LYING IN BED that night, awake, I found that I was afraid of moving to Foggy Cove. In my sleepy mind, I heard myself asking myself, “Is that all it will add up to, a little house on a side street in Foggy Cove? You won’t have come anywhere from a tract house in Babbington.”
“Try to lie still and go to sleep,” said Albertine.
“Sorry,” I said. “I will try.”
“Think about Manhattan.”
“What makes you say that?”
“It’s what you told me the other night.”
“Oh. Yeah. I forgot. Albertine?”
“Mm?”
“Do you keep a diary or anything?”
“I keep the log. You know, my log of what happens here at the hotel. You know that.”
“Sure, but I mean something private. Your private thoughts.”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondered,” I said. “Good night. I love you.”
“I love you,” she said.
For a long while I thought about Manhattan.
[to be continued]
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