What Kind of Love? Read Free

learn the names of all the plants and the best conditions for growing them so I can answer customers’ questions. I think I can get Daddy things there at a discount, too. He’s not going to believe it. He’d given up on getting any of us interested in gardening.
    I can work thirty-five hours a week or even more, if I want to. I’m going to save at least eighty dollars a week. If I can get eight hundred dollars in the bank by the end of summer, maybe Daddy will go halves on a new bow.
    It’s funny—after the concert Saturday, I thought I’d never feel the same about the violin again. But I had the best lesson this afternoon. We worked on the Bach I’m going to play with Grandpa Horvath at the wedding rehearsal dinner. My rhythm was better this time. In fact, the whole thing sounded good, and I feel more confident about playing it with him. He’s such a perfectionist!
    Mom says that I shouldn’t mind Grandpa stopping me when I’m playing and telling me to do it over. He’s very critical, but he means well. She’s sorry she didn’t understand that when she was my age. She gave up the cello because she couldn’t take his criticism. She thought it was because she had no talent. She didn’t realize you need honest feedback in order to improve.
    Once I asked her if she was sorry she quit. She laughed and said she didn’t think she was ever as good as me, but she enjoyed playing and sometimes wished she had kept up with it.
    â€œWell, you married Daddy and had us and became a secretary,” I reminded her.
    She nodded. “That didn’t mean I had to stop playing the cello,” she said.
    I know you really have to be good to become a professional like Grandpa. But I think that’s what I want to do.

Wednesday, June 19
    Today we found the perfect dress for me to wear to Cousin Susie’s wedding. I wasn’t going to try it on because it was a size too big and way more than we can afford. But Mom insisted and it fit like a glove. It’s gorgeous. Sleeveless, with a boat neck that comes down low in back, in a dusty rose that always looks good on me. I can’t wait for Peter to see me in it.
    Mom said that since we’re already spending a lot of money to go to the wedding, she wants us to look nice. It’s going to be a major event. Susie’s going to have four bridesmaids and Mark will have four groomsmen. And there’ll be a flower girl and a ring bearer, too. Grandpa has arranged for a brass choir to play as people are seated. There will be two hundred people at the reception. Daddy says it’s costing Aunt Vera and Uncle Bela a fortune.
    I’d love to have a big wedding like that. I want to walk down the aisle wearing a gown with a long, long train and lots of lace and tulle that make you look like you are floating in a cloud. But I know Daddy won’t go for that. He says Uncle Bela can afford to give Susie a big wedding because he’s not in construction and he hasn’t been hit by the recession and he didn’t have to pay for her to go to college. I suppose I would rather go to college than have a big wedding.
    Will Peter and I ever get married, I wonder? I can’t imagine loving anyone else as much as I love him. It would be heaven to live with him. Sometimes I daydream about it. I hear his footsteps as he comes home from work in the evening and run to open the door for him, and then he catches me up in his arms and kisses me, really kisses me, so I go all soft, melting into him.

Thursday, June 20
    I got a B in French, which is better than I expected, and a D in geometry, which is really bad. I could have had an A in French, though, if I hadn’t been so distracted that I bombed the final.
    I still haven’t had my period. It’s never been this long before. If I don’t get my period by next week, I’m going to take one of those home pregnancy tests when we’re in the hotel in Chicago.