The Raven (but not That Raven).

My sense of smell is stronger than it probably should be. She smelled like she didn’t much care for deodorant, if she owned any at all. I dismissed this as okay. Curiously, Europeans get a pass on smelling like just rained-on dirt. She spoke at length of a past college thesis, the one that preceded her becoming a professor, it involving the still-mystery that is combustion theory. I knew nothing about any of that, but I took it in, moving things around in my brain to make room, and so glad at...