I find a small grocery and buy two bananas and a box of crackers that are supposed to be organic. I get a can of ginger ale as well. I look for canned peaches, but there’s none to be found.

Eugene and the Other Demons are waiting for me when I come out of the store.

Pathetic, says Eugene. Death and the Maiden. You look in the mirror lately?

What if that Bryce had had a gun? says Kitty.

So, is this what old feels like? says Didi.

I don’t think I like it, says Desi.

If that guy had made a move, says Chip, they’d have been picking up pieces for the next week.

You were thinking about it, weren’t you? Eugene smiles and makes an obscene gesture.

This is why you should always carry a condom, says Kitty.

NAOMI AND I WERE together for the better part of a month. We’d meet at the St. Lawrence Market, wander yard sales and thrift stores looking for typewriters. Then we’d go back to her place.

“You and your wife going to get back together?” Naomi asked me one afternoon.

“Don’t know.”

“You think she still loves you?”

“Don’t know.”

“Then I suggest you ask her.” Naomi had gotten out of bed and made coffee. “’Cause there isn’t any ‘us.’”

“Okay.”

“You might try for a sentence of more than two words.”

“You like your own space.”

“Of course I like my own space. Everyone likes their own space.”

That evening, Naomi walked me to the train station. When we got there, she handed me a black case.

“Something to remember me by,” she said. “Talk to your wife. Give your little girl a hug.”

I waited until I was on the train and it had pulled out of the station before I opened the case. An Olympia SM9 in mint condition. There was a note in the carriage. “Write Something Amazing,” it said.

WHEN I GET TO the room, Mimi is sitting up in bed, watching television.

“I can’t understand a word they’re saying, but you can tell from the action what’s happening.”

I take the rice out of the bag and open the ginger ale.

“It’s the Syrian refugees.” Mimi gestures at the screen. “They’ve left the train station in Budapest, and now they’re trying to walk to Germany.”

I find a small towel and use it as a plate for the crackers and the banana.

“Banana.” Mimi gives me a smile. “Yum.”

“I had a mishap.”

Mimi hits the mute on the remote.

“No big deal. A woman knocked me down. By accident.”

“Am I supposed to drag the story out of you, or are you just going to tell me?”

“It’s a pretty good story,” I say. “You can’t tell a good story all at once.”