“Arthur handles it quietly,” Julian said.

“His firm has done this before.

Nobody in Oak Creek sees a thing.”

Helga turned her cup a quarter turn.

“Nobody sees a thing,” she said, in English, slowly, as if she were teaching the words to somebody who had just arrived in the country.

I cut a piece of lemon cake with the side of my fork.

It tasted the way a new vitamin bottle smells.

“You have opened your heart,” Helga said.