The Corrections

“protect” their children from the so-called “ravages” of TV and computer games, only to expose them to the far more damaging ravages of social ostracization by their peers .
    To Gary, who as a boy had been allowed half an hour of TV a day and had not felt ostracized, Schachtman’s theory seemed a recipe for letting a community’s most permissive parents set standards that other parents were forced to lower their own to meet. But Caroline subscribed to the theory wholeheartedly, and since she was the sole trustee of Gary’s ambition not to be like his father, and since she believed that kids learned more from peer interaction than from parental instruction, Gary deferred to her judgment and let the boys watch nearly unlimited TV.
    What he hadn’t foreseen was that he himself would be the ostracized.
    He retreated to his study and dialed St. Jude again. The kitchen cordless was still on his desk, a reminder of earlier unpleasantnesses and of fights still to come.
    He was hoping to speak to Enid, but Alfred answered the telephone and said that she was over at the Roots’ house, socializing. “We had a street-association meeting tonight,” he said.
    Gary considered calling back later, but he refused to be cowed by his father. “Dad,” he said, “I’ve done some research on Axon. We’re looking at a company with a lot of money.”
    “Gary, I said I didn’t want you monkeying with this,” Alfred replied. “It is moot now anyway.”
    “What do you mean,’ moot’?”
    “I mean moot. It’s taken care of. The documents arenotarized. I’m recouping my lawyer’s fees and that’s the end of it.”
    Gary pressed two fingers into his forehead. “My God. Dad. You had it notarized? On a Sunday?”
    “I will tell your mother that you called.”
    “Do not put those documents in the mail. Do you hear me?”
    “Gary, I’ve had about enough of this.”
    “Well, too bad, because I’m just getting started!”
    “I’ve asked you not to speak of it. If you will not behave like a decent, civilized person, then I have no choice—”
    “Your decency is bullshit. Your civilization is bullshit. It’s weakness! It’s fear! It’s bullshit!”
    “I have no wish to discuss this.”
    “Then forget it.”
    “I intend to. We’ll not speak of it again. Your mother and I will visit for two days next month, and we will hope to see you here in December. It’s my wish that we can all be civil.”
    “Never mind what’s going on underneath. As long as we’re all ‘civil.’”
    “That is the essence of my philosophy, yes.”
    “Well, it ain’t mine,” Gary said.
    “I’m aware of that. And that’s why we will spend forty-eight hours and no more.”
    Gary hung up angrier than ever. He’d hoped his parents would stay for an entire week in October. He’d wanted them to eat pie in Lancaster County, see a production at the Annenberg Center, drive in the Poconos, pick apples in West Chester, hear Aaron play the trumpet, watch Caleb play soccer, take delight in Jonah’s company, and generally see how good Gary’s life was, how worthy of their admiration and respect; and forty-eight hours was not enough time.
    He left his study and kissed Jonah good night. Then he took a shower and lay down on the big oaken bed and triedto interest himself in the latest Inc . But he couldn’t stop arguing with Alfred in his head.
    During his visit home in March he’d been appalled by how much his father had deteriorated in the few weeks since Christmas. Alfred seemed forever on the verge of derailing as he lurched down hallways or half slid down stairs or wolfed at a sandwich from which lettuce and meat loaf rained; checking his watch incessantly, his eyes wandering whenever a conversation didn’t engage him directly, the old iron horse was careering toward a crash, and Gary could hardly stand to look. Because who else, if not Gary, was going to take responsibility? Enid was hysterical and moralizing, Denise lived in a fantasyland, and Chip hadn’t been to St. Jude in three years. Who else but Gary was going to say: This train should not be running on these tracks ?
    The first order of business, as Gary saw it, was to sell the house. Get top dollar for it, move his parents into someplace smaller, newer, safer, cheaper, and invest the difference aggressively. The house was Enid and Alfred’s only large asset, and Gary took a morning to inspect the whole property slowly, inside and out. He found cracks in the grouting,