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Show Blue Run/19 3. Joey The sun is out, very fierce, Saturday, July 15 and I am unprepared. Today's schedule has been set for weeks. Rocky and Bet, Renee's brother and sister-in-law have adopted a Guatemalan toddler and today is You Are Invited to a Beach Baby Shower day. They've planned beer and barbecue at a pavilion reserved down island on the ocean side. Mama'd never in her life fuck up a baby shower-it just wasn't in her blood. Sprinklers click on in the back yard I smell coffee In the bathroom mirror, my face-her eyes and widow's peak, I don't know the rest. I put on shorts and one of Cap's ball caps Renee looks shaken when I finally walk in, she stares at the floor, what a lot of people do, I'll learn, when they learn your mother's just died Cap says, "Morning, Joey I'm sorry, son." Meg frowns deeply. She says, "There's Danish on the island." "What's wrong daddio?" Lara's hugs me, her face tanned from three days in the sun. My daughter's been sleeping on a foldout couch with stuffed teddy bears. Cap's naval officer sword hangs above the closed closet and a folded up Destroyer flag is framed beside a picture of teenage Renee with sleek hair and a pouty face His desk is a jumble, letters from Senators and |