The Things We Do For A’s

Bill Tate is a banker and lawyer who is working on his first novel. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his family. “The Things We Do for A’s” is his first published fiction.

It’s the Sunday before finals, and I’m in the city instead of the library. The street’s jammed with marathoners bouncing in place, fussing with their watches and performing the other pre-marathon rituals these marathon-types perform. Me and the other support-types clog the sidewalks, weighed down by our runners’ keys and wallets and phones and, in my case, a low-grade malaise that I hope is just a pre-exam, stress thing. Something blooming has my eyes gunked.