They drifted into a vague sleep, Andy having repeated anxious half dreams in which she actually had to eat breakfast with this sincere man. When the sun was coming up, he surprised her by making love to her once more, slowly and, better, silently. Afterward, she was spent. She had a cramp in her calf muscle, but could not even massage it.

Lee made coffee while Andy bathed, and after he finished in the bathroom, she scrambled some eggs and made toast. Both of them felt the sense of acceleration that comes from an hour of sleep, the sensation that if a pin dropped, not only would you hear it, but you could probably catch it on its way down.

“Do you want to know the dream I had?” he asked.

She considered.

“I found some mice in a field, and they were all injured.”

“Mice,” Andy said.

“Or otters or … Anyway, they were hurt. So I bandaged their heads and I bought them magazines to read while they recuperated.”

She did not say anything, and so he tried again.

“There’s a great deal of cruelty, and sometimes …” He changed course. In Photoplay one did not discuss rescuing mice. “Sometimes I can be cruel myself,” which he hoped saved it.

They ate the last few bites of breakfast. The windows were open, and there was a continuous dull commotion outside, a distant, unfocused rumbling, as if crews were dragging lumber to construction sites, and there were shouts on the street that echoed up the sides of buildings.

“I have to go,” Lee said.

“Oh, are you sure?”

He stood, and she realized he was going to leave now, so she wiped the corners of her mouth. “Farewell,” she whispered.

“This is going to work,” he said. “It’s going to be tricky, though.”

“Good luck.” Which she found herself meaning. She had seen women sending their men off to war, perhaps, or maybe she had only thought she’d seen it. She wasn’t sure how to say goodbye to a man trying to avoid going to war.

“I will come back,” he said.

“Oh. Good.”

“I hope I didn’t make you late for work.”

“It’s okay, Lee.”

“I can walk you.”

“Goodbye, Lee. Good luck. Really.”

When he had left, she smiled to herself—she was liking him better already—and checked her hair in the mirror in preparation for walking to her job at a jewelry store at Post and Grant that was going to be robbed.

5