Two months after his hypersonic visit, Speedy Gonzalez, his wife, and their four-year-old daughter, Sunshine, have closed escrow and have started a ritual of joining us for Sunday dinners.

At dusk, Donovan and I sit on the flagstone patio overlooking my yard. The grass has lusciousness akin to a golf course, yet the roses that border it need shaping. Antonia passes a football rather haphazardly to her brother, wobbling it into the flower patch containing a bench that is rather unsafe to sit in right now. A cobblestone path leads to the fairytale-styled guest cottage that is so rarely used I often forget it exists.