My mother was having an affair with the married man across the street before and after I was born.

My sister is 16 months older than me. So she was an infant and then a toddler during my mother’s affair with the married man across the street. I was a fetus, a newborn, and an infant during my mother’s affair with the married man across the street.

The married man across the street has a wife and 2 pre-teen/teenage children, a boy and a girl. The girl, before and during my mother’s affair with her dad (the married man across the street), babysat my sister and then my sister and me.

My mother was married to my dad while she was having the affair with the married man across the street. My mom and dad and my sister and me would occasionally join the married man across the street and his family in their pool, as we didn’t have one. Summers were hot in Walnut Creek. That’s how the affair began.

My dad had no idea my mother was having an affair with the married man across the street…at first. But, my mother told him about the affair just before Thanksgiving. At that time, my sister was 2 and 1/2 and I was 16 months old. My mom said to our dad, “I’m having an affair with the married man across the street. I am leaving you and he is leaving his wife so we can be together.” The married man across the street told his wife the same night my mom told my dad. Well, his wife didn’t take it quite as well as my dad did, so the married man across the street told my mom that it’s a no-go and he is staying with his wife and two children. So, as luck would have it, my mom told my dad, “Nevermind. I guess we’ll stay together, now.”

My dad, elated that he isn’t going to lose his wife and his tiny daughters to the married man across the street, decided that moving might be wise. He picked out a nice home on the other side of town away from the married man across the street and bought it for us.

The following spring, shortly after moving into our new home for a fresh start (with new neighbors), my dad came home from work one day and put his key in the door. His key did not work, so he knocked. My mom opened the door and said to my dad, “I’m sorry. You don’t live here anymore. The married man that lives across the street from our previous house is moving in.”

So there my dad stood, outside the door of his home where he, his wife and two tiny daughters live that the four of us moved to (away from the married man across the street).

Norm, the married man across the street, came over and moved in that very night.