She would argue with him about the rights and wrongs of private health care and worry about the state of the rain-forest. She would ask why people needed so many cars. She could have been a real pain, but her saving grace was a sense of humour that allowed her to take a joke against herself, and also to take the mickey out of her dad when he got too ‘doctory’ or when he made pronouncements that she thought were unjust, or plain pompous. She pricked his bubble like nobody else.

Matt was a different kettle of fish. Shy and diffident as a child, he had grown into a confident youth; confident, that is, in everything except his sexuality. Discovering your son is gay is never an easy thing for a father. Christopher suspected before Matt did himself. He could see the outer signs of inner turmoil and did his best to handle them. He tried to hide his disappointment and asked himself why he should be disappointed. Matt was creative, energetic, thoughtful and sensitive. Would being heterosexual have made him a better person?

Kate had been good about it and seemed to find it easier to cope. Christopher had fought to keep the dialogue going, but there was always a slight unease between father and son and he felt it was his fault. Perhaps he should have offered more help–not that Matt ever asked for it. But they rubbed along and kept talking. Eventually it became an accepted part of their lives–Christopher was Christopher and Matt was Matt, and their respect for one another survived.

He missed both his children when they left. He missed the teasing he endured at their hands, and he missed their nearness. Always the first to rise in the mornings, he would walk into their rooms and open the curtains, then turn and see the empty beds, always with a stab of wistfulness.

The marriage to Kate had outlasted those of most of his friends–except Tiger. It had its quiet moments after twenty-odd years, and there were days when it seemed routine, but the fact that underneath it all they actually liked one another made up for the dissipation of that first flush of magical attraction. Didn’t it?

With her children off her hands and a husband who seemed to be married in turns to his surgery and his garden, Kate walked out.

It came like a bolt from the blue. Christopher had no inkling at all of her unhappiness, and for that he blamed himself. She was sorry, she said. She was still fond of him, still cared, but wanted more out of life than he seemed able or willing to give. And she wanted it while there was still time.