“Then you’d better come in, because I’m not standing here.”

The living room had four pieces of furniture in it and about eleven boxes that had not been unpacked in two years. Walter was in a chair with the television on and did not turn it off and did not look at me for the first twenty minutes.

I said what I had come to say, which was one question.

“When did you sell the house?”

Shirley’s hands stopped.

“March,” she said.