I didn’t get this until a few days ago, and I first read this story while an undergraduate, and have had a very battered second hand paperback in my possession for almost as long. The book is called Solo: Women on Women Alone edited by Linda and Leo Hamalian, and the story is 6:27 pm by Joyce Carol Oates. It is a series of timed snapshots of a day in the life of a divorced hairdresser with a young son by an ex she wishes never to see again, against whom she has an injuction. She has heard her ex is back in town; she gets silent phone calls. In their introduction, the editors interpret it as a story of struggle with hope of survival, and I accepted that reading until I realised – The last entry is 6:25 pm. She has just convinced herself that her son was staring at nothing in the entrance to their apartment, that there is no one there. But the title is 6:27 pm.