The actual time it was sent was eight minutes past ten on Tuesday morning.

Four full minutes sat unexplained between the moment she finished typing and the moment she hit send.

I stared at those four missing minutes on the blue screen until the display dimmed and went dark.

I set the phone face down on the nightstand next to my brass clock.

I took off my jacket and hung it neatly on a brass hanger.

Six years went by before I set foot in the academy headquarters office again, on a bright Hudson Valley morning.