Chapter 10: Chaos
“Is everyone coming?” I asked as I peeled the husk off the last of two dozen ears of corn.
“Yes,” Mom replied. “I think Alan’s bringing a girlfriend, too.”
In addition to me, Mom and Dad, Greg and Marie, Helen and her family, “everyone” meant Mom’s two younger sisters and their families. Aunt Betty, her husband Carl, and their three children, Alan, Ben, and Caryn. Aunt Sally was divorced, but had two middle school-aged children, Josh and Katie.
Sally was the youngest of the three sisters, and quite a bit younger than Mom and Aunt Betty. There’d been a brother, Marty, between Betty and Sally, but I hadn’t seen him since I was about five years old, so I barely remembered him.
Mom didn’t like to talk about it. His disappearance had hit her hard. Mom’s parents had died w
