You know, I don't know if they know that I know.

Although I wasn’t around when Doug left Janet for Missy, Ed told me about it.  Actually, I wormed it out of him.

Janet had really been more upset about losing Missy and basically told Doug, “Ok, see you.”  Doug had been fooling around for years.

Allison had cried and yelled and slammed doors.  She blamed Janet and said that maybe if she’d been a better cook and housekeeper, he wouldn’t have left.  Not that she ever tried to help except by pointing out what needed to be done.

Ed had been upset, of course, but he had thrown himself into school and sports.  That might have been partly because Doug had told the kids, “Don’t think you’re going to be cut any breaks because you come from a broken home.  You’re not going to be allowed to slack off.”

And so they didn’t.

Janet had moved away from the activism.  As she put it, ‘What with ‘Discovering My True Sexual Identity’, as they say, and all, I couldn’t give poverty and injustice my full attention.”

Ed says that discovering her true sexual identity mostly involved talking on the phone and running around with her new friends.

Janet enrolled in a program for displaced homemakers at the Community College and became a legal secretary.  Naturally she had to wear business clothes to work.  (The secretarial course had included makeup and wardrobe tips, which she said made her teeth hurt, but what can you do?)  Missy wears gauzy shirts and embroidered tunics and jewelry made by her artist friends or from some boutique that specializes in “crafts.”  To be fair, she is the office manager for a group of therapists.

I always have my father over for dinner on Father’s Day.  Sometime Ed’s father and Missy would come, unless they’d gone out to visit Allison.  The men would usually watch sports on TV.  My mother was fascinated by Missy.  “Karma, chakras, meditation. It’s just lucky she has a husband.”

Janet had always told the children to be polite to Missy, so it’s a habit.   And she is very good to the kids, who call her “Nana.”  They have the latest in gender-neutral toys and political t-shirts that are not made in sweatshops.

Nikki said I should call Doug and invite him and Missy and then he would tell me.  I thought that was a bit junior high and that it was more “Mature” and “Appropriate” not to say anything, which probably isn’t healthy, but there are some parts of your upbringing you can’t escape.

Finally, Janet talked to Missy, since they are friends again.  Missy talked to my father and then to Janet and Janet called me.  So I called Missy and invited them.  When I told Ed, he said, “Is this the court of the Medicis or Henry the Eighth?  All this intrigue over a dinner.”

And then, for some reason, I started to cry.