Things You Should Know
A Collection of Stories
Excerpt
The Chinese Lesson
I am walking, holding a small screen, watching the green dot move like the blip of a plane, the blink of a ship's radar. Searching. I am on the lookout for submarines. I am an air traffic controller trying to keep everything at the right distance. I am lost.
A man steps out of the darkness onto the sidewalk. "Plane gone down?" he asks.
It is nearly night; the sky is still blue at the top, but it is dark down here.
"I was just walking the dog," he says.
I nod. The dog is nowhere to be seen.
"You're not from around here are you?"
"Not originally," I say. "But we're over on Maple now."
"Tierney," the man says. "John Tierney."
"Harris," I say. "Geordie Harris."
"Welcome to the neigh ... read full excerpt from Things You Should Know ebook
