Rose was going downtown, and agreed to drop Macon off at Julian’s office. He wanted to deliver the rest of his guidebook.
Julian, greeted him cheerfully. ‘Ah, here he is! Accidental Tourist on Crutches,’ he said, enjoying his own joke.
They discussed he U.S. guides that Macon would soon be starting work on, and then Macon got up to go. ‘My sister’s picking me up outside,’ he explained.
‘Ah yes, the Macon Leary family,’ Julian said. ‘Why don’t I step outside and wait with you. Say hi to your sister. ’
Macon suspected Julian of hoping for more Leary oddities to laugh at. Today Rose was wearing an old hat that had been her grandmother’s. Macon really didn’t want Julian to see that hat.
‘Well, T don’t think so, really. We need to get home.’
Julian leaned back in his chair. ‘Macon,’ he said. ‘Couldn’t you just once invite me to a family dinner?’
Macon avoided answering this directly, and on the way home with Rose he decided that the trouble with Julian was that the he had no children. PEOPLE WHO HAD NO CHILDREN, Macon felt, had never truly grown up. They weren’t quite… real.
Unexpectedly, he thought of Muriel, lying with a broken arm and a German guard dog standing over her, its teeth at her throat. But she didn’t give in. ‘Absolutely not,’ she said .