Chapter Eight

Vanessa arrived just in time for dinner on Friday evening.  She’d called ahead to give Alison an approximate time to expect her. This gave Wilma plenty of time to fix a nice dinner of roast chicken and rosemary potatoes. Alison assured her that she and Vanessa were cool with frozen pizza, but Wilma would have none of it.

Wilma heard Alison’s father and great aunts discussing Vanessa and her influence on Alison on more than one occasion. The girls met in early grade school and remained tight friends ever since.  Vanessa was raised by parents who were always too busy with their own agenda to pay much attention to what was going on in her world.  Her body developed at a much faster pace than Alison’s did, which resulted in attention from boys at an earlier age.  She’d heard Alison defending Vanessa’s actions by criticizing Vanessa’s parents for not providing the attention she needed to the point she sought it in other ways.