The airport had been witnessed, surrounded by people, charged with the strange communal electricity of a public reckoning.

The months after were a single woman at a kitchen table at night, long after Lily was asleep, reading documents until the words swam, carrying the whole weight of it in a quiet house.

The drama ends and the administration begins, and the administration is where you actually find out what you are made of.

Sarah, scrupulous about the line between our friendship and her office, handed the matter to colleagues who had no personal connection to me, and that was right, and I was glad of it even when it made things slower.

I gave my statement.