Ben still had not pieced together what the problem was. He knew that things had been tense yesterday morning when Aldous and Roman had gone off to work and Ben had gone off to have a heart-to-heart with Melody, but that was why he'd sent the letter at all, so that Aldous knew not to worry that something had gone terribly wrong. He had gotten the letter, evidently, so what was he doing here?

"It's fine," Ben insisted, still speaking quietly. "It's fine. It's just what I told you in the letter. We're working things out."