“Here’s Dad coming back home after five weeks’ absence, and we don’t know really whether he’s better or worse—”
“Doris, don’t even let yourself think that he’s anything but better,” pleaded Jean.
“But it’s perfectly true. He needs rest above everything else, so the doctor told Mother. And here we are planning a party for the day he gets home.”
“Dad always insists that we go ahead and not upset our plans. He says he feels better knowing we’re happy,” replied Jean.
Kit stared out of the window again, thinking. At fifteen she was far more energetic than Jean at seventeen. Her agile mind easily found its way in and out of difficulty. With her curly hair cut short, she seemed more like another boy in the family. She, more than the others, even Tommy, resembled their father in many ways, lighthearted, gay, carefree.
Secretly, Kit felt far more able to take the lead than did Jean, now that the family was facing a crisis.
“Anyway, I’ve called all the kids and Mother knows we’re going to have the party because I wrote her all about it. She wrote back that she didn’t mind a bit if Becky didn’t.”
“But did you ask Becky, Jean?”
“You ask her. She’d say yes to anything you asked, Doris.”
Doris thawed at once.