"Not if I can help it. Sit down and stop asking questions. I have a couple of things I want to tell you."

Miri wasn't used to Natalie bossing her around but she did as she was told, sitting on the edge of the twin bed, the one she used to sleep in almost every weekend, the one she thought of as hers. Natalie sat on her own bed, facing Miri. "One-you can stop this from happening. And if you don't I'll never speak to you again."

"Stop what?"

"Don't go all naive on me."

"I thought you didn't know..."

"Well, now I do and you have to stop my father from marrying your mother and ruining my life, my little sister's life and my mother's life."

"How am I supposed to do that? They're grown-ups. They do what they want."

"Tell your mother she has to decide between you and my father."

Miri shook her head. She didn't think she could do that. Suppose she came out the loser?

"Two-refuse to go to Las Vegas."

"Las Vegas! What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you don't know. They're going to Las Vegas together at the end of the school year and you're going with them."

"No I'm not."

"If you don't stop them, you are. You're going to Las Vegas and you'll never see me or your boyfriend again."

"Stop!"

"Tell your mother to stop, not me. And just so you know, my father begged my mother to go with him. He was practically on his knees begging her to go. He promised Fern and me our own horses. But she said no. So my father found someone else to go with him. Your mother!"

"Why should I believe you?"

"I really don't care who you believe. I'm just telling you what's going on. And here's something else you should know. My mother's at her lawyer's office right now. She's going to take my father to the cleaners if they get divorced. There won't be anything left for your mother or you. I hope you'll be happy living on spaghetti."

Miri liked spaghetti but she wasn't getting into that now.

"I hate them!" Natalie shouted, pressing the sides of her head with her hands as if she were in agony. "I hate my father, your mother and I hate you!"

"What'd I do?"

"You found them."

"Who told you that?"

"My father came clean. He told my mother everything last night, and she told me. She says your mother is no better than a wh.o.r.e."

A wh.o.r.e! Her once-upon-a-time best friend was calling her mother a wh.o.r.e? Miri got a sharp pain in her chest. Maybe she was going to die, just like Lulu.

"What's wrong with you?" Natalie said. "You're turning purple. You can't scare me if that's what you're trying to do." Natalie grabbed her by the shoulders and shook, then slapped her across the face, which got her breathing again.

Miri jumped up. She had to get out of there, had to get fresh air into her lungs. She knocked over the chair blocking Natalie's door, flung the door open and fled down the stairs, shouting at Natalie, who was right behind her, "Never say that about my mother again! You hear me? Never!" Then she was out the kitchen door, and onto her bicycle.

Natalie followed her, screaming, "You know what they do in Las Vegas? They drop A-bombs in the desert. That's what they do for fun!"

Miri's fantasy was coming true but not the way it was supposed to. Corinne was supposed to meet her demise quickly, painlessly. She and Natalie were supposed to be sisters. They were supposed to be one big happy family, living in the red-brick house on Sh.e.l.ley Avenue. Not in some G.o.dforsaken place called Las Vegas, where they drop A-bombs for fun.

Christina She waited until Sunday dinner, when they were all together around the dining room table-her parents, her grandparents, Athena and her husband, Thad, who hardly ever spoke at family gatherings, and their toddler, Alex, who was playing under the table. She waited until the lamb, the eggplant and the salad courses had been cleared from the table. Then, as her mother pa.s.sed around little dessert cakes, Christina said, "Mama, Baba-you know I love you." She'd been practicing in her room. She hoped it wasn't a mistake to bring this up in front of the whole family but she wanted to get it over with all at once and she figured her parents would be less likely to go cuckoo in front of her grandparents and little Alex.

She had their attention now. Mama and Baba looked from one to the other.

"I've got an opportunity," she continued, "a wonderful job opportunity with Dr. Osner in another place-"

"What place?" her mother asked.

"Las Vegas," she said.

"Las Vegas." Her mother repeated this twice, then asked, "Where is Las Vegas?"

Athena said, "You don't mean Las Vegas, Nevada? You're not telling Mama and Baba you're moving to Las Vegas, Nevada?"

She had hoped Athena would keep her mouth shut, for once. She should have known better.

"How far is this place?" Mama asked.

"Almost as far as California," Athena said, holding her pregnant belly. She'd already gained close to forty pounds. Her maternity dress was snug across her middle.

Mama clutched her chest. "Nico," she said to Baba. "Do something!"

"I'm not moving there." Christina tried to rea.s.sure them. "Think of it as college. Two years of college but it won't cost you anything. Instead I'll be getting paid. And I'll come home for the holidays."

Baba said, "That Irish boy, he's going, too?"

