From Here to Paternity

place. Jane had been unaware that this room connected to two others by way of big dividers that were open now, making a huge area. A very loud country band was well into its repertoire by the time they arrived. Katie and Denise were already there and had found plenty of companionship. Mike immediately wandered off. The little boys declared that dancing was stupid, and begged to be allowed to spend the evening in the game room. With warnings that they were not to go anywhere else without permission, and with a largish contribution of quarters, they were allowed to leave.
    There were tables set up around the entire perimeter of the dance floor with cash bars halfway down each side. Jane, Shelley, and Mel found a vacant table at the far end of the room from the band and settled in. Jane watched the line dancing for a while and reluctantly came to the conclusion that the little boys were right in this case. Line dancing looked stupid and boring to her.
    Shelley echoed her thoughts. “This doesn’t look like a cultural trend I’ll ever be able to embrace with much enthusiasm,“ she said thoughtfully. “I understand the appeal of a waltz or a nice, slow, close-together two-step. I can even grasp why people like to polka, and I once was able to do a really mean twist, but this is a sort of down-home version of a conga line. I don’t get it.“
    “We’re just frumps,“ Jane said contentedly.
    “Now, now, you ladies are much too young to talk about yourselves that way,“ a voice said from behind Jane.
    “Lucky!“ Jane exclaimed. “How nice of you. Will you join us?“
    “For a minute or two. My wife parked me here and told me not to get into any trouble,“ he said with a smile. “As if I’m likely to.“
    Jane introduced him to Mel, then said, “I keep forgetting to give you something, Lucky. I have a folder that belonged to Mrs. Schmidtheiser. She dropped it when she came out of the debate and ran off before I could give it back to her.“
    “How long are you staying?“
    “We leave at the crack of dawn on Tuesday,“ Jane replied.
    “Good. I’m here through Tuesday, so I’ll pick it up from you before you go.“
    “Just out of curiosity, what will you do with it? The folder and all her other research, for that matter? Did she have any children who might be interested? Or a husband?“
    “No, Doris was widowed as a young woman and only had one son, and he isn’t remotely interested. I’ll probably put it into the Society’s library for the time being. That’s what I’m doing with the rest of the materials she had with her. And her son has said he’ll box up all her research at home and send it on to me as well.“
    “Poor thing,“ Shelley said. “To think of all her work just being packed away in boxes like that.“
    “Oh, it’ll be put to use, I’m sure. There’s a slightly younger woman in the Society who’s worked with her and will probably carry on,“ Lucky said. “Which may be a mixed blessing.“
    “Carry on with the Tsar research, you mean?“ Jane asked.
    “Oh, no, that’s not what I was referring to. No. Doris was a professional genealogist. Did a lot of work for other people. Earned a decent living at it. In fact, she moved to Salt Lake City to be able to use the Mormon library without having to wait for films to arrive in Cleveland, where she used to live.“
    “Why do you say that it’s a mixed blessing for someone to carry on her work?“ Jane asked.
    “I shouldn’t tell tales out of school,“ Lucky replied with mock primness.
    “They’re the best kind of tales,“ Shelley assured him. “Do lots of people hire genealogists instead of looking things up themselves?“
    “Mobs. Sometimes a person has an assignment from Great-Aunt Maud, who wants the work done, but the person the job is assigned to isn’t really interested and would rather pay than do it himself. It’s very tedious sometimes, reading through reels and reels of film in the hope of spotting just one familiar name. And then, people who really like doing the work themselves often don’t have all the time they need for it, and they’ll farm out specific areas of their research to a professional. But Doris—well, Doris wasn’t always as ‘disinterested’ as she might have been.“
    “You’re saying she was a snoop?“ Mel surmised. He’d been quietly watching the dancing and hadn’t looked like he was even listening to the conversation until now.
    Lucky nodded. “Doris was a celebrity