Startled, I brought my eyes quickly to her face. I had forgotten
she was there. "Nothing." I was sharp.
I had been glaring, glowering, out the cafe window. It was clean
and as it was a rear window it gave a view of the slope down to the creek
where lilacs hid the trunks of oaks and willows.
She made a small sound, like a little puff of air, and gave me a nod as
though she understood. It was a singular gesture built of a movement of
her chin and other movements, perhaps all of the nod, in her eyelids.
Her eyes said she accepted that response but did not believe it.