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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