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Just as Gabriel reaches for the doorknob, the door opens Housereets us with a smile

The kitchen behind his shoulder is quiet, aside fro prepared and cleaned

None of the usual chatter

"I asked hiI can see that," Houseeriatric when she shting a strange impulse to hold his hand, to let him know I’m just as afraid even if I don’t show it

"Why don’t you return to your duties, then," Househn tells Gabriel He doesn’t need to be told twice; he melts into the kitchen and becomes part of the work noise

I’m left to face thison these old lungs ofhis chest "I don’t suppose you’ll take a ith your father-in-law?" It’s not really a question We walk away froarden

Jenna’s tra leaves

I do h mine, who smells like tweed and aftershave and the basement I so fear I leave Florida for a while I think about the leaves in Manhattan in the fall There aren’t very many trees--the chemical factories have taken their luster But on a windy day, the scant leaves gather into crowds and fall all at once, giving the illusion of arden without hyperventilating

Just when I’ to speak, we cohn says, "There’s an expression we old people have ‘The apple of one’s eye’ Have you heard it?"

"No," I say I aood liar, Rhine You can get through this

"Well, you, darling, are the apple of Linden’s eye"

He gives s constricting "You’re his favorite, you know"

I am demure "I didn’t think he noticed h, truthfully, Linden’s attention has started to shift toward me Especially in the baseured out if it’selse

"He adores Cecily, as do I She’s eager to please It’s charirl who never had a childhood, ants so badly to fit into this role that she’ll do anything our husband asks "But she’s young

She has ree?" He doesn’t wait for me to answer "And the older one, Jenna, she fulfills her duties, but she doesn’t have an ounce of your char of a cold fish, isn’t she? If I had ers flutter dramatically in the air "But Linden insists we keep her He thinks she’ll come around and conceive a child He alas a little too compassionate"

Some compassion He killed her sisters

"She’s just a little shy," I say "She cares for hi She tells e to speak to hihn fro her back into the water Whatever heI want to happen to her

"And then there’s you," Vaughn says, not seeent So lovely" We stop walking, and he strokes er "I’ve seen the way he brightens when you’re near him"

I blush, which wasn’t supposed to be part of the act

"He’s even thinking of joining the hu to work" Househn’s sain, and alk through the golf obstacles Grinning clowns, giant ice creahthouse with a working light that shoots out into the trees

"I had a son,as an ox--That’s another expression us first generations used to have"

"Really?" I say

"Healthy every day of his life This was before we realized the poisonous bo away in our children He succumbed just like the rest of them Just as you believe you will"