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“I was wondering whether you guys were free sometime soon. I’ve been thinking that I haven’t seen you, Jake, and the kids in quite a while.”
    â€œWe’re barbecuing tonight. Why don’t you stop by for dinner? Come early. I know everyone will be tickled to see you.”
    Just what she needed. Although she and her sisters had little in common, she genuinely liked both Bonnie and Janet, and they had so much history that they were seldom at a loss for conversation. “Are you sure I won’t be putting you out?”
    â€œNot at all. I’ve got plenty. I’m going to hang up now so you can’t say no. Dinner’s around six. Be here! ’Bye!” The line went dead.
    Monica snapped the phone closed. She was making changes in her life. If she could only keep it up. “Hey, Sam, we’re going to Bonnie’s house later. You get to play with everyone.”
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    At four-thirty, having spent a couple of hours going over mounds of paperwork, Monica showered and dressed in a pair of lightweight summer jeans and a soft yellow blouse. She opened the car door and Sam bounded into the backseat, ready for an adventure. Not wanting to arrive empty-handed, Monica stopped at her favorite pie shop and picked up a crust full of blueberry calories and a quart of the shop’s special vanilla-fruit-swirl ice cream, then drove the nine miles to her sister’s quiet neighborhood. The raised ranch house was of moderate size and comfortable, with a huge oak tree in the front yard that caused Jake to lament that he couldn’t get grass to grow beneath its branches. It wasn’t at all like the ones on Sheraton, but more than sufficient for Bonnie and her family.
    At thirty-six, her sister was three years older than Monica and had been happily married for almost thirteen years. “Auntie Em,” her niece Lissa yelled as she saw her aunt’s car pull into the driveway. “Auntie Em.”
    Auntie Em. She’d been called that since the first time Lissa, now aged eleven, had seen The Wizard of Oz . At first Lissa thought it was a big joke, having an aunt whose name began with M, but the nickname had stuck and now all of her nieces and nephews called her that. “Did you bring Sam?” Lissa said, skipping over to the car as it pulled to a stop.
    To answer, Monica opened the car door so Sam could gallop toward the giggling girl. “Auntie Em’s here, with Sam,” Lissa yelled, and answering boys’ cries of, “Here, Sammie,” echoed from the backyard.
    Monica spent the next hour sitting on her sister’s deck, enjoying large glasses of sangria and large doses of family life, eventually watching Jake fiddle with the outdoor grill. Later, filled with hamburgers and hot dogs, she extricated herself and arrived back at her apartment at around eight, slightly sunburned and scratching three mountains that some hungry mosquito had built on her left ankle.
    As she wandered into her bedroom, she realized that times like this left her with deeply conflicted feelings. She was envious of her sisters. Marriage, kids, the security of at least some steady person as the years passed, all sounded so comfortable and wonderful. But she was also contemptuous of them. They were both bright, college-educated women. How could they settle for suburbia, crab grass, and part-time jobs? Sure, Jake made more than enough money as an attorney, and Janet’s husband Walt was a stockbroker, but what did Bonnie and Janet do all day? She remembered Eve’s comment earlier that afternoon. What would she do if she didn’t have her job, and what skills would her sisters have if something happened and they had to go back to work? Sure, Jake and Walt were all right, but men in general were unreliable and would skip out the minute things weren’t going well. Her father was a prime example, leaving the family when Monica was in her early teens to do what he’d always