SHARK REEF

I heard that my former husband, Charlie Driscoll, to whom I had been married for twenty tumultuous years, including long separations, had closed his office. He was a criminal lawyer in solo practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At sixty-five he had decided to quit. As I was told the story, he had a conversation with the Archbishop of New Mexico who asked,

I watched from my waiting room chair. A snow-headed ancient, bundled into a thick car coat, came in through the automatic double doors of the hospital specialty center. He leaned heavily on a cane with his right hand as he lurched forward, steadying himself with his left hand on the shoulder of a slight and equally snow-headed woman with glasses and handbag and long coat.