He knows she's not sleeping. When he returns at night and lies down in the bed across the tiny rm. She lays there and pretends, but he knows. He gets into bed and does the same. He waits in the dark.

They are both waiting.

What is she waiting for?

He waits for her to fall asleep, but she never does. He remembers his wife, who never fell asleep first. She told him it was because she snored, and she didn't want him to hear. She told him it was so that she could watch him sleeping, because he looked so peaceful when he was sleeping, she said, even more beautiful.

He always tried to stay awake, to outlast her, but he never could.