‘That’s not going to be an issue with us,’ I assured him. ‘My parents have never interfered when it comes to my dating. I see whom I wish to s...ee.’ Which was the truth, only I had never dated a Jewish guy before and wasn’t certain my parents’ usual laissez-faire policy would apply when it came to Zach. Our first date was typical for the times. We saw a movie (‘Endless Summer’), stopped for a bite to eat, and then smooched a little in the car parked in front of my house. Zach declined my invite. I finished in time to do a quick review, found a couple of spelling errors and a missing accent. I fixed those and when she collected the papers, I knew I had an A on the exam and a B for the quarter. Nothing she could do now could change that because she had handed out our participation grades last Friday.The gang met for lunch, Danny and I talked about the Spanish test. He was bummed because he knew he missed several questions, but he was done with Spanish anyway. He decided he was going to. I remember one day looking at myself in the mirror and realizing how unsightly I’d become. I looked dumpy and fat, I felt dumpy and fat and by golly, I was dumpy and fat. I threw myself onto the bed, buried my face in the pillow and cried. Anyway, despite my mother’s words, I never did blossom. In fact, I think I probably got plainer as my life went on. It soon became obvious when my father had a stroke that I’d be the one to look after him because Mum wasn’t too well either and couldn’t cope.. No I didn't catch them in a compromising position or anything like that, but I was left with the distinct impression that I wasn't quite as welcome as I might have been. In the end of course I stayed. With one daughter now living with her partner, the other had finished her university degree and was now living and working from home. Even still there was more than enough room to put me up. I would however be left pretty much to my own devices - that was made pretty clear. Sis and her Chamber of.