That was the only other conversation she and I ever had. I said, “Caroline, I want to spend some time with Tommy tomorrow.” I had to shout it over the phone to her because a train was going by on the lower level, and hearing a silence at the other end, I knew there wasn’t a prayer she’d let me do it. I’d been sure she wouldn’t all along. She said, “My God, what’s all that noise?” I said, “I’m in the subway, Caroline,” and she said something about the awfulness of subways and how could I bear to ride them? And then she said in a chilly, constrained voice, “Could you possibly pick him up by eleven? I’d like to go out to brunch.” That was all. No questions. I’ve wondered ever since if she’d actually somehow been counting on me, wanting to leave me alone with Tommy from the start. “This is sweet of you, Joanna,” she said, as if I were doing her a favor.
