"Why are you staring at that clock? You're always staring at clocks. And pictures. You can't put them down. I'm over here, bud."
  Bud? Oh, that's right. She'd started calling him that when she went off to Holy Mary College. That's where paper trail of their relationship dwindled. After she stopped sending a letter a day, she turned campus junk mail into postcards, like table slips for parties, lectures. Then, she would just write messages on the envelopes he sent. Finally, the post office took over, with a half-printed "return to sender stamp."