“Exceptions are the parts of life worth remembering.”

It was a practiced line.

I knew that even then.

But a line can be practiced and still be welcome.

He asked about my work at the library.

Not what my pension was, not whether retirement bored me, but which books people pretended they had read and which ones they quietly checked out twice.

I laughed.

It had been several hours since anyone had given me a reason to.