Sunday, November 20, 2016

Wistful Just Now




A t 2:42AM there is no one on Tian Bei Lu.  The cab is sitting beneath the enormous three-sided Air China advertisement that towers up in front of the Air China headquarters, behind it.   For some reason I grew wistful just now thinking that the company would likely out live me.  It will outlive us all but not for an eternity.  As Mitt Romney told us, “corporations are people.”

We’re making fine time though, as one certainly can in this city at 2:44AM.  In a few hours this will all be jammed solid, but we you wouldn’t know it now.  I had a restful two and a half hours of sleep on the plane, with the whole row to myself.  But now, I want to lie down flat in my bed and not be bothered by arm rests and calls to buckle up.''



I have a call on for first thing in the morning.  I consider what I might be able to do to get out of it.  It doesn’t matter.  I know I’ll be up with the sun whether I like it or not.  After the call’s done, I’ll climb back into my bed.  There aren’t any other obligations beyond that.




The lone guard at the gate considers me and the cab for a moment and turns to raise the gate.  “Zhixing zuo de” Just keep heading straight, now a right up ahead.  Left here and you see there are two paths, (two “mouths” in Chinese), take the right one.   The house is dark and the door’s been left unlocked for me.  Everyone save the cat is fast asleep.  I lay down my bag, remove my contact lenses and head upstairs for some sleep. I've managed to get home in time for a birthday, as I said I would.

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