I now felt like a mama wolf with five cubs who finds about 50 coyotes completely surrounding her den. This was not the question I had wanted or anticipated. "Ah-um-uh," I said, temporizing while sounding a bit less coherent than an orchestra warming up. My first instinct was to tell them that we were all such good friends, why make things weird? But I don't like to lie, and I especially did not want to lie to these two women. "Uh, why do you ask?" I asked meekly.

Lisa seemed taken aback in turn by my question, and hesitated. Lee rushed in to support her. "Don't answer questions with questions....