The seventies, I thought. Back when I was playing ball, and being a cop. And you were… God, were you in grade school then?

“Alex, are you still there?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just thinking. I don’t want you driving all this way tomorrow if the weather’s gonna be bad.”

“It was just an idea. Okay?”

Think, Alex. Think.

“Hey, I know,” I said. “Why don’t we do something special?”

“Special like what?”

“Like I’ll meet you somewhere.”

“I thought you had to stay there.”

“We could meet in the Soo,” I said. “That’ll keep me close enough to home.”

“Soo Michigan?”

“There’s a great hotel right on the river.”

“A hotel?”

“It’s called the Ojibway,” I said. “You ever been there?”

“No,” she said. “Never.”

“They’ve got great food. And it’s just… I mean, it’s been there forever. It’s the only fancy place in town.”

“You want us to stay there?”

“I’m just saying…” You’re blowing it, Alex. It’s all gonna fall apart, right here.

“This is a nice place? In Soo Michigan?”

A little jab there, I thought. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, is so much smaller than its sister city across the river. Soo Canada has more of everything.

“It’s a classy hotel,” I said. “I’d really like to see you, okay? It’s been a few days, and I wouldn’t mind spending some time with you.”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment. There was the faint hum on the line and nothing else.

“Yeah, why not?” she said. “It sounds nice.”

That’s how it happened. That hesitation, that long silence while she thought about it, I figured that was just natural. Just part of the dance, the getting to know someone new.

Of course it wasn’t that at all. It was something else entirely. But I didn’t know her well enough yet. I didn’t know the way she was, the way she has been for most of her life. The way she had to be. Above all, I didn’t know the one most important thing about her- that she never, ever hesitated that long about anything. Not unless it was something big.