John thumbed the edge of his cell phone and blackened the screen. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to his sister. As supportive as the woman had been in the last few weeks, if he had to listen to one more minute of her trying to cajole him into conversation, he was going to lose his mind. He stared through the balcony door of his apartment and watched a squirrel stare back from one of the dripping, leafless oak trees that spotted the property. A thaw had turned the white world outside into a soggy grey mess, but the temperature was mild and offered the illusion of spring. It would be a short-lived reprieve, no way would they be lucky enough to see the demise of winter quite yet, but even with the dismal sky and the wet, muddy, icky everything, it was at least a reminder that things
