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assign them any, which of course was an out-and-out story.”
    “That’s just exactly like Jesse,” Maggie said.
    “And their daddy!” Mabel said. “He was forever taking up for them. Seemed they were all in cahoots and I was left out in the cold. What I wouldn’t give for a daughter, I tell you!”
    “Well, daughters have their drawbacks too,” Maggie said. She could see that Ira wanted to break in with a question (he’d placed a finger on the map and was looking at Mabel expectantly), but once he got his answer he’d be ready to leave, so she made him hold off a bit. “For instance, daughters have more secrets. I mean you think they’re talking to you, but it’s small talk. Daisy, for instance: She’s always been so quiet and obedient. Then up she pops with this scheme to go away to school. I had no idea she was plotting that! I said, ‘Daisy? Aren’t you happy here at home?’ I mean of course I knew she was planning on college, but I notice University of Maryland is good enough for other people’s children. ‘What’s wrong with closer to Baltimore?’ I asked her, but she said, ‘Oh, Mom, you knew all along I was aiming for someplace Ivy League.’ I knew no such thing! I had no idea! And since she got the scholarship, why, she’s changed past recognition. Isn’t that so, Ira.
Ira
says—” she said, rushing on (having regretted giving him the opening), “Ira says she’s just growing up. He says it’s just growing pains that make her so picky and critical, and only a fool would take it to heart so. But it’s difficult! It’s so difficult! It’s like all at once, every little thing we do iswrong; like she’s hunting up good reasons not to miss us when she goes. My hair’s too curly and I talk too much and I eat too many fried foods. And Ira’s suit is cut poorly and he doesn’t know how to do business.”
    Mabel was nodding, all sympathy, but Ira of course thought Maggie was acting overemotional. He didn’t say so, but he shifted in his seat; that was how she knew. She ignored him. “You know what she told me the other day?” she asked Mabel. “I was testing out this tuna casserole. I served it up for supper and I said, ‘Isn’t it delicious? Tell me honestly what you think.’ And Daisy said—”
    Tears pricked her eyelids. She took a deep breath. “Daisy just sat there and studied me for the longest time,” she said, “with this kind of … fascinated expression on her face, and then she said, ‘Mom? Was there a certain conscious point in your life when you decided to settle for being ordinary?’ ”
    She meant to go on, but her lips were trembling. She laid aside her chips and fumbled in her purse for a Kleenex. Mabel clucked. Ira said, “For God’s sake, Maggie.”
    “I’m sorry,” she told Mabel. “It got to me.”
    “Well, sure it did,” Mabel said soothingly. She slid Maggie’s coffee mug a little closer to her. “Naturally it did!”
    “I mean, to
me
I’m not ordinary,” Maggie said.
    “No indeedy!” Mabel said. “You tell her, honey! You tell her that. You tell her to stop thinking that way. Know what I said to Bobby, my oldest? This was over a tuna dish too, come to think of it; isn’t that a coincidence. He announces he’s sick to death of foods that are mingled together. I say to him, ‘Young man,’ I say, ‘you can just get on up and leave this table. Leave this house, while you’re at it. Find a place of your own,’ I say, ‘cook yourown durn meals, see how you can afford prime rib of beef every night.’ And I meant it, too. He thought I was only running my mouth, but he saw soon enough I was serious; I set all his clothes on the hood of his car. Now he lives across town with his girlfriend. He didn’t believe I would really truly make him move out.”
    “But that’s just it; I don’t want her to move out,” Maggie said. “I like to have her at home. I mean look at Jesse: He brought his wife and baby to live with us and I loved it!