Our daughter's twin di3d at nine days old and we let her believe she was born alone — at her eighteenth my husband carried something out of the garage and said he had started it the night her sister died.

And the last thing.

I used to set that table for four.

Not always. Maybe twice a year. I would be halfway down it with the cutlery and there would be a fourth one and I would stand there for a second and then put it back in the drawer.

And in the November, I came into that kitchen and the table was set for four.

Halley had done it.

And she did not say anything about it. She was at the sink.

And I stood there for about eleven seconds and then I sat down, and Russ came in, and he looked at it and looked at me and sat down.

And we ate.

And nobody said one word about the fourth place, and nobody moved it, and it stayed there through the whole meal with a plate on it.

And that is what eighteen years of not saying a name turned into, in the end.