At breakfast the next day, Jason finally saw Maureen's father. David Donovan had been out so late at his meeting that they were all in bed before he got home. He apologized over this perfunctorily, to Jason, not Maureen, and shook Jason's hand and then picked up a newspaper, as if there were nothing unusual about having an extra person there at breakfast.

The contrast between David's reception of Jason and that of the women in Maureen's family the previous night was stunning. Jason felt already dismissed, but that was OK, as it seemed there was no problem and he was accepted. Perhaps David took his cue from his wife, after all her grilling, it seemed fair enough.

Aunt Eunice must have spent the night, because she was there.

"Will you get a chance to go shopping today, Maureen?" Aunt Eunice asked. Without waiting for an answer, she went on: "There is a new boutique off Meridian Boulevard. They have everything. Prada and St. Germaine. You look like you could use some new clothes. I know the owners. They are the nicest couple. The wife went to high school with one of the Fullers, I think, to St. Andrew's, not the Catholic, the Episcopalian. I think it was Jeanette Fuller, or maybe Linda Fuller, the older sister, who this lady went to school with. Jeanette is the one who married Tom Luckinbill, and then divorced him because he drank. So many people with drinking problems. I got an invitation to join the Board of the Hope House, where they treat addicts. It was from Laurie Sansome, she's the Chairman of that Board-"

"How is Laurie?" David seemed to come out of his newspaper-induced coma. "I haven't seen her in awhile."

"She's engaged now, and her divorce isn't even final," Aunt Eunice went on. "To a science teacher, of all things, a science teacher who got in trouble once with one of the high school girls, but they found him innocent. Laurie was on the school board. She's had problems with her neck, ever since that car accident, too. The one on Indiana Avenue. She can hardly turn her head sometimes. So many people have that happen. Someone hit me from behind in the car, once, but I never had a problem. But so many people have. Sally Little was telling me the other day that her back was all out of whack from an auto accident. She went to this lawyer, and he sent her to a chiropractor. Instead of a real doctor. Sally says this chiropractor really messed her back up."

Jason sneaked a look at Maureen. She winked at him. He smiled. At this point, David was reading his newspaper again. Aunt Eunice did not seem to notice that he was no longer listening to her. "Anyway, Laurie went to this doctor, and he told Laurie she was fine. Laurie still had problems with her neck, and one day, she went to a chiropractor. 'Those are quacks,' I said to her. 'No,' she told me, 'I swear by my chiropractor. He's really done a lot of good for my neck.'"

"Good morning, everyone," Jill sailed into the room and went to the sideboard to pour herself a cup of coffee from a silver coffee pot.

That cut off Aunt Eunice for a while, as Jason and the rest of the family bade Jill good morning.

Jill said good morning to Jason, and then said to Maureen, "What are you going to do today, Maureen? I thought you might drop by and see Uncle Martin. He complains when you come into town and don't drop by to see him."

"OK," Maureen said, "Thanks for the reminder, Mom."

"See?" Maureen said to Jason, as they went out to the Mercedes. Jill graciously lent it to them so that they could go out for a while.

"What, Aunt Eunice?" Jason said. "She knows everything about everyone."

"It's one thing to know," Maureen said. "And another to tell."

"Every family has a gossip," Jason said. "My grandmother used to do it, when she was alive."

Maureen shrugged. She took the wheel. "Where to, first? I know. I'll show you where I went to high school."

"I'd like that," he said.

They walked all around the St. Anne's High School. The front doors were open. Maureen showed him all sorts of trivial things, knowing they were trivial, but that they interested him anyway. Just being with him in these hallways was interesting. Remembering high school got Maureen feeling a strange sort of reaction against nostalgia. She was too happy now to remember any other time as better.

"You have any friends from high school who are still around?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, some," Maureen said. "But I won't take you to see them now. Next time. This time the family is enough, especially if Mom is going to insist on Uncle Martin."

Jason laughed, catching her in his arms. "And what's wrong with him?" he asked.

Maureen laughed, cuddling him in her arms. "He's just crotchety," she said.

"Oh, I can handle that," Jason said.

"I know, you have your grandfather," Maureen said. "But after that, we can make up for it by going by Katie's."

"Yeah," he smiled, and leaned down to kiss her.

Sarah was at Duane's house, humming as she fixed breakfast. He was at the door, helping Valerie bring her things in. Valerie was home for the summer and was going to work in Duane's office. Duane had assured Sarah that Valerie was the most open minded and independent person on the planet, and that Sarah need not feel uncomfortable about coming over or even staying overnight.

Sarah was in seventh heaven since Duane had told her he loved her. It had taken her completely by surprise. If Sarah had thought about it, she had thought it was ages away, and that she would have to say so first. That was what made it so sweet of him, Sarah thought. He knew she did most of the work pushing their relationship forward and had been grateful enough to take on something first. He wouldn't let her say it to him, and told her to wait a while. She was young and needed more time. She acquiesced, because she knew he just wanted to give her a feeling she held sway over him. That just made her love him all the more, though.

