March 2010
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1 tag
6. Two Suns
“What are the odds?” I asked her. An obvious rhetorical question, but she answered anyway; “One in a million, maybe?” Apparently, she had missed the last ferry the previous day, by my fault, and decided to stay in the city and skip the family reunion. She hadn’t bothered calling me because she figured I would have been out of town already. I didn’t know her that well, and I couldn’t quite grasp...
February 2010
6 posts
1 tag
1 tag
5. East
I met Emily in a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver. She really had to go, but I insisted she’d stay for a while. I’d driven 5,000 kilometres to get where I was, and she was there too; might as well have a quick talk. Em is of the really weird kind. We’d travelled once together, on a train between Xi’an and Beijing. I was with friends and she was by herself, and we were all sharing a cabin. We...
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4. Prairies
“So where are you guys from?”
“We left Quebec City about a week ago, we were driving west with friends.”
“Those damn bastards!” Let the girl talk, kid.
I was driving with coffee in one hand and the map on my lap. This wasn’t really planned; I’m not sure how to get to Calgary. As we drove through horizons of empty fields, she explained their situations. They had indeed left Quebec City as part of a...
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3. Shotgun Shack
We were greeted at the cabin by fireflies and Cass. She was Gabe’s friend, or girlfriend, it wasn’t clear. We stepped into the house and established our quarters in the living room, next to the front door. Past the room were a small kitchen, then a bedroom and a bathroom in the back; an unlikely shotgun shack among the bungalows of rural Illinois. We grilled some meat on the porch and ate outside....
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2. Gabe
I woke up and had breakfast with oversized early-risers before calling Gabe. I had met him during past travels, and he now had a job of some sort in the city. We hadn’t talked for years, but he seemed irrationally excited to hear my voice. He suggested I crash his couch that night. His job would take him to Milwaukee the following week, but his car was dead. In exchange for the hospitality, I’d...
1 tag
1. Drove to Chicago
“Are you brining back anything of value? You didn’t fill that part in the immigration form.” This customs agent sure knew how to make me feel like a cheap bastard. “No”, I didn’t bring anything back. Despite the fact that I had left this town six months ago to temporarily live at the end of the world, I didn’t bring anything back. Not for me, or anyone else. Thanks.
It was spring, and the idea of...