THE TRAIN TRIP home was the opposite of the frozen journey Lu had endured that morning. True, she hadn't gotten a job. But she had made friends with a person who accompanied at Broadway auditions. And she had the phone number of a real New York agent. She wasn't sure how she'd get around Mama and come back to New York, but that didn't matter now. She was on her way. Or so she thought.

THE NEXT MORNING when Lu woke up, she almost didn't make it to the bathroom before she got sick. She told herself it was because she'd been so scared the day before. When the same thing happened the next morning, she tried to tell herself she was upset because she and Mama were not speaking to each other—although their fights had never bothered her like that before. When she continued to get sick every morning for the next two weeks, she told Ricky. He bought two rings that looked like wedding bands and took her to a doctor in Danbury, which was a few towns away from New Haven. The doctor told them that contrary to what Ricky had been led to believe, there was no such thing as an absolutely safe time of the month. But, the doctor added brightly, Lu's morning sickness should start tapering off in the next few weeks.

Chapter 12 - New Haven 2008

“LU GOT PREGNANT with my mother by Ricky Gas-pari?” Carrie demanded. Maurizio's pizza—truly one of the best Carrie had ever eaten—had been reduced to a small pile of crusts, and Uncle Paulie had already signaled for the check. “The way I always heard it, Mother was born in California.”

“Yeah, she was.” Uncle Paulie nodded. “Born there. But not… you know …” He blushed.

“But she wasn't conceived there.” Carrie finished the thought for him. “So what happened to Ricky—did he duck out on Lu?”

“No.”

“But he wasn't the daddy of record.”

“No.”

“The way I always heard it, Mother's father was a soldier from California who was killed in World War Two. He died before Mother was born and his last name was Lawson.”

“That was the story,” Uncle Paulie said. But he looked uncomfortable, as if his collar had suddenly gotten too tight.

“But now you're telling me there was no soldier out in California who was killed tragically in the war?”

“No.” Paulie pulled at his collar.

“So what happened to Ricky?”