He welcomed the long drive up, because he knew his wife Susan would elect to remain in the back in the trailer, and that Nancy, his 10 year old daughter would probably read comic books on the way. Nancy didn't talk much anyway, and he'd given up trying to draw the little girl out. He figured she'd get friendly when she was ready. This way, he had a little peace and didn't have to feel guilty if he felt like thinking about Linda!

He recalled now her saucy upturned nose, and her little pixie haircut that framed her face in such a way that she often looked just like a young boy! But in bed she was no boy… with a man-eating little pussy like she had, that was for sure, Jamie thought now, smiling to himself.

Next to him 10-year-old Nancy looked sideways at her dad and wondered to herself just what he was smiling about. She knew that he and her mother had had a lulu of a fight that very morning, all about where he had been so late the night before… and her mother had tearfully insisted she did not want to go to the family reunion with him. Nancy remembered her mother saying that she would feel like a "hypocrite" having to smile at everyone and pretend everything was alright when it wasn't! Nancy wondered exactly what a hypocrite was… but she knew what it was like to have to pretend things were fine when they weren't. She did it all the time… that was why a lot of the time she just remained silent, it was easier than pretending!

She looked behind her through the back window of the speeding Ford at the trailer that swung along behind them. She wondered what her Mom was doing in there… and hoped she wasn't still crying. Her father had declared that like it or not they all had to go up to "Livingstons" because no one would understand if they didn't and he hoped that going along with his father on this ridiculous attempt at some kind of family unity would keep him off his back for the rest of the year!