Goodbye, Raymond Carver.

The article centers on Nick, a college English professor in Baltimore, who narrowly avoids hitting a boy on a bike and subsequently becomes entangled in a tense encounter with Allen, the driver of a truck involved in a minor collision with Nick's car. As they wait for the police, Nick reflects on his struggles with teaching literature—particularly Raymond Carver's short stories—and his disillusionment with his students and his own career. The narrative explores themes of class, political division, personal failure, and the complexities of human connection amid societal tensions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The story concludes with Nick physically restraining Allen from confronting the boy, highlighting the fraught dynamics between anger, responsibility, and protection.