David’s own list was quite different, a tending of a variety of masculine chores about the house which Ted lately had been too apathetic to notice. Half the taps needed new washers. Nearly every door squeaked. Two windows were too swollen to open. The curtain pull for the drapes at the large living room window had broken. How Patricia would have hated the grubby hand marks already visible where one hand or another had yanked the fabric to close them. He might try a bit of spot cleaner on those as well. But he had to be careful not to do anything very obvious. He didn’t want to seem to be reclaiming the territory, nor did he want anything he did to be taken as a silent rebuke. Neither Ted nor Mary was apt to notice or if so only fleetingly, given their distracted states. But the children might give him away. So David did a lot of his chores on Friday while they were in school and was so preoccupied that he had to ask for help in the kitchen to get dinner ready on time.

The children had been well instructed, and the novelty of their grandfather’s benign authority made them cheerful at their chores.

‘Christine, you take your mother’s place, and Tyler, you sit in your dad’s,’ David suggested.

‘Then you have to be the kid and clear the table,’ Tyler said gleefully to Patsy.

‘I don’t think Patsy and I are going to be kids tonight. We’re going to be guests.’

‘So you have to clear the table,’ Tyler said, pointing at Christine.

‘Dad sometimes clears the table,’ Patsy said.

David watched Tyler struggle between the pleasures and the burdens of his place of authority. But hunger nearly immediately overcame other considerations. Patsy, too, settled in to the demands of her stomach. Only Christine did more fiddling with her food than eating it.

‘Not hungry tonight?’ David asked her.

‘Not really,’ Christine admitted, but she began to make an effort. ‘It’s really good.’

‘Don’t eat any more than you want,’ David said, not wanting his granddaughter to eat simply for the sake of his vanity.

‘If you don’t want your potato, I’ll eat it,’ Tyler offered.

‘Is Mom sick, Granddad?’ Christine suddenly asked.

‘Not sick. Just worn out from Christmas,’ David answered.

‘Is that Dad’s problem, too?’ Tyler asked.

‘Dad’s just tired of Mom’s being tired,’ Patsy said.

‘But she didn’t really want to go,’ Christine said. ‘She told me so.’

‘She’ll enjoy herself once she gets there,’ David said to reassure them and himself.