The question came from Sophie on a Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
She and Maya were visiting, and Maya had gone with Eileen to pick up dessert because apparently four adults required professional assistance to acquire one pie.<\/p>\n
Sophie sat across from me on the porch.<\/p>\n
She had a notebook in her lap.<\/p>\n
That should have warned me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou brought a notebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always carry one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you carry your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to ask you something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She clicked her pen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want people to remember about all this?\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll what?\u201d<\/p>\n
She gave me the look young people reserve for older relatives who deliberately make simple questions difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandpa. Dad. Mom. The lottery. The fraud. Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m writing something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor work?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSchool?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI graduated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember. I screamed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer changed my posture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of something?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA book?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe never.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why write it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause everybody else already has.\u201d<\/p>\n
She meant the articles.<\/p>\n
The documentaries I refused.<\/p>\n
The podcasts.<\/p>\n
The online versions in which I became a helpless grandmother, a secret mastermind, a lottery genius, or an avenging millionaire depending on what produced the better headline.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are going to tell it anyway,\u201d Sophie said. \u201cI want one version that belongs to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked toward the roses.<\/p>\n
\u201cUs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
That helped.<\/p>\n
People who wanted control usually made refusal expensive.<\/p>\n
Sophie had learned better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you want to know?\u201d<\/p>\n
She glanced at the notebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did you first realize your life had changed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what everyone says.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I surprised myself.<\/p>\n
She looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen, then?\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought about it.<\/p>\n
Not the scratched numbers.<\/p>\n
Not the lawyer confirming eleven million dollars.<\/p>\n
Not buying the rental house.<\/p>\n
Not discovering Sunrise Pines.<\/p>\n
Not the blue box.<\/p>\n
Not Harold\u2019s recording.<\/p>\n
Then I knew.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe morning I called the lottery lawyer without telling Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat early?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I had a secret that belonged to me, and for once I did not immediately ask somebody else what I should do.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wrote.<\/p>\n
I watched the pen move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had spent years asking your grandfather things because we were partners. After he died, I started asking Daniel because I was frightened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDad liked being asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did Grandpa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the important part.\u201d<\/p>\n
She waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I wanted help. Sometimes I asked because I had forgotten I could decide without permission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie wrote again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is what changed first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot the money?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money made the decision safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I made a bad choice, I had resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds like money changed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt changed the consequences of choice. Not the existence of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds like something you\u2019ve rehearsed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. It sounds like something I paid eleven million dollars to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
She laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTechnically you kept most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTaxes disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n
We talked for almost an hour.<\/p>\n
Sophie asked what I remembered about her grandfather before everything.<\/p>\n
I told her about Harold singing incorrectly on purpose because he enjoyed irritating me.<\/p>\n
About the summer he tried to repair our washing machine and flooded half the laundry room.<\/p>\n
About his habit of buying one expensive fishing lure every spring and insisting it was an investment.<\/p>\n
About the night Daniel was born, when Harold looked at our screaming red-faced baby and whispered, \u201cWe have made a serious administrative error.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie laughed so hard she dropped the pen.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad has never told me that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe probably doesn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was busy screaming.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wrote it down.<\/p>\n
Then she asked about Renata.<\/p>\n
That was harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was Mom like when Dad first brought her home?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFunny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie looked surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe made your father laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDad still says that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe made me laugh too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
I considered the temptation to turn a complicated person into a lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t usually become one thing in one afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas she always greedy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo are most people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you like her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did you stop?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat assumes I stopped all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie\u2019s expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still like parts of her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember parts I liked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn\u2019t the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wrote more slowly.<\/p>\n
