Jenny is standing in front of the mirror in the hall, putting some last-minute touches to her makeup when I come out of the bathroom. I think that it would be a great thing if we were going to the Grange together despite my misgivings about the place. I feel it in my bones that she wouldn’t be going to as much trouble with her clothes and with her eyeshadow, if that were the case. I don’t know what to say so I ask her if she has her house keys and she nods. Then I tell her that she doesn’t need to bring them, as I’ll probably be up anyhow when she gets home.

This is as good a time as any to ask her what time she expects to be back. She is, I notice, unflinching in her evasiveness and I choose not to dwell on this, instead I ask if she liked dinner and I mention that I am now vehemently committed to the use of linguine as opposed to chips to accompany a steak. Jenny answers by covering her cheekbones in a face powder that I notice in this light has a certain luminosity. She dabs her thin lips with a dark red stain that makes her look as though she has been eating blackcurrants, such is the way she absorbs colour. She tells me that I am allowed to continue the book that she is reading with the children. I thank her for granting me permission to read aloud to my own offspring, that I feel privileged to have such an honour bestowed on me.

And with that she is gone.

38. Destruction

The boys look out the window as if with hope that Jenny might come back and tell them that it’s all a terrible mistake and that she is in fact not going out tonight. Maeve is reading and I don’t think it even registers with her that Jenny has left. I make a show of telling the children that as their mother has decided to go out gallivanting for the evening perhaps we might have a game of Monopoly. Mikey and Joey rush over to the shelf and pull down the Monopoly set. They are in good spirits now and I do my best to muster up some enthusiasm, after all it is my suggestion.