“Stop looking so shocked, Libby. It doesn’t mean I don’t love her. I don’t have to like her too. Fucking hell.”

I can’t remember when I first knew Bill existed. He didn’t. And then he did. He was silent breathing on the phone, a pause, and then a voice that I knew but didn’t know. “Is your mother there?” Mom never denied his existence or that he might be Beatrice’s father. It must have been Marie and Thomas who explained it to me. I don’t remember. I knew not to say anything to anyone, especially my dad, even though I have no memory of anyone ever ordering this.

At home we made fun of Bill in front of my mother. We guessed all sorts of occupations for him: trucker, plumber, milkman, traveling salesman who sold everything from Bibles to steak knives. We’d take out Thomas’s walkie-talkies and perform “Bill plays” when my mother was nearby.

“Breaker ten-four, this is Fat Man Bill. Can you read my handle? I am so doggone fat, I just can’t get out of my truck and go see my daughter.”

“Roger, Fat Man Bill. You sure are ugly. I hear you’re a no-good father, too.”

We’d use hillbilly accents. Beatrice would watch and laugh with us, as if she didn’t realize it was her dad we were joking about. When we drove past storefronts with a neon Bill blinking in the dark, we’d shout, “Is that him? Is that Bill?” It could be Bill’s Carpets, Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, or Whiskey Bill’s Bar and Grill. Once we passed a billboard that read Bill Bowie for Sheriff. We asked our mother, “Is that him? Is Bill running for sheriff?” She didn’t say anything, and we took her silence as a sign. We started a campaign for his opponent, making posters and slogans for him and marching outside her bedroom door, cheering on the other guy for sheriff. Beatrice did it with us. She didn’t know if the Bill she knew was running for sheriff, but she didn’t want him to win either.

Mostly Mom had ignored us. If we came up with a new Bill scenario, she sometimes laughed at our guesses, like when Thomas suggested that Bill was possibly the guy who took our order at McDonald’s. He’d noticed the name tag: William.