The morning was delightful, and I decided to take a long walk to Sonning, a quaint village on the Thames. To my surprise, I got there in less than an hour. Lauren and I must have walked much more slowly when we discovered it a decade ago. From Abbot’s Walk and the Reading Abbey ruins, one walks along the Kennet to the Thames, and then along the Thames toward London. One passes by two locks on the way, and there are river boats puttering about even in the winter. The last time we took this walk must have been in 1993. To my even greater surprise, little has changed on the path. True, many office buildings have sprouted between the rail track going to London and the river, but a lot of recreational land was left there, as well. Even the model airplanes were still buzzing about the place, presumably only on weekends. As I was walking up to St. Andrews, a stout Norman church in Sonning, its bells came alive in greeting. The devout were being summoned to the Sunday morning service. I walked directly to The Tea Cosy, a tiny teahouse not far from the main intersection in the village. It, too, was exactly the same as I remembered it, including the clotted cream tea, its main attraction. Walking back home, I realized that everything was indeed the same, but with one notable exception: I could not remember ever taking this walk without Lauren.