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suggested a lifetime of bitterness, and Laura knew from Robby that he had failed in several businesses. Emma Ann was not an attractive woman and she didn’t do anything to help herself; her brown hair was pulled back in a bun, which made her full face look even fuller, and big round glasses hid the brown eyes that were so like her son’s and were her best feature. She wore the perpetually angry expression of a woman who felt life had passed her by.
    They were the kind of married people who referred to each other as Mother and Father, and after Laura and Robby were married they wanted her to address them as Mother and Father McAllister. Laura was deeply grateful that her parents had simply asked Robby to call them Theo and Iris. She was also grateful that Robby didn’t have any brothers or sisters and that her brothers hadn’t been invited. The evening had been difficult enough with just the two sets of parents and Robby and Laura.
    When Robby’s parents arrived, Laura was pretty sure that his father had been drinking. He wasn’t drunk, but she could smell liquor on his breath and Robby had thrown a worried glance to his mother, who had responded with a little shrug. Laura thought it was likely that they had been through this before, although Robby hadn’t ever said anything about his father drinking too much.
    Dinner hadn’t gone very well; Laura had made her new specialty, coq au vin, and Mr. McAllister had announced that he didn’t have a stomach for foreign food. Given how many glasses of wine he had consumed during the meal, it couldn’t have been the alcohol in the dish that had bothered him.
    “Father is a meat-and-potatoes man,” Mrs. McAllister had said with an apologetic little laugh. She seemed to be accustomed to apologizing for him.
    Robby had told Laura that his mother’s family, and especially her brother, were prominent people in their small town. Mrs. McAllister had already regaled them over dinner with stories about the family department store, which was now being run by her brother. “Four generations of Landons have owned it,” she told her captive audience. “It’s a landmark in Blair’s Falls. But it took my brother, Donald, to put it on the map. It’s well known all the way to Cincinnati!”
    At another point during dinner, she’d told them all that Robby was the apple of her eye. She’d actually said those very words in front of strangers. Laura had waited for Robby to try to stop her the way any of her three brothers would have done if her mother had been so gushy about them. But even though Robby had turned bright red, he hadn’t protested or even turned away. It had been his father who had snapped impatiently, “Oh for God’s sake, Mother, don’t make a fool of the boy!”
    –—
    Out on the porch, Robby’s parents were making no effort to extend themselves to the parents of the girl who was going to be their daughter-in-law. They sat side by side silently. It was left to Iris and Theo to try to make conversation.
    “You must be so very proud of Robby,” Iris said. Her voice, which was usually lovely and well modulated, sounded edgy; she wasn’t at her best in awkward social situations. Mrs. McAllister pulled herself up proudly and gave them all a smug little smile. Mr. McAllister stared sullenly at Iris.
    “Robby’s record, graduating third in his class, is certainly impressive,” Theo tried to help his wife.
    “Archaeology is fascinating,” Iris said. In the fall Robby would begin studying for his doctorate in the field.
    “I’m afraid it’s not a subject I’m familiar with,” Mrs. McAllister had suddenly decided to speak. “But my brother’s wife … her brother went to Yale, you know, so I trust him … he says that being asked to work on this dig in New Mexico is a feather in Robby’s cap.”
    “From what I understand it is quite an honor,” Iris agreed eagerly. “Even I’ve heard of Professor Hawkins and his work, although like you, I’m not