I pulled the blanket resting on the back of my chair down onto my lap. “Really?”

“Have you ever heard the story ‘The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage’?”

I frowned. “I can honestly say I have not.”

“Well,” Gideon said, resting his elbows on the armrests of his chair and pyramiding his fingers, “in it the mouse, the bird, and the sausage all live together, and they all have very specific roles when it comes to household chores.”

I straightened up. “Wait, wait, wait. The sausage lives with the bird and mouse?”

“Yes.”

“And the sausage has chores?”

“Yes, they all have roles,” Gideon said, ignoring the question in my voice. “The bird collects wood for the fire, the mouse collects water, and the sausage feeds the three of them.”

I frowned again, maybe a little harder. “Do I want to know how the sausage feeds the family?”

My uncle sighed. “If you are unable to suspend your disbelief surrounding the details of the sausage, I’m afraid we will never get through this story.”

“Sorry.”

“Now, one day,” Gideon said, tilting the peak of his fingers toward me, “the bird decides his job is by far the most difficult of the three, so he declares they should all switch roles. The bird decides it will be his job to collect the water, the sausage will collect the wood, and the mouse will cook the dinner.”

“Sounds fair.”

“Except it all goes terribly wrong.”

I probably should have seen that coming, given it was a Grimms’ tale. “What happens?”

“The sausage goes out for wood and gets eaten by a dog.”

I blinked. “That is unfortunate.”

“The mouse tries to season the supper, falls into a pot of boiling water, and dies.”

“And the bird?”

“Falls into the well and drowns.”

“I can see why this particular Grimms’ tale was one of their lesser works.”

Gideon leaned back in his chair. “But it does bring up some interesting points about families.”

“Like we should all stay in our lanes or die?”

“That is the most obvious interpretation, but I was thinking more about how we all fall into character during family strife. And how we can get stuck in those roles, and how they cause us pain. Maybe Constance was tired of being the villain in her family? It sounds like John was angry at his brother for painting the three of them as victims. And maybe Mary was tired of trying to make amends, and her daughter was tired of seeing her try.”

I didn’t answer right away. It was certainly something to consider.

“Whatever the case may be, change in families, even the good kind, can cause pain. Look at you. You are a grown woman, capable of making your own choices, but your aunts will always want to look out for you.”

“I’m fairly certain I said I didn’t want to talk about this.”

Gideon held up his hands in defeat. “I had to try.” He paused a moment, then added, “That being said, I do want to apologize.”