You let it go, and cross every finger and toe that your father doesn't get

chlamydia. He's being checked out regularly by doctors anyway, right? Surely

they'd catch it, especially if it's going around. For a while you cringe every

time you click drop in, praying to a god you don't believe in that you don't

witness a repeat, and you don't. Dad keeps you up to date on his days and slowly

you start to hear the same name more and more in his stories. Patricia, they play

cards together. He says she always cheats. You remind him that he cheats every

time you've ever played cards. They go to movie nights, and she has opinions

about cars and prog rock that you don't really understand, but not along to.

You tease him a little about her at first. Ask when you'll get to meet her, to

give her the get my father home by curfew speech he delivered to your dates so

many times. Then one day when you drop in, he's not alone. There's a woman on the

couch next to him, fiddling with her hands. He introduces her with a sheepish

smile and sits down next to her, handing her a mug of tea. I thought it might be

time for you to meet Patricia. Patricia is slight with a crisp white

bob. She answers your questions with short clipped sentences. At first do you

think she's maybe a little bit mean until you realize that she's nervous. Your

father leans into her a little bit, cracks a joke about some mutual friend of

theirs at Vanguard that you don't really understand, and you see her shoulders

relax a little. You smile too, trying to convey as much warmth in your voice as

you can. As the conversation loosens up, you learn about her. Her kids, her jewelry

refurbishing business that she still runs out of Vanguard, her dislike of

...