Saturday

Henry once more attempts to phone Rosalind, and her secretary assures him that she will call him back. While driving to the fishmonger to pick up supplies for the dinner he will be preparing, he passes a couple outside the Chinese embassy, and begins to think of how the Chinese Communist Party has tortured and killed individuals for practicing Falun Gong, a religious practice combining qigong, meditation, and philosophy. He then sees three figures in black burkas and recoils, thinking, “How dismal, that anyone should be obliged to walk around so entirely obliterated” (124). He wonders why his thoughts are having a negative spin, and realizes that he is getting closer to an event he dreads: visiting his mother who has dementia. There is only one errand to run before he will visit her out of a deep sense of responsibility. He listens to the news in the car, with reports on the large crowd amassed for the anti-war march and speculation about the ethnicities of the pilots involved in the plane crash that morning.

While at the fishmonger, Henry sees a display of lobsters and thinks of the moral complexities in boiling a living creature alive. This leads him to think of the fish he is purchasing for his stew, and the random ordering of the universe that landed it here, as his purchase. Henry takes pleasure in thinking of the inconceivable odds that govern the universe and has thought like this since he was a child, preferring this to any religious conviction.

As he walks back to his car from the fishmonger, the odors remind him of his father-in-law, John Grammaticus, and his chateau in France. After his wife died, Grammaticus retreated to the chateau and mourned for 20 years, finally emerging to begin a series of love affairs with younger women whom he hired to work for him. He is a complicated man who is prone to mood swings and jealousies over the careers of other poets. As he ages, Rosalind worries he will sell the chateau, which her mother restored and Rosalind feels protective over, so she keeps a watchful eye on him.

John Grammaticus played a major role in the intellectual development of Daisy and Theo, encouraging Daisy to read advanced literature like Jane Eyre and Kafka’s Metamorphosis and buying Theo his first guitar. However, during her second year of college, when Daisy won the Newdigate Prize for a poem she wrote, she had a falling out with John during their summer visit. He arrived to dinner drunk and told her that her poem was neither good nor original and that winning the Newdigate had been a fluke. Rosalind tried to interrupt him, but he talked over her, making a fool of himself. Daisy refused to engage with him and Grammaticus stormed away. For the next two years, their relationship was strained, but after Rosalind sent a proof copy of Daisy’s book of poems, Grammaticus wrote her a lavish letter praising the poems. Daisy responded with a postcard, thanking him for the influence he wielded in her life. Henry hopes that at the upcoming dinner, where they will see each other for the first time since their falling out, the reconciliation will be finalized. However, he worries that Grammaticus’s alcoholism will once again make him selfish and aggressive and will spoil the evening.

While driving home from the fishmongers, Henry worries that he sees a red BMW—the same car he had an accident with earlier—following him. Henry drives by a television shop where all the screens are tuned in to a broadcast of the Prime Minister. Henry muses about the science behind the signs that someone is lying. He wonders if the Prime Minister believes his own rhetoric, if Saddam really possesses weapons of mass destruction. Henry recalls meeting Tony Blair in the summer of 2000 at an opening party for the Tate Modern. Blair mistook him for one of the artists, and shook his hand congratulating him on his work. Henry wonders if he is making another error of judgment in his support of the war, but can see no sign of anything but certainty in his face.

Back at home, Henry goes to his bedroom window just in time to once more see a glimpse of a red BMW. He cannot confirm it is the same one from the accident, since he cannot see whether or not there is a side mirror missing. At home he touches base with Rosalind on the phone, admitting to her that he saw the cargo plane that morning, but omitting the day’s violent encounter with Baxter. While eating leftovers in the kitchen, he tells Theo briefly about Baxter and everything that transpired. Theo warns him that those types of men can be proud and dangerous.

Finally, Henry visits his mother, Lily, who lives in a nursing facility. On the drive, he muses about how organized and clean she kept his childhood home. Although he grew up thinking her domestic work made her less intelligent, in retrospect he is able to see her unique strengths. Lily was a competitive swimmer in school, and came second for Middlesex in the county championships. As a child, Henry recognized his mother’s capability while watching her swim with a group of his peers and felt proud.

Now, Henry encounters a very different version of that former strong swimmer. Lily’s dementia makes her confused and disoriented, unsure of where she is. As a neurologist, Henry knows the causes of each symptom. Even though she speaks nonsensically because of the deterioration of her mind, Henry still engages with her for about an hour, hoping it brings her some pleasure. Toward the end of the visit, he worries about his own age, vowing to himself to eat healthier and take care of himself in order to avoid a similar fate. In the corridor, he once more sees footage of the marches and then the plane crash on television before he leaves.

In the last section of the chapter, Henry drives to his son’s rehearsal, trying to appreciate the miracles of cars and roads in the 21st century, but feeling irritable nonetheless. He almost does not want to be there, but feels it is his parental responsibility. However, as he listens to the band play their first song, Henry begins to genuinely enjoy the music, thinking of how music occasionally creates in him a sense of transcendence and unity with “everything fitting at last” (177). He thinks again of his mother and how she could swim for miles.