Summary

Richard finds a teaching position in Chicago, so Subhash finds himself living alone in the second year of his Ph.D. For three weeks he joined a group of students and professors on a research vessel. They examine the results of a barge that had sunk off the coast of Falmouth two years previously, dumping almost 200,000 gallons of fuel oil, discovering that the marsh grass had been killed off by hydrocarbons and fiddler crabs had frozen, unable to bury themselves. At Georges Bank, diatoms explode in peacock blue and he watches humpback whales, and leaping dolphins. He misses his family, having not seen them for a year and a half now. Udayan continues to write, but his letters no longer contain political rhetoric, or end with slogans. Subhash saves his letters now, seeing no reason to burn them now. Letters from his...