Diana raised her hand. “I’ll go next. There were times when I got tired of Mama telling me that my brothers got to stay out later and do more than I did because they were boys. So, if I could be something other than a teacher, which Mama thought was a good, safe route for me to take, I would have gone into the army and trained to be a sniper. I go to the shooting range every month. I’ve earned my expert marksman status.”

“Do you really think you could shoot someone?” Jayden asked.

“I could have this morning.” Diana smiled. “But we’ll never know whether I really could or not, because that ship sailed a long time ago. My folks would have dropped graveyard dead if I would have even mentioned joining the army. Your turn, Jayden.”

“Is this a therapy session?” Jayden asked.

“Could be,” Novalene answered. “I sure never told anyone that I drive ninety in a seventy-five-mile zone and listen to Elvis so loud that it shakes my car. They’d send the boys in the white jackets after me.”

“Before I tell y’all what I might have been, what do you think the answer will be?” Jayden wondered how folks—other than her sister—might see her.

“I think you’re stalling and that you are playing the role of the therapist,” Novalene said, “but I’ll go first. You would have been a chef in a big fancy restaurant.”

“No, she would have been a baseball player,” Diana disagreed. “She’s been watching the game out there pretty close. She would have been like Geena Davis in A League of Their Own. Matter of fact, she looks like Geena. She even has the same smile as Geena. But Jayden has freckles and Geena doesn’t.”

“Geena probably did, too, but the makeup covered them,” Novalene argued.

“Maybe so,” Diana agreed. “But I also think she would have been a writer, maybe of romance novels. She’s watching the game, but her eyes are also on Elijah. What was your major in college? Did you teach before you became a school counselor?”

“I majored in English, and I taught three years before I got offered the job of counselor,” she answered.

“Then I’m right about her being an author. She’s had heartache in her life, so she could touch a reader’s emotions.”

“Bingo! Give Diana a prize.” Jayden grinned. “She got pretty close. I’m not sure I could tell a story good enough for someone to read. I always thought I’d like to be an editor, but I’m a counselor and that’s probably what I’ll be until I retire.”

“Diana, how old are you?” Novalene asked.

“I turned gray before I was thirty, so you might think I’m older than I am. I don’t mind tellin’ you that fifty is in the rearview mirror for me—way too old to join the army now. But don’t ask me about my weight. Only me, my doctor, and God know that number. I threatened to make the nurse that weighs me once a year sign an affidavit in blood—hers not mine—that she would never utter that bit of information out loud, write it on any piece of paper other than the doctor’s notes, or even think it after I left the office,” Diana said.

“If you want to be a sniper, you should teach shooting classes instead of counseling kids,” Novalene told Diana.

“Another thing I wish I’d done was get married and have kids,” Diana said.

“It’s not too late for that,” Novalene told her. “Don’t wait until you’re sixty like me and too old to have kids. I regret that most about my life. Kids and grandkids would have been nice right about now. Maybe that’s why I love these mean little girls so damn much. They’re surrogates for what I don’t have.”

Diana shrugged. “I’ve thought about both of those, but . . .”

“But what? Have you looked into it?” Jayden asked when she paused.

“This really is group therapy.” Diana chuckled. “It’s your turn, Jayden. How old are you?”

“I was thirty-one last month,” Jayden admitted. “Thanks for thinking I look like a young Geena Davis, too. I always felt like an ugly duckling because I was tall and gangly, and there wasn’t a delicate thing about me.”

“Ugly ducklings often turn into beautiful swans,” Novalene declared. “You have a good heart, woman. You are strong. I saw a quote once that said something about us all needing to surrender to the beauty of revealing ourselves to ourselves, to realize that our beauty comes from within, not from without.”

“I saw that same one. The whole thing hangs on the wall in my office. Doing that is a daily battle for all of us, but most of all for these girls. Looks like our session is over.” Jayden pointed to eight girls and one handsome fellow walking away from the makeshift baseball field. “I bet they’re starving tonight, and speaking of that, I’d better hustle on over to the dining room and help Mary get the pizzas ready to serve.”

Everyone has a story, a daydream, or even a regret, she thought as she stood up. “Thanks for the visit. Novalene, I don’t think you should drive the second van to church next Sunday.”

The older woman chuckled as she got to her feet and headed over to the Moonbeam Cabin. “I doubt any of these girls would love Elvis like I do, anyway, and even as tough as they think they are, they’d be cryin’ their little eyes out for me to slow down once I got into my zone, as the kids these days say. Maybe that’s where I went wrong with Lauren. I should have taken her for a ride, and then she would have thought this place was right up there next to heaven. I’ll see y’all at supper in a few minutes.”

“Pizza, pasta, and pie with ice cream tonight,” Jayden said as she hurried across the yard, making it to the dining building in time for Elijah to open the door for her.

“Don’t get downwind from me or the girls,” he said. “All of us will be glad for showers tonight.”

“Looks like you had a good time, though.” Jayden went into the kitchen and grabbed an apron. “Do you do this every Sunday?”

“Nope,” Mary answered for him. “Sometimes he gets them into a horseshoe competition or some other game. It teaches them sportsmanship.”

“And teamwork,” he said. “Can I help with anything? It’s five minutes before the siren goes and I have to see that their toes are on the edge of the sidewalk.”

“What does that teach?” Jayden asked.

“Obedience, which helps them learn to listen to rules, and that helps them hopefully grow up and live long enough to be productive citizens. When their boss tells them to do something, they do it, and in turn, it teaches them to like themselves for doing a good job,” Elijah answered.

“Or when the law says that they don’t drink and drive, they obey and maybe don’t wind up killing someone and themselves,” Mary added. “So, everyone wins, but most important, the girls do.”

Jayden nodded in agreement. She had always preached that going to school wasn’t just to learn to read, write, and do math. Getting up and going to class taught them how to be on time for their jobs when they were adults. Listening to lectures taught them to pay attention so they could learn the ins and outs of a job. All of it together made them learn responsibility.