the four days that the black cat lived in the basement were a bad four days in my house : the baby slipped in the bath and banged her head and might have drowned ; i learned that a project i had set my heart on-adapting hope mirrlees 's novel lud in the mist for the bbc-was no longer going to happen , and i realized that i did not have the energy to begin again from scratch , pitching it to other networks or to other media ; my daughter left for summer camp and immediately began to send home a plethora of heart-tearing letters and cards , five or six each day , imploring us to bring her home ; my son had some kind of fight with his best friend , to the point that they were no longer on speaking terms ; and , returning home one night , my wife hit a deer that ran out in front of the car .