23 NoraThe reminder alarm on Nora’s cellphone beeped. She stubbed out her sixth cigarette and tossed the butt in the container.
It was Tuesday, and in ten minutes the deposition in her libel action would resume. She’d spent the lunch break on a bench in the winter-brown garden space behind the two-story brick building housing the law offices of Bright, Gartner, and Masotti, attorneys for the defendants.
The sun was bright in a cloudless blue sky, but the temperature was below freezing. The meager grass looked as shriveled by the cold as she felt.
Fumbling in her purse, she found the plastic bag she’d packed with emergency supplies and extracted a protein bar. She munched dutifully as she re-entered the building.
By five minutes after one o’clock, everyone was in place in the firm’s mod
