“Well, you can take my car if you’re all right to drive,” I said.

“I shouldn’t. But hey, there’s a bed upstairs you can’t get to, right?”

“Not even if I crawled,” I said. “There’s sheets and stuff in the closet.”

“Sleep well,” she said, getting up. “Don’t dream about me.”

When I woke to sunlight there was a note on the floor in front of the couch: “Never came so hard in my life. Let’s do it again sometime. Yrs in Christ, the Navigator.”

I spent the day emailing Tennesseans and trying not to think about Chloe. My mother called and pledged to visit soon; I advised against. My friends and colleagues had worked out some kind of rotation to attend to me (the details of which I could not follow), so I was not surprised to hear someone coming in the door that afternoon. But I was surprised that it was Jim.

“Howdy,” I said. This was not something I said.

“Hey, buddy,” he said. “Figured I’d take Chloe’s shift today. Since she was here so late. Or early, I guess.”

“Yeah, she crashed upstairs,” I said. “I thought it was better than crashing my car.”

“I appreciate that,” Jim said. “I was in no condition myself.”

I became aware then that Chloe’s note was still there on the floor. I decided that God would not let it be seen.

“You get up to anything in particular last night?” I said.

“Some asshole got his ass kicked by a bouncer at the Rose for fucking with some girl’s drink. It seemed real excessive.”

“Whatever happened to the code of the mountains?” I said.

“Like the code of the sea and the code of the jungle, it may never have existed at all,” Jim said.

He was now standing nearly on top of the note, which I prayed was facedown. He tossed me a pack of cigarettes and took the groceries into the kitchen.

“Look, man, there is something I wanted to talk to you about,” he said. He was standing directly behind the couch, so I had to crane my neck back to see him. “I know how Chloe can be with guys sometimes and I don’t consider you a threat or whatever. But this is a friendly reminder to keep things cool, all right?”

“I live on a couch,” I said.

“Gotcha,” he said. “You know, we’re taking the students floating tomorrow.”

“Flip a punk for me, yeah?” I said.