I walked out the laundry room door. “Del!” I squealed with an enthusiasm that, once I saw her, I began to feel. Of all my siblings, Delia was the only one I really kept in touch with. I had tried, at various times throughout the years, to reconnect with all four of them, to gather us together, either alone or with our families. But things always seemed to fall apart at the end. And, really, I knew why. We were strangers now. I hadn’t lived with them since I was ten years old, and the resentment over the “good deal” I’d been handed in the wake of our shared tragedy didn’t help much. Although I sometimes wanted to point out to my brother Daniel that he’d only had to live in foster care for six months, to my sisters Delia and Emily that they had at least gotten to live together. But I never did. We never got into anything real. Instead, we spent half our time making small talk, getting filled in on parts of each other’s lives we should already have known.

“Al!” Delia said, kissing me on both cheeks and hugging me enthusiastically. She looked around the open floor plan of my gorgeous waterfront home and said, “So I see you’ve stuck with those oystershell countertops. Such a bold look.”

And so it began. Charlotte put a forceful hand on the small of my back, seemingly to hold me up. I appreciated it.

Julie was trotting down the steps and stopped abruptly. “Mom? What are you doing here?”

“Can’t I come visit my favorite daughter and granddaughters?”

Julie was Delia’s only daughter, but my sister was the kind of woman who would choose a favorite and then tell all her children who that was—and, more to point, who it wasn’t.

I looked over at Grace, who wiped her hands on her kitchen towel as we walked from the hallway toward her. “Hi,” she said with a wave. “I’m Grace. I’m a friend of Julie’s.”

“Ah, yes,” Delia said wistfully. “Another castaway on Alice’s shipwreck.”

Grace didn’t take the bait. “Are you staying for dinner? I’d be happy to set another plate.”

Delia lit up. “Oh, that would be lovely. Just lovely. Thank you for offering, Grace.” She shot me a look that said, At least someone did.