November 18, 2015

Wally Bowen has died of ALS. He was my first friend in Asheville, a relationship that started when I was interviewing for the job. I remember standing on the library steps, looking over his head at Pisgah gleaming in the distance, wondering if this was the place for me. I would remember that moment even if I’d never come. He asked me to share his house once. I don’t remember what I said, but it never happened. He had an affair with a student, and though I backed him all the way, vicious gossip said that I didn’t, and I lost his friendship, on his side because he doubted my loyalty thereafter, on my side because he ever could have believed that of me. Once he gave me a birthday party. A vibrant, beautiful man. Adieu.

Wasted the afternoon. Thought I’d work, but I lay down with the rain on the window and never got back up.