Lanie insisted Jack and Ennis come up early to spend time with the family before Amy's Saturday wedding. Jack decided early meant Thursday morning so they could avoid the worst traffic on 270. They would be going opposite the flow of traffic, so it should be alright. Ennis, however, was loath to take more time off from his new job, since he had to take Friday anyway. Still, Ennis responded to Jack's comments about the traffic with a mighty grimace, letting Jack know that Ennis had sat through that traffic at least once, and once was more than enough for a man to learn he never wanted to do it again. Jack knew Ennis's aversion to traffic was even stronger than his own. How anyone sat in that shit every day was beyond him. He'd never do it.

At any rate, they ended up driving up on Thursday morning, just the two of them.

They'd planned on leaving Bobby home alone, but he'd miss two days of school since he wasn't driving yet and it was Jack who took him on a daily basis now. But Ennis didn't trust Bobby to be home alone since he'd started dating Kelly officially. Jack didn't think Bobby would do anything too stupid, but he had to admit that he and Ennis at that age had been screwing like rabbits. No doubt that's what Ennis was thinking of, too.

Then, only two weeks before Amy's wedding, Jack got what he considered the best news possible from Lureen, though he knew from long practice that her cold voice only thinly veiled tears as she delivered it: she and Jay had separated. Jack hoped some time alone with Bobby would do her some good. After all, for so many years it'd been just Lureen and Bobby against the world, and as happy as Bobby was with his new situation, he could not disguise that he missed his mother. Jack knew from his own experience how bad it felt to miss your son, so he was glad he could give Lureen this one thing, if she was hurting.

That was how come they ended up here, the two of them, alone on 270 at eleven in the morning. They found their way off the highway and onto side roads following Ennis's memory, which wasn't as good as it used to be. Ennis chewed his lower lip from the passenger's seat, but he was far-sighted so he could see the street-signs coming a mile away, and he recognized some road names.

"You know, why the hell didn't you just ask her for some directions?"

"Huh?"

"Directions. You could have just asked for some."

"Imposing enough as it is."

"Asking directions isn't imposing."

"Well, it hasn't been that long since I've been here."

"Didn't you say you hadn't been up since you divorced Alma?"

Ennis sat back silently in his seat, clearly signaling that the conversation was over, though Jack knew he'd spoken the truth.

Somehow, though, Ennis managed. They were pulling up to Lanie's trailer, where they were all planning on meeting, around twelve-thirty. Ennis's knee was bouncing and Jack's hands were sweating, but they had come all this way to do this thing, and Jack was damned if he was going to look afraid. It seemed to him that Ennis's mindset was about the same, since as soon as they pulled up in Jack's car, Ennis was swinging the door open and standing outside, facing down his fears because he didn't have a choice. Jack might have been proud if he wasn't busy being so damned terrified himself, recalling suddenly his first time meeting Lureen's old man. He didn't have much luck with in-laws.

"Ennis!," an overweight woman with dirty-blonde hair burst through the screen door of the trailer as Jack was getting out of the car.

"Lanie," Ennis grunted, cracking a smile as the woman scooped him into a hug.

Jack remembered Lanie. He remembered Lanie maybe a hundred and fifty pounds thinner, and with long, light-blonde hair, but Jack guessed age and dis-use of hair dye could have produced the effect he was seeing before him.

Ennis extracted himself from the hug and Jack guessed he was on stage next. He plunked his hands on his waist and came around the front of the car very slowly.

"Lanie, uh, you remember Jack?" Ennis stepped back and motioned towards Jack.

Jack took a step forward with one foot and stuck out his right hand, "Nice seeing you again, ma'am." He'd always called her "ma'am" back when he'd just been Ennis's high school friend, 'cause his mother had raised him with pretty good manners, and it just came back naturally.

"Of course, of course." Lanie was all smiles. "But you aren't going to call me ma'am, are you? Call me Lanie." They shook hands for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only about a full ten seconds, before Lanie laughed and said, "Come 'ere," and Jack ended up with the same bear-hug treatment that Ennis had gotten. He was thrown off balance and not so fast to hug back, but he sure did laugh a little. He spotted Ennis over Lanie's shoulder: Ennis smiling and blushing and looking towards the ground, and Jack could never have restrained a chuckle at that sight.

