5
I DIDN’T EXPECT TO SLEEP after I came home, but I did. Soon after I got in bed, where I had expected to stare at the ceiling and replay Millie’s nakedness in the parking lot, the rain began—a hard, driving rain that beat against the windows. And then I slept, although not before I had one bittersweet moment of contentment from the thought that somewhere along the road to Rockport, Bevins had pulled over and was frantically trying to put the top up.
For me, rain can be simultaneously soothing and traumatic, if that is possible. The soothing part is best depicted in memories of the warmth of my small room at the Narrows on those cold summer mornings when I would stay in bed to listen to the rain pound the roof and the ocean rush through the channel that is just outside my window. The tra
