LENA

Nate was already there when I arrived.

This was characteristic of him, the specific and particular quality of Nate Reid's punctuality, which was not the punctuality of a man who feared being late but the punctuality of a man who genuinely wanted to be wherever he was going, who arrived early because arriving early meant more time in the place he had chosen to be. He was standing at the front of the room with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled to the elbow, talking to a woman from the city housing authority with the specific and warm quality of a man who made everyone feel like the...