“Well I guess that’s it.  Everything’s in order,” he said to his wife who sat across from him at the kitchen table.  It was a goal they’d strived for since marriage, one that consumed their every day and now they had achieved it: the weight of all their worries was now off their shoulders.  “We have all of our bills together.  All of our debt is paid off.  We’ve both secured tenure at the school.  Would have to touch a kid to lose that.”

For once his textbook English wasn’t charming. The slide was refusing to lift into its tilted position, meaning they’d be unable to demonstrate displacement volume and surge force using the country’s most advanced tsunami wave simulator. Eva heard the hoots already, saw the world-weary eye-rolls.

Her latest letter was written on scented stationary and made me think Charlie had become overly sentimental. But I had always been the harder one, while Charlie had once been the kind of woman who dotted her i’s with hearts

An interview from that morning played.  I’d seen it three times.  A man coated in a fine ash gestured and pointed.  The powder outlined the creases in his lips and palms, dusted the bushy brows above his shining eyes.  The camera zoomed out to include the twisted and crumpled metal, the American flag curling in the man’s back pocket.

Mom squeezed my knee.  “Let’s get it over with.”