After she told me about the molestation I realized that Evie dated Jessie’s weight gain from then. And maybe it was a classic case of using fat as sexual defense. But it might just have been self-medication and a way of punishing her mom. Jessie knew how much her fat bugged her mother.

It may have also bothered Evie that Jessie had no friends, but if so she didn’t let on to me. I know I would have worried if David had nobody to hang around with, but Evie never mentioned it and in response to any observation of mine, she always said Jessie would grow into a social life. A year ago, when I was able to observe things, I witnessed how pathetic Jessie was. One of my jobs was to pick her up from school a few times. I came early in a car she didn’t know well, and idled in a parking area different from where her parents waited, so she didn’t notice me. I saw her hulking after a Goth-dressed group, obviously longing. I watched her ready smile, her attempt to join the conversation, the way her face fell as the group ignored her. Once it even appeared that a ringleader mocked her; Jessie turned away from them with a look of utter mortification, and I accelerated to where she was heading, cheerily chirping my horn and acting like I saw nothing. Jessie seemed to spend all her off-time in her room, with her cousins at family gatherings, or at some church-connected function. My son had to socialize with her a couple of times, and he maintained that she cheated at games and mostly got away with it, because no one could stand being around her anger when she lost.

Evie recovered most of the use of her wrist in time, and she was able to handle her home life after seven weeks. I stopped coming by around then. I resumed just noticing her bad posture, and mostly paying attention to the issues in my own life. I’ve heard that teenage boys are easier to raise than girls, but it seemed like all my home time was soaked up either by David’s depression when he had girlfriend problems or by my concerns when he didn’t. I knew he was sexually active and I wasn’t sure he was safe. We were seeing Pam twice a week.

Evie and Mike decided to throw a graduation party for Jessie. I thought it was a terrible idea and apparently Jessie did too. She was still an unwilling loner and sure enough, the only RSVPs came from cousins. But Evie and Mike proceeded with their plans and it was when they were sprucing up the back garden, three weeks before the scheduled event, that Evie broke her ankle.

I couldn’t believe it.

The first time I visited her I made a joking remark about Mike smacking her around too hard and too often, and before she laughed there was a look on her face that astounded me. Her eyes did the rabbity thing I often saw when she was under pressure at the office. Like I’d struck a chord with my abuse reference. It was beyond weird. And it sure made me think about Mike and their marriage. As far as I could tell their partnership wasn’t particularly happy. But that’s how most marriages look to me and anyway, who can tell from outside?