Well-ordered, self-assured, composed. Free of addictions. The children bound for Cambridge. Medical histories blindingly clean for at least a generation back — no trace of alcoholism, no Adult Children of Alcoholics baggage. No personality disorders, let alone psychosis. Well, the occasional bout of hay fever. Naturally financially secure, professionally fulfilled. Agnostics — at least that is how they described themselves. Stress limited to the misadventures of Modern Family in her case, and Home Improvement in his.

A holiday on Spain’s eastern coast. Pressed into beach loungers by sheer happiness, pleasantly tipsy on Tinto de Verano, adrift in an endorphin haze. Softly, safely, without a twinge of pain, they died of boredom — in perfect refrain.