Summer

Summer matters as both a recurring time of family visits and a deadline that sharpens Burke Devore’s plans against Upton “Ralph” Fallon. The children’s expected early-July arrival turns an ordinary seasonal routine into a constraint on when Burke believes he can act.

A recurring family calendar

Burke learns from Fallon’s papers that Fallon has two younger children who visit him during the summer and at Christmas. Their visits are part of a larger family picture: Fallon’s three grown children live in California and send occasional, impersonal letters, while he falls behind on child support for the younger children and scrambles to catch up twice a year, just before they visit.

The summer visit follows a predictable pattern. Burke estimates that it usually begins around July 1, placing the children’s arrival roughly a week away when he searches Fallon’s office. The season is therefore not just background; its recurring family schedule gives Burke a date by which he wants his plans completed.

Summer as a deadline

Burke treats the children’s presence as a complication that could disrupt his plans, and the approaching visit makes delay consequential. He reasons that, because the Fourth of July falls on a Friday that year, the children will likely finish traveling before the weekend. On that assumption, he has less than a week before they arrive.

Other obligations make the available time still narrower. Burke considers weekends unusable, and on Mondays and Wednesdays he must account for Marjorie’s job with Dr. Carney: after picking her up at six in the evening and driving her home, dinner would leave too little time to set out for Slate, New York. He calculates that if he does not act that night, he may have to wait until the following Tuesday—five days later—by which time Fallon’s children could already be there.

Pressure on the plan

The seasonal deadline shapes Burke’s timing rather than merely marking it. He returns to Fallon’s house later than before, deliberately allowing for the possibility that Fallon will not come straight home from work; the house is dark except for the bedroom nightlight. The children remain a looming presence even while absent: their expected arrival limits Burke’s imagined opportunities and raises the cost, in his own calculations, of postponement.