Eleven Years of Eating Lunch by a Window in Columbus, Ohio, Ended With a Box I Never Expected

Then she set down her yogurt and pulled out the chair by the door.

“Was he kind to you?”

“He was, yes.”

“Everybody says that now.” She stirred her yogurt with the spoon.

“Nobody said it back in January.”

She ate without looking up, and when she was done she rinsed the cup in the sink and came back for her bag.

“That chair,” she said.

“Would it be okay if I sat there sometimes?