Microwaving Yams

My friends and I (11th grade) recently read your short story “Other People” in English class. The class is locked is currently locked in debate as to whether the demon and the man are the same person, and whether the man who comes in at the end is the same as the man at the beginning. Please resolve this debate as we are on the verge of killing each other.

Thanks you!

You are a wonderful writer and I understand how you're relieved in a way but they asked you to resolve this heated debate...and you didn't.

Croissant??

[I am the original artist]

the rest of the paragraph that was cut out in that screenshot literally explains the reasons behind the easter bilby and bluntly theyre minimising the impact that wild rabbits have had as an introduced species in our ecosystem.

Sean: .....yes. absolutely

Elijah: 100 percent.

But because they have this vast imagined wealth, they can decide which resources are gathered and created, how they are used and how they are distributed. They can decide that we need to build a private jet and not a new clean energy plant. They can decide who gets drinking water.

Every day I want to speak with you. And every day something more important calls for my attention—the drugstore, the beauty products, the luggage I need to buy for the trip. Even now I can hardly sit here among the falling piles of paper and clothing, the garbage trucks outside already screeching and banging. The mystics say you are as close as my own breath. Why do I flee from you? My days and nights pour through me like complaints and become a story I forgot to tell. Help me. Even as I write these words I am planning to rise from the chair as soon as I finish this sentence.

- The main character is bi (and such a sweetheart) 

- His love interest is a gay Pakistani boy (who’s also a sweetheart but with salt) 

- Lots of queer and poc characters 

- Some of the themes are: islamophobia, homophobia, racism, bullying, fatphobia (all of them handled with respect and sensitivity) 

- Strong friendship and camaraderie

- Very healthy masculinity 

- Adults who actually take care of their kids and are supportive during hard times

- The author seems super nice, seriously check his social medias

- Sometimes it’s good to remember how it was like to be a teenager full of dreams, anxieties, hopes, confused and terrified of the future 

- Because you can still feel all of those things as an adult and that’s totally ok, “life is a summer of insecure thoughts. There’s an umbrella of precautions to prevent insecurity, but it doesn’t always keep the rain out of your face”. Just remember to keep running. At your pace. It will be worth it.

I think what a lot of people underestimate is just how much road there is in your city. And just how many directions the crew gets pulled.

For our city of around 50k people there are 8 of us.

Also, crack sealing is a wholly temporary measure, meant to slow the break-up of the roads, it’s not a permanent fix.

Roads tend to get closed for months on end because we have to tear the whole thing up, then, depending on the class of road, we either have to hammer-drill into concrete to lay rebar and the pour concrete, or we can get straight to paving. If it’s a road requiring concrete we’re required to wait at least 24 hours for it to set.

So after 2 days we’re finally able to pave. But the city allocates one (two if we’re lucky) 5 ton truck to transport material.

A relatively short paving job requires at a minimum of 60 tons. So that’s 12 trips to the asphalt factory and back. Each ton is around $80.

TL;DR

“ ..we had to climb over the bob wire!”

“Dude, did you just say ‘bob wire’?”

“Yea man, that spiky shit!”

“You actually think it’s called bob wire? Like fucking Robert wire? You think it’s called Robert wire?”

“Well what the hell do you think it’s called?”

“It’s BARB wire you idiot! Like Barbara wire!”

*the third guy* “Oh my god. You guys. BARBED wire. Because the wire has barbs, it is BARBED.”

“Oohhhhh!”