. He’s older. Seventeen.”
Eva’s forehead creased. “Jade must be beside herself.”
“Uh, I think she’s worried about getting to Hope. We’re supposed to be leaving tomorrow, right?”
“You can stay here. Is she worried about overstaying her welcome? Because you’re welcome to stay with us as long as you need to.” Eva squeezed my shoulder. “You can’t leave without Violet, obviously.”
“Right. Obviously.”
But I wasn’t sure that Mom felt the same way.