I sat by myself at a cafe downtown. I had a hamburger and a malt. I had to get back to work in a while, but I had enough time to chat up the waitress. Her name was Irene and she was from the same nearby town as I was. In fact, we had gone to the same high school and had the same English teacher. I liked Irene. She said to me, “Do you ever get home much?” “Oh yeah, about once a month,” I said. “How about you?” “I still live there. I commute, I guess you could say,” she said. “Do you ever see Bobby?” I said. “Oh yeah, I dated him for a while,” she said. “No kidding. Bobby used to be my best friend,” I said. “Is that a fact? We had a vicious falling out, but I really liked him,” she said. “What did you fight over, if you don’t mind me asking?” I said. “Oh, he was seeing another girl. Marianne was her name,” she said. “I used to date Marianne myself,” I said. “It’s a small world,” she said. “Yes, it certainly is,” I said. Then I hurried off to work. I didn’t go back into the cafe for a week, but when I did Irene had some big news for me. My divorced mother was dating her widowed father. We could hardly believe it. It practically made us brother and sister, but not quite. We could date each other if we chose. We looked each other in the eye and then looked away. I couldn’t go back into the cafe for a while after that. It was just too much. I was dating a local girl anyway. But we eventually broke up, over nothing really, I never did understand it. She said she wanted more freedom, so I let her go. When I went back to the cafe Irene wasn’t there. She had quit the previous week and no one knew why. I asked about her around town, but no one knew anything. Finally I called my mother and asked her to ask her father if he could help me locate her. She called me back the next day and said he didn’t know where she was, but if I heard anything to please call him. I became obsessed with her and her whereabouts. I quit my job and looked for her full-time. I had some savings which allowed me to do so. I had a tip that she might be on St Thomas. So I bought a ticket and went there. After searching the island thoroughly I gave up and flew back. That’s when I discovered her living in my attic. She said she was sorry, but she just wanted to be closer to me and didn’t know how to tell me. I asked her to come down and live with me in my space. She said she couldn’t now that our parents were married. It would be too much like incest. “I didn’t know our parents were married,” I said. “They didn’t want anybody to know,” she said. “Why?” I said. “In case we got married,” she said. “Why?” I said. “It would be too much like incest,” she said. “Oh,” I said, not knowing what she meant.