Are you my cousin?

Christmas continues, with the generally joyful hurry of shopping, working, decorating, and Christmas parties. On Monday night I had a pleasant break: dinner with my sister and a long-lost cousin. It was, admittedly, potentially awkward: what you do talk about with someone you last saw when you were seven? But any apprehension I had was dispelled as soon as I met her: a warm and friendly girl with a ready smile and a bumper sticker on her car that read "Courtesy is contagious." How could you not enjoy taking such a girl to La Madeleine's? My sister, my long-lost cousin, and I lingered over crepes and cream puffs, tried to figure out how exactly we are related (third cousins once removed? first cousins thrice removed?) told scandalous stories about our ancestors, and discovered that all three of us are interested in literature, college theater, England, and old graveyards. Maybe it's genetic. And her theater stories almost top the burning letter from An Ideal Husband.