Redhead by the Side of the Road

by Anne Tyler

It occurred to him, not for the first time, that prophetic dreams were not much use if their meaning emerged only in hindsight.

But once he is out again and standing at the sink, towel wrapped around his waist, it emerges that he’s not up to shaving. He clears an arc in the condensation on the mirror with the heel of one hand and stares at his own face and just cannot, cannot be bothered.