I could see straight now, and I made them go slow. Gaétan first, then his sister, then Tati. To have some order. A child was giving a birthday party at Aqua Boulevard, with the waterslides and the pool that makes waves like an ocean. Alix wanted to go. Gaétan said the brother of the girl with the birthday was a jerk. They know this American word. C’est un jerk. My wife was not home, and Tati is only one person, so Alix could not go to the party without Gaétan. Oliver, my wife’s dog, the dog she bought to make the children fight not so much, had done a shit on the rug. Tati had been all afternoon cleaning it up.

Gaétan is impatient. I started with him. I bent down on my stiff knees so he could see my eyes. “This is a lesson for you,” I said. “You don’t play with the jerk. There are other children. It’s easy, yes?”

Gaétan frowned.

“Alix, you get your bathing suit,” I said. She went wild, kissing me, hugging me, then she ran to her room. Gaétan made a terrible noise.

I said, “Tati, you want to go to Aqua Boulevard?”

Tati smiled. She was tired of dog shit, and she could sit with the other nannies by the pool with the waves.

“Gaétan,” I said, taking his shoulders in my hands, “you go on the biggest waterslide, without your sister. I want to hear you did that today.”

Sometimes my son has a face like a storm, and then it clears, and again he is the most attractive child I have ever seen. He ran to his bedroom for his bathing suit. I gave Tati the money for a birthday present for the sister of the jerk.

“I’m going to take Oliver for a walk,” I said. “I will teach him discipline.”

Tati gave me the leash, a long orange strap, and the children kissed Oliver good-bye and went out the door. I had told my wife I was going to order a leather leash from Hermès, and it was a joke, but maybe I would. With Oliver’s initials. Oliver danced at my feet, his toenails scraping on the wood floor. On the rug was a white towel where Tati had cleaned.