Read Online Garden of Angels by Lurlene McDaniel - Free Book Online Page A

better. Licking cancer is a hard thing to do.”
    I pulled away. “But you will, Mama. Please say you will.”
    She smoothed my forehead. “Course I will. Don’t you worry about that. Now tell me something about school. You’re making good grades, aren’t you?”
    I nodded, but my mind turned to other things. “Mama, how does someone know if she’s in love?”
    “Why are you asking?”
    “No reason.” I was suddenly embarrassed over my dumb question. Then inspiration struck. “I see Adel and Barry, and she’s had lots of boyfriends, but this time it seems different. Why does a person get all nervous and jittery every time she gets around the person she likes? I mean, is it normal for your stomach to get tied up in knots? Becky Sue says that’s what happens to her all the time when she likes somebody special.”
    “Well, Becky Sue should know. She’s been in love—let’s see—how many times? Six? Ten?”
    I smiled and laid my head on Mama’s shoulder. “A lot.”
    “Love is a mystery. And there’s no denying the fireworks part—those feelings of thinking your heart’s going to bang right out of your chest whenever you see that special someone.” Mama understood just what I was talking about. “Chemistry and hormones come into play for sure,” she continued. “But love can’t be discerned by those things alone.”
    “But how do you
know
?”
    “I would say that a sign of true love is that it happens slowly, like a friendship. It will be respectful and kind, and it will have a short memory for hurtful times between the couple. Love is like the plants in our gardens. It has to be watered and nurtured and kept safe from frost and heat. But when it blooms—ah, my dear daughter—when it blooms, there is no fragrance sweeter.”
    Love is sweet.
What I felt when I was around Jason was not sweet contentment. It was edgy and unsettling. “I’ll stick with the plants, because love sounds like a lot of bother to me,” I said.
    “Love will find you one day, Darcy. And it won’t be a bother.” I could hear the smile in her voice.
    “If you say so, Mama.”
    I stayed in my mother’s arms until she drifted off to sleep.
    I arrived at Becky’s house, nervous but excited about the hayride and seeing Jason. Her mother opened the door and dropped a bomb on me. “Darcy, she’s not going.”
    “What? B-but why?” Becky
had
to go. We always went to these things together.
    “She’s not feeling well.”
    I took the stairs two at a time and burst into Becky’s bedroom. Becky Sue lay on her bed, a hot-water bottle pressed over her lower abdomen. “You have to go without me,” she moaned. “I have the curse.”
    I stared at her. Why had Mother Nature visited her today, of all days? “But you’ve got to come,” I said. “Did you take aspirin?”
    “All afternoon,” Becky said. “I’m still hurting.”
    Being the late bloomer I was, I had not had the problems with my period that Becky had. She’d started her monthly cycle when she was twelve. I was almost fourteen before mine decided to drop in on me. I had even lied when I was just turning thirteen, saying I had “it” when I didn’t because I felt like such a freak over not having it. Once I did get it, I wished it had not befallen me. I found “it” a terrible inconvenience. Our gym teacher made girls sit out sports when they were having their periods, which I hated because I loved sports and resented not playing when I felt perfectly fine. Yet, at the moment, I saw that Becky Sue did not feel fine and jumping on her about missing the hayride wasn’t going to change anything. If I was going to the hayride, I would have to go alone.
    “This stinks,” I said.
    “True,” Becky moaned. “But I’m telling you, I can’t move. You go on and have fun and tell me all about it.”
    For a moment I thought about not going; then I remembered Jason and wrestled with my two options: being without my best friend all evening, or not seeing the