'Yes. He hit me on the arm, up near the shoulder.'
'I was drunk,' Kevin said. 'And she was driving me crazy.'
'About what?' I said.
'About her freakin' job. That bitch she works for doesn't want me around her.'
'I need that job,' Kate said. 'How'm I going to eat, I don't have that job?'
'I'll be working again, goddammit, I'm just between right now.'
'What do you do when you work?' I said.
'Heavy equipment. Company I worked for went outta business. I'll hook on someplace pretty quick.'
'That the way you understand it, Kate?' I said.
'Yes. I know he'll get another job. But we need to eat now.'
'We?'
'Kevin and I,' Kate said.
I looked at him. He didn't look back.
'You supporting him?' I said.
'Just for now,' she said. 'I give him a little money.'
'That right?' I said to Kevin.
'Yeah.'
'He'd do it for me,' she said.
'And when he shows up while you're walking the baby, he's not stalking you?'
'It's the only chance we get,' Kevin said.
'Except we always fight,' Kate said.
'Because he wants you to leave your job, and you don't want to.'
'Not until he's on his feet again.'
I walked a few feet and stood at the riverbank and looked at the gray water. Behind me the two of them sat on the bench as if they were waiting outside the principal's office. After a while I spoke to them without turning around.
'Why don't you get another job, Kate? Where the boss is a little more flexible.'
'That's what I keep fucking telling her,' Kevin said.
'I don't have time to look,' Kate said. 'And…'
'And?'
'And it's the baby. I love her. I want to take care of her. Nobody else wants to take care of her. I… I don't want her to grow up to be like her mother.'
There were some sailboats skittering about erratically on the basin, driven inconsistently by the wind off the land. I watched them for a while. Then I walked back to where Kevin and Kate sat on the bench.
'Okay,' I said. 'Kate, you'll have to save another kid from her mother, and let a new nanny save Miranda.'
'How am I going to get another job?'
'I'm going to get you one, and Kevin too.'
'I can get my own job,' Kevin said.
'Yeah sure, you're tough as nails and proud as a peacock. Which, so far, has enabled you to screw yourself up with the woman you love.'
'You think I'm not tough 'cause you got a lucky punch in?'
'We both know it wasn't lucky,' I said. 'I can help you, unless you insist on being an asshole.'
'You really think you can get us both jobs?' Kate said.
'It's a booming economy,' I said.
She nodded and looked at Kevin. He smiled at her.
'You want to do this?' he said.
'Yes.'
'Then we'll do it,' he said.
TWENTY-FIVE
I WAS IN my office on Wednesday morning, eating some sugared donuts and drinking coffee and reading the paper. Wednesdays were always promising, because Susan didn't see patients on Wednesdays. She taught in the morning and normally spent the rest of the day with me.
