The walls are decorated (obscured, really) with a row of orange-and-white helium balloons suspended on multicolored ribbons and attached to weighted flowerpots on the floor. There are funny quips printed on them: THIRTY-NINE AND COUNTING, 40 AND FANTASTIC, and I'M SO OLD I CAN'T TELL MY KNEES FROM MY ANKLES.

The cake, a replica of the Villa di Crespi, is lit by a spotlight on a round table covered in lace doilies. It is a wonder. The architectural details are exactly right, from the slope of the roof to the arch of the doors, all re-created in vividly colored buttercream icing (even the garden and lawn are done to scale). The dormers are outlined with licorice whips, the stonework fence is made with gumdrops, and the windows are Necco wafers. There's a little man-me?-in the yard. (It looks as though the baker ripped a groom off a wedding topper. I would never wear a white tie and tails around the house.) "Bartolomeo, happy birthday from the Salesian sisters!" Sister Theresa Kelly, my favorite nun, gives me a small package.

"Let me guess, Sister." I shake the box. It gurgles. "Lourdes water."

"How did you know?" She smiles, and it's as if an aura of good temper suddenly surrounds me. Or maybe it's the pulsating strobe light and the up-tempo version of "After the Lovin'." Sister Theresa is a striking presence, with her green eyes and porcelain skin set against the stark black-and-white habit. What a color scheme that would make for a room!

"We can't stay." Sister Theresa points to the other nuns sitting at a table for eight eating an early supper. "Nicolina told us to go ahead and have a bite. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not. Who's driving back?" North Haledon, where the convent is located, is pretty far, and the highway is busy on weekends.

"Sister Ercolina. She just got new eyeglasses."

"That's a good thing. I saw her at the Fatima sidewalk sale, and she almost plowed into the bingo tent when she was parking."

"I heard." Sister Theresa lowers her voice. "That's why the new glasses." She gives me a hug as we join Sister Lead Foot and the rest of the nuns at the table for a photograph. They gather round me like chorus girls. I ask Sister Theresa to make devil horns behind my head while the rest of the nuns fold their hands in prayer and look up to heaven. What a shot for next year's Christmas card.

"Did I go all out or what?" Toot comes up behind me, gives me a kiss on the cheek, then takes my hand to show me the decorations.

"Thank you, sis. What a party. And the cake!"

"Well, you love your house more than anything."

"Not more than you," I tell her sincerely. "You look lovely, Toot."

"Think so?" My sister wears a black chiffon cocktail dress with peekaboo nude lace inserts over much of the bodice. Her hair is done in a dramatic upsweep anchored by a clip covered in black sequins. She even glued on false eyelashes. "Lonnie's coming," she whispers; "I want him to regret everything. His affairs, the divorce, the secret bank account he set up in his dead mother's name to hide marital assets from me. All of it. I want him to look at me and get a lump in his throat." Toot swirls her hand from her bust down to her left hip. "Look what he gave up."

"What possessed you to invite him?"

"He's family." Toot plucks a mini-cannoli from a four-tiered silver tazza on the Venetian table. "People aren't paper plates, B. You can't just throw them out when you're done with them."

Or when they're done with you, I'd like to remind my sister, but I don't want to ruin her upbeat mood. "Good point." I grab a mini-cannoli and toss it back. What the hell, it's my birthday and it's gonna be a long night. What's an extra nine hundred calories when I'll be hitting the dance floor later? I wave at Cousin Iggy With The Asthma as he waits on the buffet line with his wife, Moochie.

"Can you believe it? Iggy and Mooch drove all the way from Vegas. It took them a week. Of course, you can't get decent calamari out there."

Two hands his mother a whiskey sour.

"You done good," she tells him.

"Uncle B didn't suspect a thing." Two winks at me.

Toot smooths Two's curls, then cups her hands around his chin tenderly. "I wish you'd cut your hair, honey. It's too long. You look like the second guy from the left on the cigar box."

Cousin Amalia squeezes her way across the dance floor. She looks adorable in a pink Empire-waist peasant dress, with a matching yarn bow in her high ponytail. "Happy birthday, cousin B." She gives me a beautifully wrapped box. "It's not a wallet."

"That's okay. It turns out my fortieth is going to be the Year of the Dobb Kit. By the end of the evening I'll have a pair of toenail clippers for each toe."

"Don't you mean Dopp?" Toot says.

"I say Dobb."

"Huh," she grunts. I unwrap Amalia's present and lift out a round disk with a flat bottom.

"It's a paperweight. I sunk a picture of you and Mom into this plastic goopy stuff and let it dry. It's not supposed to have any bubbles in it, but some got in."

