POINT CLEAR, ALABAMA.

HAVING EVERYBODY HOME FOR THANKSGIVING WAS WONDERFUL, AND Sookie was glad to see all her children and Buck and Bunny, of course. But it was also a strain. When Lenore found out that Carter was bringing a girl home, she insisted that Sookie use the Simmons silver. "We don't want her to think we don't know better."

ON THANKSGIVING DAY, SOOKIE watched as Lenore took her first bite of the Bates House of Turkey stuffing, and she was ready with her rehea.r.s.ed reply, but Lenore didn't even seem to notice the difference. Next year, she just might order the turkey from there as well.

After dinner, when all the dishes were done and everyone else was busy watching football, she asked her brother, Buck, if he would come and take a walk with her outside. "Sure," he said. "I need to walk off some of the turkey," so they headed out the back door and down the stairs into the yard. As usual, the weather on Thanksgiving Day was warm and balmy. People in Point Clear were often still in their short sleeves until at least December, sometimes later. And today was just perfect. They walked out to the end of the pier and sat down.

Buck took a deep breath and smiled as he looked out at the water and the big white clouds floating over the bay. "G.o.d, I love this place. Sis, do you remember all those summers when we slept out on the screen porch and listened to that old radio?"

"Oh, yes."

"And remember those big thunderstorms and watching the lightning over Mobile? What a show. I sure miss this old bay, but"-he sighed-"Bunny loves North Carolina, so what are you gonna do? But it's sure nice to come home once in a while. I know it's a pain in the behind to have all of us and have to do all that cooking."

"Oh, no. Not at all. I'm just glad you could come."

Buck suddenly looked over at Sookie. "Sis, are you okay? You seem worried about something. Is Winged Victory being sued again?"

"No, thank G.o.d. But I do need to ask you something."

"Sure, what?"

"Well, it's something that might come as quite a shock to you ... or maybe not ... I don't know."

"What?"

"Buck, did you know that I was adopted?"

Buck blinked and looked out at the water again and thought awhile before he answered. "Oh, I might have heard something about it. Why?"

"Then you knew?"

"Yeah, I guess so ..."

"You knew that I was adopted? It didn't bother you?"

"No. Not a bit. Why should it?"

"You didn't resent me?"

Buck looked shocked. "Resent you? Good Lord, no. Like I said, I was always just glad you were there to help keep Lenore off my case."

"But, Buck ... we were always so close. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

He sighed. "Well, Sis, I didn't find out myself until I was in high school. And Dad said not to tell you, because he thought it might upset you or make you feel bad. So I didn't. But when did you find out?"

"About five months ago. The Texas Board of Health sent Lenore a letter and I opened it. My adoption papers were inside."

"Oh, I see. Did you tell Lenore?"

"No, I didn't."

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know yet. But why did Daddy tell you?"

"Oh, I guess he was worried. It was after he had his first heart attack. He said that just in case anything were to happen to him, he wanted me to have a letter he had written. He said if anybody ever came around asking anything about your birth certificate in the future, I should give the letter to them."

"Why would anybody ask about it?"

"Well, it seems after you were adopted Lenore wanted to make sure you had a birth certificate with her listed as the mother, so she and the Mexican lady who worked for her drove over the border and had a fake one printed up in Mexico. The thing had been done illegally, and I guess Dad was worried that if somebody ever found out, Lenore might be hauled off to jail or something, so he wrote out a confession saying that he did it."

"Oh, no."

"Yeah, poor guy. He was going to take the rap for her. Anyhow, Sis, I'm sorry you had to find out like that. But honestly, I'd really forgotten all about it. To me, you were always just my sister, and I just felt lucky to have you."

Sookie looked at her brother and smiled. "Buck, you may just be one of the nicest guys in the world."

"Yeah, I probably am."

He put his arm around her, and they strolled back to the house. Suddenly he laughed. "You know, the thought of Winged Victory being thrown in the slammer is pretty funny."

"Yes, can you imagine? I'll bet after two days, they would be begging us to take her back."

"Yeah," said Buck. "And after three days, she'd be running the joint." They both laughed.

THE NEXT MORNING AT breakfast, Bunny looked at Sookie and said, "Well, all I can say is that Buck sure can keep a secret. In all these years, he never told me you were not his real sister."

"Bunny, for G.o.d's sake," Buck said. "She is my real sister!"

"Oh, you know what I mean. Sookie, he never said one single word to me about you being adopted, so I can tell you it makes no difference to him, or I would have known it. But I still can't believe it. It's just amazing how you two act so much alike, and yet you're not even related."

Buck rolled his eyes. "Bunny, I think you just need to drop it, okay?"

Buck was upset with Bunny, but Sookie wasn't. After all, what she said was absolutely true. They were not related by blood, but it really didn't matter. They would always be brother and sister, no matter what.

They were two different people thrown together for life by some odd twist of fate and random coincidence. In 1945, Lenore had wanted a daughter, and Sookie had been available. And as to what had caused her to be there on the exact day that Lenore had walked in, she didn't know. Lenore could just as easily have picked out another little girl, or if she had even come a day later, she might have already been adopted by somebody else. She guessed it was just supposed to be.

A FEW DAYS AFTER everyone left, Sookie got a letter from Buck.

Sis, Thanks for having us. We had a great time, and Bunny and I are still full of turkey. Honey, here is the letter Dad gave me. Thought you should have it. It might come in handy if you ever wanted to blackmail Winged Victory.

I love you, Sis.

Buck Enclosed was a note written in her father's hand.

To Whom It May Concern: This is to verify that I, Alton Carter Krackenberry, am fully responsible for the illegal forgery of my daughter's birth certificate.

