But he got in line with everyone else, then found an empty chair to sit in while he ate. He was sitting in a chair behind a sofa where Sophia, Marlee, Tina, and Rachel, four of his cousins, were visiting, waiting for another urn of coffee to brew before they tackled a piece of baklava.

He was paying little attention to their conversation until he realized they were talking about teenage girls back in their day getting pregnant, and how they had not been allowed to go to high school with others as if it was something contagious. He heard them mention that out of their class of eight hundred, they only knew of three.

He was thinking how times had changed since then, when he heard them mention Janie Chapman’s name as one of those girls. At that point, his heart nearly stopped. He thought back to their lives together before he moved and knew they’d had unprotected sex more than once. But he’d moved away. Surely that must mean it happened after he was gone. He couldn’t believe Janie would not have contacted him if it was theirs. She had known too many of his relatives for her to think she didn’t know how to find him. But now that his cousins had captured his attention, he was listening to everything they said.

“Did you ever hear what happened to her after she quit school?” Sophia asked.

“Yes, and it was sad,” Marlee said.

“I know, too,” Tina said. “Her parents wouldn’t let her keep the baby. They said she was too young.”

“So what did she do?” Sophia asked.

“They made her give the baby boy up for adoption, but here’s what’s strange about it. When the adoptive parents took the baby home, they took Janie with them. They were both working people, so she stayed with them and nursed her baby and was basically their live-in babysitter for months. While she was there, her mom and dad died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their home, so Janie would have died, too, if she hadn’t gone home with the adoptive parents.”

“Are you serious?” Sophia said. “Wow! I couldn’t have done that. I mean, you’re bonding even more with your own baby, and you still know you gave him away. I wonder what happened.”

“I remember hearing my mom and dad talking about that,” Marlee said. “She said the adoptive parents woke up one morning and Janie was gone. No note, no explanation, no nothing. She had a car and a driver’s license and whatever money she’d gotten for the sale of her parents’ house, and that’s all anyone knew.”

“Did anyone ever hear what happened to her?” Rachel asked.

“Not that I know of,” Marlee said.

Marc stood abruptly, walking blindly through the crowd toward the front door, passing his brother as he went.

“Hey,” David said as he grabbed Marc’s arm. “Everything okay?”

“I just need some air,” Marc said, and kept moving.

The evening air was cool. The stars were hidden by the clouds moving in, and the three-quarter moon was only intermittently visible. It smelled like it might rain.