He had wanted to say to Ted, ‘Make an effort.’ But, even if Ted didn’t, Mary might at least have to look at how far unstuck her marriage had come and make an effort herself. All David had wanted to say to her was, ‘Have fun!’ She had all her life been so good at it.

Tyler did help to clear the table because it gave him his father’s privilege of dishing out the ice cream. His serving scandalised both of his sisters and nearly daunted Tyler, but he did finish it.

‘Shall we go and be more comfortable in the other room?’ Tyler asked, making his child’s voice as deep as he could, low in his throat, hollow with excess air.

Everyone laughed. It was Ted’s line at the end of every meal.

In the living room Tyler reverted to himself, rolling around on the carpet clutching his stomach in a parody of agony to act out his sisters’ warnings.

‘Listen, Tyler,’ Patsy said when she’d stopped laughing at him, ‘you’re supposed to say what we have to talk about.’

Ted liked to introduce a topic for discussion for a brief period after dinner before the children went off to do homework and Mary did the final cleaning up after the meal.

‘Oh, I can’t do that,’ Tyler said and explained again in his fake voice, ‘I got home from the office too late to catch tonight’s news.’

‘Then you have to,’ Patsy said to Christine.

‘Me? No way. You have to, Grandad.’

‘I didn’t catch the news either,’ David said, ‘but I never do. Why don’t we try closer to home? Who would be your villain of the day at school or the most unpopular person around?’

‘That’s not hard,’ Tyler said.

‘Is it a trick, Grandad?’ Patsy asked.

‘A trick?’

‘I mean, Mother doesn’t like us to say bad things about our teachers or other kids.’

‘Oh, I see,’ David said. ‘I didn’t really mean that. If it is a trick—and maybe you could call it that—it’s just that closer to home you can think about people who trouble you in a way that might make you understand them better.’

‘That’s not so easy after all,’ Tyler decided. ‘I was going to show you how this weird kid in my class pulls out his hair and eats it.’

Tyler took a tuft of his own hair and pulled.

‘Ow!’ he shouted. ‘That really hurt, and I didn’t even get any. This guy does it to himself all the time. He’s even got bald patches, and he has to wear this cap, even inside, to remind him not to.’

The pain obviously puzzled Tyler, jarring him out of mockery into a new place of speculation.

‘Why would he want to hurt himself?’ Tyler asked.