“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
His chin trembled.
“I asked her why she kept waking Brenda.”
I almost couldn’t bring myself to ask the next question.
“What did she say?”
Ben stared down at the carpet.
“She said you and Dad need to understand what your life is going to be like.”
I felt physically sick.
“Did she say anything else?”
“She said I’m too little to understand.”
He rubbed his thumb repeatedly over the dinosaur printed on his pajamas.
“Then she said I shouldn’t tell you because you were already tired and it would upset you.”
That was when everything finally made sense.
The sleeping under the crib.
The refusal to leave Brenda alone.
The way he watched Diane whenever she approached his sister.
The first night Ben stayed beside Brenda, he had still been awake when Diane entered the nursery.
