" Psalms 8:2" I muttered under my breath.And Ralph said, "No, Matthew 21:16"Which was followed by a friendly argument between myself and Ralph as to w...ere 'out of the mouth of babes and sucklings' came from. And, after Jamie had fetched the Bible, we were both proved right, which was the best result for both of us. But then Ben, who was meant to be helping his mother serve, pulled my hand and led me to the kitchen, where Molly was meant to be collecting the pudding. She was in tears.I looked at. I squeeze through the huddle around him.“Is he ok?” I shout at the ambulance guy.“You related?”“Sort of.” In the circumstances it’s easier than saying he’s a guy I fuck for money.“He collapsed. He’ll be ok. You’d better come in the ambulance.”And later, much later, there’s a neurologist and a comfy, private room and cups of tea and it’s hot and I feel close to passing out. I want to say, to their rictus smiles, that I’m not his wife or daughter. I’m not part of this. I’m a nobody who lets. "And what happened when I took off for a week to go to the Bahamas?"Mark shot back."Planned obsolescence. You knew that unit was about to fail," Tedreplied."Alright enough. I'm thirsty," Sheila said interrupting the two men."So am I," Paul said, "I'll get this round."Before Jeremy knew what was happening he had a bottle of beer thrustinto his hand. He tried to act nonchalant as he took a big drink fromthe bottle. He was unprepared for the dry bitter taste he normallyassociated with natural root. She seemed … I don’t know … at ease near me? I took her arm and led her to the lounge, where we struck up a conversation. Turns out we had pretty similar stories — she had aged out of the house upon graduation the previous year, but had started business school here and stayed involved as a house advisor. Wait… She was a grad student? So, she and I were more or less contemporaries? Obviously, she was as bright as she was beautiful, the business school here didn’t take any dummies. And, somehow….