The Miracle Everyone Longed For

By the time I collected the gift from the general goods shop and made my way back, Herman had already returned to the hotel. He was undressing behind the partition, a weary cast to his face, and being so tall his head jutted up over the top of it, so that I found myself meeting his eyes without meaning to.

“You’re back early.”

I parted my lips, feigning that nothing was amiss. My whole aim had been to get back before Herman, and at that I had failed utterly; barely mastering the dismay welling up in me, I hid the...