The Orphans in the Woods

The day passed slowly, and Gertrude and Rohan didn't speak to each other much that day. It was quiet in the house. Rohan stayed in his room most of the day with the exception of bathroom and snack breaks. Gertrude wandered around the house feeling mixed emotions and trying to think of anything else that she should do or pack for their move. At one point in the afternoon, she peeked out of the living room window to see if the dog was still on their front porch. He was gone. She felt a combination of sadness and relief.

He was such a cute pooch, she thought. If he was lost or abandoned, she could have loved him and called him hers. She'd always wanted a dog to love. Last Christmas she'd been given a fish, but the goldfish in the bowl only lived for about a month. A goldfish is not a great substitute for a dog. A dog can snuggle and sleep with you during the long night. A dog can smile at you and understand your feelings. A dog enjoys being with you like a real friend. As Gertrude thought about her friends Jenny and Crissy, knowing that she was going to miss going to Brownies meetings with them and playing at the school park together, she thought how that dog could have been her new best friend. But now the dog was gone. Maybe he did know his way home. Maybe he wasn't lost or abandoned. Maybe he just wanted to let her know that her dream of having a dog was understood by him. She shrugged and swallowed her unshed tears still imagining herself in a cabin in the woods with no one to play with. That dog could have been useful too. He could have been her bodyguard when Rohan wasn't around. But no, Rohan had to ignore all the good that the dog could have been to her with is worries about how it could all go wrong. She sulked for a few more hours before she went into the kitchen to make a cheese sandwich.

When sunset began, Rohan was still in his room, and Gertrude was feeling bored and restless. She wasn't upset with her brother anymore, but every time she went to her bedroom door she could see her parent's bedroom door down the hallway, and it was a constant reminder of their loss and all the changes she had to face. She just wanted them to leave immediately. This waiting seemed ridiculous. If they were going to do this move to the cabin and go through with Rohan's plan, then what the heck were they waiting for? Why was he stalling? Because of the food in the kitchen? Because of the bathroom? Was staying there in the midst of their tragedy really the best way to deal with it? She wanted to trust her big brother's thinking, but that door reminding her of her grief and depression was making it difficult for her to agree. She just wanted to flee. She wanted them to get as far away from this incident as possible and as fast as they could. The longer she had to stay there, the worse she felt. If they could just leave she could put her mind on other matters.

After eating her cheese sandwich, Gertrude decided to do the same thing her brother was doing. She went to her bedroom and closed the door. She sat in her bedroom looking it over. The lacy pink decor, the toys, the books, the furniture, were all lovely and sentimental to her. She understood that she would not have these pretty comforts at the cabin. Yet it didn't really bother her. She was more upset about not having Mom and Dad. She was more upset about knowing that their bodies were rotting away in the other room and she could do nothing formal or ceremonious about it. She was more upset that she wasn't going to see Jenny or Crissy anymore. She was more upset that she would never know what Third Grade was going to teach her or that she'd never graduate from Brownies to Girl Scouts. Rohan was worried about getting busted for wanting to run away. Rohan was worried about running out of money. Didn't he have any other feelings about this situation? Was "The Man" supposed to act so cold and unemotional? Though Gertrude had spent much more time with Mom than with Dad, she never saw her father as a man without feelings. Is this really the Rohan that Dad wanted his son to be?