​     Ten minutes earlier:

     The four of them said little as they ate. 

​     Cathy consumed her tuna sandwich like that constituted the sole purpose of her life.

     Skip ate as if his mind wandered around in some alternate universe somewhere while he chewed. 

     Alison kept her head down and took small bites. 

     Abby looked at her children, one after the other, in hopes that one of them would start to talk. Finally,

     "What do you think's going on down there?" Skip asked. 

     "No idea," Abby replied. It occurred to her then why her children weren't speaking.

     "I suppose you all want to know what I know about my dad," she said. 

     "Well, we're not kids anymore," Cathy replied.

     "And, you know..." Skip indicated the starship they all rode in with her arms. "There's all of this." 

     "I didn't know anything for a very long time," Abby said. "I just knew Gramps as my dad, and, in those days, as I got older he got older, like every dad does, or at least he pretended to get older." 

     "What happened to your real dad?" Alison asked. 

     "I don't know, sweetheart," Abby replied. "Mom and Gramps never talked about it.  I always figured it had something to do with...you know...and Mom, too." 

​     "Grandma didn't die from a hit and run?"

     Abby shrugged. "I don't think so, but. really, I don't know. Two days after her funeral, though, Gramps sat me down and told me who he was and what he really was. I'd just turned seventeen, and I only got about half of what he told me. It took me years to understand as much as I do, and even then..." 

     "Wait. Wait a second." A thought all but paralyzed Cathy. "Daddy..."

     "His name was Stewart." 

     "Our dad. The man you loved and married. You always said Dad died during a drive-by. You..."

     Abby shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "The official word is that he got caught between two rival gangs. I begged Gramps to tell me if there was anything more to it than just that, and he said there wasn't, but..."  

     "Our grandparents. Your own father. You're saying they were all..." 

     "No! I'm saying I don't know, but that's the hardest thing. When Gramps is a part of your family, there's a part of you that never knows completely what's going on."

     "We could have used some chips to go with these sandwiches," Alison said. 

     "And soup," Cathy said. "Some soup would have been great."

     "Why didn't I think of that?" Abby asked. 

     Skip pointed to a monitor." 

​     "Look," he said. "We're moving.

                                                     CONTINUE