JENNIFER: Well, I’ll see you later.

JOHN: It’s weird. You want this conversation to end, but, I want it to keep going.

JENNIFER: That is weird.

JOHN: I know. I saw you before. A few weeks ago, out in the parking lot. You were on the phone, crying, and eating a power bar. I thought, wow, that’s one sad busy person.

JENNIFER: Oh. When were you here, a few weeks ago? I thought you just moved here.

JOHN: Oh, we did, but, yeah, I had told Pony I was at the ocean.

JENNIFER: Okay.

JOHN: It’s actually sort of ironic.

JENNIFER (Brief pause): Are you . . . I thought you were going to expand on that.

JOHN: No, I think that was it.

JENNIFER: I should really get—

JOHN (Interrupting): Going, you want to get going. I know. So don’t we all. I don’t know what your normal look is. I mean, when you’re okay.

JENNIFER: Why, how do I seem? I probably look like I’m, like . . .

JOHN (Brief pause): You don’t have to say anything.

JENNIFER: I know. I like when they put out free samples.

JOHN: As do I.

JENNIFER: This has been such a . . . I brought Bob a coffee, this morning, and he spilled it all over himself.

JOHN: Is he all right?

JENNIFER: He’s okay. But he never, just, he didn’t do anything. Boiling hot coffee, all down his front. Then he said, “It smells like work.”

JOHN: He was probably in shock.

JENNIFER: He didn’t even flinch. And then he just stared at me. I have no idea what he was thinking.

JOHN: He was probably thinking all kinds of things. (Brief pause) I have a great flinch. Watch this. (He demonstrates a tiny flinch) See? Just very subtle, it’s almost classical. (Brief pause) No, but mornings are tough.

JENNIFER: It’s not mornings. It’s one of the stages and the stages don’t go backward. Copper starts building up in the blood— which, that’s just one of the problems. And then this thing starts called “sensual mortification.” Isn’t that an awful phrase? But you never know what’s a sign of what, because things get bad and things get better. They talk about symptoms being “sluggish” and “seething.” There’s this whole awful vocabulary. Bob has something called Harriman Leavey syndrome.

JOHN: It sounds like a jazz combo.

JENNIFER: It isn’t. It’s just the name of the person who discovered it, and then, syndrome. (Brief pause) Do you do other kinds of work, other than refrigerators?

JOHN: That’s not something I really need to talk about. Unless you need some work done?

JENNIFER: No. We’re thinking about painting the house.

JOHN: Well, make sure you pick a color you like. Anyway, go on— you were talking about Bob’s thing, the Benny Goodman Experience.