Her kindly grandfather with his wobbly cane and long white beard attempted to broach the subject with her but it really go anywhere because Sumiko was...too busy to take much notice.On a busy Saturday afternoon, two young foreign sailors wandered into the combination fish store and Sushi restaurant to try out the taste of the local catch. The sailor with the darkened skin tone wrinkled his nose but still managed to experiment with succulent dishes and down a few tiny cups of the potent Saki. His. It was Josiah. He's been doing this for about a year now andthinks it the funniest joke in the world. We lay there and laughed for afew seconds and then he hugged me. We sat up and, just when I thoughtour little moment was over, he asked me the question."Mama, is Timothy going to turn into a girl?" No, sweetie, he's not," I said, brushing who knows what out of hishair. "He might try to live as a girl for a while or forever, but he'snot going to turn into one." So, boys can't turn into girls?". I sound like an idiot."In an exaggerated child's voice, she said, "You weren't there and I cried and cried." I sound like a stupid crybaby. The problem is that you weren't there," Lisa said returning to the flat emotionless voice with which she had started."You were supposed to be there. You had always been there before. Suddenly you were gone. I didn't know what to make of it."When dad said that you had a job, I didn't know what to think. Mommies were supposed to stay at home and daddies were. Hilda and Eric (the boy) fought over the Styrofoam surfboard and a group of idiots flinging sand at one another managed to impregnate Mrs. Behn.I swam a bit. Ann waded and basked. We herded the kids and apparatus into the car. I perjured myself to Eric's mother concerning his behavior. We got home, showered and changed and chugged off to The Rancherita, where Ann and I downed a pitcher of wine margaritas and Hilda had her usual grilled cheese sandwich. I'm sure we also ate something. We drove.