The site for the interview was a modest motel several miles from the campus. I'd been given the motel's name, a room number and a time. It was greatly exciting, walking the last ten feet toward the door that would open in just a moment or two, possibly admitting me to a totally new and radically different world and a new and totally different life. I was calm, but each step seemed to further inflate my heightened sense of being, somehow expanding me into a larger potential reality.

I reached the door,

21:37 Josh: Oh and you have to, right now, put on the song I Don't Know by Lisa Hannigan. It's the sweetest, loveliest song in the world ever.

...

21:45 DEB: Can we go see her live?

It took me all of eight minutes, three sentences from Josh, and two songs to decide…

<Dimview> My time is 23.26. Twenty minutes before midnight. And don't do that crazy weird thing that Wntrmute does.
<sam512> Last I checked, you were UK time + 1 hour. I'm in the UK and it's 22:37. That makes it 23:37 where you are, which is half eleven, not half midnight.
<Dimview> Saying 'half something' and meaning thirty minutes after the hour. Damned

They talked for hours,
linked electronically
overcoming the miles between them
speaking casually, as if down the hall

Reluctantly goodbyes are exchanged and
the screen goes blank
leaving only the muted kitchen lights,
drips from an unrepaired faucet and

muffled voices from his neighbor's television

…