Chapter 12

AN AWFUL SILENCE FELL. MY STOMACH, WHICH HAD ALREADY been doing some interesting gyrations as it tried to digest the wood chips from my lunch earlier, flip-flopped. My father continued to grin, but Traci's smile began to look a little pasted on. I blurted out the first thing that popped into my mind. "Aren't you too old for that?"

If I'd thought the silence that followed my father's pronouncement was bad, the one that resulted from my ill- considered question was positively hideous.

Finally, Traci said, shooting me one of the most evil glares I've ever received, "I'm only thirty-nine."

"Oh," I said. "Right." Okay, she might only be thirty- nine, but my father was going to be fifty-seven in May, which meant he'd be the ripe old age of seventy-five by the time he got around to sending this kid off to college.