July 25, 2018 AD
Jerome’s Dash and Charles’s Distance
The Smith family's dinner broke up shortly before seven when Noah reminded Jerome he was due at chapel basketball. Jerome dashed to change and Noah drove him there. Charles withdrew to an assignment after an awkward attempt at a joke that Greta could not quite meet. Left alone to clear the table, Greta felt the worry she had held off through dinner return.
The Smith family's dinner broke up shortly before seven, when Noah checked his watch and reminded Jerome that he was due at chapel basketball. Jerome had lost track of the time. He was up at once, grabbing the last of his toastie and warning Charles off his crumble on the way to his room. Within minutes he was back in a crumpled kit with his gym bag, ready to go. Noah, keys already in hand, drove him there, with Millie following them hopefully to the door.
Charles left the table more slowly, phone back in his hand, saying he would finish an assignment. Before he went, he tried a joke about Jerome stinking out the car, a small attempt to ease the strain left over from the meal. Greta could manage only a tired smile in return, and Charles slipped away to his room.
The departures left Greta alone in the dining room, clearing plates amid what the family had left behind: Jerome's chair pushed askew, Noah's reading glasses beside his bowl, Charles's charger trailing across the table. She heard the car start and pull away. In the sudden quiet of the house, the worry she had held off through dinner, over Paul and now over Charles, returned in full.
