I know I’m being silly. It’s just I don’t like my personal business being the talk of the department.’ As we neared the building, I laughed, �...�Oh, I think it’s too late for that.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I nodded towards the window. He looked and we could see Paula, still smirking at us as she chattered excitedly into her phone. Nathan was puzzled, ‘Eh?’ ‘Nathan my Love… Look down.’ He did so and I watched as the light dawned, ‘Shit,’ he muttered, ‘It’ll be all over the department by coffee break.’. Lindsay was behaving like a typical teenage girl; up one minute and down the next. That part I had become accustomed to. Her attitude toward her mother, however, was something else again. She had virtually excommunicated her. She was subdued if not downright surly to Jo on the phone and their conversations were short and not very fulfilling. If Jo was alarmed, she wasn't reacting too strongly; usually dismissing it a typical teenage attitude. I wasn't convinced. She wasn't like that with me,. I say "just" because it fitted in with how she believed that she had come to be seen. A mother, a wife, a homemaker. Such roles as are vital for a healthy society are somehow sadly swept under the carpet in terms of appreciation, as are those behind them. The trouble with this was that under this particular clichéd vision of societal perfection, lay a woman, a "regular" woman, with regular needs. She was expected to behave like a maid but without any of the stereotypical, frilly, sexy outfits. Thiswasn't an intelligence test."Grace knew she had surrendered her turn but had to object, "And no onebut you has ever said or thought you were stupid." Oh yeah! Why wouldn't you even let me try to get into that Young andTalented Summer thing Jim goes to?" T.K. said, trying to garner somesympathy or, better yet, change the subject."T.K.!" Grace said with an apologetic shrug to Larry, she hadn't meant totake over, "it's not that we didn't let you: we didn't make you. Youshould see those tests.