Part 1, Under Pressure

Eden was standing in the foyer, her book bag suddenly so heavy that she could barely keep hold of it. The strap fell from weak fingers. The headache that had prompted her teacher to send her home hammered at the inside of her skull. She was about to call out, to see if anyone else was home, when angry voices spilled out from her father's office down the hall.

She staggered backwards, emotions striking her like a closed fist. She didn't understand what was happening; she wanted to run, but it was all she could do to her legs from collapsing. She clutched at the railing of the stairs, helpless to block the storm that raged inside her mind.

"Dammit, Carolyn, will you just let it be? I'm so tired of listening to you harp on about everything. Christ, sometimes I have no idea why I don't ask you to leave," her father's voice was saying, anger tightly constrained in his tone, but Eden could feel it, like a coiled serpent.

"Leave? Daniel, you wouldn't dare! All I want is what's best for you and that child! She's been too long without a mother, and you too long without a wife! Why, if it weren't for me, she'd have no maternal presence in her life at all. And after all I've done, you'd make me leave the only place I've ever called home?" Carolyn's voice was closer to hysteria, and it battered at the child in the foyer like a flock of panicked birds.

"All you've done? Carolyn, I never asked for your help with Eden. You just can't help poking your nose in where it's not wanted, sticking your fingers into every pie. If you hadn't been living here already when Pop passed on and left it to me, I'd never have let you in," her father retorted, his tone cold.

"No, you never asked, but you barely have time for that girl! I take her shopping! I make sure she goes to church! Without me, she'd practically be a wild child!"

Daniel laughed, but it wasn't a pleasant sound. "You're exaggerating, Carolyn. Eden's a good child, and she certainly doesn't need you hovering over her. And as for me getting remarried, I'm going to drop the subject. I hope that it never comes up in conversation again."

"Daniel, if you just looked for someone--"

"I said to drop it, Carolyn! No one can replace Evie!" At her father's sudden shout, Eden found her legs. With a small, inarticulate cry, she fled the house, door slamming behind her. She thought she could faintly hear her father calling her name, but her feet soon carried her out of earshot.

There was an open field behind the neat little row of houses that made up Peachtree Lane. An old heritage oak dominated the field, and it was here that Eden's flight took her. She sat beneath its spreading branches, the warm sun filtering through in golden dapples. It was still early enough in the season that a breeze made the air chilly; in summer, it would feel like an oven even in the shade. Likewise, the grass was still green with new growth, slightly wet with dew that never seemed to burn off if the sun didn't touch it.

Eden sat with her back against the trunk of the oak, wiping tears off on the sleeve of her pale yellow cardigan. Out here, the headache eased a little, but she felt more than a little queasy. She wondered why her father and aunt had been arguing this time. They seemed to do that more often; it started with some petty thing, and always seemed to escalate to them shouting.

She wasn't surprised they'd finally argued about her father remarrying. Aunt Carolyn always made little comments about how a man of her father's age shouldn't be alone. "The neighbors talk," Aunt Carolyn always said, as if that mattered to Daniel DeWitt--or his daughter, for that matter. But it mattered to Aunt Carolyn.

She hugged her knees, wishing that they'd stop arguing forever. She wished that her head would stop hurting, and that the awful nausea in her stomach would go away. It made her feel like a flu was coming on, except with no fever or bodyache.

Eden heard soft, crunching footsteps approaching, and knew even before she lifted her head that it was her father. She waited, warily, to see if the strange emotional barrage was going to return. It didn't. "Hey Button," he said quietly. "I'm guessing you heard at least some of that."

"You and Aunt Carolyn," Eden replied, smiling a little at the old nickname. She was 11 now, but he still called her that. When she'd first asked him why, he'd said it was because of the old saying, "cute as a button." She imagined she must have cuter as a baby, because she was a rather plain child. Sometimes she got teased for it, but she didn't mind. She knew she was beautiful in her father's eyes because he loved her. She'd decided early on that love was more important than looks.

He sat in the grass next to her. "I'm sorry you had to be there to hear any of that. Your aunt and I have never really gotten on well, not even when we were children. Sometimes I do wonder why I asked her to stay on in the house when we moved in."

"Why did you?" Eden couldn't help the childish whine in her voice. She wasn't normally a petulant child, but the headache was making her feel tired and irritable. Luckily, it just made her father chuckle.

"Because you were so tiny, and the school made so many demands of me. Carolyn offered to watch you while I was away teaching. She did help, back then, and she never held it over my head. I wish I knew what changed, and when."

"Will you make her go?"

He sighed. "No, Eden, I won't. She may be a harridan at times, but Carolyn is my sister. And she has done much for us. I could never throw her out."

"Why does she want you to get married again?"

"I don't know, Button."

"Why doesn't she get married?" Daniel laughed, and Eden flinched a little. The sound reverberated in her skull, the pain flaring for a moment. But she liked her father's laugh, and she smiled through the pain.

"That's a wonderful question, Eden, but also one I don't have the answer to. I tend to think your aunt likes being an old maid." His blue eyes, so much like her own, twinkled with amusement. Then his expression changed, turning serious.

"Eden, you look very pale. Why are you home early?" As he studied her, the pain flared again. Tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes again as she screwed up her face in pain. "Button, what's wrong?"

"My head," she said, feeling like a small, small child. "It hurts. Miss Krantz sent me home. I couldn't even read, it hurt so bad."

"Let's get you home," he said, sweeping her her slight frame up into his arms before she could protest. "I'll heat you up some soup, and you can rest for what remains of the day."

"Thank you, Papa," Eden replied, hiding her face in his shoulder.

"Hey, you're my Button. I'll do anything for you, you know that," she said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. However, his voice then dropped into a deep, worried, weary tone. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, too."

"Don't worry, Papa. you won't lose me," she murmured back. She'd almost forgotten about what she'd felt back in the hallway. Her father would make everything right. With her face buried in the scratchy wool of his coat, she couldn't see the startled look on his face.