By noon the fog over the river had melted into a clear, pale blue sky.

I climbed the three flights of worn stone stairs to my apartment, and the key turned easily in the brass lock of the heavy oak door.

The living room had high ceilings, white plaster walls and tall double windows that swung inward to let the sea air move through the apartment.

I took my work laptop to the small wooden desk I’d set against the south wall, angled so I could look straight down at the street.

The computer’s fan hummed with a soft, steady purr as it started up, a familiar sound that had come with me across five thousand miles of ocean.