Country Mile

THEY BOTH FELL

After a quiet breakfast, the girls retreated to Genna's room while the adults cleaned up and conversed over more coffee.

Delilah flopped down onto the bed. "You handled what Anne said surprisin'ly well. I never thought I'd say this, but, I'm proud of you."

The brunette laughed and crawled onto the bed beside her.

"Thanks. But like, at the same time, if she doesn't want us talking about it, maybe she shouldn't be so loud when they're doing it."

Delilah winced at the recollection. "I'm never goin' downstairs after bedtime ever again."

"I can't believe you let me think you heard ghosts."

Delilah rolled her blue eyes. "You never said that's what you were thinkin'. Honestly, how dumb can you be." She paused before muttering, "I wish it had been ghosts though."

Genna laughed at the visible shiver that ran through Delilah.

"Well, mission accomplished."

Delilah quirked an eyebrow. "What mission?"

"The mission of letting Dad be happy with a girl that isn't one of us."

Delilah looked past Genna and out the window. A light snowfall indicated the chill in the air, and the girl couldn't help but feel like it was slowly slipping into her as well.

***

Sitting on the back porch, hot coffee in their hands, Ellie and Adam enjoyed some sibling time. She noted how the sparkle in his eye that had been missing for far too long was back and brighter than ever, and she couldn't help but to unearth every detail of how that came to be....

"Aw, hell Ella-Mae, there ain't much to tell."

She rose a perfectly arched eyebrow. "I want it all from the beginning. C'moooon, please, please, please, please, plea—"

"Alright fine," he relented with a groan, ignoring the smile of triumph on his sister's face. "Anne said somethin' off puttin' to Genevieve and she gave the woman hell for it. She quit turnin' in homework, sassin' her in class.. Genevieve justified her actions by sayin' it was all 'cause Anne embarrassed her. Anne rightly apologized for what set her off, but I think that little girl was just lookin' for a way to burn off her anger and frustrations. Before Anne, I was the person she used for that."

Ellie nodded. "How did the school issue get resolved?

"I marched her hind-end into the office to have a sit down with Anne."

She let out a hearty laugh at that. "Oh, did ya now? I bet that went over just wonderfully with Genna-girl."

Adam smirked, loving just how well she knew his little spitfire. "Look, Anne tried all different ways to get through to Genna for over a month. There were some tactics Anne used to get Genna to straighten up on her own that I didn't agree with and I made that clear to her, but that was really all I could do. She and I weren't nothin' but strangers at the time and I wasn't about to see the woman fired. Not when I saw how long she'd been dealin' with Genna without takin' it up with administration. A shit teacher wouldn't put in that much effort. They would'a passed her off for someone else to deal with, but not Anne. Anne tried givin' her time to pull herself together, she tried givin' her a lighter work load, tried crackin' down by playin' bad cop. She tried everything she could think of before callin' me in as a last resort and I couldn't just over look that effort. Genna prolly won't see it that way, what kid would? But I saw it." He took a sip of his coffee and looked out across the field. "I saw it."