By this time, Rachel could afford her own place, which was fortunate because Terry had moved in with Tommy Staziak, a hard-drinking Polish guy who—guess what?—drove a forklift truck for a living. It wasn’t long before she was pregnant with Tommy’s baby. The sins of the mother were visited upon the daughter. Rachel tried her best to like Tommy, but he just reminded her too much of her father. By the time baby Cheryl was born, Tommy was starting to dabble in hard drugs and would disappear for days at a time.

In order to support herself and the baby, Terry had to work several jobs, so Rachel fell into the same old pattern of taking care of others, only this time it was a little baby girl. By the time Cheryl was walking, she was spending as much time with Rachel as with her mother, and that meant she was spending a good deal of time with “Aunt Carolyn.”

By Wednesday of most weeks, Carolyn would call and ask, “Rach, what do you want to do this weekend?”

“I don’t know, sweetie, what do you want to do?” was the usual reply.

Often they would double date, or just go to the movies together. Neither of them had found anyone special, but both were confident that eventually the right guy would come along.

Then one Saturday morning, upon entering a diner to have breakfast, they noticed a familiar face on the top of a stack of newspapers. There, right on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, handsome as could be, was Danny Turner. He’d finally made the big time.

CHAPTER 4

The Price of Fame

Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.
—Emily Dickinson

ABOUT A MONTH after Barney died, and the saws were stolen from Tager’s, Tony decided it would be a good idea to nip a twenty-dollar bill from the cash register while the manager, Phil, had his back turned. Unfortunately, something told Phil to turn around right at that instant, and he grabbed Tony’s hand before he could stash the bill in his pocket.

“What do you think you’re doing, bozo?”

“I wasn’t really gonna take it. I just wanted to see if I could trick you,” was the best Tony could muster on such short notice.