At least this time I didn't feel as conspicuous as usual. That's because eventually all the members of each of my friends' families showed up. You can imagine what the Pike crowd looked like. Before they arrived, though, I had to deal with my family myself. Mom had insisted that we leave for the station a half an hour before the train to New York was due in. The station is exactly four minutes from our house. That left us with twenty-six minutes to kill — and an audience of about fifteen people to watch us kill the time.

I hope they were entertained. We did our best to put on a show for them.

Emily, who is two and a half, used my suitcase and backpack as her own personal jungle gym. She kept trying to stand on top of the suitcase (when it was standing up). And Mom kept saying, "Be careful, Emily. Emily, be careful." Then there was Karen, who's seven, jumping all around, singing, "New York, New York! A wonderful town. The Bronx is up and the Battery's down!" Mary Anne had baby-sat for her and Andrew two days before.

Meanwhile, Andrew (who's almost five) and David Michael (who's going on eight) found one of the rattly baggage carts.

"Cool!" exclaimed David Michael.

"Give me a ride!" said Andrew, scrambling on.

Nannie saw them. "David Michael! Andrew! That isn't a toy!" she called. (Pause.) "David Michael, come back here! Andrew, please get off." I had the feeling that the people around us were quickly learning our names.

"Kristy, will you buy me something in New York?" asked Karen loudly.

"Me, too?" cried Andrew and David Michael, abandoning the baggage cart.

"Potty!" exclaimed Emily Michelle.

"I'll take her/' said Mom.

Luckily, Mallory and her family arrived then, and the people at the station found them more interesting than my family. (Anyway, there were fewer of us at that point. David Michael, Andrew, and Karen had all followed Mom to the bathrooms, and Charlie had taken Shannon for a quick walk in the parking lot.) Here's the thing about the Pikes: Three of the boys are ten-year-old identical triplets. They don't dress in matching outfits, but their faces are exactly the same. There's no mistaking that they're triplets.