"'Well, what are you doing here?' he asked.
"'I came to San Francisco and I thought it would be nice for us to finally meet face to face,' I said.
"'Oh sure. That is nice. Come on in,' he said.
"'Is Craig at home?' I asked, hesitating. My legs were smarter than my brain. They held back on their own.
"No, not at the moment. He's gone on some errands for us, but he'll be home very soon,' he said.
"He stepped back and waited, holding the door open for me.
"'Come on in. He won't be long,' he promised.
"I walked up the steps and entered the house. It was so dark and musty. There was a lot of wood trim along the entryway and on my right was a grandfather clock that wasn't working.
"'I was just reading,' he said. 'You kids don't do enough of that these days, not since you discovered computers. Come into the living room. Can I get you something to drink?'
"'No thank you,' I said, following him. The living room was small and cluttered with antique furniture."
"How did you know so much about all that?" Star asked skeptically. It was as though she thought I was making up the whole thing As if I would make up something like this,
"My father," I said. "Some of it rubbed off whether I wanted it to or not.
"Getting back to what I was saying," I added, "he had one lamp on by a threadbare Chippendale wing chair." I said it with deliberate exactness to annoy her now.
"'Well, have a seat,' he offered, indicating the settee across from him. 'You look like you just arrived in town.'
"'I did,' I said.
"'Who you visiting with?'
"'No one,' I made the mistake of saying. 'I mean, it's a spur of the moment trip.'
"He smiled and sat. Under the lights I could see the resemblances between him and Craig from the picture Craig had attached to his E-mail. His eyes were as deeply set and his nose the same nearly perfectly straight shape, just a trifle too long, but adding character. His mouth had similarly full masculine lips and he had the same soft curve from his cheekbone to his jaw.
" 'Craig's quite taken with you,' he said. 'He talks about you a lot.'
"'Does he? We did sort of hit it off and I thought it would be great to finally meet.'
"There was a strange smell--more than just a musty odor now. It smelled more like incense or something. I guess I twitched my nose and he saw it and laughed.
"'We just finished dinner a little while ago. I'm not the best cook. I burned the potatoes. We were about to have coffee when we discovered we didn't have any. We're both failing pretty bad at domestic chores,' he explained. There was a little lisp in his speech and from the way his mouth dipped on the right side when he spoke, I wondered if he hadn't suffered a stroke or something. Now that I looked at him more closely, I could see how thin he was and how his right shoulder slanted a bit lower than his left.
"'Where's Sonny?' I asked, referring to Craig's younger brother.
"'Oh, he went along with him. You can't keep those two apart. Nothing Sonny likes more than spending time with Craig. He looks up to him like Craig's a superhero, and Craig loves and protects him They've come together like this,' he said, holding his hand up in a tightly closed fist. 'Since she left us, all three of us are like this.'
"'That's nice,' I said smiling. It did sound nice, although from some of the things Craig had said in his E-mails, I didn't think life was as rosy as Mr. Bennet portrayed.
"'He told you about this house?' he asked.
" 'Yes,' I said.
"'You can appreciate it since your father's an architect, I bet. It was something in its day.'
"'Craig really has told you a lot about me, I see,' I said. 'You know my father is an architect.'
"'Oh, yes. We don't keep much from each other anymore. That's because we're all like one,' he said, holding up that bony fist again. 'She didn't destroy us when she ran off. She made us stronger. In some ways I'm glad she went. She was never happy being tied down. She had the wanderlust. We got married too early. It was as if I had tamed a wild horse or something. Babies were lead weights around her neck. She and I stopped making love after Sonny was born; she was afraid of having another child. You know what happens to a marriage once the romance goes out of it?'