Ruth went to the coffee maker. She had no distaste for her grandchildren; in fact, she loved them, despite their lack of resemblance to her (or perhaps because of it). What she did have was a hierarchical system of caretaking, which meant she was out for Carl first, herself second (to preserve her ability to take care of Carl), then her kids, then her grandkids, then her domestic help, then a stranger in Liberia, then the woman Linda Messinger told her she read about who needed gallbladder surgery in Iowa but was stuck in a snowstorm, then her Jewish daughter-in-law, then her Gentile one.
