Mom sat up and started brushing her hair and tied it back. Later she’d put it up in the bun she always wore, but for now she just tied it back with a black ribbon. Then she rubbed a little face cream on and put on her lipstick. All the while sitting in her bed. Mom said that a wife should always try to be beautiful for her husband all the ime if she expected to have a romantic marriage. She said marriage was a picture of Christ and His Church, and we all were the bride of Christ. While Dad ran a little water in the sink to flush his pee down it, Mom was smoothing down her nightgown and blotting her fresh lipstick with a Kleenex so it wouldn’t be too red like women wore who were more worldly than Mom and wanted to use makeup to attract attention to themselves in a way that was not pleasing to the Lord. She blotted her lips even in her room where the only man was Dad, who was after all allowed to be attracted to Mom as much as he wanted to be, because Mom said that within a godly marriage a man and a woman should enjoy the gift of love that God had created.

When Dad turned around he didn’t even look at Mom but just said, “Don’t touch my plate with all that stuff on your hands.” And he turned to me and said, “Elsa rubs all that junk on, then touches my food with it so it tastes like I’m eating something that got dropped on a bathroom floor.”

Then Mom said, “Oh, Ralph!” and laughed to show Dad we all were enjoying his humor. I laughed a little to help her out because we all did what we could. But Dad didn’t say anything or even smile. He got back into bed and said, “Hand me that tray.” So Mom did.

Mom took her tea things off the tray and balanced them on her lap and was careful not to touch anything of Dad’s on the tray so he would not taste her face cream. Then she poured out Dad’s coffee and fixed it the way he liked it with two lumps of sugar and a little milk. She felt the side of the dented silver-plate coffeepot and said, “Oh dear, I’m afraid the coffee’s not very hot again.” I waited to see if this would put Dad in a bad mood or not and whether he’d press the servizio button and make Lucrezia come back again, get his coffee, take it away to warm it up, and bring it back.