The door clattered open again, though, just as Lanie was letting Jack go, and the tall, dark-haired man that came out was the exact spitting-image of the K.E. that Jack remembered, save for a dusting of silvery hair by his temples and his in mustache that was also still hanging onto the past.

"Ennis," K.E. clapped Ennis on the shoulder, and Ennis reciprocated.

"K.E. You remember my friend Jack."

"Sure." K.E. and Jack shook hands, and K.E. smiled. "You ain't hardly changed a bit since all them years ago."

"Well, then I'm not the only one," Jack laughed.

"Not like Ennis here, lookin' all tired and old." K.E. jabbed his little brother on the shoulder, and Ennis feigned offense. "Oh, you ain't met my wife and son." K.E. turned back to the trailer and yelled in. "Barbara?"

"Yeah?" a voice answered him.

"Why don't you and Charlie come on out and say hi? Ennis and his friend are here. Maybe bring a couple beers. It's a nice day, we oughtta sit outside."

"Alright. Just give me a minute," she called back.

Jack noticed that so far he was just Ennis's "friend," but he knew that everyone knew what that really meant, so he'd take it if it made them feel comfortable. Right now he was grateful for the warm welcome and the hospitality.

Lanie was already bringing some plastic lawn chairs around to the shady side of the trailer, under an oak tree.

A thin woman with close-cropped blonde hair came out, trailed by a young teenage boy with dark hair who was holding a six pack and generally looking disinterested in the world. Jack knew the type.

"Jack, this is Barbara, my wife, and Charlie, my son," K.E. jumped in. "Barbara, this is Jack, and I think you remember my little brother Ennis."

"Of course I do. Nice to see you again Ennis, and nice to meet you, Jack."

"Nice to see you," Ennis mumbled.

"Lanie's been entertaining me for days with stories about the trouble the two of you used to get into in high school," Barbara laughed. "I hope you aren't still goin' around sneakin' into girls' windows."

"I never did that," said Ennis. "Jack never did that, either." He took a beer and sat in a chair.

Everyone else followed suit, although K.E. went to the door to let some little barking mutt of a dog out of the trailer. It proceeded to jump around their feet. Charlie, rather than grabbing a beer, pulled a Nintendo out of his pocket and sunk into silence.

"Oh yeah, well, I think your memory is hazy, then," answered Jack, "but how your sister came to know about that, I just don't want to know."

"You did that?," Ennis asked.

"Hell, you were in the car. You remember... what was her name..."

"Janet, and she works with me at the high school, is how I know about that," Lanie supplied.

"Janet! Yes! We were... umm, she had that record that you liked. That country shit. So I climbed into her room to borrow it, 'cause she was supposed to be at that sleepover..."

Ennis started nodding. "'Cept she had the flu. That's right."

"Janet says you nearly gave her a heart attack," Lanie chuckled, "boy crawling in her window in the middle of the night. 'Course, I guess she didn't have much cause to be scared on that account." She guffawed like she'd made the world's funniest joke, but Jack decided he'd roll with the punches. She was doing her best and didn't mean any harm.

Ennis was already blushing from Lanie's joke, but Jack needed to push the envelope a little, take it out for a spin, see what she could do, so all he said was, "No, that's right. What do you think we wanted that record for?"

Lanie burst into open-mouthed laughter that Jack actually found a little bit adorable. She was as giddy as anyone he'd seen, but with her daughter getting married, it could be that the stress was making her a little loopy and maybe she needed the laughs. That's right, her daughter!

"Say, where's Amy?" Jack couldn't believe he hadn't asked that before now, but with the rush of meeting people, he'd just been overwhelmed.

"Oh," Lanie seemed to sober up immediately, "she's staying with friends tonight. Sort of a bachelorette party. I think it's pretty low-key, though. They rented some movies, and I think they're going to tie-dye or something."

