He favoured winter, and was sometimes thought dangerous. They were lovers, but they'd never seen a city. They heard the man with black shoes and white socks shoot himself. Every day they woke to the same world. She looks over at him and the lined skin on his face shines as it always has. Older women noticed his pale eyes, he did not imagine them. She knew he could live forever with his books. She left. Year after year he built shelves.