She was, she thought slyly, letting me know that she had done the reading. I was pleased that she had done the reading, but I truly could not have cared less. For this I felt bad. Briefly.

“I just want you to know that I really like the class.”

“Thank you, Miss Charles.”

“Would you mind calling me Rachel? I don’t like my last name.”

I studied her stunningly average face. “Why is that? Charles sounds like a good, sturdy name.”

“It’s my father’s name, and he wasn’t much of a father. Isn’t much of one. So, would you mind?”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Okay, Rachel.” I looked at my watch. “Almost time to start, and I have to draw some stuff on the board.”

“Okay.” She looked down the hallway. “I’m going to grab a quick coffee. Can I bring you one?”

“No, thank you.”

She turned to walk away.

“Rachel.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for asking.”

I had said her name just so she would know I remembered it.

I felt my shoulders sag as I stepped into the classroom. I knew that the only thing most of the students would remember years after would be the joke “schist happens.” Yet none of them would even get “subduction leads to orogeny.”

Centrocercus urophasianus. A left coracoid and left scapula from the surface of antechamber 1 are referred to the same individual. Both are in the female size range, as is the surface humerus reported in an earlier excavation. Another, well-preserved right femur was found in a pack rat nest in the upper end of antechamber 1. Its minimum axial length is 68 mm, maximum 73 mm, putting it also in the size range of a female sage grouse.

At home I found a package left by the postman. It was addressed to me, always a thrill. I seldom bought anything online, but I had ordered a tin cloth Filson jacket on eBay and there it was. I set it aside and gave Basil a long greeting, then turned him out into the backyard. I was alone in the house and so fell onto the sofa to enjoy the quiet. I put myself to sleep by recalling my lecture. The last thing I remembered thinking of was my overly excited proclamation that the Greeks knew in 200 BC that Earth was round and about twenty-five thousand miles in circumference. When I woke up five minutes later, my box was still there. I opened it and tried on the jacket. It fit perfectly, was perfectly rugged, was perfectly old fashioned. Meg and Sarah would find it perfectly boring. It was perfect.

I lay back down on the sofa and looked out the big window at the hills. There was not a cloud in the robin’s egg–blue afternoon sky. From our house we could see the trails in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. I had half a notion to take Basil on a long walk up the hill, but the Santa Ana winds were blowing, and I was sick of the heat. The house was cool and I was comfortable. I would just lie there and get fat like my dog.