"Alright," Jack nodded.

Everyone else nodded and silence fell over the conversation until K.E. interrupted with, "So how was you all's drive up here?"

"Good, good," Ennis answered, and no one spoke again for a while.

"Well," Lanie started, "we've got some hamburgers and I made some hot dogs. We can put them on the grill when you all get hungry. Then maybe after that you can follow K.E. and Barbara back to their new house. You'll love it, it's huge," Lanie offered with a smile. She seemed a genuinely happy person, and for that, Jack was glad.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening passed that way, in snippets of conversation. Ennis told everyone about his new job. Jack learned that Lanie was a cafeteria lady, which secretly amused him since he'd had a long-standing hatred for that particular profession, but he didn't tell Lanie about it. K.E. talked about his work selling cars. Barbara was a secretary at the same dealership. Charlie was thirteen. Lanie, K.E., and Barbara inquired after the girls, and Ennis tried to update them as best he could seeing as how he only spoke to them once a month. When Ennis said how infrequently he talked to them, Barbara nodded, and said, "Jack, you're lucky you don't have kids. They're a handful."

Everyone'd had a couple beers by that point, and Jack laughed so suddenly he spit some of his onto the ground. Ennis seemed to be coughing on his own beer.

"I got a son," Jack recovered in time to horn in. "Bobby. He's sixteen. He's gonna be driving any day, and..." Jack shook his head, unable to voice how frightened he was by the idea of his teenage son behind the wheel of a heavy, metal killing machine.

"So you were married?," Barbara asked.

Jack nodded.

"And I guess your son is with his mother?"

"Well, this weekend he is. He actually lives with us."

Everyone nodded slowly, chewing on that information. Barbara seemed to be the only one with the guts to ask about the situation, though. "Is he... okay with that?"

Jack's estimation of Barbara rose a notch. At least she was calling things like they were, if the situation was somewhat unfamiliar to her, instead of just trying to pass them off as roommates or friends. "Yeah, yeah," Jack nodded. "Bobby loves Ennis. Matter of fact..." Jack looked over at Ennis, who was watching his beer can with heavily-lidded eyes, but not objecting to Jack's speaking, "Bobby lived with Ennis in his apartment for a little while while I was trying to get my living situation figured out. He wanted to. Wasn't getting on too well with his mother's new husband."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Lanie interjected. "Step-parents can be so hard on kids."

"They can be. But they aren't always." Jack looked over at Ennis, who was staring at his beer can, and reached out one arm just to poke him in the shoulder, not so different from what K.E.'d done earlier this afternoon.

"Hey now," Ennis laughed and shrugged Jack away.

"You hard on Bobby?," Jack asked.

"Hell yes," Ennis answered. "That boy... he's probably sneaking into some poor girl's window right now, except he's got indecent designs on her."

Jack chuckled.

"Well," K.E. sighed. "I reckon Barbara and Lanie have a long day tomorrow with Amy, so I think it's about time to head on back home. You guys want to follow me?"

"I'm not so tired," Lanie said. "I was hoping to keep these two a little bit longer, pry a bit, you know."

"Well I'm pretty tired," Ennis offered, and though Jack could tell he was tired, he also could tell he didn't want his private life pried into.

Jack, however, felt like he was just warming up, and was rather enjoying himself. Lanie seemed stressed and maybe lonely, just a couple days before her only child got married. "I'll stay," Jack volunteered.

"Huh?," Ennis asked.

"I'll stay," he repeated. "Lanie can probably pry more information out of me than out of you anyway." Jack threw a wink at Ennis.

"I'll drive him over later," Lanie clarified.

Ennis glanced away and sighed. "Alright. See you later then."

"Yup," Jack nodded. Lanie and Jack watched K.E., Barbara, and Charlie drive away, Ennis following, driving Jack's car.

"Well," Lanie smiled at Jack. "Why don't we clean up some of these plates and cans and see what kind of alcohol I have?"

"Sounds good," Jack smiled. He hopped-to, thinking that maybe he was about to find a sister, or at the very least a sister-in-law, where none had really been expected.