In Which John Imagines His Mind as a Pond

When John woke in the morning he was thinking of Ann: the earnest look on her face when she asked him how he was getting along, her silence at the dinner table, her attention to the children. She grinned when jokes were made, looked pensive when the talk was serious.

She was married to Graham. He wrote articles on international economics, and when John’s wife said she had a friend who was also an economist, Graham said, “Oh yes, I’ve met him. He wishes he were me.”