Slider had heard him speak about was his mother. Then, suddenly, transported to Chiswick, he had blossomed out into a new social life, and the zimmer-dollies had been all over him.
âI donât know if theyâd get married or just live together,â Joanna said, slightly shocking Slider, who was old-fashioned about such things â well, anyway, about oneâs own father living in sin: the rest of the world could do as it pleased. âBut either way, we have to consider how it might affect us.â
âHow could it affect us?â he asked, puzzled. âYou donât think his flat is big enough for two?â
âWho says theyâd even live there? She may want him to live in her house. Or they might want a new place entirely. And wherever they end up, donât you think itâs certain to mean heâs not available, at least on the old basis, for babysitting?â
Now Slider saw it.
She went on, âWeâve been spoiled, having him here and on tap at any time of the day or night. He cancels his plans at the last moment for us, stays on when weâre late back, and never a word of complaint.â
âBut he loves doing it. He loves having time with George.â
âWhether he does or he doesnât, weâve become dangerously reliant on him. And what about when the new baby comes? Heâs not getting any younger, and two is a lot more than twice the work of one, especially when one of them is about to hit the terrible twos. I just donât think we can afford to blithely assume everythingâs going to go on the same way.â
He saw all the problems lined up ahead, along with the delicate emotional minefields through which a way would have to be picked. His dad, of course, would protest that he loved taking care of his grandchildren, and being of the polite generation he would say it whether it was true or not â which was the problem with extreme politeness. It was hard to know where you stood. On the other hand, the suggestion that he was not up to the task might hurt his feelings; while on yet another hand the assumption that he was automatically free to babysit as if he had no private life of his own could mine yet another rich seam of hurt and resentment.
But what Slider saw most immediately was that Joanna was already tired and fraught and the last thing she needed was to start worrying about childcare this far ahead of the game.
âWeâll sort something out,â he said. âDonât start worrying about it at this stage.â
She looked at him sidelong. âHave you any idea what childcare costs these days? Even if there
were
childcare to cover our particular set of fractured circumstances. Neither of us works a nice tidy nine-to-five.â
âWeâll work it out,â he said firmly. âPeople do, all the time, all over the world. Even if itâs a juggling fest. Itâs worth it, isnât it?â
There was a brief pause during which his blood ran cold. He was afraid she was going to say,
we should never have had this baby
. In the end what she said was not much better. âWorth it, even if it means I have to stop playing? Because thatâs the bottom line, isnât it? My career isnât as important as yours.â
âIâve never said that.â
âBut thatâs what itâll come down to. Iâll have to give up playing and take a job that will fit round the childcare.â She made a grimace. âGiving violin lessons in the sitting room.â
He managed not to say that lives went through different phases or that lots of people enjoyed teaching and found it rewarding. âWeâre a long way from that point yet,â he said instead, âand we may never reach it. If Dad and Lydia do get together, they might
both
really like babysitting, have you considered that? Two for the price of one.â
She shook her head at him. âOh Bill! What is all this chirpy