Seconds Last

So I’m talking to Linus the other day. We’re sitting on that bench—you know, the one across from the carousel. Of course, I say “the other day,” like it’s not always just this day, but you know what I mean. It feels like a while ago.

Anyway, I’m talking to Linus, the one people call The Professor. We go way back. Used to bring his car to my shop in Hartford in the late ‘90s. Good guy.

He asks me, “Do you know where we are?” As if this hasn’t been discussed a thousand times before. As if it’s not the one thing on everyone’s mind. As if any of us knows for certain.

I play it as cool as I can. I say to him, “They say…well, you know what they say. But I’m no theologian.”

“No,” he says back to me,