Alice reads an article submitted for peer review while her husband John frantically searches their home for his glasses, believing he is running late even though the clocks in the house are all different times. Alice sees his glasses on the kitchen countertop and wonders how “someone so smart” could “not see what was right in front of him,” while acknowledging that “many of her own things had taken to hiding” lately (4).

John asks Alice not to fight with their daughter, Lydia, on her upcoming trip to California; she asks him to be sure that he is home when she returns, as they no longer spend much time together, and interprets his response to mean that he will not be. She recalls how they used to walk to Harvard together every morning, and that they no longer do so, in part due to the demands of their work: he has been busy in the lab, and she has been frequently traveling to give guest lectures. She also thinks about her strained relationship with her daughter and wishes that John would support her in their arguments.

The next day, Alice arrives at Stanford University to help kick off its cognitive psychology fall colloquium series as a guest speaker; the department is simultaneously honoring a professor who recently received tenure, and while she normally would not drink prior to her lectures, she has some champagne along with the rest of the guests.