Tiredly she mounted the last of the six flights of stairs leading up to this dormer room, coming to the door. She didn’t knock expecting the boys to...be running trains. Backing herself through the door to protect the tray, she placed the tray on his desk. Not seeing them at the layout she turning towards the bed. It was evident they had not heard her coming, its difficult to know which was most startled, the doting mother, or the two naked boys on the bed in the 69 position, caught like rabbits. ’ ‘What do you mean?’ she said, rubbing at her teary eyes. ‘Well, how old are you, Claire?’ ‘Um, forty-three…’ It was almost a whisper. ‘Okay, and what it the average age of all women?’ ‘I don’t know… about twenty-five, I guess…’ Her voice was small. ‘Wrong. It’s more like thirty, Claire.’ ‘It is?’ ‘Sure,’ Mike said. ‘People are getting older, but with medicine and technology they can seem younger than ever.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah!’ Mike said. ‘Now, what’s the life expectancy of a woman?’ ‘Maybe. I found her in the family room crying her poor little eyes out. As soon as I sat down next to her she put her head on my chest and really let the waterworks out. Growing up, I thought Chad was going to be the emotional one since he was such a mamma's boy and Barbara was my little tomboy. Then puberty hit and Chad started to sprout and that extra size seemed to buoy his confidence. Barbara also sprouted, going from my little girl to my little woman. She also sprouted something that Ann never had. We'd walk to school and back home together, she'd sit at my table at lunch, we'd sit on her front porch swing and talk for hours about ourselves. She was finally getting me out of my shell, but I'd still get goosebumps when she would hold my hand, or kiss my cheek. At the end of each segment of time I spent with her, she'd say, "Bye JJ, I can't wait for the dance." That always left me quiet and she would tell me I looked cute when I was nervous. That, of course, just made me more nervous. We.