July 25, 2018 AD
The Ritual of the Table
Greta, Noah, Jerome and Charles Smith shared a lamplit dinner of soup and toasties. Charles, late to the table and attached to his phone, was withdrawn and quick to bristle, and his remark that even Chloe's house was more peaceful cooled the room. Jerome kept the conversation going with teasing and stories about Millie. The meal passed without a blow-up, but left Greta convinced something more was wrong with Charles.
The Smith family ate dinner together by lamplight: pumpkin soup and toasties, with a crumble waiting on the bench. Greta, Noah and Jerome were at the table when Noah said grace, which included a blessing on those not with them that night. For Greta, that meant Paul, who was on her mind throughout the meal.
Charles was the evening's difficulty. He arrived after the amen, kept his phone face down within reach of his plate, and barely ate. He met Jerome's teasing about Chloe with a sharp retort. Later he muttered that even Chloe got more peace at her house, a remark that cooled the whole table. Noah let both moments pass with little comment, but watched his son closely.
Jerome carried most of the conversation. His teasing was clumsy, but it was his way of reaching a brother he felt slipping out of reach, and with Eli in the United States he believed the job had fallen to him. When it misfired, he moved to safer ground with stories about Millie, who had chased a kookaburra off the back fence that afternoon and had since slipped inside to lie under his chair. The story drew a laugh from Greta and a rare dry joke from Noah.
By the measures Greta usually applied, the meal had worked. Everyone ate and nobody walked out. But Charles's withdrawal went deeper than ordinary teenage sulking, and she meant to speak to him once the evening had settled.
