Jerry earns camotes which help the family meals. He seems to like the garden and has his second wind like Bedie. I have mine and wish June would get hers.
I sat up reading pages of my toilet paper — Women in Love. There are many pages of majestic writing.
Internally I feel normal for the first time since February. My feet are still ice but my mind is functioning almost too well.
I was up in a chair when my family came down to visit. Jerry and Bedie with spring in their hands; the exquisite fragrance and waxy petals of pomolo flower, with dark green leaves below the fresh yellow green of new shoots.
It was most heavenly to sniff and gaze upon. Bedie found it in a tree for me. June brought fresh-picked lettuce from the box garden and I buried my nose in the crisp green which was still wet from being washed. We all chewed a leaf, like rabbits. It makes my heart sing to see Bedie snuggle up to Jerry with a shy smile. Jerry tries to cover up his pleasure at the demonstration. He says the big scandal in camp now is one white rooster missing from the hen yard. Those in charge and on the Committee went to the pig pen where they found it cooking in a pot hidden away. Shorty takes full blame, brags about similar snitchings Over a period, but they suspect others in it with him whom he shields. Since eggs dropped in number they have been watching the hen yard, suspecting “foul play.”
Sugano fished a tall can of Nestlé evaporated milk out of his pocket, asked Denki to ask the doctor if it was any good, and if so he could give him twelve more for hospital use. Another miracle.
June was depressed and weepy, so I sent Bedie off and talked it out with her. She is lonely, does not belong to the various cliques of the young as she has no one with which to pair off. Low vitality makes her feel there is no
help for anything, no way out. She can see no future, feels she will never pull through this and live to grow up. I know so well this low-vitamin state of mind that I could take hold of it and pull her up, though her youthful
despair twisted my heart. She wept with homesickness, misses my companionship and needs more young people to draw upon. I told her to ask three to play in our cubicle some night, to make a definite date. She promised she would and left a little more cheerful.
Dr. Mather said I must be sure to eat some chicken for lunch. It is the rooster which was snitched, plus three other small chickens. The sick get the benefit of Stolen Fruits and the planned party did not come off. About four
of the young people were in on it. It was a gay lark that they could brag about, without thought of the sick who depended on the eggs from the camp flock. The prize rooster was killed and cleverly hidden in a pot, boiling under camotes and something else. There is an open trial tomorrow and a lesson for all.