Barbara tried to understand. She wished she had had a little sister, or even a brother, no matter how they had come into the world. She wouldn't feel so alone and friendless, when she and her mother moved again.
"Friendship had always been sacred to me," Mrs. Markey went on, "but I guess it wasn't to my best friend. We had been like sisters, but she took the man I loved from me. And don't think he didn't go to her all too willing! That was all I could take.
I divorced him and later learned that he died. Intentionally, I never saw my friend again."
So that's why I don't have a father, Barbara realized.And he's dead, so I can never even find him, when I grow up.
"And then there was that bosom buddy of your father's that he met in a bar on Division street and kept bringing home to drink beer with. Gallons of beer. The two of them stuck together like they were glued to each other. And glued they usually were, on beer."
Barbara wanted to laugh, but dared not because she could tell how upset her mother was from just the thought of her father's friend.
"Jimmy O'Reilly was his name. A curly-haired, lazy no-good who never held a job more than a few days or weeks. Good-looking enough, I suppose, but thought he was a movie star. And a skirt-chaser if ever there was one. He even tried getting fresh with me once when your father wasn't looking. I punched him in the stomach -- hard -- with an end of my rolling pin. He ran to the bathroom and threw up half a gallon of beer he'd just drunk."
Barbara thought that was funny, too, but again smothered a laugh as her mother continued her litany of grievances against her father's great friend.
"He even stole money from my purse. Enough for two months' rent and groceries. Your father wouldn't believe it, but I'd caught his "wonderful friend" stealing nickels and dimes off my bedroom bureau. After I sent your father packing, I never saw Jimmy O'Reilly again.
"Not long after that, he was found lying in the street dead drunk one morning. Then not two weeks later would you believe I saw that no-good's campaign signs all over the neighborhood? He had the nerve to run for alderman twice, and then state legislator. Thank the Lord enough voters saw through his blarney all three times. They often don't, about politicians."
Barbara had never met the man and hoped she never would."He doesn't sound very nice."