In the Dark

It was dark. Darker than anywhere I’d ever slept before. Quiet too.

A friend and I were spending a weekend in beautiful Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, a scenic, arty little community of about 600 residents in the Appalachians. My friend scored us a roomy two-bedroom unit that faced the town square, just around the corner from U.S. Highway 522, the main drag through town.

It didn’t occur to me until it was bedtime that my room didn’t have a single window. The door fit so snugly that no light c...