Chapter 2: Preparations

In the morning she would start cooking for our Halloween family dinner. Long ago, we had made the conscious decision to swap this holiday with Thanksgiving. It was just more fun that way. We went all-out, themeing the meal theatrically, wearing costumes, placing spooky props and toys through the house.

Our daughters Carrie and Dierdre still loved it all, even though they were 21 and 24 now respectively. They would be arriving in the afternoon.

I loved having them visit. Unlike some sisters, they never seemed to quarrel, and they sure loved their dad. Mom, too, although Deanna would irritate them sometimes with motherly nagging and probing. She wanted grandchildren in the worst way. I found it annoying too, because it was counter-productive. Without boyfriends (and sex), grandchildren weren’t in the cards. And pressuring them wasn’t helping.

Technically, step-grandchildren, I guess. Deanna was widowed when we married, her girls were 4 and 7 at the time. It was kind of a package deal, but it worked out. Carrie and Dierdre longed for a dad, and I took on the role without hesitation.

So far, there was no hint of romance on their horizons. In her teens, Carrie had convinced herself that she was thirty pounds too overweight to be attractive, and no amount of dieting or reassurances had ever changed that. Dierdre had some extra weight, as well, compared to what the media deemed fashionable. But this phrase absolutely applied literally: she couldn’t care less.

Dierdre was in graduate school, going for her masters as a Nurse Practitioner. She knew from her studies that her weight was perfectly healthy for her frame. And her studies left no time for socializing, she thought.

Attending the same comprehensive university, they shared an off-campus apartment.