Thank goodness for habit. At 9 a.m. every morning, a solitary old man leaves his apartment on about the 10th floor of a high-rise building. His neighbor, a solitary old woman, scampers to the peephole of her door to watch him leave. He seems to know she's watching. He reads on a park bench; she works at a nursery school. By afternoon, he's home watching movies on TV, with his alarm set so he can go to his balcony, binoculars in hand, to watch her come into view, walking home. One morning, he disrupts his elevator routine and gives her a start; that afternoon, she manages to alter her habits just enough to flush him out of his apartment. Will laughter spark a flame? Written by