He carried out his work as usual, and gave orders to the women in the office. A strange, dark excitement came over him. Now was the time to act, conclusively, radically. He wasn’t going to spoil his son. Suddenly he saw the little scared face in his mind’s eye, and he felt something like compassion, which he flatly rejected. The knife sliced an invisible path through his thoughts and cut away everything that was superfluous and dangerously weak. He was going to be the pillar in the boy’s upbringing – the seriousness, the sense of responsibility. But the boy always ran and hid behind his mother. If this kept up, he would have a rough life. He had the same weakness in his face that she did.

He pursed his lips and wrinkled his brow. I did warn them, he thought. I have tolerated plenty. As the day passed, it felt like something was slowly coming loose inside him, something which for a long time had been accumulating and weighing unbearably on his mind. They had created a world without him, even though it was only because of him that they existed at all. They were afraid of him and shrank from him. Tonight he would show who was in charge – the only one in the world who could properly protect his son. Losing the knife was the last straw. He had the vague notion that he had already seen this coming when he gave it to the boy. That boy lost everything. He didn’t value things that cost money. And who supplied the money? In his mind he had a foggy vision of himself as an aging man with a spineless failure of a son, whose excesses and debts he would have to pay. And his wife was always swarming around the boy, defending him, trying to hide his mistakes, acting guilty and distant, adrift in motherhood, lost, unreachable by anyone but her son. This can’t continue. He was a strong, rational person who was not going to be controlled by chance. He was the one who would be in control. He would utilize every opportunity that appeared, make connections, and without scruples leap past those with seniority. But people who wanted to succeed had to have a private life that was free of problems.

Big plans, which had long been hidden away, reappeared in his thoughts. Plans whose execution he could believe in again.

Close to quitting time he sat whistling in his office. Through the glass door he saw the surprised ladies turn in their chairs. They weren’t used to seeing their boss in such a good mood.

He sat on the bus going home, nearing his family like an unavoidable fate. He and Esther had never before had a real argument, since just a hard tone was enough to make her lips quiver.