A. C. Krackenberry

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS.

JULY 1945.

LENORE SIMMONS HAD RARELY FAILED AT ANYTHING IN HER LIFE, BUT after eleven years of marriage, she had failed to have a child. She had hoped that something would happen while they were stationed in Texas during the war, but it hadn't. And now with the war almost over, the thought of returning home to Selma, where all her friends were now happily raising children, was humiliating. It was actually her housekeeper, Conchita, in whom she had confided this, who had suggested she go to Dallas to the Gladney Home and just take a look. On the first day Alton could get away, they flew to Dallas.

The staff was very nice, and there were plenty of wartime one-, two-, and three-year-old children to see, and Lenore saw them all, but at the end of the day, when the lady came back in the room, Lenore said, "Well, they are all really darling, but I was wondering ... do you have anything smaller?"

"Excuse me?"

"I was really looking for a baby, preferably a little girl."

"Oh, I see."

"Do you have any more in the back that we haven't seen?"

"No."

"No little babies at all?"

"Well, we do have one little nine-month-old girl, but we already have an interested couple that are coming back to see her tomorrow."

Lenore's eyes lit up. "You mean she's on hold?"

"Well, I guess you could say that. Yes."

"Oh, couldn't we just look at her? Just in case the other couple doesn't work out? Please? Sometimes people change their mind."

"Well, I suppose I can show her to you if you like, but remember ... she's pretty well spoken for."

"Oh, I understand, don't we, Alton? We'll just take a quick little peek."

FIVE MINUTES LATER, AS Lenore held the baby, she exclaimed, "Oh, Alton, look at these eyes. Why, if she isn't the spitting image of myself at that age, I don't know who is. And look," she said, when she pulled back the blanket, "she even has the Simmons foot!" From the first moment Lenore saw her, she was in love, and the other couple never stood a chance.

THE FORGERY.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS.

ALTON KRACKENBERRY HAD BEEN VERY UPSET WHEN HE FOUND OUT about the baby's forged birth certificate. "I can't believe you did something like this behind my back. My G.o.d, Lenore, what were you thinking? I'm an officer in the United States Army. I could get court-martialed over a thing like this. You tear that up right now."

Lenore clutched it to her breast. "No, I can't. Oh, please, Alton ... it's just a little white lie, and it will mean so much to Sarah Jane down the line to carry the Simmons family name. Think about her. And imagine that poor little thing having to go through life with a birth certificate with 'father unknown' written on it. It would destroy her self-confidence forever."

"Do you realize that this is an illegal doc.u.ment? If people found out you paid for it, you could be arrested for forgery."

"But n.o.body is going to find out. Oh, Alton, think about your daughter's future. I did it for her sake, not mine. What nice boy from a nice family is going to marry a girl with an unknown father? She could never be a Kappa or make her debut, and, really, what girl wouldn't want to be a year younger, if she had the chance?"

"What?"

"You want her to have all the advantages she can, don't you? It's hard enough for a young girl to succeed in society-and then to burden her with this stigma, over something she can't help? Yes, it may be bending the law just a tiny bit, but this little piece of paper will make all the difference in the world to her."

"But Lenore, it's a lie-"

"Yes, but it could have been true. She could have been our daughter. And you have to admit, she looks more and more like a Simmons every day. Don't you believe in predestination? I think G.o.d meant for us to have her."

"Lenore, don't bring G.o.d into this. This is a criminal offense."

After more pleading, ending with Lenore flinging herself onto the sofa sobbing and screaming, "You don't love me!" Alton, against his better judgment, finally agreed, but with one stipulation. "Lenore, if we get caught, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Oh, I won't." She smiled and dried her tears. "And don't worry, Alton, I'll take full responsibility. As her mother, I would gladly serve time sitting in a lonely prison cell if it meant protecting my daughter's future. A mother's love knows no sacrifice." This last sentence was delivered while looking at herself in the mirror.

TWO MONTHS LATER, WHEN Lenore and Alton arrived back home in Alabama with their new daughter, Sarah Jane, everyone noticed she was rather large for a two-month-old baby, but Lenore had wanted the baby's official birthday to be the day she was adopted. And so it was, with the help of a rather good fake birth certificate that Lenore had bought in Mexico, thanks to Conchita, who had a friend who specialized in these things. Lenore had really wanted only one child, and a year later, Buck had been a complete surprise. Oh, well.

LENORE HAD NO QUALMS about making things up. Her father and grandmother had done the exact same thing. Lenore's mother had not died in childbirth. The truth was that when Lenore was five, her mother, whom she had adored, had come home from a trip to New Orleans and announced to her husband that she hated him and Selma, Alabama, and was leaving for good.

As the carriage had driven away, Lenore ran after it, calling out to her mother to stop, but she had not turned around, and the carriage kept going. She had never seen her mother again. Lenore never knew why she had left. She could have been unstable or had simply not loved her children enough to stay. Either way, it was easier to pretend it had never happened. As far as she was concerned, Sookie was her daughter, and she really had been in labor for over forty-eight hours.

THE IRISHMAN.

SCOTT FIELD, ILLINOIS.

1944.

IT WAS LATE WHEN FRITZI ARRIVED ON BASE, BUT SHE SAT DOWN AND wrote a letter to Billy. He had been on her mind.

Dear Billy, Landed at Scott Field a few hours ago, and the place was packed. Finally got a bed in the nurses' quarters, so am dropping you a quick line before I hit the sack. I'm feeling a little worse for the wear tonight, after flying all day in headwinds and fighting with a faulty odometer that I had to kick all the way across the country.