Then Janet said, “Of course not! Only that Mom has confided in me that the reason for her sinful thoughts is that Dad and her are very estranged and have not been, been, cohabiting.”

I didn’t say anything because even though I didn’t know exactly what the word “cohabiting” meant, I could tell pretty much what it must be about by how red Janet’s face went when she said it. “You’re old enough to know about this. And I hope you love your mother and father enough to do all you can to be good and to stay out of their way on this vacation and let them have a second honeymoon! That’s why we’re going to stay at Portofino! So they can have a room that looks out on the harbor because it’s romantic! It will be a perfect setting in which to have a second honeymoon! Mom said so!”

When Janet was finished talking I noticed she was clasping her hands in front of her and her eyes were all bright and her face was flushed, and I suddenly realized she was enjoying all this and I wondered if she was just making it up. Then I decided she probably wasn’t because even Janet wouldn’t dare to tell lies this serious about Mom and Dad.

She said, “Will you?”

“What?”

“Do everything you can to stay out of the way and let them be alone to restore the beautiful gift of God’s love. To rekindle the flames of passion?”

“Yes.”

Then Janet said, “Just say I took you to show you something.” And we started back to the cabin, and I tried not to limp on the leg Janet had kicked, which was unfortunately the same leg I had broken, so it hurt a lot.

When we got back Dad was pulling down the suitcases because we were arriving at our station.

Mom said, “Oh, Ralph, be careful, you’ll break the light.”

Dad said to her, “Like this?” and he hit the light bulb on our train cabin ceiling on purpose with the suitcase and it broke and blue glass fell all over him and Mom.

Mom shrieked out all shocked, “Oh, Ralph!” and pulled us all out of the way. I looked at Janet and she looked very meaningfully at me and nodded slightly as if to say, “See, I told you.” I nodded back and wondered which relatives I’d be sent to live with when they got divorced and what we’d do with Dad’s mom—our bad Grandmother. Then I got to thinking about why Mom would ever tell Janet something so private. As usual I couldn’t figure Mom out, so I quit wondering about it and started thinking about the vacation instead.