Tumbleweeds

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Authors: Leila Meacham
Tags: Fiction, Literary, FIC019000
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Ten
     
    T he children entered their teens, and Emma and Mabel often discussed and kept an eye out for changes in the trio’s relationship. It was just a matter of time before the boys discovered Cathy’s developing breasts, and how could Cathy miss their burgeoning biceps? For the moment, they were simply friends. When Trey and John weren’t playing sports, they came home with Cathy after school and roughhoused with Rufus. Most evenings, they did their homework together and sometimes the boys even sat in on Cathy’s home-schooled lessons. Often they stayed for supper, which both loved. John had to get his own meals at his house, and Trey much preferred Emma’s delicious cooking to Mabel’s notoriously tasteless fare. They even continued to show up at the First Baptist Church to hear Cathy play the piano.
    They never seemed to tire of her and were proud that she knew things that she could teach them, like how to set a splint and speak French. Both women loved to hear them practice the few phrases they’d learned at their supper tables and which, of course, they flaunted to their friends in the school cafeteria.
    “Passe-moi le sel, s’il te plaît, Trey.”
(Pass the salt, if you please, Trey.)
    “Avec plaisir, mon amie. Et le poivre aussi?”
(It is my pleasure, my friend. Pepper also?)
    “Oui, s’il te plaît.”
(Yes, if you please.)
    “Il me plaît.”
(I please.)
    Would their unit dissolve of its own accord as the boys responded to the natural temptations of other girls who were now beginning to throw themselves at them? Emma wondered. Where would that leave Cathy? Her granddaughter had still not made close friends among the girls in her class. She had acquaintances among those of her gender in Sunday School and the junior high band, but none had become a bosom pal to spend time with after school.
    Or would their friendship take a predictable turn that would leave John in the cold, for it was clear to everyone that Trey was sweet on Cathy, except perhaps to Cathy. And, of course, what everyone but Trey could see was that John was keen on Cathy, too. Would a possible triangle develop that would lead to its own set of hurts and concerns?
    The women watched and waited as the children’s birthdays came and went, and the three remained inseparable, their union unsullied.
    “What
is
it about Cathy that has Trey so enraptured with her, especially given the way she feels about football?” Emma demanded of Mabel. “John I can understand. In Cathy, he recognizes a fellow pilgrim… mind of his mind, heart of his heart, but Trey Don? Do you suppose it’s the orphan thing they share in common?”
    “Without a doubt, but I believe Trey sees in Cathy as well as in John what he lacks in himself. He’s too young to realize it, of course, but he’s like a sapling in the forest that instinctively reaches for the sun to survive.”
    “What are you talking about, Mabel Church?”
    “I’m talking about integrity,” Mabel answered. “The plain, old-fashioned kind inherent to Cathy and John, whereas it isn’t to Trey. He has to be led by example. It took me a long time to recognize it, but I’m proud of Trey for desiring the sun when he more naturally could seek the shade.”
    Emma pondered Mabel’s remarks and decided that, despite thefanciful wording, she had hit the nail on the head. Of course, John and Trey had enough in common to be twins and what red-blooded American boy wouldn’t be enamored with Cathy, but Emma agreed with Mabel that those reasons alone did not account for Trey’s special need of them. It all boiled down to his admiration of their trustworthiness (though where Cathy got hers Emma had yet to determine). Trey recognized he operated better—and was safer—in the light of their influence. Emma thought Mabel had every right to be proud of her nephew, since with his increasing good looks and athletic talent, intelligence and charm, he could get away with, and be forgiven for, just about

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