The Bhattacharyas moved to be near their daughter in 2019 and I rent to a young couple now who are always eleven days late and always apologize, and I let it go, because I remember eleven hundred a month above a dry cleaner.

I never remarried.

I’ve been with someone for six years — his name is Devraj, he restores furniture, he has two grown sons of his own and no interest whatsoever in living in the same house as anybody.

We have dinner four nights a week and separate mail.

People find this arrangement mystifying and I find their mystification hilarious.

The painting is in the hallway.

I did it a year after the motel, over about six weeks, on paper that was too good for me at the time.