“Well, really it’s just on the way to Kenya, but the hills are supposed to be beautiful. And there are gorillas.”

“Huh.”

“I mean, we can just pass through, we wouldn’t have to stay.”

“No,” Ruth says. “I was just—go on.”

Wilson takes a breath. “Kenya,” he says. “Kenya’s your real Africa, you know. Lots of lions, leopards, gazelles, zebras, buffalo, all those guys. I was thinking we’d get a guide and go on safari. Casey says it’s really the way to go. The trouble is, you’ve got to book well ahead.”

“Casey?”

“The travel agent I’ve been working with. She’s looking to see if there’d be anything left for January, if it came to that, which it seems to be doing.”

All of a sudden, Ruth plunges back to reality, to where they’re sitting right now, their daughter silent in the other room. “Wait a second, Wilson. All of a sudden you’re talking about this trip in awfully concrete terms. January? January is soon! January is in a couple of weeks! Maybe June, maybe next year—Africa sounds like a wonderful trip—but I thought we’d settled it that going to Africa in January is totally unrealistic.”

“I thought you said that going on this way is totally unrealistic.”

“And it is. But Africa is not the cure, I’m fairly sure. I don’t know why you’ve gotten such a bee in your bonnet about Africa.” She can see the hurt in Wilson’s eyes, and for a moment, she feels guilty; she is taking out the day’s frustrations on him.

“It’s not a bee in my bonnet, Ruth,” he says defensively. “It’s something to do. You’re the one all hyped over doing.”

“Oh, come on. Doing does not mean flying off to another continent. It would be an interesting trip. It is not a cure.”

“Is art a cure? Going to that art class sounded like an absolute disaster. And you really think that she’s spelled out some hidden message in her sketchbooks? That some shrink is going to be able to decipher? I think you’ve got a bee in your bonnet about art, is what I think.”

After this afternoon’s conversation with Dr. Steingold, Wilson’s criticism stings doubly. “I never said art was a cure. Anyway, wasn’t it that drawing, the one of the lion, that put this Africa idea into your head in the first place?”

“No, it was you, trying to make conversation at dinner that night. If you recall, that’s why she did that drawing in the first place.”