The Spectator Bird

Back in the present, Ruth asks Joe if he would like to volunteer at the home for people who are ill, since Edith Patterson has been sidelined by her husband’s illness. She suggests that he entertain the residents with tales of the authors he has known. Still feeling depressed by his recent encounter with Césare Rulli, Joe refuses, launching into a harangue about the prurience of modern literature. Ruth teases him for being a prude. Eventually, Joe tells her about Tom Patterson’s terminal cancer. Ruth begins to cry and asks if that is the reason for Joe’s recent crabbiness; ashamedly, he confesses that the lunch with Césare actually upset him more since it forced him to see himself through the younger man’s eyes. Taking stock of his physical “deteriorations” and remembering the last installment of his journal, Joe ponders how different his life and body might have been had his mother stayed in Denmark and had children with Eigil’s father.

Later that day, Tom and Edith Patterson arrive at the Allstons’ to drop off a compost shredder that Joe has agreed to “borrow.” As he helps them unload it, all three of them keep up the pretense that Tom will be back for it when he feels better.