It was January before I asked Grace if she was planning to tell me about our upcoming family trip to Aspen and the Hotel Jerome. “I can’t confide in your mother anymore—she tells you everything,” Grace told me.

“I hear The Little Nell is nice,” I said, but Grace had heard this before; she wasn’t buying it.

“I want to stay at the Jerome,” Grace said. “If Paul Goode is there, you can introduce us. He’ll remember you, won’t he? I know you don’t think much of him as a screenwriter, but maybe he’s got a book in him—a Paul Goode memoir would be huge,” Grace told me, speaking as a publisher.

“Jesus,” Em said later. “That would have been the time to tell Grace he’s your father, for starters.”

At first, the snowshoer was in favor of telling Grace everything. “It doesn’t matter where you start, Adam. I know you—once you begin, it’ll all come out,” the little English teacher told me. “If you tell Grace everything that happened in Aspen, she might not want to stay at the Jerome—not with Matthew, let’s hope—but I think there’s no getting around her wanting to publish Paul Goode’s memoir, even if she knows he’s your father,” the snowshoer said.

“Jesus,” Em said. “On second thought, don’t tell Grace that Paul Goode is your father—then she’ll definitely want to publish his memoir. Just tell her everything else,” Em told me.

Grace didn’t believe in ghosts, but if I told her about the ghosts, maybe Grace wouldn’t want to take Matthew to the Jerome.

“If you’re going back to the Jerome, you should leave Matthew with us, Kid,” the old ski patroller said.

“You should begin by telling Grace about the ghosts—you definitely don’t want to take Matthew to the Jerome,” Em told me. Em said Grace’s trip to Aspen and the Jerome was not about Matthew’s fifth birthday. Grace had booked the Jerome for mid-February—Matthew’s birthday was in March.

“Leave Matthew out of this craziness,” the little English teacher told me.

Molly and Em and the snowshoer agreed: Little Ray only knew the news accounts of what happened in Aspen.

“Don’t tell Ray anything more, Kid,” Molly said.

“What happened to you in Aspen isn’t a story for mothers,” Em told me.

“Leave your mom out of this, Adam—she shouldn’t be in your movie,” the snowshoer said.