"I love it, and I can't believe you made me something. That means more to me than any other present." I give Amalia a big hug. Christina joins us wearing a turquoise mini dress in chiffon with matching kitten heels. "You dyed your shoes," I compliment her.

"I know how you like things to match."

"You're beautiful!" I tell her.

"Aunt Edith just gave me the eye. She doesn't like my dress. Evidently I'm supposed to wear black for the rest of my life, but I couldn't take it another day." Christina gives me a kiss.

"In her day they also saved up their stray hairs in tin cups, matted them into balls, and attached them to their heads with straight pins and called it a coiffure. Forget Aunt Edith's Victorian nonsense."

"I'm doing the best I can. But everybody has an opinion." Christina forces a smile.

My nephew Nicky works his way through the crowd to join us, yanking Ondine by the hand like she's a pull toy on a string.

"Here comes Sir Nicky with Lady Lubricant."

"That's her?" Christina whispers.

Nicky looks exactly like my father did in his youth-big head, broad shoulders, black hair, and stubby yet sturdy legs. He even walks like Daddy, with his head cocked to the side and his eyes in a squint. "Hey, Unc!" He throws his arms around me and pats my back hard, like I'm a horse and he expects me to giddyup. "Happy birthday. Hey, cousin Chrissy." Nicky gives Christina a kiss, then introduces Ondine as his "girl." Christina and I look at each other and cringe. Toot joins us with a plate of stuffed mushrooms.

"Hi, Uncle B," Ondine says with a smile. "Do you like the balloons?"

"Don't tell me you blew them up yourself," I say, remembering that Toot overcame her animosity long enough to assign Ondine some chores for the party.

"Uh-huh." Ondine looks all around. "You know so many people. My family is teensy. You could fit the whole Doyle family on the riding lawn mower." Ondine's lush blond hair cascades around her shoulders; her sunglasses, perched on her head like a tiara, hold the wisps off her forehead neatly. (Why the sunglasses at eight o'clock at night is anyone's guess.) Ondine wears a pale blue denim miniskirt, a short matching jacket with gold-trim epaulets, a denim shoulder bag with a patch on it that says DON'T EAT YELLOW SNOW, and short denim boots with a spike heel. It's a genuine chuck-wagon ensemble-the only thing missing is a holster and a Smith & Wesson revolver. I compliment her. "That's quite an outfit. You look like a million bucks once removed."

Toot inspects Ondine from head to toe. "It's chilly tonight. No stockings?"

"I don't need 'em. I cream up. It's better for my tan." Ondine sticks her leg straight out and draws a circle in the air with her toe. "Sometimes I get as far as Thanksgiving before I have to put on nylons."

"Lovely." Toot nudges me as if to say, "See-proof positive she doesn't wear underwear." There is an awkward silence. Toot takes a piece of prosciutto and melon off a passing hors d'oeuvres tray. She eats the melon, then rolls the prosciutto into a thin pink-and-white cigarette and takes a dainty bite. She turns to Two. "Where's your brother Anthony?"

"He's coming with Pop. It's nice of you to invite Pop . . . and his . . . and Doris."

"He has a new wife and I accept that. Look." Toot checks each button on Two's crisp white shirt. "Your father gave me my sons. And the least I can do is open up my home to him during times of celebration and grief."

"I'm proud of you, Ma." Two gives her a hug.

"It's a lovely theory, sis, but let's see how you do in real life." I nod toward the door. "Forgive me if I find your sudden largess suspicious."

Lonnie, for whatever reason, comes into the garage through the kitchen. For a guy on his third marriage, he looks pretty good. Lonnie is five feet nine, with a small head and thick salt-and-pepper curls. He has handlebar sideburns, and it has been said that in profile he looks like an Italian Engelbert Humperdinck. I don't see the resemblance, though he has full lips and a small nose and eyes so black and deep they look like two raisins sunk in a wet waffle. I've never known Lonnie to wear anything but a suit; tonight it's a three-piece Johnny Carson gray serge with a lavender shirt and a wide black-and-white striped tie. Pretty dapper.

"That's his new wife," Two whispers in my ear.

"I thought it was the caterer," I whisper back.

"What caterer?" my sister thunders. "Every bite at this party from the hors d'oeuvres to the steam table with the pasta rondelet was made by family!" Several of our Farino cousins from the Poconos turn and look at her.

Lonnie's second wife, Sylvia Bonboni, was a lot like my sister-an Italian girl with lush black hair and a big black car. Evidently Lonnie had as hard time being true to her as he had to Toot. Marriage Number Two had the shelf life of a stuffed pepper.

