“We’d really like Lake Geneva just as much.”
I took a deep breath. “Dad, don’t you think it’s dangerous to mix with the South Siders down there?”
“Dangerous?” He was puzzled.
“Sure, what if I fell in love with a girl from the South Side?”
“No point”—Dad grinned wickedly—“in repeating the same mistake in another generation, eh?”
“Precisely.” I emptied my wineglass and held it out for a refill. Technically, I was still underage. Oh, well, the law did not apply inside the Oak Park Country Club.
“I think you’re both terrible!”
So I kissed her again.
I had begun to understand. My parents were gentry. They’d grown up with money, not as much as they had now perhaps, but enough. In their thirties they suffered through the agonies of the Depression. Now it was over and they could revert to the values and the behaviors of their youth. For them the Depression was over.
I was a Depression baby. It would be with me for a long time, maybe all my life.
I had an honorable discharge from the Army of the United States. Mom and Dad had earned their honorable discharge from the Depression. Would I ever earn mine?
BY ANDREW M. GREELEY
from Tom Doherty Associates
All About Women
Angel Fire
Angel Light
Faithful Attraction
The Final Planet
God Game
Irish Gold
Irish Lace
A Midwinter’s Tale
Star Bright!
Summer at the Lake
White Smoke
Sacred Visions (editor with Michael Cusset)
A MIDWINTER’S TALE
Copyright © 1998 by Andrew M. Greeley Enterprises, Ltd.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
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ISBN: 0-312-86571-6 ISBN: 978-0-312-86571-9
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