Then:<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you forgive her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer came easily.<\/p>\n
Sophie stopped writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen maybe?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t organize my life around whether I will.\u201d<\/p>\n
She considered that.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom says forgiveness is part of her program.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounded sarcastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope she becomes someone who does not need forgiveness to keep changing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie stopped smiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t write it like a quote.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToo late.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSophie.\u201d<\/p>\n
She laughed.<\/p>\n
Maya and Eileen returned carrying two pies instead of one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy two?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Eileen held up a chocolate pie.<\/p>\n
\u201cChoice.\u201d<\/p>\n
I could not argue with that.<\/p>\n
After dinner, Sophie forgot the notebook on my table.<\/p>\n
I noticed before she left.<\/p>\n
For one reckless second, I wanted to open it.<\/p>\n
My story.<\/p>\n
My granddaughter\u2019s interpretation.<\/p>\n
What had she written?<\/p>\n
Then I carried it to the driveway.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou forgot this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not read it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would have told me if you did.\u201d<\/p>\n
That trust felt better than curiosity would have.<\/p>\n
A week later, Daniel came for dinner.<\/p>\n
I told him Sophie was writing.<\/p>\n
He groaned.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re worried?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I look terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did terrible things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not.\u201d<\/p>\n
He smiled.<\/p>\n
Then grew serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think she should write it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe should write anything she wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPublish?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you let her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe does not require my permission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you be comfortable?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMe either.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does not settle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
We were both learning the difference between having feelings about another person\u2019s choice and having authority over it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d ask her to protect victims who never wanted publicity,\u201d Daniel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd maybe not use every detail about Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I can\u2019t tell her not to write about me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked toward the mantel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to think being her father meant I had that right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMost parents do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandpa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
We smiled.<\/p>\n
Progress did not require pretending we came from enlightened people.<\/p>\n
It required noticing what needed changing.<\/p>\n
Sophie eventually let me read twenty pages.<\/p>\n
Not the whole thing.<\/p>\n
Her choice.<\/p>\n
The first sentence irritated me.<\/p>\n
My grandmother became famous because someone gave her a terrible birthday present.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamous?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBriefly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill counts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd \u2018terrible birthday present\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
I continued.<\/p>\n
The pages were not about eleven million dollars.<\/p>\n
Not really.<\/p>\n
They were about signatures.<\/p>\n
Doors.<\/p>\n
Keys.<\/p>\n
Phone calls.<\/p>\n
People speaking around older adults instead of to them.<\/p>\n
About how Daniel\u2019s love became control when fear entered it.<\/p>\n
How Renata\u2019s resentment became justification.<\/p>\n
How Harold\u2019s protection became secrecy.<\/p>\n
How my own guilt became a way of pulling Daniel toward me.<\/p>\n
Nobody escaped.<\/p>\n
Including Sophie.<\/p>\n
She wrote about hiding the microSD because she liked having something adults did not control.<\/p>\n
About how frightened that made her afterward.<\/p>\n
About enjoying, for one brief moment, being important to the mystery.<\/p>\n
I looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou included yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were a child.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEleven isn\u2019t a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew Grandpa told me not to give Caleb the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked knowing something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tapped the page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
No heroes.<\/p>\n
No monsters.<\/p>\n
Choices.<\/p>\n
Patterns.<\/p>\n
Consequences.<\/p>\n
I handed the pages back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hate the first sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m keeping it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She grinned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you ever let me publish?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk me when it is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStop saying fair. Your father does that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She laughed.<\/p>\n
That winter, the Open Door Fund helped block an emergency guardianship petition involving a woman named Lorraine Price.<\/p>\n
Her son claimed she was confused because she planned to sell a valuable property and move overseas.<\/p>\n
An independent evaluation found no impairment.<\/p>\n
Lorraine simply wanted to live in Portugal.<\/p>\n
At eighty-two.<\/p>\n
Her son considered it reckless.<\/p>\n
She considered it Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The petition failed.<\/p>\n
Lorraine sent the fund a postcard months later.<\/p>\n
Ocean.<\/p>\n
Blue sky.<\/p>\n
One sentence:<\/p>\n
Tell everyone I remain irresponsibly alive.<\/p>\n
Rebecca sent me a photograph of the card.<\/p>\n
I laughed for ten minutes.<\/p>\n
Then I printed it and put it near my desk.<\/p>\n
Not every story needed tragedy to prove autonomy mattered.<\/p>\n
Somebody should be allowed to make a foolish choice too.<\/p>\n
That was the part people missed.<\/p>\n
Respecting choice only when you agreed with the choice was another form of control.<\/p>\n