I haven't been introduced to his current wife, Doris Falcone, nee Cassidy. She doesn't look like Lonnie's type at all. First of all, she's not younger than Lonnie, seeming to be in her upper fifties. She's tall and willowy. At this party, she's a good foot taller than any of the other guests. Her shoulder-length hair is a soft dove gray, offset perfectly by a shirtwaist party dress in a mild pink Pucci print, which she wears with pink Pappagallo flats. "She's a dead ringer for Lady Sylvia Ashley," I say to no one in particular, thinking of Clark Gable's fourth wife, the zipper-thin British royal-by-marriage who came to the States and charmed Hollywood and its leading men after the war.

"I heard of her." Toot straightens her dress and pulls in her tummy.

"Have you met Doris?"

"I'm on my way." Toot goes to greet Lonnie and Lady Sylvia. I turn to Two. "We may not have to restrain her with this one."

Two shrugs. "Pop's a changed man now. He and Doris have a quiet life. She sits in the boat and knits while he fishes. Her kids are grown. She has her own money."

From across the garage, Capri motions for me to join her and Aurelia at a table marked "Reserved."

"B, you look divine!" Aurelia puts out a cheek for me to kiss, then the other.

"You're looking pretty sharp yourself, Aurelia." She wears a Bill Blass palazzo-pant jumpsuit with a Kenneth Lane brooch that can only be described as an emerald fly caught in a pink diamond spiderweb.

"Dance with Capri," she barks.

Cousin Dom, a few feet away at the electric keyboard, hears the order and complies with a jazzy "In the Still of the Night." No one ignores the mandate of the richest woman in New Jersey. I take Capri in my arms.

"I'm moving out," Capri whispers in my ear as we glide across the dance floor to a smattering of applause.

"What?" I'm stunned. "What did your mother say?"

"She doesn't know. It's bad enough to turn forty. I can't turn forty and still live at home." Capri exhales and I smell the crisp perfume of a double Manhattan on her breath.

"Your mother is not going to like this at all."

"Too bad. I want a life, B. I want to be independent, to come and go as I please. Like you. Like everyone I know. Of course, everyone I know is married and miserable with four kids. I don't want that, but I want something."

Capri leans on me, and the deadweight of her almost makes my spine snap in two.

"She's always checking on me. I can't go anywhere without her waiting by the door until I return. She checks to see if I'm wearing the rubber support stockings I'm supposed to wear for my poor circulation. It's madness." I can see tears through Capri's thick lenses. "My life is not worth living if I'm a prisoner."

"Then you should move out. You're a grown woman, and your mother needs to accept that."

"Will you help me?"

"Of course." Instantly I regret my promise. Capri should stand on her own two feet, but when a girl is wearing orthotics, she might need someone to lean on.

"I don't want to be a bother," Capri whispers.

"You're not a bother. You're my friend, and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you."

"Thanks." Capri goes to rest her head on my shoulder for the saxophone solo but instead points to the center of the dance floor. "Oh my gosh!" she says with hot breath in my ear. "Look at your sister! Isn't that her ex-husband?"

The couples on the dance floor have fallen away and formed a circle on the periphery. I scoot Capri to the edge to join them. Lonnie holds Toot's hand in the air, her fingers wrapped around the palm of his hand, and he leads with his pinky. They are holding each other entirely too closely for divorced people.

The bandleader looks at Lonnie and my sister with their arched backs and faces nose to nose and lifts his sax, blowing low and sexy. A few wolf whistles are heard. The crowd hears the musical call of the wild and holds its breath. I look over at Ondine, who has the glow of a woman who just ovulated. She stands behind Nicky and puts her hands in his front pockets.

As the opening chords of "Blame It on the Bossa Nova" wash over the crowd, Lonnie and Toot lock eyes like Rudolph Valentino and Mae Murray; even Sister Theresa and the nuns stop on their way out and feel the heat.

Lonnie pulls Toot even closer, his arm anchoring her waist. (I wonder if she can breathe.) He lifts her slightly, dragging her to the center of the dance floor under the blowup of Deanna Durbin doing a double axel at the Ice Capades. As he drags her, her dress sidles up. Thank goodness she's wearing opaque support hose a la Ann Miller. In a quick dip, Lonnie flips Toot onto the floor like a Sea World dolphin. He catches her, spins her, and snaps her back up to eye level. The crowd cheers.

"My goodness, where is her slip?" our great-aunt Edith Romano says loudly. "I can see her-" Before she can finish her thought, cousin Cathy Martinelli stuffs a mozzarella ball into Edith's mouth. ". . . coolie," Aunt Edith mumbles through the cheese.

It's as if a mating call was issued with that sax blast, and my sister and her ex-husband came to the edge of the woods like a couple of wild dogs, gave each other a quick sniff, and commenced rolling down the happy trail of memory lane, only this time it's to music and they've got a captive audience.

