“Maybe,” said Rosa. He gazed off into the distance for a time before saying, “So, how far will you run today?”

“I don’t know,” said Patricia, now stretching her other quad in the same way she did the first. “Three or four miles, maybe a little more.”

“Is that far enough to forget all your troubles?”

“For a few minutes at least,” she replied, “but never completely.”

With that she lifted the sunglasses from the top of her head, shook out her short brown hair, and put the sunglasses back on properly, hiding her eyes from him once more.

“Will you go to Sheffield’s party tomorrow night?” she asked.

“I think so,” he answered. “Probably.”

“So, that means we don’t have to say goodbye yet for the summer.”

“No, Patrizia. Not yet.”

“Good,” she said with a nod and a smile. “In that case, I’ll let you finish your lunch in peace.” At that, she turned away and started off to the track. “Ciao, Giancarlo,” she called over her shoulder.

“Ciao, Patrizia,” he called after her. Then, letting himself drift back into the daydream in which she had found him, he settled back against the tree for a time and watched her trot out to join the others, all of them still going round and round, farther and farther, but never going anywhere.

Later that same afternoon, after he returned to his office and finished collecting his things, Giancarlo drove home beneath suddenly darkened skies. The smattering of clouds that had dotted the western horizon earlier in the day had by this time burgeoned into a towering mass of billowing gray-white mushrooms. Advancing inexorably toward the east, it was quickly engulfing the sky and the sun as it approached.

When he pulled into his driveway and stepped out of the car, Rosa cast a glance up at the menacing skies. From off in the distance came the low rumble of thunder, and the leaves on the trees were beginning to stir in that fretful way they often do before the coming of a storm. A single heavy drop of rain plopped against the pavement, a warning that it would be best not to dawdle carting his papers into the house. Wasting no time, he grabbed his satchel and the box from the backseat, and hurried up the front walk. After a moment of fumbling with the keys, he unlocked the door and stepped inside.