Mark, who was winning for the first time that evening, looked up at her and said, 'We're almost finished with the game, Mom. Just a few more minutes? Please?’ He looked over at Damien for support.

With a sly grin, Damien, said, 'Come on, Mark. If Mom says it's bedtime, it's bedtime.’

Ann chuckled, knowing exactly what was going on.

Now it was Mark's turn to smile. 'I have an idea,' he said, with a twinkle in his eye. 'Why don't we leave the board standing overnight?’

Everyone laughed as they got up to leave.

After all the good nights and kisses had been exchanged, Ann turned off the light behind them and went to join the other grown-ups. The two boys started up the dark wooden stairs to their rooms.

'Damien,' Mark said, 'I've been meaning to ask you something.'

'Is it important?' asked Damien wearily, in perfect imitation of a tired and grouchy businessman.

Mark laughed. 'Of course not,' he said. 'Is it ever?'

'Then go ahead,' said Damien grandly.

'What's with you and Neff?'

Whatever question Damien had expected, that certainly wasn't it. He looked closely at Mark, then said guardedly, 'What do you mean?'

'Well,' Mark replied, stopping at the top of the stairs, 'he seems to be watching you all the time. It's kind of weird.'

'Yeah, it is,' said Damien. He walked down the dark hallway to his room and opened the door. He stopped and turned to Mark, who was still watching him. 'Neff is a sergeant,' he said, 'and all sergeants are weird. Don't you know anything?' And then, with a dramatic bow and a smile to show he was only having fun, he stage-whispered, 'Good night,' and disappeared into his bedroom.

***

By late afternoon the next day, all the guests had arrived. Buher was there, the Pasarian and Atherton, and Dr Warren. Some of the boys from the Academy had even managed to find a way to get up to the lake.

In families like the Thorns—and there are not that many of them in America anymore, perhaps only the Kennedys and the Rockefellers—the celebration of a birthday, especially a birthday as laden with significance as the thirteenth birthday af a male child, is not so much a social occasion as a tribal rite. A boy is entering into adulthood, about to become a man who, through the exercise of family power, will undoubtedly affect the lives of countless others—perhaps even the destiny of nations. And so the gaiety and lightness with which the Thorns conducted the ceremony was only a social mask, hiding a very real, underlying solemnity.