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her fiancé was in the army and was shipped to Afghanistan, where he was fatally wounded in a roadside bomb explosion. I know it took her years to get over that, and from the way my father talked about her, she had trouble with every date she had afterward. None of the men who asked her out wanted to be compared to her fiancé, and apparently, she let them believe they would be.
    She did have another steady boyfriend for almost two years, but they broke up when he cheated on her. Most of her energy after that went into her work and taking care of my grandmother.
    She sat on my bed and smiled at me. “You are growing up fast,” she began. “Your father says you’re thinking about boys already.”
    I shrugged.
    â€œDo you have a boyfriend?”
    â€œNot really,” I said.
    â€œBut there’s a boy you like?”
    I nodded.
    â€œI was a little older than you when my mother talked to me about all this. You know how she began?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œShe said, ‘I’m going to tell you about yourself and how you will be when you get close to a boy, and I’m going to warn you about things, but you know what, Barbara? You’re going to do what you want anyway,’ ” she said. “Every girl does, and any mother who thinks differently is just fooling herself to make herself worry less. So let me tell you how it was for me the first time I did more than kiss a boy,” she began.
    I don’t think I ever paid stricter attention to anything anyone had ever said. When I looked back on that evening and the way she followed up with me often, I thought that even though Cathy had a mother and a brilliant older brother, I was the luckier one for this part of life. At least, that was what I suspected, but I knew I had to keep reading to see if I was right, to seeif Cathy ever paid any attention to her brother Christopher’s information about men and women or if her mother gave her the education my mother couldn’t.
    Today, Cathy and I were both surprised but for different reasons. I should write that Cathy was more shocked.
    We learned something I was beginning to suspect.
    I noticed some physical changes in Momma and went to the “Merck Manual” to confirm my suspicions.
    When we came home from school, I knew immediately that something was very different. Momma wasn’t at the door or even moving about the house. She was sitting in her favorite chair by the fireplace and knitting what looked like a tiny sweater.
    She put it aside to hug us both. Cathy’s eyes never left the sweater. I knew she was thinking it was probably for one of her dolls.
    â€œIt’s freezing out there today, Momma,” I said, and moved to the fireplace.
    Cathy never stopped staring at the knitting.
    â€œI have news for you both,” Momma began. “I was at Dr. Bloom’s today.”
    â€œYou’re not sick,” I said. If anything, she looked healthier. After reading what I had, I suspected what she was going to say.
    â€œNo. I’m pregnant, children. Here, Christopher,” she said, and urged me to feelher stomach. She watched me carefully. I think I realized what she was waiting to hear me say.
    â€œThere’s a lot of movement in your womb.”
    â€œWhat’s a womb?” Cathy asked.
    â€œA room for a fetus,” I said, looking at Momma.
    She smiled. “Very good, Christopher. They heard two heartbeats,” she said.
    â€œTwins?”
    I looked at Cathy, who was acting very strangely now. She began to back away as if Momma might explode. She looked angry, too.
    â€œDo you understand, Cathy? Momma is going to have at least twins. I hope two boys,” I said. “Identical twins, and not simply fraternal.”
    â€œYou’ll be a wonderful older brother, no matter what they are,” Momma said, and looked at Cathy. “And you’ll be a wonderful older sister.”
    Cathy didn’t say anything.