“Don’t come home late and act like one sweater is going to sink us.”

He went down the hall toward the desk in his home office, leaving the living room lamps burning behind him.

At eleven I went into the kitchen to pour a cup of hot peppermint tea.

Eleanor stood at the stainless steel sink with her back to the room, washing a little porcelain teacup.

She had on her long floral robe, its blue hem trailing a little across the clean linoleum.

On the laminate counter next to the teakettle lay a small notebook bound in green leather.