The Second Cup
The news came at 9:47 PM.
Vijay Kulkarni was not watching television. He had not watched television with any real attention since last August, when watching it alone had started to feel like a particular kind of cruelty. The set was on — it was often on, for the sound — but he was in the kitchen, rinsing the single plate from dinner, when the anchor’s voice changed register in the way that voices change when they are about to say something that will outlast the broadcast.