People always said at first that Alex Blue looked like Alice in Wonderland
Days weren’t always crystalline in Marin
Morton Levi was director of print production
Gray had a wife, of course. Cynthia.
The lobby of Infinite Information was an all-glass room with plumcolored carpet
The walk to the Wayfarer from the office was a matter of two blocks
Alex sometimes took refuge in a steam room after work, before the long drive home
Skip liked amusement. That was one of the first things Mort learned.
“Who are your friends?”
“Why don’t you just fly over, Allie? What’s preventing it?”
Hadrian was not what she had bargained for.
Breathe.
He ’s a sponge for information. Repeats sentences, words.
Letty brought herself close to the door
Behind her and around her, newsroom noise, pulsing phones, shouts,
“It’s my fault,” she had whispered, watching Gray slumped there.
Skip moved his ass a little on the plastic seat.
He didn’t say anything to her while he drove.
Morton Levi carried on alone, in the July weeks following his interview with Alex
When Skip had been given a cold glass of juice
Kamala folded her arms as she settled her bottom
Alex told Maddie at once about Gray, but not about the abortion.
As girls, they’d agreed well enough.
When Maddie became aware—only dimly, she was just eleven
It didn’t happen the way it was supposed to.
Just before you enter the Waldo Tunnel
When Alex got back to Sausalito harbor the clouds had taken over.
Morton Andrea Levi struggled to consciousness that same Sunday
Kamala found Letty at the Wayfarer, at nine in the morning Monday.
Its name, Alex remembered, was Astoria.
On the same afternoon, at roughly the same hour, Mort showered
The two heads, on consideration, were known to Alex.
A mop-up, from the look of it.
It was easy to remember the doctor’s name.
Mort was watering the flowers that Friday after work, when the phone rang.
God, but the drive was long.
For a beat he thought he would faint.
He got her set up in time, a mug of strong black tea, some crackers he'd found
Kamala screamed when she saw them standing together in the parking lot.
Before she could leave, two tasks had summoned Alex. The first was a phone call.
One more errand to perform.
It came to Mort while the two stood in the boarding line.