Chapter 12

Cassie

I was at home when Yirmeyah came to call on Daddy. I was upstairs in my room, drying my hair. I'd been out swimming in our pool, and I'd been in the shower, and now I was in a pair of shorts and a sleeveless white blouse rubbing my hair with a towel and trying to decide whether to put on some makeup or go downstairs for a snack with my face bare. Around home I'd go without makeup sometimes, about half the time I'd say, and though I like makeup and what it does for me and the way men notice me when I wear it, I also like the feeling of the air on my bare skin and the look of my unadorned white skin with those few freckles that maybe are Irish but maybe are something else.

I'd about decided to do without makeup, and had about gotten my hair dry, and was running my brush through it to help it finish drying and to make it neat and untangled, when someone tapped on my door. "Who is it?" I called.

"It's Mama. May I come in?"

"Sure, Mama," I said. I laid the brush down on my dressing table and turned in my chair to look as she came in. She just stepped inside, though, and looked at me. "What is it, Mama?" I asked.

"Could you please come downstairs? Daddy says he wants you and me to be present."

"Present for what?" I felt a clench of vague fear, not knowing that it was all about and, as people naturally do, imagining all sorts of horrible things.

"I don't know, honey. But I think it's something serious."

I knew that if Mama said she didn't know then she didn't know, so I stood up and went and gave her a hug, and we went downstairs. Daddy was sitting on the sofa, in the center, and Yirmeyah was sitting across from him in one of the armchairs. Yirmeyah looked horribly nervous, and Daddy had one of those looks that aren't an expression at all but a determination not to have any expression.

Daddy looked up as we came into the living room and said, "Katherine, Cassie, please sit down here." I sat at his left hand and Mama at his right. Daddy said, "Yirmeyah has come here with a request, and I think that it's only right that you both should hear it and have a say in the matter."

We all looked at Yirmeyah, who was as pale as I'd ever seen him, paler than I thought he could have been with his tan. I realized that he wasn't nervous, he was terrified, and I wanted to go to him and hold his hand and try to comfort him. But I knew I couldn't, because I didn't know what had frightened him and maybe it was Daddy, who can have a terrible temper sometimes.

Yirmeyah looked back at us, and said, "I'm here, Mrs. Morrison, Miss Cassie, to ask Mr. Morrison something." I couldn't recall when he'd been so formal with us all. "I've asked Mr. Morrison if I might have the privilege of dating you, Miss Cassie."

I remembered then that he'd said he'd ask Daddy that, but I'd let Daddy know Yirmeyah wanted to talk to him, and it had been a few days since then and I had decided that he wasn't really going to do that. But he had, and I guessed now, seeing how he had to force himself to speak calmly and sit without getting up and running away, that it had only taken him this long to make the request because he was scared to death.

Daddy turned to Mama. "What do you think, Katherine?"

"If I have any say, Jason, I'd say that Yirmeyah doesn't need to ask, but since he did, he's got my approval all the way."

Now Daddy looked at me. "What do you think, Cassie?"

I looked at Yirmeyah. If he'd been scared before, he was doubly scared now. He was so afraid I thought he might faint. "Daddy," I said, "I'm going to get Yirmeyah a glass of water."

Mama got up in a hurry. "I'll get it." And she rushed off to the kitchen and was back in just a minute or so with a glass of water. Yirmeyah thanked her in a barely audible voice and took a drink of it, and it helped, because he didn't look so much afterward like he was going to vomit or faint or something.

I took in a deep breath. "Daddy," I said, "you know that I've dated before, and enjoyed it, but it never went any further than that and I never dated anyone more than three or four times. But I think if I dated Yirmeyah it might be more than that, and I know for sure that I've never wanted to date anyone as much as I want to date him."

Now Daddy's face relaxed, and he smiled. "Then, Yirmeyah," he said, his manners relaxing too, "it's unanimous. You didn't need to ask – Katherine has that right – but since you did, you have my permission. And you have my wife's, and you have my daughter's, and maybe that's who you ought to have asked in the first place."

Yirmeyah took in his own big breath, and I could see him visibly relaxing. "Jason, you don't know how much it pleases me to hear that. I promise you I won't do a form thing to harm your daughter."

"I believe you," Daddy said. "But let me ask a question, though it's a cliché. What are your intentions toward my daughter?"

I saw Yirmeyah tense up again. "Jason, I hadn't intended to address that just yet."

"Your intentions are honorable, I trust."

"They are very honorable, sir." It's amazing to me how southerners can make "sir" sound like such a profound form of respect and people from New York or wherever in that part of the country can almost make it sound like an insult. "I'll be more forward if you insist, but I had hoped to be more sure of Cassie's feelings before I did."

I realized I was holding my breath, and told myself to breathe, since it's hard to think or do anything else if you don't have any oxygen. I clasped my hands tightly in my lap and looked at Daddy. He was thinking, his eyes not focused on anything in particular, and then he made a decision and his eyes focused and he spoke. "I think, Yirmeyah – with all respect – that I'm going to ask you to explain at least a little."