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"You wouldn't care if I humped the entire army, as long as they were on the right side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail"
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Today was the first time that Baby had spent the whole day with her family since they arrived at the resort. Harry had told her that his schedule was filled to the brim with bookings since the talent show is coming near, but he'd find her when he could. She went the whole day waiting for him to come up to her at the lake or pull her away from her family at dinner, but he hadn't. She wasn't angry, just a bit disappointed. She had gotten too used to spending every day with him.
She stares at the ceiling of her and Linda's shared room, the clock reading half-past eleven, trying to slow her mind's thoughts of Harry enough for her to fall asleep. If she's lucky she might dream of him, and that'll be enough until she can be with him tomorrow.
The only light in the room is from the moon shining through the window. Baby looks over at her sister's bed. She's turned away from her, but she knows she isn't asleep yet. If they were closer Baby would sit up and tell Linda all about the past two weeks and how she's falling for Harry. But she stays quiet. Some other day, she tells herself.
"I've decided to go all the way with Robert," Linda says, breaking the silence of the night. She's still facing the wall, but Baby can tell the words are meant for her.
"No, Linda, not with Robert," Baby practically pleads. She's the only one in their family that knows the truth about him. About how he got Peggy pregnant, left her on her own, moved onto Linda like nothing ever happened. Their father had dismissed Harry because he thought he was a bad guy, but the truth is the bad guy is the one that's serving them dinner every night.
"If we came back for our 50th anniversary, do you think we could stay here for free?" Linda asks, smiling to herself and ignoring her sisters pleads completely. Baby fills with dread, not only at the fact that Linda wants to sleep with a scumbag like Robert, but that she imagines herself with him in fifty years. Robert's the kind of person that deserves to live and die alone, not with someone like Linda by his side. No matter how much her and Baby clash, she's her sister and she'll always care about her; she deserves better than him.
"Don't do this, Lin," she says, sitting up in her bed and looking over at her sister. She still hasn't turned around to look at her. "It should be with someone," her mind flashes to her time spent in Harry's bed, "with someone you sort of love."
Linda sits up in her bed, looking at her sister whose face is illuminated by the moonlight. "Oh please, you don't give a fuck about me," she scoffs. Baby knows she's annoyed because Linda only cusses when she's pissed off.
"You wouldn't care if I humped the entire army... as long as they were on the right side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail," Linda quips, poking fun at Baby's political activism. Baby doesn't know what to say. She wonders when her sister and her became so distant that Linda could claim that she doesn't care about her and Baby wouldn't know how to defend herself. They used to be thick as thieves, but that was when their personalities were developed by family and environment, rather than their own choices.
