One television played an old gardening program.

People rose every time a clinician appeared, hope and fear moving through the chairs like a current.

I called my sister to pick Sadie up from school.

Then I sat down and waited for news I could not control.

PART 10

Hours passed without anything that could be called an update.

I read the same paragraph of a paperback seven times.

At some point I realized I had been holding the lunchbox, now empty, against my knees like a child might hold a favorite toy.