The Forever Husband. Kathryn Alexander

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      “Just different. You know, because Cassie is sick again,” Beth replied, fidgeting with the blue-satin bow on the teddy bear that sat next to her on the bed. “Do you think I’m too old to keep Brown Bear around?” she asked as she gave the stuffed animal a fierce hug.

      “No, not if you still want him, sweetheart.” Eric sat quietly, pondering what he should say next. The problem seemed to be less about what was taking place at school than what was taking place in the rest of Beth’s life. “Honey, Cassie is sick again, that’s true. But it shouldn’t change how you feel about your teacher, how your teacher feels about you…or your behavior in the classroom.”

      “But it’s just that—Cassie was Mrs. Lindstrom’s favorite student ever,” Beth emphasized. “I might as well not exist.”

      “But Mrs. Lindstrom has kept you after school to go for ice cream, you’ve been to her apartment to meet her husband and see their aquarium. She hasn’t spent time with all the children like that, has she?”

      “I don’t know,” Beth answered. “I just know it’s ‘Cassie, this’ and ‘Cassie, that.’ ‘How is your sister feeling, Beth? Will she be coming home soon? Tell us how she’s doing today.’ Cassie, Cassie, Cassie!” She burst into tears and buried her face in her father’s side.

      Eric’s arms closed around her a little more tightly. “And it makes you angry because sometimes you want it to be Beth she asks about.” He spoke softly, and she nodded her head while continuing to sob. He sighed. “Mrs. Lindstrom may really be trying to make you feel important by letting you share with the class about your sister’s hospital experiences. It doesn’t mean she loves Cassie more than she loves you, honey.”

      “Oh, yes, it does!” Beth cried. “Stuff about Cassie is always more important than stuff about me. Always!”

      How was he going to help her find her way through this situation? Maybe he needed a different approach. “It’s hard being the youngest kid in the family, isn’t it?” he remarked. This was something he could identify with. “I was the youngest in my family, too, only I had a sister and a brother older than me. Sometimes that wasn’t any fun at all.”

      Beth’s crying began to ease a bit, and she raised her head to study her father’s face through eyes reddened from rubbing. Then the hiccups started; they quite often followed one of her crying spells. Eric smiled as he thought of Hope. Sometimes, the same thing happened with her.

      “Really? You were—the—youngest?” Beth hiccuped.

      Eric nodded. “Still am. Always will be,” he added. “Of course, neither one of them was seriously ill when we were growing up, so it’s not quite the same as your relationship with Cassie.”

      “But, did some of the teachers like Uncle Rob or Aunt Angela better?”

      “Yes,” he answered. “My brother and sister were both better students than I was. And much less of a discipline problem, too.”

      “You mean, you got into more trouble?”

      “Sure did. I’d hate to think how many times your grandmother was called to school over something I’d done.”

      Beth laughed between hiccups. “Did she spank you?”

      “Sometimes. But as I got older, the punishment changed to being grounded.”

      “Like not being allowed to have a friend over to play?”

      “Yes, something like that. You see, Rob and Angela were the ones the teachers always liked. By the time I came along, they’d already assumed I was going to be a problem.”

      “Did that make you mad?”

      Eric shrugged. “Kind of, I guess. But I got used to it over the years. Then, one day, a teacher I really liked—”

      “What was her name?”

      “Mrs. Flowers.” Eric could still picture that dark-haired older teacher in his mind. “I accused her of liking Rob and Angela better, and she informed me that wasn’t true at all. That she’d always liked me the best, and if I felt that she didn’t like me, that was my own fault for thinking that way. Sometimes we set ourselves up for disappointment by expecting disappointment.”

      “Since you thought the teacher liked them more than she liked you, you felt real bad. Even if she didn’t really like them one bit better.”

      He nodded his head and squeezed his little girl affectionately. “Exactly. You’re as special and unique as Cassie is. It’s just that, since she’s sick, she gets the most attention sometimes. Not just from Mom or me, but from teachers and neighbors and friends, too. None of that means you are loved any less than your sister.”

      Beth’s young face clouded over again as more tears rose to the surface. “I love Cassie so much, Daddy, but sometimes…I just get so mad at her.”

      Eric reached for a couple of tissues and tenderly wiped some trickling tears away. “Because sometimes she seems like the only important person around here?”

      Beth nodded and melted into her father’s embrace as the sobbing returned. “She is, sometimes, isn’t she? Because she got hurt and sick and stuff?”

      “No,” Eric said emphatically. “She’s never more important than you, hon. Never. It’s just that, sometimes she needs us more at the moment than you do. I know all of this is difficult for you to sort out because you’re so young, but your mother and I love you just as much as we love Cassie. Every bit as much. We always will.”

      “Even when I get so mad at her? She can’t help that she’s sick and everybody asks about her.”

      “It’s okay to feel that way sometimes. Everyone does,” he explained.

      Just then, Eric heard a noise. Glancing up, he saw Hope standing in the doorway with windblown hair and her jacket still on, having just returned from the hospital. She sent Eric a slight frown and a worried look, but he shook his head. He mouthed the words “She’s okay” to relieve her concern.

      “If Cassie. dies, I’ll never forgive her,” Beth blurted out between sobs, surprising both of her parents with her words. “Never!”

      Eric hugged her snugly against him and rocked back and forth in a soothing motion, wanting to calm her fears. “Cassie’s nearly well, honey. She’ll be home soon, and things will be back to normal. She’s not leaving us.”

      “But I want her home now. Nothing’s the same without her. There’s a place in my heart where she fits,” Beth said.

      Hope’s hand flew to cover her mouth and silence the cry that threatened to slip out, and Eric’s eyes stung with hot, unshed tears. He kissed the top of Beth’s head and cleared his throat roughly before he could speak again. “Beth, sweetheart, it’ll be okay. I promise.”

      Hope blinked several times, fighting the tears welling up in her own eyes. Then she entered the room. “Beth?”

      The little girl raised her head to see Hope smiling at her. “Mom,” was all she said as she moved from her father’s arms into her mother’s. Their СКАЧАТЬ