Excerpt #2 from Reasons, by Tracy Fabre, ©2009

Hazel retorted, “It’s not just a party. It’s the party in Statler. Carla should know whoever she goes with is the person she’ll be linked with for the next year.”

“By people like you, Hazel. Not people Carla’s age. They’re just there to have fun.”

“What do you mean, people like me?” The rolling pin was being waved in Tam's direction now. “What do you mean?”

“Easy, girl,” he said soothingly. “Just think back to when you were seventeen.”

“When I was seventeen,” Annie said, bemused, “the dance was held over in the fairgrounds under a big circus tent.”

“When I was seventeen,” Tam echoed, gazing at me, “they moved it to the town square. But after the usual dozen cases of heatstroke, they realized air conditioning was really the way to go.”

When I was seventeen, either you or Bobby or maybe even Artie ran me down in the road, and dancing wasn’t in the cards for a long time. “I found out why I’m called Delph-eye,” I said abruptly.

“Oh, yeah?”

I told him about my father’s musical pun, and he laughed, but before he could make any comment, I turned to Annie and inquired, “Why is he called Tam instead of Tom?”

Annie smiled. “It’s a Scots thing.”

“That’s what he said when I asked him. But what’s the real reason?”

“Robert’s grandfather was called Tam, and when he showed us old family photos he’d brought from Scotland, we could all see Tam looked just like him as a child.” Annie smiled at her son. “It seemed only natural for little Tommy to turn into Tam.”

“Little Tommy?” I repeated, trying not to grin.

Tam arched one eyebrow, and went to the microwave when it dinged. “I have no recollection of ever being called ‘little Tommy.’”

“That’s not surprising,” his mother said. “You weren’t even one.”

Hazel cleared her throat. “When I was seventeen, I had respect for the opinions of my elders.”

We all turned to her. Annie was the one to laugh first. “You did not, you cranky old bat.”

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