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because she came right out and asked. I mean, these young women, they just ask these things, so I told her. I didn’t think … I honestly didn’t think you’d be that interested.”
    Out in the kitchen I clutched my head and closed my eyes. Even I didn’t think my dad would say something quite so stupid.
    “Y-you didn’t think I’d be interested? I’m speechless,” said Janice.
    Dad didn’t answer. “All these years of loving you … ,” she said quietly.
    “Janice!”
    “And I knew it wasn’t reciprocated. I can’t blame you for that.”
    “Janice, I’ve always been fond of you. You know that.”
    “‘Fond’ won’t do it, Ben. But I did think you’d have the courtesy—the decency—to let me know first if you became engaged to another woman.”
    “I was thoughtless and stupid not to tell you first, and I apologize. But is this reason enough for you to leave? Move somewhere else?”
    “I think so. I may even make manager at another store, who knows?”
    “Well, if that happens, it will be my great loss and another’s gain, Janice. I can only wish you the best of luck, and I mean that sincerely. You’ll do a great job wherever you are. I’m just sorry you feel this way.”
    “So am I, Ben.”
    I moved my head an inch at a time until I could just see around the doorway into the living room. Janice was getting up from the couch, her purse tucked under her arm like a rifle. She walked stiffly across the room toward the front door. I edged back again until I heard my father’s footsteps, too, in the hall. Then I peeked again.
    “Can I count on you until the end of the month?” he asked.
    “Yes. You can count on that,” Janice said. “Good-bye, Ben.” Suddenly she threw her arms around Dad’s neck, her purse dropping to the floor, and pressed her mouth against his. Dad stood as stiff as a broom handle, his palms resting lightly against her waist, but his fingers bent back away from her, afraid, it seemed, to touch her any more than necessary.
    Before he could say a word, she turned again, swooped down to pick up her purse, then went out the front door, closing it behind her.
    Dad didn’t move.
    Les was coming downstairs in his stocking feet. I emerged from the kitchen, and we joined Dad there in the hallway. I didn’t know what to say, so I let Les do the talking. He grinned a little ruefully at Dad and said, “Well, Pops, you win some, you lose some.”
    Dad shook his head. “Can you imagine? And all because Marilyn found out before she did.”
    But Lester said, “I think it was the only excuse she could come up with. It was only a matter of time before she left. It would have been unbearable for her, once you were married, to have to listen to Sylvia and I did this, and Sylvia and I did that. ”
    “You’re probably right, but I’d no idea she wasthis unhappy. What am I going to do? Who will I find to replace her? Janice knows the store almost better than I do. She’s a terrific asset!”
    “Won’t the corporation send someone else?”
    “They always give us a chance to find someone local first.”
    “Well, the advice you’d give me is to sleep on it, so why don’t you?” Lester said.
    “I guess I will.” But Dad still didn’t move; he just stood in the hallway with a dazed look on his face. “Will somebody please explain why the major problems in this household concern romance?” he asked plaintively.
    “’Cause love makes the world go around, Dad,” I told him.
    “And it makes me dizzy,” Dad said.

4
    The Big Night
    There were even more people on Saturday than I’d expected. Kids invited other kids, I guess. The usual crowd was there, the ones who hang out at Mark Stedmeister’s pool in the summer: Patrick, Elizabeth and Pamela, Brian and Mark, Karen and Jill, and, lately, Gwen and her boyfriend, Legs. I’d invited two friends from school, Lori Haynes and her friend Leslie, mostly because some of the girls had been so awful to them back in eighth grade, but I