“I’m leaving tomorrow, too, ” Walter said. “The event is this evening, but I came early to have a bit of time to myself.

Perhaps Walter would invite her once more to join him for the evening; perhaps she would say yes, another procrastination, like the detour from the coast.

Yet when Walter walked around town gathering other people’s stories, his curiosity led him not to understand the world better but only to marvel at it.

At the corner, Suchen paused, waiting for Walter to step into the crosswalk first so that she could choose another direction.

An old man at the counter nodded in greeting when he saw Walter.