I was exhausted from the trip, but Jeanne had been on the phone the entire way in from the airport, making arrangements for a video conference at midnight. Her energy alarmed me, and I vowed to start exercising or taking amphetamines or something to keep pace with her. I felt a looseness in the lock on my apartment door and my heart sped up as the door swung open. Lights were blazing, though I’d turned every one of them off before leaving town. The living room was trashed from end to end. I stood in the middle of the room in a state of shock, my mind a complete blank other than to be thankful Martha was staying at the cat sitter’s while I was gone. If I’d had any other thought at all it was to wonder whether I could wait until morning to clean up the mess. I was so damn tired. What didn’t occur to me was someone could still be there or they meant me harm, or even that they’d probably stolen from me. I was just annoyed by the inconvenience. But the closer I looked the more I could see that as far as these things go, it wasn’t a terrible trashing of the place.
