When her husband emerges from the bathroom, she says, “How was your shower?” and he says, “Too wet,” and she laughs. She changes into one of the dresses she has brought on this trip and smooths down the sides as she turns left and right in the mirror. She straightens her husband’s tie and they go down to the ballroom, where most people have already found their seats. A speech, some awards. A slide presentation on the new factory site. The president feigns disappointment that the dinnerware is not made of plastic, a joke he’s apparently made at all of the previous anniversary dinners. Food. Alcohol. Dancing. Tired from wine and small talk, she excuses herself at an acceptable hour and stumbles up to the room, where she falls into a restless sleep. Some time later her husband comes in, warm and heavy from brandy.

Under the dark, moonlit chandelier, they work to ignore the sticky heat, trying different ways to be together so that no gaps are left unclosed. The room is high-ceilinged with a paradise mural whose curling vines lurk and spread like shadows across the walls. The sparkling, constant purr of cicadas pours in from a nearby field. The two of them pull closer in the half-dark. The bed feels so large it makes her think of a raft floating on a lake.

For several hours she dreams of nothing, then apples. Later, in the dark, she awakes feeling thirsty and a little hungry. She thinks of the kettle somewhere in the room and fruit in a basket that had been left on the side table. Instead of getting up straight away, she decides to lie there for a moment as she watches the moonlight and vines and shadows swimming about the room, the chandelier above them shimmering quiet. She thinks, This is what it means to be happy. I am happy. Before her husband, she had never been on a plane, never stayed in a hotel; in fact, she used to clean rooms like this with her mother. She wonders why she feels this obligation to cherish the moment, and she knows it is because she imagines that, like all good things, it might not last. This takes away a little of her happiness.