We sat there until the sun shifted behind the trees, then drove home through streets we’d both traveled for years without knowing how our stories were connected.

PART 24

At twenty-one, Wyatt graduated from his training program and took a job that required him to travel.

Austin moved into a studio near his university, where he designed community gardens and insisted that every windowsill deserved a plant.

They still called each other every few days, sometimes to discuss serious things, more often to complain about traffic and rent.

One evening the four of us—Elaine, Peter, Austin, and I—joined Wyatt for dinner before his first long assignment.