Janet Griswold was sitting in front of her TV feeling sorry for herself. It was the twenty-first of December, and she was “celebrating” her thirty-second birthday. So far, only her best friend, Rhonda, had called to wish her happy birthday. Even then, it had only been a call, without an offer to take her out to dinner or anything!
Of course, Janet was used to birthdays like that. As a child, the fact that her birthday was so close to Christmas had led to the inevitable combination of both holidays, meaning she got nothing until Christmas morning. True, she always got a cake on her birthday, but she had always felt a little like she had been cheated.
A lot of Janet’s life seemed to have been short-changed a bit. Her first husband, Willard, had been a mean drunk, and had smacked her around
