Later, on the subway, he said a lot of things I think he meant. He felt bad I had gotten mixed up in his mess. He was flattered by my offer. “But it would be wrong,” he said. Of course it’s wrong! But that hadn’t stopped him! He told me we were kind of the same. He talked about how he’d gone too far with Anna Brody. How he’d lost himself. And how I was in danger of doing the same thing with him. He told me not to make the same mistake. He said it would make what he’d just done less terrible if I learned from it. And I promised I would do my best.

We were quiet for the rest of the ride to Brooklyn.

He walked me all the way to Baltic Street, and while I climbed the steps to my house, he waited, like a gentleman, until I was safe inside.

KATE

KATE

WE HAD BEEN TRANSPORTED BACK TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM IN RECORD SPEED, AND now Jeff wanted to know what was next. I think he meant in terms of us. But I wasn’t biting.

“Now we stand in line like ordinary people,” I said.

“But the line for Dumbo is an hour and ten minutes!”

I insisted we stand there and inch along with the others. A frustrated Jeff, who hadn’t stood in any kind of line in years, tried to entertain the boys, who were hot and cranky. He pulled me aside and asked if I was upset about last night. He said he had lots to say about what had happened, and I told him to put it in a speech. Then he disappeared. He returned with a stuffed Eeyore for Sam and a Jungle Book whirligig for Teddy and a long strand of cherry licorice for each of them. Over the next hour, he spent more money than I’d seen him spend the entire trip. We couldn’t carry all the trinkets and memorabilia, the T-shirts, the plastic whistles and light-up saber-swords, the Tarzan clubs, the Aladdin lamp full of jelly beans. This was war. And Jeff wanted to win. My boys? They kept saying “I want this” and “I want that,” and Jeff kept reappearing with it and more.

“Stop,” I said. “Please stop.”

“But, Kate,” Jeff said. “They have the rest of their lives to be disappointed.”