"Good night," he said. 
 It wasn't. 
 kind of like the thing meets The Shining meets one of those typical romance stories in which a couple's love is tested when one of them (view spoiler)[turns into a flesheating monster. (hide spoiler)] 
 noel returns from his work in the canadian wilderness frostbitten, exhausted, and distant, so consumed with his linguistic anthropology project: playing back the recordings of native throat-singers and transcribing the inuktitut texts and interviews filled with stories never before available to english speakers, that he skips meals and sleep, losing weight rapidly and sleepwalking nude in the snow, and he's also become a little bitier in the bedroom than he had been previously, much to the consternation of his wife kristine. 
 but kristine is patient, resourceful, and ready to make all necessary sacrifices to keep love alive. 
 a good story, whose abrupt ending is actually my favorite part of it. not sure why i'm only feeling a three on it overall, but it's a strong three, if that makes any difference. it's also a free three, which should definitely make a difference. 
 read it for yourself here: 
 http://www.tor.com/2017/04/12/dark-wa...