After dinner, Father leaves to call on his friend John Hill Hewitt. Hewitt is one of Baltimore’s brawling poets, and once punched Edgar Allan Poe (another of Father’s friends—he knows everyone!) in the face in a dispute over a literary prize. Father’s supposed to be back home for supper or, failing that, before the children go to bed, but no one is surprised when he isn’t. If Father has money and friends (the friends optional—strangers will do in a pinch), he finds his way to the closest bar.

Mother waits for him until supper is cold. Then, claiming a headache, she goes to lie down. Rosalie follows. The other children serve themselves and eat in silence. Joe begins to cry and can’t explain why. Nobody tells the children to go to bed and so they don’t, except for Joe, who falls asleep in the parlor and is carried upstairs, his legs spilling from Edwin’s arms and bumping against the banister and doorframe.

Sometime after midnight, they hear Father stumbling up the stoop and hurry to their bedrooms before they’re seen. They leave a telltale fire crackling in the parlor.

Father is trying to be quiet. They hear this. They hear the wind, whistling through a crack in the bedroom window. They hear doors opening and closing. They hear Rosalie making her thumping way upstairs. The boys’ bedroom is icy and Edwin leaves his socks on when he gets under the covers. He shivers and his teeth rattle until he’s finally warm enough to fall asleep.

—

In the morning, Rosalie makes the children breakfast and sees them off to school. Her eyes are red from crying, but she refuses to admit this, claiming instead to be coming down with a cold. Father has already left. Mother doesn’t come out of her bedroom. A hushed gloom settles like a fog on the house.

The recent rain smeared mud and puddles of pig shit on the pavement. Edwin has barely left the stoop before he steps in something vile. He tries to scrape his shoe clean on the bricks, using some language he is not supposed to use, and the whole thing—his fouled shoes, his foul mouth—makes Johnny and Asia laugh.

They walk three abreast. “Mother is quarreling with Father,” Asia says, as if she’s the only one to notice. They assume this has to do with money. Father has spent his money somewhere and now Mother doesn’t know how to pay the bills. They’ve all seen this play before.