I lay flat on the cold, wet grass and looked up at the starlit sky. I worried security might catch me. I hoped his ghost, if it existed, might drop by. But the hours unspooled and neither appeared. I was alone, and by morning I knew I’d stay that way.

Litsa Dremousis (she/her) is the author of Altitude Sickness (Future Tense Books). Seattle Metropolitan Magazine named it one of the all-time “20 Books Every Seattleite Must Read”.