September 17, 2026

L invited me to lunch at Deerfield because she so wanted more of my company, and because she wanted to explain what I’d be doing at her book club next week. When I arrived she did not eat lunch, but watched me eat, and was clearly frantic to be somewhere else, receiving calls every few moments to hurry her along. In addition, she herself will not be at the meeting she invited me to as Literary Guest, but I’ll be tapping on the door of a stranger to do my little act before strangers. She led me to the distant apartment, which I will likely never find on my own. What are people thinking? What am I thinking? Anyone else on this planet would have said, “Naw, let’s reschedule.”