sister. She thought that if Harper could have crawled inside the sling that was holding her leg in the air and disappear forever she would have. Fitzie wondered if Harper knew what Shane did on the farm. She wondered if Shane had shared any secrets with Harper or if it was something he’d only done with her. She wondered if Harper was jealous of the attention she got from Shane. And then she wondered if that was the reason why Harper didn’t want Shane to kiss her all those years ago. Fitzie had always thought it was because Harper wanted to protect her. But maybe she just didn’t like the idea of Shane kissing anybody else.
After Fitzie had worked on the farm for a little over two months, and because Harper wasn’t talking about anything except what she watched on television and the weather, Fitzie decided she was going to get Harper to tell her what had happened at Dorothy’s.
“Why were you on the roof?” Fitzie had asked when she sat down on the foot of the metal bed, in the space Harper’s leg would have been in if it weren’t in the air.
“I’m not sure yet. When I know, I’ll tell you.” Harper said while she stared at the popcorn ceiling.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Fitzie asked.
“It means I think I know, but I can’t say for sure.” Harper’s voice trailed off.
“Well, Shane said he saved you,” Fitzie replied as she got up to walk away from her sister’s bed.
“I don’t know if I can say that. I don’t think he found me. I think I remember that he’s the reason I was on the roof, but I can’t say for sure,” Harper mumbled this with her eyes closed. Fitzie thought maybe Harper said this because she was jealous. That maybe Harper hated the fact Shane and Fitzie were spending all this time together while Harper was sitting inside the same four walls, with the same floor, and the same ceiling. For the first time in Fitzie’s life she saw her sister as competition.
“I don’t know why you would say such a thing, Harper. Why would you think he made you go up there? What in the world for? Maybe you hit your head when you landed on the ground.” Fitzie knew she sounded cruel, but she wanted her sister to know that she wasn’t a naive kid anymore. She wasn’t a little sister who needed to be protected.“Maybe I did hit my head, maybe that’s why everything I remember is hazy and moves between fast and slow. I don’t know. All I’m saying, as someone who has never lied to you Fitzie, I think Shane is why I was up there.”
Fitzie looked back at Harper as she shut the front door. She knew her
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