Daniel visited Helena on a Saturday, ten days after the stroke, when the doctors had confirmed she was well enough for visitors and Helena had confirmed she was well enough to receive them before the doctors had confirmed it.
He came with a rock.
Not the Cascais green-veined one — that was too important, she knew. A different one, from his collection: a smooth grey piece with a white stripe running exactly through the middle, which he'd found at Belém last summer and which he'd told her at the time had "good balance."
He gave it to Helena at the door of the Lapa house with a formal gravity that made the housekeeper visibly moved.
"For your table," he said. "When you're working."
Helena received it with both hands. She turned it over. She looked at the white stripe.
"Excellent balance
