Then she listened, and her mouth went flat.

“I’m not asking for a favor,” she said.

“I’m asking you to send a supervisor out so my sister can hand a lawyer a document in front of a witness.

Three o’clock.”

She nodded twice and wrote 3:00 on her list, pressing hard enough to dent the paper underneath.

Below it she had already written cake, candles, butter.

“He’s coming himself,” she said when she hung up.

“He’s on until four.