Eleanor rang when Pearly was having his delayed lunch. David had been to the doctor and there didn’t seem to be anything seriously the matter, though he’d been going both ends. Probably a stomach bug, and he was asleep already, which was a good sign. They were embarrassed about the car and wanted to pay for a valet service, but Pearly wouldn’t hear of it. He talked with her for some time about the theft of David’s wallet in the mall. Over $300 in cash, but the cards had been blocked. ‘I’d say it’s a trip both of us would prefer to forget,’ said Pearly. ‘Anyway, the main thing is his health. Tell him not to consider coming to work until he’s up to it.’

Helen and Alison went out that evening to the movies. It had been arranged before Helen knew Pearly was returning after just one night. She said he was welcome to come, but he preferred to stay on at the council and prepare for a meeting of the finance committee and the visit of officials from a Singapore-based container shipping company. Pearly found office time especially productive after six o’clock. Interruptions ceased, the phone was silent. Sometimes he was the only person left in the building and he welcomed that. It was as if all the crew had abandoned ship and he was left on the bridge as captain. He didn’t close the venetians of his broad office window, and when he turned from his desk he saw the static lights of the town beyond the museum park, and closer, below, the flow of vehicle lights. All those hidden people passing beneath his window. All their destinations and ambitions, the passing urgency that is the trivial flurry of everyday life.

He worked on undisturbed until almost eleven o’clock. David might not be in the next day for advice and support, and Pearly wished to be prepared for the obligations of the week. He’d learnt the hard way that failure to have done the homework for meetings was almost always punished, and in a public, ignominious way. When he did leave and walk to his car, he was satisfied that he’d achieved more during the evening than if he’d remained in Christchurch at the conference. There was a lingering smell within the car, but it was as much vinegar as anything the CEO had contributed.