Janey sat down in the booth at the diner. She looked across the table and saw a middle-aged woman with gray streaks showing in her once auburn hair and bags under her eyes.

Her mother looked, as they say, as if she had been ridden hard and put away wet.”

“OK Mom. What do you want?” she asked.

“That’s no way to greet your mother. We haven’t seen each other for such a long time,” Amanda replied.

The younger woman hesitated a moment before speaking.

“Mom you took off about, what — a year and a half ago. The note you left Dad said you needed to find yourself. And that was the last that any of us heard from you until today,” Janey said, placing the blame squarely where it belonged.

Her mother fidgeted before answering.

“I needed some time away on my own.”

“Please don’t give me that line of bullshit, Mom. Dad called me up when he got home and found the note you left.

“He told me that after 25 years he knew that the lies you were spouting had to come from someone else — it wasn’t something you thought of on your own.”

Her mother frowned at that, but didn’t say anything.

“Dad told me right then that the only explanation he could think of was that you were running away with a lover. He didn’t know whom; but he just knew that was what you were doing. He felt betrayed and, by the way, really pissed.

“The next day he went to a divorce lawyer he knew with the letter and began to document your absence.”

“What? Gone one day and he finds a lawyer? I thought he loved me!” Amanda huffed.

“You know Dad; never waste time agonizing. He hired a P.I. and within a week he knew that you were living with your lesbian lover, Brandi. So what are you doing back here now?”

Suddenly the light came on in Janey’s eyes.

“Son of a bitch! You’ve spent the $100 grand you made off with and you’ve maxed out your credit cards? Right? For what, maybe another $40 grand?”

“$45,” came the whispered reply.

“Damn, I hate that,” Janey said with a laugh.

“What?”

“Dad predicted that you’d be back, once you were broke, to try and somehow patch things up.

“And let me guess. When you had run out of money and used up all of your credit, Brandi — the love of your life, your soul mate, your other half — took a powder! Hysterical! Off to find another middle-aged sucker, no doubt.”

“Look, I made a mistake, OK? A big one, I know. But I still love your father and I’m sure that he still loves me. I was kind of hoping...”

“That I would smooth a path for you? No way. Anyway you’re divorced now.”

“What? That can’t be true! I never received any sort of notice or any papers!”

Janey smiled, “After you had been gone without so much as a word for a year, Dad divorced you for abandonment. Which also means you didn’t get anything in the settlement. Truthfully, we didn’t know where to serve you with the papers. Europe is a big place.

“You, dear Mother, are looking down a dry well. And Jim has already told me that he will not allow you to live with the kids and us.”

There were tears in her Mother’s eyes as she heard those words. But she dried them and decided to put up a brave front.

“I can win back your Father. We had 25 great years together. I know him better than anyone and I know he needs me!”

“I’m not so sure of that. Take a look over your shoulder at the back table in the other room.”

“That’s your father! And he’s with some woman!”

Worse, to Amanda’s eyes, they were eating and talking and laughing. A happy couple.

“Not ‘some woman’ —she is his new wife. She used to be his lawyer in the divorce, but when that was over, he fired her — so he wouldn’t be a client — and two months ago they got married. She really loves him, and the kids all love her.

Amanda collapsed into herself in the seat.

“But,” Janey continued, “Dad told me to give you this,” and she held out a check for $25 thousand dollars, “to help you get yourself back on your feet. After this, no more. Just don’t darken his doorway ever again.”