Chapter 5

In the car, Kate hastened to complain to her husband.

“Can you imagine? Today that security guard actually searched me for drugs! Supposedly they found contraband in the gym and he had to search everyone! The nerve of him! The man has absolutely no fear!”

“He was just doing his job,” Stephen said with a shrug.

“You’re taking his side again! I was in a hurry to get to you, for your information, and he held me up!”

“Sweetheart, a search normally takes less than a minute. Would you rather everyone at Silver Lining saw that you alone were exempt and despised you because they were ordinary mortals while you were the chosen one?”

Kate threw up her hands but said nothing. She never argued with her husband. He held one of the most important positions in the construction of the City of A, was a major executive himself, and was the head of the family. Kate would not have married any other man; all the rest had proved weaker than she was. Yet although she remained silent, irritation swelled inside her: the guard who had lost all sense of boundaries refused to obey her, and her husband thought that was exactly as it should be.

... A pleasant evening with her family scattered her bad mood to the wind. The children played, occasionally pausing for serious conversations about life. They were practically grown: Lizzie was twelve, Max eleven. Watching them, Kate thought how strange it was to live after a child was born. It was as though your heart existed somewhere outside your body. You were here, while your heart beat over there.

At home, Stephen took possession of his wife, an excellent final chord to the fading evening.

Sex took place, as always, in the missionary position. Kate did not care for inventions in bed. Again, it was not that she was conservative ... she was simply herself. Physical pleasures interested her little. She conceived and carried out grand projects that made her part of history while she was still alive. Silver Lining Center was proof of that, as was the City of A itself. While others wondered how to make themselves more comfortable in life, Kate lived not for herself but for others, for her country, for people, for art...