OK I said relieved to be spared immediate choices and decisions and especially the bout of depression and sulks my father would sink into if I opposed him This was the way he controlled us So it happened In my last term at school and then on vacations from university I lent a hand never more than about twice a year and always on the safer assignments I became one of the smarter undergraduates with a little house of my own a small but powerful white car designer clothes and a black dress with a Paris label that I intended to wear when I took my final exams