Leota's Garden Read Free

for a personal interview, and we have forms for you to fill out. You’ll also need to take a weekend orientation class. Do you have a CPR certificate?”
    “No, ma’am,” he said, stifling his irritation. Personal interview? Forms? Orientation classes? Just to volunteer to take some old lady to the bank or grocery store?
    Jotting down the pertinent information, Corban gave a deep sigh. A pox on you, Professor Webster, for getting me into this!

    “You will do no such thing, Anne-Lynn! What ever made you even consider anything so utterly ridiculous?” Nora was positively trembling. Just when she thought everything was perfect, her daughter threw a monkey wrench into the works. Well, she wouldn’t have it! Everything was going to move forward as planned.
    “I’ve tried to tell you how important—”
    “I’m not going to listen, Annie.” Nora rose from the table, picking up her cup and saucer. They rattled, revealing her lack of control. She forcefully steadied her hands and carried the dishes to the tiled sink counter, setting them down carefully. “You can just call Susan and tell her you’ve come to your senses.”
    “Mom, please. I’ve thought it all through very carefully—”
    “I said no !” Nora refused to look at her daughter. She didn’t want to see how pale she was, how pleading her blue eyes could be. Emotional manipulation, that’s all it was. She wouldn’t fall for it. Striving for calm, she rinsed the cup and saucer, opened the dishwasher, and placed them carefully on the rack. “You’re going to Wellesley. That’s been decided.”
    “You decided, Mom, I didn’t.”
    Nora slammed the dishwasher door at the quiet comment and turned to glare at her daughter. “Someone has to have a little common sense. For once, even your father agreed. Didn’t he tell you a degree from a prestigious college like Wellesley will open doors for you?”
    “He said Cal would do the same.”
    “Oh, Cal . Just because he went there.”
    “Dad said he wants me to do what will make me happy.”
    Nora’s heart pounded in anger. How dare he undo all her work. Just once couldn’t he think of someone besides himself? The only reason he wanted Annie to go to Cal was to keep her on the West Coast. “He wants your best, and I don’t? Is that what he’s implying? Well, he’s wrong! Love means you want the best for someone.”
    “This is best, Mom. I have a job. I’ll be able to make it on my own.”
    “As a waitress. Earning minimum wage. You’re so naive.”
    “I know I won’t be living as comfortably as I do here with you and Fred, but I’ll have a place of my own—”
    “Shared by a hippie—”
    “. . . and food and—”
    “Do you think I’ve sent you to the best private schools so you can wait tables? Do you have any idea how much it’s cost to educate you? Music lessons, dancing lessons, gymnastics lessons, deportment classes, modeling classes, cheerleading camps. I’ve spent thousands of dollars, not to mention thousands of hours of my time, bringing you up with the best of everything so that you would have the opportunities I never had. I’ve sacrificed for you and your brother.”
    “Mom, that’s not fair—”
    “You’re right. It’s not fair. To me. You will not go off and live in San Francisco like a hippie in that cheap little flat of Susan’s. You are not tossing your opportunity to go to Wellesley to the wind just so you can take some art classes. If you had any real talent, don’t you think I would have sent you to Paris to study?”
    She saw the wince of hurt flash across Annie’s face. Good. Better to cut clean and make reality come clear. Better to hurt her a little now than see her daughter throw away all her chances for a bright, affluent future. She could continue her silly art classes as elective courses.
    “Mom, please hear me out. I’ve prayed for a long time about this, and—”
    “Anne-Lynn, don’t you dare talk to me about God again! Do you hear me? The