"I was on the take?" I said. I felt a flood of anger, and started to say more, until I realized I was probably looking hotheaded and belligerent. So I shut up, and thanked him. As I was leaving, he said, "Jack, do yourself a favor. Give it a while. Things change fast in the Valley. Your rйsumй is strong and your skill set is outstanding. Wait until…" He shrugged.

"A couple of months?"

"I'd say four. Maybe five."

Somehow I knew he was right. After that, I stopped trying so hard. I began to hear rumors that MediaTronics was going belly up, and there might be indictments. I smelled vindication ahead, but in the meantime there was nothing to do but wait.

The strangeness of not going to work in the morning slowly faded. Julia was working longer hours at her job, and the kids were demanding; if I was in the house they turned to me, instead of our housekeeper, Maria. I started taking them to school, picking them up, driving them to the doctor, the orthodontist, soccer practice. The first few dinners I cooked were disastrous, but I got better.

And before I knew it, I was buying placemats and looking at table settings in Crate Barrel. And it all seemed perfectly normal.

Julia got home around nine-thirty. I was watching the Giants game on TV, not really paying attention. She came in and kissed me on the back of my neck. She said, "They all asleep?"

"Except Nicole. She's still doing homework."

"Jeez, isn't it late for her to be up?"

"No, hon," I said. "We agreed. This year she gets to stay up until ten, remember?" Julia shrugged, as if she didn't remember. And maybe she didn't. We had undergone a sort of inversion of roles; she had always been more knowledgeable about the kids, but now I was. Sometimes Julia felt uncomfortable with that, experiencing it somehow as a loss of power.