“If you’d like, I can repeat it. I don’t mind. The money for this vacation came from selling my grandfather’s house. The house belonged to him. After he died, my father inherited it. He sold it and gave the money to me. So please explain exactly where Sophie is supposed to appear in that sequence. If necessary, I can draw you a diagram. Lily has plenty of colored pencils.”
“How can you sit there and calculate everything like this?”
“Quite comfortably. Counting is useful. Sometimes it’s even how people manage to buy apartments.”
“You’re both greedy! Truly greedy people!”
“Greedy usually describes someone who refuses to give away what belongs to them. Someone who persistently demands what belongs to somebody else has a slightly different name. But I promised Daniel I wouldn’t swear in the new apartment. The walls were painted only recently.”
Margaret sprang to her feet, grabbed her handbag, and headed for the hall without saying goodbye. She closed the door with surprising care and quietness. For some reason, that deliberate gentleness felt much colder to Claire than any dramatic slam could have.
About twenty minutes later, Daniel’s phone rang. He listened to his mother in silence for a long time, standing in the middle of the street and shifting from one foot to the other as though a sudden frost had settled over the warm August evening.
“Mom, stop,” he said at last. “Now repeat that, but slowly and calmly. What exactly are you asking us to do?”
“Take Sophie and the children with you! Or just give her the money! Daniel, she’s your own sister!”
“Mom, we paid for three tickets. Not six. Not even five. And our family arithmetic works a little differently.”
“Can you hear yourself? You’re sitting there counting tickets while your own sister is suffering!”
“I can hear myself perfectly. To be honest, listening to you is becoming harder by the second.”
That evening, Daniel told Claire the entire conversation. They sat on the bare floor of the room where they had not yet managed to buy either a sofa or a rug.
“She came here today,” Claire told him. “During the day. She said almost exactly the same things. Even raised her voice at the same points.”
“So she decided to attack us from both sides.”
“It’s a tried-and-tested strategy. First, make people feel pity. Then add guilt. Finally, present them with a bill for daring to build a life of their own.”
Daniel slowly rubbed his palms over his knees.
“Do you know what bothered me most? The phrase, ‘But you can afford it.’ Not ‘Please help us,’ but ‘You can.’ As though being capable of doing something automatically meant you were obligated to do it.”
“An old trick,” Claire agreed. “If you own an umbrella, apparently justice requires you to put it away and get soaked with everyone else.”
“Are you very angry?”
“No. I’m packing the suitcase. At least that produces something useful.”
“Claire.” Daniel looked at her with complete seriousness. “I won’t let anyone take this vacation away from us. And nobody is touching this apartment. Everything is properly documented, the matter was settled a long time ago, and there is nothing left to discuss.”
“I know,” Claire said quietly. “But sometimes it still feels good to hear those words aloud. Even without an orchestra, fireworks, or a red carpet.”
Margaret came again on Thursday, exactly five days before their flight. This time Daniel was home. His mother began speaking before she had even removed her bag from her shoulder.
“I’ve thought everything through and made my decision. You will give the money you saved for the vacation to Sophie. She’ll take the children to the seaside, and you can go next year.”
“Good afternoon,” Claire replied. “I’m happy to see you too. We’re doing wonderfully, and the renovation is slowly moving forward.”
“Stop mocking me! I’m speaking to my son!”
“Fine. I won’t interfere. I’ll stand over here and listen. Watching conversations like this is my second-favorite pastime.”
“Mom.” Daniel stepped forward. “You can sit or stand; I don’t care. But you’re going to listen to me once, all the way through. I will not repeat myself.”
“Daniel…”
“First. Sophie had a husband. She was the one who decided to divorce him. She packed her own things and moved back in with you. You were the one who agreed to take her and the children in. Those were her decisions and yours. Neither Claire nor I had anything to do with them.”
“How can you talk about your own sister like that?”
“Second. Her former husband pays child support regularly. He hasn’t missed a single month. Sophie could have returned to work a long time ago, and the children are no longer babies. She chose to live on child support and your assistance. That was her decision too.”
“You have no idea how difficult things are for her!”
“Everyone has difficult periods. I do too. But I don’t go to Sophie and demand that she hand over her money or give up a vacation for my sake.”
Margaret gave a nervous jerk of her shoulders. Her lips began to tremble.
“You’re her brother!”