Together

By William Cass

Alice returned home after her waitressing shift at the diner and glanced at the clock: 3:51 p.m. Nine minutes before her husband’s regular yard time would begin at the federal prison outside Tucson where he was an inmate. She hurried into the living room and checked the Tucson weather on her cell phone: 85 degrees, nearly double that outside their apartment in Seattle. She set the wall thermostat for that temperature, then sat on the couch. Alice took off her coat, lifted their wedding photograph from the coffee table, and waited to spend the next hour with him in the same heat.