The only time I missed him were the nights he had hospital duty. Then I stayed up late into the wee hours of dawn, reading or flipping through infomercials or trying to write, waiting for him to finally come home a little after six in the morning. My students knew when he had the midnight shift because I scheduled papers so I’d have something to grade when I couldn’t sleep, a lot of reading and in-class presentations or study groups so I could doze off during class without being noticed.
Without Lee, my nights seemed endless. I couldn’t read enough or write enough or do enough to fill the time until he was home. When I had applied for the grant, I never thought I could possibly feel that same doomsday sense of ennui stretching through the day.
At the curb, the bus driver tapped his horn
