`I didn't say that.'
`No. You just went ahead and did it.'
`Perhaps I acted hastily.'
`Yes,' Elaine put in. `Your father acted hastily. Now let's forget the whole thing and go inside and be friends.'
`He isn't my father,' Tom said stubbornly.
`But we can all be friends, anyway. Can't we, Tom?'
Her voice and look were imploring. `Can't we forget the bad things and simply be glad they're over and that we're all together?'
`I don't know. I'd like to go away for a while and live by myself and think things through. What would be wrong with it? I'm old enough.'
`That's nonsense.'
Hillman shouldn't have said it. A second later his eyes showed that he knew he shouldn't have. He stepped forward and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. `Maybe that isn't such a bad idea, after all. We're intelligent people, we ought to be able to work something out between us. There's the lodge in Oregon, for example, where you and I were planning to go next month. We could step up our schedule and synch our watches, eh?'
The performance was forced. Tom listened to it without interest or hope. After a bit Elaine put her hand inside her husband's arm and drew him toward the house. Tom and I followed along.
Mrs. Perez was waiting at the door. There was warmth in her greeting, and even some in Tom's response. They had a discussion about food. Tom said he would like a hamburger sandwich with pea soup. Mrs. Perez darted jouncily away.
Hillman surveyed the boy in the light of the chandelier. `You'd better go up and bathe and change your clothes.'
`Now?'
`It's just a suggestion,' Hillman said placatingly. `Lieutenant Bastian of the sheriffs department is on his way over. I'd like you - you should be looking more like yourself.'
`Is he going to take me away? Is that the idea?'
`Not if I can help it,' Hillman said. `Look, I'll come up with you.
`I can dress myself, Dad!'
The word slipped out, irretrievable and undeniable.
`But we ought to go over what you're going to say to him. There's no use putting your neck in a noose-I mean-'
`I'll just tell him the truth.'
The boy walked away from him toward the stairs. Ralph and Elaine Hillman followed him with their eyes until he was out of sight, and then they followed his footsteps with their ears. The difficult god of the household had returned and the household was functioning again, in its difficult way.
We went into the sitting room. Hillman continued across it into the bar alcove. He made himself a drink, absently, as if he was simply trying to find something to do with his hands and then with his mouth.
When we came out with the drink in his hand, he reminded me of an actor stepping out through a proscenium arch to join the audience.
`Ungrateful sons are like a serpent's tooth,' he said, not very conversationally.
Elaine spoke up distinctly from the chesterfield: `If you're attempting to quote from Icing Lear, the correct quotation is: 'How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!' But it isn't terribly appropriate, since Tom is not your child. A more apt quotation from the same work would be Edmund's line, 'Now, gods, stand up for bastards!' ' He knocked back his drink and moved towards her, lurching just a little. `I resent your saying that.'
`That's your privilege, and your habit.'
`Tom is not a bastard. His parents were legally married.'
`It hardly matters, considering their background. Did you and your precious Dr Weintraub have to choose the offspring of criminals?'
Her voice was cold and bitter. She seemed, after years of silence, to be speaking out and striking back at him.
`Look,' he said, `he's back. I'm glad he's back. You are, too. And we want him to stay with us, don't we?'
`I want what's best for him.'
`I know what's best for him.'
He spread his arms, swinging them a little from side to side, as if he was making Tom a gift of the house and the life that went on inside it.
`You don't know what's best for anybody, Ralph. Having men under you, you got into the habit of thinking you knew. But you really don't. I'm interested in Mr. Archer's opinion. Come and sit here beside me,' she said to me, `and tell me what you think.'
`What exactly is the subject?'
