"Baby, sit up straight and stop drumming your fingers on the table! Can't you see that your father is trying to read the newspaper?"

"But Mom, I-." Frances fell silent when she saw her dad turn down the corner of his newspaper. Their eyes met and he gave her the familiar look-the one that reminded

her not to talk back to her mother. She wanted to protest, but what was the point? She was almost nineteen and a first year student at Mount Holyoke, having

recently returned home for spring break. Didn't that classify her as an adult? Apparently not. Her parents still called her Baby, but at school she was known as Frances

Houseman.

She could still hear Johnny's voice in her head. "That's a real grown-up name." Johnny understood, so why couldn't her parents?

"…Baby?"

At the sound of her name, she lifted her head. "Huh?"

"Not huh, Baby!" Marge corrected. "Say 'Yes' or 'Yes sir'!"

"Marge-."

Frances gave Jake her undivided attention and smiled brightly. "I'm sorry, Father. What were you saying?"

Lisa laughed out loud. "Oh come on, Baby! Dad will see right through that!"

But Jake merely smiled. "It's all right, Lisa. She was just deep in thought. What were you thinking about, Baby? The starving people in Southeast Asia again?"

"No, I-." She knew better than to tell him the truth, even though she swore that she'd never lie to him again. But she couldn't tell him that she'd been thinking about

Johnny, or how she'd thought about him every minute of every day since they left Kellerman's . It was strange to think that it had been almost a year since the family

car first pulled into the vast Kellerman's parking lot. It felt like a lifetime ago.

When she looked at him again, she could tell that he was still waiting for an answer to his question.

"Actually, I was thinking about summer."

It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. However, it made her father smile and at that moment that was the most important thing.

"I've been thinking about that, too." He said. "It's nice to have you girls home for the week and since you'll both be going back to school to finish up the term, perhaps

we should start planning our summer vacation now."

Lisa perked up, but Frances wasn't looking foreword to a family trip of any kind. Hours in the car listening to old songs on the radio, or Lisa chattering about her latest

boyfriend were not her idea of fun.

"What did you have in mind, Jake?"

"Well Marge, I wanted to hear your thoughts first."

"How about a trip to the country? It's been a while since you've seen your parents and I'm sure that they'd love to see the girls."

"Yeah, so they can pat my cheeks and ruffle my hair and remind me of how thin I've gotten!" Frances quipped.

"Baby, that isn't fair!" Marge said. "Your grandparents love you very much! You need to remember that they're-."

"-not going to be around forever." Frances finished in harmony with Marge. "Fine, we'll go to the country."

Marge smiled in satisfaction. "Good, that's settled, then! It will be nice to see them again! I'll give them a call this afternoon and let them know that we're coming."

"Actually, before you do that, I have another idea."

"What is it, Dad?" Lisa's question was much too enthusiastic for Frances' taste. Like her dad wouldn't see through it.

"How about a trip to Kellerman's?"

Frances couldn't believe what she was hearing, and apparently no one else could, either.

"What?" Lisa shrieked. "Daddy, not Kellerman's again!"

Frances rolled her eyes. Evidently, whining was perfectly all right, but drumming one's fingers on the table was not. It meant one thing. She was definitely not Daddy's

girl anymore.

"Really, Jake? You want to go back to Kellerman's?" Marge asked. "When we were there last summer, you wanted to leave early!"

Frances locked eyes with Jake, who quickly averted his eyes. There was no doubt that they were both thinking about the same thing-or rather the same person-the

one who nearly tore them apart. She feigned interest in the way the wind was blowing the leaves from the oak tree that grew outside the kitchen window.

"I know." Jake said more quietly. "And I'm glad we stayed. It was a wonderful trip. That's precisely why I was thinking about coming back."

"But Daddy-." Lisa protested.

"Besides…" he said, ignoring her. "… Max isn't getting any younger and I'm afraid that Kellerman's won't be around much longer. I doubt that Neil could handle running

the place by himself."

Frances cringed at the thought of Neil, the way he treated Johnny and said stomach churning things to her like; "I love to watch your hair blowing in the breeze." She

couldn't imagine what Kellerman's would be like if he ran the place. It wasn't fair that Johnny got fired, but perhaps it was all for the best. Besides, he could do so much

better than Kellerman's.

"What do you think, Lisa?"

Frances tried not to think about the fact that he hadn't asked her for her suggestion on where to go.

But Lisa, being Lisa was determined to be the center of attention. She sat back in her chair and gave a classic TV commercial smile. "Daddy, I was really hoping that we

could go someplace exotic, like… I don't know… Hawaii?"

Her parents laughed and both spoke at once.

"Hawaii? Oh Jake, that sounds wonderful, but we can't possibly afford it!"

"Lisa, do you know how much it costs to go to Hawaii?"

"It was just an idea." Lisa said, quoting a line that her father said the summer before when he announced at Kellerman's that he wanted to leave early.

"Well it was a nice thought, but we're going to Kellerman's and that's final."

"Great." Frances said. "May I be excused?"

"You've hardly touched your breakfast." Marge pointed out.

"That's okay. I kind of lost my appetite."

Before her parents could respond, she carried her dishes to the sink and walked out of the kitchen.