Summary

In “Mother’s Little Helper,” when Kate drives David back to the ferry, David warns her that she is drinking too much. Kate knows that he is right. She had started drinking on the day that Tiger was deployed to Vietnam.

David, who hated All’s Fair and having to live by Exalta’s rules, suggested to Kate that they buy their own place on Nantucket. He described a six-bedroom house he had seen for sale. Instead of giving David’s suggestion any credence, Kate was comfortable being a captive of her mother and her old life at All’s Fair.

Kate manages to last through Monday without a drink. When she wakes on Tuesday morning and sees Pick on his bicycle she makes herself an extra-strong screwdriver. Kate is halfway through her second drink when she...