indicate that I knew all this history. I was just happy to meet them, although I can't be sure they were all that happy to see me or my mother.

The womenfolk were the most talkative and most social, and there was great deal of laughing and reminiscing, as my mother, Aunt Jessie, Ruth and my grandmother sat around the table. Uncle Don, already bald at 24 and bringing his wife and firstborn son, seemed to have no personality at all, spoke only a few obligatory words and left early. My Aunt Ruth was very like Jessie in the way she radiated warmth, and I genuinely liked her. But knowing what I knew, and the fact the Joan's name never came up, I was a little bit afraid of her.

The biggest surprise was being introduced to my first cousin Ruth Ann, Ruth's daughter by Charlie Hooper (now a distant memory, with Ruth about to marry her 3rd husband). Ruth Ann was 13 at the time, developing into a lovely young woman blessed with beautiful auburn hair and a clear, almost ivory complexion. I had a severe crush on her that lasted all three days she and her mother stayed with Jessie. Being 10 and a bit of an ugly

duckling, and acting like a complete idiot around her, I'm sure I made the worst impression imaginable.

This short burst of family togetherness lasted maybe a week before they all left to go back East, my grandmother staying on a while longer before getting homesick and returning as well. I never saw or spoke to any of them again after that.

End to end, I don't think the number of days we lived in North Sacramento numbered much more than 700, and it all seems like a blur of fuzzy sensations and disconnected memories. When I recall these days, I fall into this deep melancholy, and that alone makes it difficult to remember them, let alone write about them. Apart from meeting my mother's family, nothing stands out in particular. As always, I was being swept along in time, more a passenger than a driver.

In school I followed the usual pattern of doing just enough to get by, avoiding or appeasing bullies, and adapting as I always did. Gradually more families with children moved into the complex, and I befriended one particular boy, David, who would beat me up when his friends were around but treated me with more respect when we were alone. Eventually he stopped beating me