vows. At times, it was annoying, but more and more these days, I found myself missing it. That was one of our differences. When I was angry, I made sure the world felt it. Petra, on the other hand, didn’t get mad very often, and when she did, that anger often evaporated without collateral damage. “Maybe Sal should be kind and get rid of those damn dogs,‖ I say, but Petra is not around to hear me. She wouldn’t have liked this place. This “community.‖ “We’re too young to be stuck in some condominium surrounded by old people, Philip,‖ she would say. But with her gone, I couldn’t stay in that cavernous house any longer. It was too cold, and every room had developed an echo. The floors moaned. The basement reeked of mildew. At least in this place, those sounds weren‘t the only option. That night, I wake to a vivid red pulse on my bedroom walls. Sal’s dogs are barking again, and I pull open the thick curtains with venom on my lips. Outside, I see the dancing ruby lights of an ambulance and hear the shouts of two people, a man, and a woman, speaking in code. I watch them. Their navy-colored uniforms zip from the ambulance into Sal’s home and back out again.
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