Now Mama screamed. "No!" She banged her fist on the table hard enough to make the gla.s.ses and the silverware jump. Alex climbed onto Thad's lap and wrapped his fat little arms around his father's neck.

"You're breaking their hearts, Christina," Athena said.

"You don't understand," Christina said to her parents. "Jack is 1-A-he could be called up at any time. You know what that means? He could be sent to Korea. Would you be happy then?"

Thad got up from the table and carried Alex, who had begun to whimper, out of the room.

Athena glared at Christina. "You have a way of ruining everything, even Sunday dinner. You do this and I'm the one who's going to have to pick up the pieces around here. It will all fall on my shoulders. You are the most selfish person I've ever known."

The grandparents began jabbering to one another in Greek.

Baba said, "Girls-you are sisters! Stop this fighting."

But Athena didn't stop. Her face heated up. "As if I don't already have too many fish to fry, between the store and Alex and the baby I'm about to have and a husb-" Before Athena could finish she cried out, "Oh!" Then "Oh!" again.

"What is it?" Mama asked.

"I think my water broke. I think I'm in labor. Somebody get Thad. Somebody get my bag!"

Everyone jumped up from the table at once. Everyone except Christina and her grandmother. Yaya moved next to her and rested her hand on Christina's. Christina put her head on the table and cried. She hadn't even told them her biggest news. She didn't see how she'd ever be able to tell them now.

Miri Rusty and Dr. O wanted to take her out to dinner but Miri refused. She was not going to be seen with the two of them in public. "All right," Rusty said, "we'll eat here."

"Does he know you can't cook?"

Rusty smiled. "If you can read, you can cook."

"Are you quitting your job?"

"Not yet."

"When?"

Rusty shook her head. "Would you like pizza or deli?"

"Pizza from Spirito's. No sausage. Will Nana and Uncle Henry be eating with us?"

"No."

"Do they know?"

"Not everything. Not yet. We wanted to talk to you first."

"This sounds like fun."

"Sarcasm doesn't become you, Miri."

"Well, sorry about that, Mom."

"Look, I know how you feel..."

"No, you don't know!"

Rusty gave up. "Okay. Fine. Pizza from Spirito's. Tonight. Six-thirty."

Miri turned and walked out the door.

"Miri..."

"I'll be late for school."

"It's not even seven-twenty," Rusty said.

"Don't you have a train to catch, Mom?"

- SHE WOULD HAVE to tell Mason about this. They had no secrets from each other. But what could she say? That she'd found her mother and Dr. O doing it? That Dr. O and Corinne were getting divorced?

These were her thoughts as she walked home from school that afternoon. She never expected to run into Mason, standing in front of a small apartment house on Cherry Street. They hadn't planned to meet. Fred was staying with a friend so she didn't need to drop him at the Steins' today. She ran toward Mason, taking him by surprise, dropping her books to the ground and throwing her arms around him. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Whoa..." he said.

"I have something to tell you," she said.

"I have something to tell you, too," he said.

"You go first," she said.

"Okay. The good news is, I'm going, too."

"Wait-going where?"

"Las Vegas. Isn't that what you wanted to tell me?"

"What do you mean, you're going to Las Vegas?"

"Jack's been talking it up. He says I can finish high school there, then come to work for him. He's going to teach me to be an electrician."

"Jack is going to Las Vegas?"

"Yeah, with Christina. Daisy's going, too. They're going to work for Dr. O in his new office."

"What else do you know?" Her mouth felt dried out. Her skin felt clammy.

"If you mean about your mom and Dr. O, yeah, I know about that, too."

"Does everyone know?" She steadied herself against a tree. "Only the important people." Was he making a joke? He looked at her. "Why aren't you happy?"

Why wasn't she happy? She should be happy, shouldn't she? "I didn't want to leave you," she said. "I didn't want to go."

"So now you won't have to leave me because I'm going, too." He hugged her.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Irene was right-some things were bashert, meant to be. Out of all the places in the world, she and Mason were going to wind up in Las Vegas together. She started to laugh. "But are you sure Jack is going?"

"Everything depends on Dr. O. If he goes, then Christina is going, and if Christina goes, Jack will go, and if Jack goes..." He lifted her off the ground and swung her around. Then he turned serious. "So long as Jack doesn't get called up. He says if he does, he could try to claim me as a dependent but he's not sure if that'll work or not. Christina wants him to try. We'd have to go to court."

"You mean Jack might have to go to Korea?"

Mason nodded. "He's 1-A."

"But Eisenhower says if he's elected he'll end the war."

"That's only if he wins. We don't even know if he's running yet. The election's not until November. He's not sworn in until January. And it could be somebody else. Joey Pol says it could be Adlai Stevenson."

"Joey Pol?"