M kept his hand under her elbow until she was steady, then let her go. You can get the tickets? he asked her and she said, Of course! I only wanted to know if you preferred the early flight or midday. Monsieur Jean, he likes to sleep in, but I thought perhaps you would like to go earlier.

No, M said after a moment. No, that’s all right. We can go out midday together.

She nodded and pulled up her phone, checked something. Tap, tap, tap, went her manicured nails against the little screen.

Parfait, she said. Got it.

M sighed, tired. He was so tired and so important, there on the street. He was thinking maybe right now about some deal to be struck or renegotiated, he was thinking maybe right now about important things. All right, he said, I suppose I’ll see you Monday then. You’re coming with us?

Of course, she said, I wouldn’t miss it. Well, have to run, she said. She had lots of work, there were tickets to book, a plane to catch. These Swiss, they never know how to stop working and have some fun, she said. I was watching M watch her. I was hearing all the things that she was saying right over the droning buzz that was starting up inside my ears.

She ran back across the street in her black heels, in her green dress, leaving us all standing, to me like dazed bystanders around a cavern, a wreckage, a sudden pillaging hole in the earth.

I pulled my shoulders up around me and tried to stop my thoughts before they happened, but I already knew that I knew. I knew that I knew that I knew and I knew that there was no stopping knowing. There was no stopping knowing at all.

Another tram pulled up and let off a stream of people and we were all swallowed up and suddenly a part of it all. All the people moving past us towards the lake took bits of us with them. Take it, I said.

There was a shop I wanted to go in, a shop I’d been wanting to go in for a while, for the guest room. For the white sheets. It was the best, maybe, in the whole city, for linens. It was right up the street. I told M, I’ll only be a minute. I was starting to sweat. The store looked cool, almost dark inside. Come inside, it said, and see all our pretty things. We have what you need in here, it whispered. Price tags dangled in the window like loose teeth.

What, M said. In there?

Yes, I said. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Something was going to happen to me. Sweat, tears. Something. I was already reaching for the door handle. I had to keep going fast to stop my thoughts from coming, to keep ahead of them.

M hesitated. It looks a little cramped in there, he said. The stroller won’t fit. Here, he said, and handed me his wallet. Here, take this. You stay. I’ll take the kids back to the apartment. Take some time for yourself, he said. You’re always with the kids, he said. You deserve a break. Have fun, he said. Have fun! I’ll see you when you get back. He said that too.