One was Uncle Giles, who was Dad’s oldest brother-Dad let Uncle Giles boss him around. He seemed very ordinary, but when he told people what to do, they always did it. Genie wasn’t immune to this herself. Mom sometimes tried to argue with him, but she never won.
Her dad was also close to Uncle Dexter, who was a lawyer. He was kind of quiet. Everyone in the family talked about how good-looking he was, but Genie couldn’t see it. His wife, Aunt Maggie, was very beautiful, but she didn’t seem to care about Uncle Dex or what he did. She always seemed bored, and was one of only a small number of the older women who didn’t seem interested in him. Genie thought that he was interesting, but not in the way that most of the aunts did.
To Genie, who could admit to herself that she was a little bit of a spy when it came to the adults in her life, Uncle Dex’s effect on the older women was fascinating and worthy of study. Whenever he came into a room, some of the aunts blushed. Eventually, most of them found a way to stand near Uncle Dex for at least a few minutes. They touched him-put a hand on his arm or shoulder, things like that-more often than they touched the other men in the family. He would look at whoever was talking to him as if they were telling him a valuable secret. He listened to them and said nice things to them. He had a smile-even Genie liked his smile-that made other people smile back at him. He might joke a little with the women, but he never did anything to make the uncles mad at him. Uncle Dex always seemed able to be cautious without letting other people realize he was being cautious.
Mom dressed up a little more when she knew Uncle Dex was coming over. Genie noticed that Uncle Dex was careful to stay near Dad when Mom was around, never came over when Dad wasn’t home, and still managed to compliment Mom and make her smile.
Uncle Nelson was the other uncle who visited them sometimes. He was usually too busy to spend much time with them, and seemed uncomfortable around children, but he always made a point of asking Genie how she was doing and if she was happy. He was married, too, but Genie had never met his wife. Mom said he’d married someone who didn’t like being around all the Fletchers, especially at big family gatherings. Genie couldn’t understand that.
Naturally, not everyone was close to every other member of the family, but Grandfather had worked hard to make sure that family was the most important thing in his children’s lives. Genie always felt loved and safe here. That wasn’t just because there was always someone keeping an eye on the children, or lots of adults to embrace you and ask you how you were doing. Here, just like at the academy, there were cameras and security people. Most of the latter were Fletchers, too.
This day was an especially quiet one, even though there were a great many family members present. The grown-ups, especially Grandfather, had required their attention when they first arrived. Grandfather had been so sad. Some of the oldest cousins took Troy and Aaron to play in another room, while Grandfather spent time telling the older children (the ones who were nine and older, which meant Genie just made the cut) about Sheila, one of their cousins. Grandfather told them about Sheila’s life, how her birth mother had given her to the Fletchers because she knew that Sheila’s father was a man who would never be kind to a baby girl.
A few years ago, Sheila had wanted to find her birth mother, and Grandfather had helped her to do that. He said that he was glad Sheila and her birth mother had time to know each other before Sheila’s birth mother died, but he was even happier that Sheila had moved back here to Las Piernas. He went on to tell them that he didn’t want to frighten them, but he did want them to know that someone had killed her, and he was telling them that because he wanted everyone to be extra alert and not talk to strangers.
The idea of a murder in the family was shocking, kind of thrilling, and scary to Genie all at once. Grandfather didn’t tell them much about the murder. He just said the police were working on it. He ended the way he often ended talks with the whole family, reminding them to love one another, to work as hard as they could to learn, to use what talents they had been given by God, and to help one another.
You couldn’t help feeling sad for Grandfather today.
They all knew that other people wanted to try to hurt Grandfather through his children.
Once, Genie told Carrie that she wanted to run away, and Carrie freaked out. She didn’t tell their parents, but she pleaded with Genie not to leave, and Genie began to see that Carrie needed her. And Carrie told her that she needed to think about not hurting Grandfather, and Genie could see her point.
Being a Fletcher wasn’t so bad, after all. People took care of you. If she wanted to go to a good college, and showed that she meant it by studying hard, the Fletchers would help her get into that college. When she decided what she wanted to be when she grew up, Fletchers would help her then, too. When she had children, and her cousins had children, they would all help those children to be happy and healthy and successful. Fletchers helped one another.
Most people outside the family admired the Fletchers, but some people were jealous, of course. They would say that love, learning, and money made a difference. In her lessons at home, Mom and Dad made sure that Genie already knew these facts by heart: If you were wealthy, no matter how much you gave to charities or your community, no matter how much good you did, there would always be a few people who thought you owed them what you had earned. Or they would believe you would not miss what they stole from you. A very few wanted to hurt Fletcher children just because they were Fletchers. That was why you could not talk to strangers. That was why the family had to have security people.
Genie wondered if the person who killed Cousin Sheila had done it because she was a Fletcher. When she asked Mom about it, she got a lecture about not asking prying questions. But then she asked Dad about it, and he said, “Probably.” He was upset, but he hugged her and told her not to be afraid, that he would always keep her safe.
Being kept safe was one of the reasons you were home-schooled or schooled at the academy and could not go to a public school. Public school was a place where you didn’t learn as much, anyway-something Genie was sure was true from the rare occasions when she encountered other children her age and tried to converse with them. Most ended up calling her names that meant she was smarter than they were, and although she could never understand why that should be considered an insult to her, it definitely felt like one. It was so much easier to be around other Fletcher children. They had better manners, too.
Not all of the Fletcher children were supersmart, of course, but they all got the best education possible, and the family always tried to help its children discover what they were good at and make the most of their talents. From what Grandfather had said that morning, Genie got the impression that Sheila wasn’t one of the supersmart ones.
Grandfather told them that he didn’t expect them to be sad about Sheila if they did not know her, but he hoped they would say a little prayer for her before they went to bed tonight. He believed she was in heaven because she had spent the last two years of her life learning how to find lost children with special dogs, which was a good use of her talents.
After that, the children were told they could have the day off from classes and that they should just spend time with their brothers, sisters, and cousins, and enjoy being a family.
Mom stopped them before they left the room, probably to ask them where they would be, but Uncle Giles saw her do this and quickly came up to her. “Victoria, I believe Roy is looking for you.” She looked as if she might say she would be there in a few minutes, but he shepherded the girls along with him, saying over his shoulder, “Go to your husband. We will keep an eye on the girls. I promise. Your children are not in any danger here.”