[Crowbob]

In the slanting light of the fading September before last, I hosted a barbecue for the families and friends of my daughter and her beloved the day before their wedding.

Of course, amongst the many of my guests that long and delightful evening was the mother of my children. Such grace and ease and happiness!

That party full of love and hope, that gorgeous and glorious night, as I noted to myself, was an entire universe away and a full millennium after my attorney summoned me to his office.

'You are being accused of 'inappropriateness' with your son', he announced.

After a long and tortured silence, 'By whom? Let me see it, I said.

By your wife. There's nothing in writing.

My words sounding more like the cough of a drowning sailor, 'Then bring it!'

Not a word of that heinous and desperate accusation has been uttered in my presence since. Now, as I think about it, the pain and confusion of my accuser must have been unspeakable.