From Here to Paternity

all these years,“ Jane said. She’d finished her cereal and was wishing she’d gotten some bacon and toast with it. She was hungrier now than when she had started eating.
    Tenny cheered up. “He’d be hell on wheels for most of us, but she adores him. They’ve never had children except for me in a way, and she’s been mother and wife to him. Bossing him around, talking his ears off, surrounding him with ghastly little domestic stuff. They’re perfect for each other.“
    “She told us you said she had no taste,“ Jane said with a smile.
    Tenny laughed. “I never said that in my life.“
    “Don’t worry. I saw the thing she’s crocheting. And she seemed to take real pride in your taste.“
    “Excuse me, but we got sidetracked,“ Mel said. The waiter was back with his breakfast, a substantial order that Jane looked over longingly. “You want the muffin?“ Mel asked.
    She nearly snatched it. “Yes, thanks.“
    “You said you asked your uncle what he thought of Mrs. Schmidtheiser’s claims,“ Mel said to Tenny. “What was his response?“
    “Pretty much that she might be right and he didn’t care. He said Gregory sometimes mentioned the Old Country in a vague way. He’d say the winters here weren’t any worse than in the Old Country, that sort of remark.“
    “Could that mean Russia?“ Jane asked.
    “Sure. Or it could mean a mountainous area of Germany or Switzerland, or any part of Finland, for that matter,“ Tenny said.
    “So he didn’t care about the truth of it?“
    “I don’t think it was so much that he didn’t care as it was that he understood and respected his father’s privacy. If the old man didn’t want anybody to know his background, then nobody—not even Bill himself—had any business snooping into it. He wasn’t so fanatic about it that he really minded Doris and her pals, but he wasn’t about to help them. It’s a shame Doris couldn’t have lived a few more years—“
    She glanced around at their confused expressions. “I forget that you haven’t been subjected to as much genealogy as we have. I meant the census. The government grants you privacy when you answer the census questions. For your lifetime. And it considers the average lifetime to be seventy years. So right now the most recent census that’s available to the public is the one of 1920. Gregory could have been anywhere then. Maybe already up in the mountains someplace where no census taker could find him. Or maybe in transit from wherever he came from. But by 1930, he was right here, so in the year 2000 the genealogists can go to the National Archives and see his answers to the questions.“
    “What sort of questions?“ Jane asked.
    “I don’t know what they asked in 1930, but in the previous ones they asked things like where and when you were born, where each of your parents was born, when you came to this country if you weren’t born here, whether and when you took your citizenship. Things like that.“
    “So in 2000 they can find out more about him.“
    Jane mused. “But would he have answered the questions the census people asked him? Or told the truth if he did?“
    “Good point,“ Tenny said.
    “The class I took yesterday talked about the census a little bit,“ Shelley put in. “The teacher said it wasn’t always very reliable. Apparently they hired somebody—practically anybody who was available—to go around and ask the questions. If the census taker got sick of it, or drunk, or was a little hard of hearing, the answers might be pretty erroneous, even if they were given truthfully. And a lot of people always got missed. If they weren’t home to answer that day, the census taker would often just ask the next-door neighbor.“
    “Oh, my God,“ Tenny said, glancing at her watch. “I’ve got a ton of things to do. Sorry for horning in on your breakfast. If you see Uncle Bill before I do, would you tell him I’m looking for him?“
    Mel watched her leave. “I don’t like it,“ he said softly.
    “What don’t you like?“ Jane asked.
    “Anybody who goes missing right after hearing about a mysterious death.“

Chapter 11

    “So you’ve never skied before, either,“ Jane said.
    They were bundled up and on their way to the bunny slope to take a ski lesson.
    Shelley shook her head. “No, and I don’t know why I let you talk me into it this time. A couple of grown women getting ready to tie sticks to their feet and slide down a hill! We’ve gone mad.“
    “Come on,