Because of the cancer, they didnt charge him.
One final note, Wilf says. If it was a fat fire, Dad had no compassion. He’d let photographers take pictures of the bodies.
21 I am drunk and sentimental. Can’t believe what I’ve said to Lydia. I called and said let’s get married for a year. It would help me, I could let you go more, knowing you were mine for a full year, and then we could renegotiate the terms.
And Lydia thought about it, then spoke about Oliver’s voucher. You dont like it when I talk about the voucher, do you? I think it would be disastrous, I say.
One bacchanalian night a year. You go home with someone and there are no questions or repercussions. It was meant as a fleeting proposition, but Lydia has latched onto it. There is a corner of her, a small pocket with a line of lint in it, and the lint agrees with this voucher idea.
But really the voucher is a ruse. She’s attaching herself to Craig Regular. She has been hurt by me and is drifting to that smooth smart goofy guy. Who wouldnt.
22 I tell Max, There’s nothing better than holding tight to the one person whose smell, whose taste, youve craved all day long.
Love is a savage thing, he says. Love is all to do with head, heart, and animal.
Daphne: You do the silliest things to make that one person laugh.
Max and Daphne are over for lunch. Max: I’ve been busier than a mink on a rabbit trail.
I ask Daphne what she did today and she says, and she’s got this raspy voice, these sharp features, and a deep larynx like she’s been shouting all night she says she got up at noon and read Maisie’s new book and then took Eli out Christmas shopping.
Max: I’m tired of buying things.
Me: So what do you think of the book?
Daphne: It’s not my kind of thing.
Me: I dont persist in things that dont grab.
She laughs: I like that bit of you.
On several occasions she says, Oh no, Max, Gabriel wouldnt do that, because he no longer bothers with things he’s not interested in.
23 I hear Max say: So are you and Craig seeing each other?
Lydia says nothing. Then she says, So how are things with Daphne? Is sex good?
Coming and going, Max says.
Lydia: Is it more coming or going?
24 I’m with Max, Maisie, Una, Daphne, and Wilf singing We Three Kings in front of the dark fire station. Three garage doors ascend and yellow headlights wink under the edge of the doors, then beam out. There are five silhouettes with arms crossed standing in front of the trucks, legs splayed, theyre wearing gaiters. We sing and the fire-engine lights flick on silently and strobe red. The men walk towards us in their gaiters. We see their faces. They are grinning. The kids stretch up tiptoe and break from the carollers. They see that the firemen have candy. We follow. That was wonderful, one fireman says. We were just collecting for one of the men who’s in hospital.
They show us the thick chrome pole. And three men slide down, bending knees to absorb the landing, and peel away. The kids scream at this. Theyre allowed to jump onto running boards and look in at dashes and tremendous gear shifts.
25 Lydia calls me early on Christmas morning. To say Tinker Bumbo is dead.
Lydia: He started to cough up blood and I took him to the vet and the vet gave him an injection.
She’s crying on the phone.
Are you alone?
Mom and Dad are here.