Their bodies seem young and supple, and with her dress raised thigh-high, everyone can see Toot has great legs. I look over at Lady Sylvia. She's sitting on a folding chair cutting her food into bite-sized pieces, unaware of the smoldering pas de deux happening on the dance floor. Maybe this is what it takes to stay married to Lonnie Falcone-sit in a corner, cut up his meat, and wait for him to return without complaining.

A gasp goes up from the crowd when Lonnie slides his hands down my sister's back. When he gets to her waist, he pulls her closer still with a quick yank, then glides his hands south and squeezes the cushiony rounds of her derriere as though he's wringing out a sopping wet moppeen. Not since the Folies Bergere floor show at the Tropicana in Vegas on the UNICO bus tour have we seen such private acts gone public. And I thought they hated each other! Clearly Lonnie had a few sips of the Manhattans Capri's been swilling, because I've never seen him this passionate about anything that didn't have an automatic engine, leather seats, and fins.

A round of cheers and applause follows the Folies de Filth. Lonnie leans over and kisses Toot on the cheek, then she grabs his face and plants a kiss on his lips. The crowd goes wild as Toot takes her thumb and forefinger and cleans up the lipstick smear around her mouth. Lonnie takes out his hanky and tenderly wipes away Toot's streaks of Cherries in the Snow.

Toot climbs up on the band riser and takes the microphone. "Lonnie Falcone, now the world knows why I had three babies in thirty-eight months with you." The crowd cheers as Lonnie makes a slight bow from the waist.

"Ma, please. People are eatin' here." Anthony, a compact version of his mother, gets a rolling laugh from the crowd as he enters the garage.

"Anthony, wish your uncle a happy birthday, please."

Anthony worms through the crowd and gives me a big hug. "Sorry I'm late. I had to send out a shipment for the holidays. Stampato bracelets, eighteen karats."

"Please, everyone, pick up your drinks. It's time to toast my baby brother." Toot holds her Fuzzy Navel cocktail high. With her free hand, she adjusts her dress so the peekaboo lace inserts resume their proper places. "B, come down here."

I move to the band riser and look up at my sister.

"Oh, the things I remember about my brother," she declares. "Forty years ago this day, I prayed to Saint Gerard to send me a baby sister. I wanted a girl because I had just learned to sew and wanted to make the baby frilly dresses and bonnets."

"That hardly stopped you," I shout. "Remember the sailor pants with the Austrian crystal buttons?" The crowd laughs and applauds.

Toot waves me off. There's no stopping her now. "Any-hoo, my mother, may she rest in peace, had Bartolomeo late in life. There was never any shame about this, mind you, because my mother believed that if God sent you, he had a job for you to do down here. B's first task was completing our family and making our parents proud. His second was to keep me company. I remember taking Bartolomeo to the movies. He loved melodramas, anything with Kay Francis. He was six years old when I took him to see her in The White Angel. He leaned across after a big tearjerker scene in the hospital and said, 'Sis, that was so hammy-sammy.' Can you believe it? He was six! That's my brother. He can tell a real from a fake anytime. B is honest and straightforward and true . . . and talented. Talent is not given out liberally by God. In fact, it's such a rare thing that most people just pretend to have it. But not my brother. He's got it-in here." Toot raps on her chest.

"Tell 'em about The Wizard of Oz, Ma!" Two shouts from the crowd.

Toot smiles. "Well, we were at the Rialto in Spring Lake, two shows plus the newsreel for a nickel. There was supposed to be this great new movie for kids starring Judy Garland. It was called The Wizard of Oz. So I took him. When B laid eyes on Margaret Hamilton on that bicycle, he started screaming and I couldn't get him to stop. Then all the other kids started screaming, and B took off running up the aisle and it caused a stampede."

"I like my monkeys without wings, thank you!" I shout.

"Well, we never went back to the Rialto," Toot says. "Of course, it wasn't our choice. We were banned for life."

"And I've never seen the whole movie!" I take another swig of my cocktail.

"When the flying monkeys scared him, I knew that, while he was a tough little boy, he had his own movie playing inside his head. But the movie in his head was pretty. As a child, he was so easy, you could entertain him with just about anything. He would stare at a silk throw pillow for hours, studying it, taking it apart in his mind's eye thread by thread. Little did I know that in those moments he was becoming a decorator. He was paying attention. I'm so proud of you, B. And I'm sick that you got the slim hips in the family, but for that small thing, I can forgive you. You are the best brother any girl could ever hope to have, and every night when I say my prayers, I beg God to forgive me for wishing he had sent a little sister instead of you. No girl would have been better." Toot raises her glass. "Cent'anni."