The thrill of combat quickly wears off, and I’m left feeling a little sick. What the hell happened back there? How did breakfast go from zero to crazy in two sips of coffee? I sit on a bench and look up at an enormous cruise ship docked at the pier. The thing is four or five stories high—it’s as if a massive apartment building just sidled up to my hometown. I’m trying very hard to keep my mind a blank. It doesn’t work. Thoughts of Lee keep intruding. I’m usually good at blocking them. Even here, this week, Lee has barely surfaced. But my usual strategies aren’t working. So I give up and close my eyes, and there he is. After a while I call Freddy. “Do you think I should buy a t-shirt that says My Wiener Does Tricks?” she asks. “No.” “They’re two for ten bucks,” she says. “I haven’t bought you guys a wedding gift yet.” “Can you come meet me?” “What’s wrong?” I lean back against the bench and close my eyes. “Everything.” I wait for her at the entrance to the Hemingway museum.