I learned that personally when Eileen announced she planned to visit Frank.<\/p>\n
I nearly dropped my tea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn prison?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer irritated me precisely because it was sufficient.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you expect something?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForgiveness?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReconciliation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause thirty-seven years of my life are sitting in that prison too.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
Not Frank.<\/p>\n
Her years.<\/p>\n
She wanted to look at the person who carried them with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he may manipulate you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you could leave worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re still going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sighed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWant me to drive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Eileen smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
She went alone.<\/p>\n
Returned alone.<\/p>\n
Came to my house afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow was it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he apologize?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you believe him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently our family had developed a standard measurement.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to go again?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was all.<\/p>\n
No intervention.<\/p>\n
No argument.<\/p>\n
Eileen sat beside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wanted to tell me not to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDesperately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowth.\u201d<\/p>\n
She laughed.<\/p>\n
Then cried.<\/p>\n
I held her.<\/p>\n
By spring, Daniel had been out long enough that the novelty of freedom disappeared.<\/p>\n
That was when the harder work began.<\/p>\n
He was tired of therapy.<\/p>\n
Tired of restitution.<\/p>\n
Tired of explaining his record.<\/p>\n
One Sunday, he arrived angry.<\/p>\n
Not at me.<\/p>\n
At everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did my time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why does it still follow me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause time served is a legal measurement.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does not erase history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is forever?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He paced the porch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s easy for you to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
The sentence hung there.<\/p>\n
Old Daniel might have apologized immediately.<\/p>\n
Old me might have punished him with silence.<\/p>\n
Instead I asked, \u201cWhat part is easy for me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got money.\u201d<\/p>\n
True.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also true.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to be the person everyone believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually true.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m the son who let his father die.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice broke.<\/p>\n
I let the words sit.<\/p>\n
Then:<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich part?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour description.\u201d<\/p>\n
He waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did not simply let your father die. You tried once to call. Caleb stopped you. Then you made a terrible choice and delayed trying again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel\u2019s eyes filled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sounds like an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. It is accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sat down.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I think it would be easier if I were completely bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I wouldn\u2019t have to figure out what parts of me are worth keeping.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
Harold\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
Do not let Daniel inherit my fear.<\/p>\n
I sat beside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are not required to divide yourself into parts worth keeping and parts worth throwing away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do I do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep choosing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo finish line?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cComforting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI try.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stayed for dinner.<\/p>\n
His anger passed without anyone pretending it had been wrong to feel.<\/p>\n
That was progress too.<\/p>\n
Later that year, I turned seventy-eight.<\/p>\n
Sophie gave me no ticket.<\/p>\n
Daniel gave me gardening gloves.<\/p>\n
Eileen gave me another kettle because apparently she had developed a theme.<\/p>\n
Maya gave me a ceramic fish.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
She looked terrified for half a second.<\/p>\n
Then I laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcellent.\u201d<\/p>\n
It joined Harold\u2019s trout.<\/p>\n
Two ugly fish.<\/p>\n
A collection had begun against my will.<\/p>\n
After everyone left, Sophie stayed behind.<\/p>\n
She had her notebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinished?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst draft.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToo long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRuns in the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
She handed me the final page.<\/p>\n
Only the final page.<\/p>\n
I read.<\/p>\n
She had written:<\/p>\n
The winning ticket was never the point. It was simply the first thing my grandmother held that everyone around her did not know how to control.<\/p>\n
I looked at Sophie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is almost right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ticket was not the first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was?\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of Harold.<\/p>\n
Daniel.<\/p>\n
My life before both.<\/p>\n
My own hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cMyself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophie smiled.<\/p>\n
Then crossed out one sentence.<\/p>\n
She rewrote it.<\/p>\n
I did not ask what she changed.<\/p>\n
Some endings belonged to the person writing them.<\/p>\n
The question came from Sophie on a Sunday afternoon. She and Maya were visiting, and Maya had gone with Eileen to pick up dessert because apparently four adults required professional … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20310,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20256\/revisions\/20310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}