I read all four messages twice, until the screen timed out and went dark.

The four-minute gap between the third and fourth texts stuck in my mind, but I didn’t type a reply.

I picked up the two blue guest passes, walked to the trash cabinet under the sink, and dropped them in the bin.

By one in the afternoon, the wind coming off the Hudson River carried the sharp smell of cut grass across the parade ground.

Three thousand cadets stood in rigid formation while the academy brass band tested their trumpets behind the eastern bleachers.