And I said, “Cancel Boston,” and hung up, and put the telephone face-down on a marble floor.

Evelyn was watching me.

She had heard nothing; the call was not on speaker and she was four feet away with two children between us.

She said, “Was that her?”

I said yes.

And she said, “What did she say?”

And I did not tell her for two months.

I have examined that decision perhaps a thousand times.