‘I don’t care for that kind of joke’. Russell sat on the edge of her desk. He said, ‘Haven’t you noticed anything different lately?’ ‘In what way—’ ‘About me’. She shot him a glance. ‘About you—’ ‘Yes’. ‘Well,’ Maeve said, taking her hands off the keyboard, ‘you’re in a little earlier’. ‘Exactly’. ‘But,’ Maeve said, ‘I put that down to sulks. Your house is full again, Edie’s making breakfast for the kids, or not making it at all because she’s sleeping in a little these days, and you’re sulking’. Russell gave a small sigh. ‘I was a bit. But I stopped. I stopped when I saw how beautifully the next generation do it’. Maeve typed two words. ‘Rosa,’ she said. Russell took no notice. He said, ‘But I haven’t stopped my intention to galvanise myself. Inject some energy into the business. Buy a new computer’. ‘I may,’ Maeve said, ‘be beyond galvanising. I am fifty-two years old’. ‘Nothing’. ‘You get so’s you don’t want to learn new tricks.
