Maude did not; she wanted to turn ninety in the town where she’d been born. Later was problematic. She thought she’d die soon, and she probably would, because she was eighty-nine. Consider the actuarial reality, she said.

Merle, designated asshole, called the guests who’d been cut. Ned canceled the tent and the cellist and planned pork specials at Peake’s with one of the two pigs they’d planned to cook. And so the tasks for today, after Polly resisted the urge to loose the dogs on the rabbit, were simpler than they might have been. At the grocery store, Jane and Polly still looked like a ranch family on a monthly shopping spree, groceries as a sport and a pastime. They bought a cheap wading pool and squirt guns and new badminton and croquet sets to amuse the kids over the next few days, poster board for all the photos of Maude’s life, socks and Velcro sneakers for Helen, who was still uninterested in clothing and liked to deposit items in corners of the garden. They picked up Sam’s friend Ian, who was terrified about most things in life, and listened to the boys gibber about medieval warfare, Helen content in her own world. They dropped off containers of sauces at Peake’s—the Berrigans’ home kitchen was licensed, and despite her dented head, Polly still prepped some nitpicky things. She’d cooked the night before, drinking wine and only burning one batch of carta di musica. She hadn’t ruined the lemon curd or meringues or duck confit, though she had eaten too much of the crunchy skin.

Polly found Ned in the restaurant kitchen, fresh from searching another stretch of the river with Harry. He was sunburnt, his brown hair bleaching out, and he shook his head—no news—before he kissed her and went back to prepping duck. He said the walk-in compressor was dying, but it was always something. Could she braise fennel and onions that afternoon? Would she remember to add the pistachios to the focaccia this time?

“I will,” said Polly (though she wouldn’t), floating off to the basement storage to determine how many tables would need to be carted to the house for the party.