"Cassie, are you there? Is that you, baby?"

I ran back to my bedroom and shut the door. I grabbed my desk chair and jammed it under the doorknob so he couldn't open the door.

"Cassie, let me in." My father was knocking.

No, you can't come in, I thought silently, furiously.

"Please open the door, honey. We're starting for Kentucky as soon as I've packed all my things here. I probably won't see you for a while."

And whose fault is that? I asked him in my mind. But it didn't occur to Daddy to think about that.

"Please, Cassie," Daddy pleaded. "I haven't seen you since Visiting Day at camp. I would have said something then, but nothing was definite. And what would have been accomplished if I did?" he asked with lawyerlike logic. "I would only have succeeded in ruining the rest of your stay at camp."

He knocked again, louder this time. "It's silly of you to behave like this. Like a little kid. You're not a baby anymore."

Who was he to tell me I was acting like a baby? I took a deep breath and almost started yelling, until I remembered my resolve never to speak to Daddy again.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to break down the door," Daddy said, half-joking, half-annoyed, "since your mother probably wouldn't get around to fixing it until sometime next winter."

How dare he make a crack about Mom! I picked up Tom and held him close until he yelped in pain. Then I threw myself down on my bed and cried and cried.

©Copyright 2006-2007 Marilyn Levinson. All Rights Reserved.