She rinsed her hands off and walked out into the living room. To her pleasant surprise, Valerie gave her a quick hug. "Hi, Sarah," she said. "It's nice to see you."

After Valerie and Duane took her bags upstairs, the three of them started breakfast. They knew not to wait for Yvonne. If she showed up, she showed up, but waiting for her was just frustrating.

"So how was your trip?" Duane asked Valerie.

"Good," Valerie said. "I just slept on the plane."

"Usually she meets people," Duane said. "Talks to whoever was next to her and then tells us all about them."

"The person next to me this time was this kid who was totally into his game-boy," Valerie said.

"Our loss," Duane said. Valerie rolled her eyes and exchanged a glance with Sarah. Sarah laughed, spontaneously.

"Well, I'm glad you got some rest," Sarah said, smiling.

"I need it," Valerie said, "If I'm going to work for Dad this summer."

"The lion," Sarah said.

Valerie looked delighted. "You know!" she said. "You must have been talking to Ann Marie or Kristina or Alma."

"No," Sarah said. "But I know those are his three assistants. But I learned about the lion from the lion himself."

"Oh good, Dad," Valerie said. "Well, the girls – the assistants – like it when I'm around. I protect them."

Duane looked down at his coffee, amused. Sarah saw his look, and was amused in turn. "They'll be glad to see you, then," she said to Valerie.

"I'll find out if they think he's been better since he's had you around," Valerie said, taking another muffin.

Tatiana talked to Ivan on the phone every day. Her phone bill was out of sight. She complained about it enough that Mikhail offered to help her with it. She was surprised that he was so nice and didn't just take advantage of it as something that would get Tatiana to go back to Russia. Mikhail was different in the US, quite a bit nicer. He said she could take Irina back if she wanted to. But then, Irina would miss the chance to go to school in the US. Become a citizen. Train with Sergei at figure skating.

Tatiana knew all this was good. She didn't really want to take Irina back to Russia just to have her near her and have her miss out on all that. The solution was clear. Tatiana and Ivan needed to move to the US.

Unfortunately the nation known at the US put up many barriers and restrictions. It was dizzying to Tatiana to consider them.

Her only real hope was to marry a US citizen. Ivan laughed at this when she told him.

"It wouldn't be for real, of course," she said. "Just on paper."

"I don't know," Ivan said, doubtfully. "I know of a girl who went from Russia to the US on a fiancee visa. She had worked at our company. She talked to some of the girls on the internet, and they were talking about all the hell she had to go through. And she really was in love with the guy."

"I know," Tatiana said. "They are total jerks about it. She should have brought him to Russia. Who'd bother them?"

"Not many Americans speak Russian," Ivan observed. "Or want to come here, when they can make more money at home. No, America is a place people go to, not leave."

That was too true for comment. Yet Tatiana found it inconvenient. If it were but the other way round. Why didn't that stupid Sergei just go back home and coach skaters at home? He'd be a big shot at home.

Tatiana complained to Ivan about that.

"Not after what happened to him and his family," Ivan said. Tatiana remembered. Sergei had no family and had been raised in the state orphanage. The Stalin years had decimated his family.

"You never know," Tatiana agreed, unconsciously repeating Oksana's arguments that she had heard via Mikhail. "Now we're free, but they always crack down eventually." "They" were the generalized way any Russian referred to the government. The people. The culture. The way of life. The chances they would succumb to tyranny. Well, that was the way of the world. Why did Oksana have such a problem with it?

"We do have a way out, if Irina stays, eventually," Ivan said. "Remember what you told me? She becomes a citizen of the US, she turns 21, and then we can go to the US. But I know you would miss her if she was over there most of the time in the meantime."

"I think we have to do what is best for Irina," Tatiana said. "So she stays. We just figure a way to get ourselves here, that is all. But if we wait, who knows? Maybe then, we cannot get out because they won't give exit visas."

"There are no more exit visas."

"What if there are again, one day? That's how Oksana puts it. Don't trust them."

"Why does she trust them over there?"

"Their history. They don't have a history of it."

"We can have a child, over there," Ivan said. "Won't the child be a citizen of the US too, if we do that?"

"Yes," Tatiana said. "But it won't help us. That's what everybody thinks, but it is not really true. The child has to be 21 first. So we have Irina already, and she's much closer to 21."

"Oh," Ivan said. "It is difficult, isn't it?"

She got him to agree, if doubtfully, to her paper divorce.

"But who do you marry?" he asked. "Mikhail?"

Tatiana explained that she needed a citizen, and Mikhail was not one and explained the difference to Ivan. It would be five years before Mikhail could try to be a citizen of the US, like Irina. They were only legally resident aliens.

"Oh," said Ivan. "Who is a citizen? Does Oksana know any? Maybe her sons?"

"I was wondering if her ex-husband might do it," Tatiana said. "He didn't get married again, yet. Her one son is married and the other is just too young. Mikhail works in a bar and he knows a lot of people. I work in a coffee shop and meet a lot of people. Someone is bound to be helpful and do it."

"Doesn't sound that likely to me," Ivan said. "But you're the one who is there."