I ARRIVED AT MY BEACH HOUSE EXPECTING PEACE-YILUX

him to feel it.

That small, uncomfortable space where truth lives.

“I’m sitting down the street from the house,” I said finally.

A pause.

“You’re… here?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t come in?”

I almost laughed.

But there was nothing funny about it.

“I did,” I said. “I was told there was no room for me.”

Silence.

Real silence this time.

The kind that doesn’t continue reading …