Chapter 1

In June of 1964 I thought my life was going to settle back down. Joan was off in California, pregnant and soon to be divorced. Ray had met his future wife, Sandy, and was starting to settle down. Janos and Annie were married with one son already, and another on the way. My mom and dad were in one of their quiet periods, probably just gaining strength for their next confrontation. Billy and Theresa were doing well and Cousin Lenny and Clara had just celebrated the birth of their third child, their first daughter. Ellen and I were about to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary in August.

"Jackie, do you remember Gloria Porter?" I remembered Gloria and her sister Glenda from high school. They both were raised by their grandmother and lived over close to us in Groton. I hadn't seen or heard from either one in at least three years. Glenda had a reputation of being an easy lay and had at least two kids that I knew about. She'd never gotten married and was still running around all over the place, party time was any time for her. I hadn't heard anything at all about Gloria. I remembered she had a crush on Ray, but I didn't remember it going anywhere past a little verbal flirting.

"I remember her. She was a lot quieter than her mother and sister. Cut school a lot, but always kept up with her studies and her homework. What made you ask about her?"

"Ray called me today and told me Gloria's grandmother passed away last week and Gloria needs a place to stay until her college starts up again in August. We have the spare guest room, so I told him she can stay with us until she heads back to school. That's all right with you isn't it?"

"Why isn't she staying with her mom or her sister? You know I don't like it when you go off taking in strays and stuff. It always comes back and bites me in the ass when you do it. Remember Tony? Remember Megan? How about Joan?"

"This time is different. We'd be doing good for a family friend who really needs our help and it's only for two months. What could go wrong in two months?"

"Gloria's not a family friend. I barely knew her. Did you ask my mom if she'd take her in? She's got as much room as we do, and she lives right by Gloria's grandma's house."

"Ray asked I think, but your mom didn't want to do it for some reason or other. It'll only be for two months, Jackie. She can keep me company while you're out working all the time." I had been working a lot of hours, since business was good and I now had four drivers and five trucks. I was making a good living and was looking around for more ways to expand into something that was a good fit with my current business. Billy was talking about us doing some small custom logging for some furniture people in North Carolina. We'd looked at some possibilities, at least on paper, but hadn't gotten the numbers that made the whole thing work out financially for the extra work and risk we'd assume. We had begun looking at supplying some local cabinet makers with a variety of hard woods. Because the shipping costs were so reduced, the numbers were looking pretty good. We had to do more investigating before committing, but it did look promising to both of us.

"Ellen, if you already told Ray to bring her over, why are you checking with me now?"

"Because I want you to at least pretend to be civil to her when she gets here, that's why. You have a way of making people feel unwelcome sometimes."

"Only the ones that are unwelcome. Things never go smoothly when we have long term company."

"What you mean is, that I don't have the time to cater to your every whim when there are others around that need some consideration."

"That's another way of putting it, yes. If I'd wanted to marry someone that took in every stray she ran across, I'd have married one of the nun's from the House of the Good Shepherd."

"Jackie, knock it off, Ok? Gloria's coming tonight and I won't have you making her feel unwelcome." I felt pretty good, at least this time she'd let me have my say. Usually she would let me know when the door had just been knocked on and the company was already up on my porch. Maybe I was finally starting to make some progress. Five minutes later I heard Ray banging on the door and yelling for me to come give him a hand with Gloria's stuff. Well, five minutes was an improvement over no warning.

The first thing I noticed about Gloria was that she'd gotten a whole lot better looking in the four years or so since I'd seen her last. The second thing I noticed was that she and Ellen gave each other that look that women share only among themselves. It is a silent communication code that men can't decipher and just aren't privy to. If you've been married for some time, you learn to be aware of that look because it means that you're being schemed against. As soon as the two of them disappeared into the guest room, leaving Ray and I alone to schlep in the luggage, I gave Ray the men's version of the look. When men do it, it means, 'we're in trouble, do you have any idea of what it is we'll be up against'? Ray gave me a little different look that meant, 'not we, only you'. Then the creep took off out of there without a single look back, not pausing, or saying his goodbyes to anyone. I reminded myself right then to never interfere again when he was getting his ass handed to him. Ray had a motto that went something like: 'If I have a problem, we have a problem; If you have a problem, good luck.'

Fifteen minutes later Ellen reappeared with Gloria and the two of them sat down together on the sofa.

"Gloria, I was sorry to hear about your Granny. I know you and her were close."

"Thanks, Jackie. She had a hard life and mom and Glenda didn't make it any easier for her, that's for sure. Did you know she was watching Glenda's two kids when she had her stroke?"

"No, I didn't. How is Glenda by the way? I haven't seen her since high school."

"Still the same I guess. Putting the make on married guys now. Says only the married ones are worth chasing. She thinks the guys who made it to their mid twenties, and still aren't married, would be unlikely to want to settle down with her. Problem is, neither do the married ones. She's a good time and that's about all. She's so like mama in that way."

"So let's talk about you. Where you going to college?"

"Connecticut College."

"Right over in New London?" I looked over at Ellen. Gloria's campus was a half hour or less ride from my front door, and less from her grandmother's house. When she nodded yes, I knew that something was up. "Do you live on campus?"

"No, I was still living at my grandmother's. I couldn't afford to live on campus, you kidding?" Right on cue, Ellen breaks in.