She stops and imagines how much fear-inspiring material must exist stacked in the corners of a billion spare rooms and basement offices, files within files within files on laptops, also in shaded corners of the web itself. It would be so easy to get lost in there. The other day she was doing a little research for the play, looking up the destruction from bombing around the countryside of Kent during World War II. Which led her to the small vials of prussic acid Vita and Harold kept in case the Germans prevailed. The hope being they would never have to catch that final whiff of almonds. Then from there to the cyanide capsules given as the war was ending to German citizens who didn’t want to face the rough justice the Russian soldiers were going to mete out. Women who didn’t want to be raped a hundred times. Then it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump over to “Hitler: The Missing Years, 1945–1965.” Time to close the box. She can do this, but for Graham the box is always open, beckoning.

She hopes that a year from now he won’t still be in here, with four instead of three desktop monitors. That he’ll be on to a better phase of his life, not underbathed and buzz-cut and still sitting in her spare bedroom.

pussy hat

Cate is not going to wear the hat. She is extremely unhappy with the new president and fired up to be marching in protest of his election, and thrilled with the size of the crowd they join coming up out of the el at Jackson, but she’s not going to wear the hat. She thinks it brings the symbolic discourse down to his level. She doesn’t want this to be a problem between her and the person who knitted the hat for her, but it has started them off on the wrong marching foot. And then there is also this person’s—Maureen’s—sign to contend with. It features the president groping the Statue of Liberty. While its message is sound, its graphic is a little, well, graphic. Cate walks a short way off, to distance herself from the sign.

two-flat

The two-flat is in Bucktown. It belongs to Dana’s aunt. She owns the building, lives on the top floor, and spends the winters in Tampa. Dana checks the apartment to water the African violets and goes down to the basement to make sure no pipes have burst or pilots gone out. This is the first time she has brought Cate along. She has shut down Toaster for the night, but hasn’t told Jody. This is unprecedented and carries a certain amount of risk, which Cate takes note of.