“Sex, at my place, in silence, and under a sheet.

Not silence. I can still hear muffled car honks and brakes and tires, the next door neighbor’s cat, and laughter now from some huddle of men, a National Guard helicopter going over, the air fan, the plumbing’s rumble, the bed when we move, a child somewhere having a dream, the high whine of the streetcar, the little voice of a neighbor’s television, freighter horns on the Mississippi, now Saunder’s long breathing against my chest as he’s slipping off into sleep.”

– One D. O. A., One on the Way [189]