“How’s it going, ladies?” Decker asked.

The women broke into high-pitched welcome squeals. His mother smiled at him, the corners of her eyes webbed with crow’s-feet. Decker smiled back and gave her a warm embrace.

“I don’t believe you’re here.” Decker turned to Rina. “Did you know about this?”

“Of course I knew about this,” she answered. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

To his mother, Decker said, “I can’t believe you actually came.”

“Your wife invited us out, so we came.”

“I’ve invited you two out at least fifty times over the past twenty years,” Decker said. “You never once came for me.”

“Oh, don’t give me that nonsense,” Mom said, a gleam in her eye. “I came for the wedding.”

“Gee thanks, Mom.”

Rina gave Decker a peck on the cheek. “Talk respectfully to your mother.”

“Yes, you talk nice to her,” Magda answered.

Decker said, “I’m getting out of here.” He glanced around the room, saw Hannah sleeping in her cradle. He bent down and gently kissed his daughter on her nose. “Are they teaching you early to be a female chauvinist?”

“Peter, you’re talking too loud,” his mother scolded. “You’re going to wake her up. And furthermore, you’re going to make our cakes fall.”

Cindy beat her chest. “Go fix a barn and be macho, Dad.”

“Good idea.”

Decker left the room, and no one said good-bye. Too wrapped up in pie dough. A moment later, Cindy came to his side and gave him a hug. “Isn’t it nice to have everyone here?”

“It is…in theory.”

Cindy slugged him playfully. “You’re such a cynic.”

“Only when I’m around this many women.”

“You know what, Daddy? I’ve finally figured out who Grandpa and Grandma remind me of.”

“Who?”

“Uncle Henry and Aunt Em from The Wizard of Oz.”

Decker laughed. “Yeah, I suppose they do a little.”

“A lot,” Cindy said. “What I want to know is, what happened to Dorothy’s parents?”

“Read the book.”

“Poor little girl raised by her aunt and uncle, her only friends three goofy farmhands. Where were the parents? Did they die in an accident? Were they murdered? Did they abandon her? Where were her parents?”

“Some people just have lousy parents, Cin,” Decker said.

He thought of Lita Bellson. A self-proclaimed shitty mother. But at least she’d never abandoned Marie.

And in turn Marie didn’t abandon her.

He paused.

Auntie Em…Uncle Henry!

Marie turned out to be the stable, dependable one…like my first husband, Henry.

The dependable one!

Decker bit his lip.

Only she wasn’t his!

Decker felt a surge of adrenaline. “I bet that’s it!”

“What’s it?” Cindy asked.