“She’s staying busy. In addition to cheerleading for the jayvees, she lucked into a good job at the university this summer working for a sociology professor who’s got a big grant, and she’s still working part-time for him some this fall.” I wonder at this arrangement. Sarah is gorgeous and friendly and utterly unqualified to do more than run a copy machine. Dr.

Birdseed, or whatever his name is, probably hasn’t employed a male in years.

James clears his throat. His wife has interrupted for long enough.

“How much longer are you going to be?”

she says to him, her voice now businesslike, even cold.

Husbands and wives. He mumbles something I don’t pick up. She nods and smiles at me.

“Tell Sarah hello for me.”

“Sure,” I say, sitting down as she leaves the room.

Whatever transpired, I’m apparently not being invited for dinner. I’ve forgotten that couples develop their own code. Rosa could give an entire lecture on almost empty leftover food containers by raising her eyebrow and sighing in her dramatic Latin way. I’m surprised that Gloria is not included in this conversation. She works in the federal district clerk’s office and knows more lawyers than I do. Yet, she didn’t even acknowledge her brother-in-law.

Maybe they don’t get along. The message I got was that she’s spent years civilizing James; Roy and his family are a lost cause, and she’s not real crazy about her husband putting up the bond. But that’s reading a lot into it. Family dynamics are usually unresolved mysteries. I think of my only sister, Marty, who lives less than an hour north of here: we haven’t seen each other but one time in the last year. History alone ought to bind us, but somehow it always ends up getting in the way.